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Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
08:09

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood

Published on: February 11, 2017

Temperamental surgency and emotion regulation as predictors of childhood social competence

Jessica M Dollar1, Cynthia A Stifter

  • 1Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. jmd542@psu.edu

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|March 15, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Children high in temperamental surgency may develop negative peer behaviors, while those low in surgency might show wariness. Emotion regulation skills can moderate these social behavior outcomes in children.

Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Behavior Research

Background:

  • Temperamental surgency is a key predictor of early social interactions.
  • Emotion regulation abilities play a crucial role in modulating behavioral responses.
  • Understanding these dynamics is vital for addressing social challenges in early childhood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the direct link between children's temperamental surgency and their social behaviors.
  • To examine how children's emotion regulation moderates the relationship between surgency and social outcomes.
  • To longitudinally track behavioral development from preschool to early school age.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study involving 90 4.5-year-old children.
  • Laboratory assessments of temperamental surgency and emotion regulation.
  • Observational and maternal-reported measures of children's social behaviors with peers before first grade.

Main Results:

  • High surgency correlated with increased negative peer behaviors; low surgency correlated with behavioral wariness.
  • Emotion regulation moderated the surgency-aggression link: high surgency with high social support seeking predicted lower aggression.
  • Low surgency with high distraction/self-soothing predicted wariness; high surgency with distraction predicted lower social competence.

Conclusions:

  • Temperamental surgency directly influences children's social behavior trajectories.
  • Emotion regulation strategies significantly moderate the impact of surgency on peer interactions and social competence.
  • Targeted support for emotion regulation may mitigate negative social outcomes associated with high surgency.

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