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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
The relations of parenting, effortful control, and ego control to children's emotional expressivity
Nancy Eisenberg1, Qing Zhou, Sandra H Losoya
1Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-1104, USA. nancy.eisenberg@asu.edu
Abstract:
The relations of observed parental warmth and positive expressivity and children's effortful control and ego control with children's high versus low emotional expressivity were examined in a 2-wave study of 180 children (M age = 112.8 months). There were quadratic relations between adults' reports of children's emotional expressivity and effortful control; moderate expressivity was associated with high effortful control. Structural equation models supported the hypothesis that children's ego overcontrol (versus undercontrol) mediated the relation between parental warmth or positive expressivity and children's emotional expressivity, although parenting at the follow-up did not uniquely predict in children's expressivity after controlling for the relations in these constructs over time. The alternative hypothesis that children's ego overcontrol elicited positive parenting and expressivity also was supported.
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