Emotion self-regulation in preschool-aged children with and without orofacial clefts

Emotion self-regulation is an important developmental task in the preschool period that is related to children's emotional and behavioral adjustment in early childhood. Emotion self-regulation and its relation to later adjustment has not been studied in children born with orofacial clefts, despite their risk for externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Eighty-three 5-year-old children with cleft lip and palate, isolated cleft palate, or no cleft condition were videotaped during a laboratory disappointment situation. Results showed that children in the cleft group expressed less disappointment than children in the comparison group. Longitudinal analyses revealed that parenting stress measured when the children were 2 years of age predicted Expressed Disappointment at age 5 years, which, in turn, predicted severity of behavior problems at age 7 years. Although tentative, results indicate that control over mild negative affect may be a protective factor for children with clefts, buffering the effects of early stress on the development of later behavioral and emotional problems. Thus, interventions that reduce parenting stress and enhance children's emotion regulation strategies may decrease the risk for later psychological problems in this population.