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Updated: Oct 9, 2025
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Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
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Longitudinal changes in young children's strategy use for emotion regulation.
K Ashana Ratcliff1, Lauren C Vazquez1, Erika S Lunkenheimer1
1Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University.
Developmental Psychology
|December 20, 2021
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Emotion Regulation
- Cognitive Development
Background:
- Early childhood emotion regulation relies on developing autonomous self-regulation strategies.
- Children typically shift from automatic to effortful self-regulation strategies with cognitive development.
- Longitudinal data on the developmental trajectories of these strategies are limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine age-related changes in emotion regulation strategy use in young children.
- To investigate the longitudinal development of self-soothing, bidding, and distraction strategies during waiting tasks.
- To determine if strategy use trajectories predict children's observed emotion regulation by age 5.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study tracking 120 children from 24 months to 5 years.
- Annual participation in a delayed reward (waiting) task.
- Growth curve modeling to analyze strategy trajectories and their predictive power.
Main Results:
- Self-soothing strategy use declined with age.
- Bidding strategy use initially increased then decreased.
- Distraction strategy use consistently increased from 24 months to 5 years.
- Increased distraction predicted better emotion regulation ratings; increased bidding predicted poorer regulation.
Conclusions:
- Childhood strategy development shows distinct trajectories for self-soothing, bidding, and distraction.
- Distraction emerges as a key strategy for effective emotion regulation by age 5.
- Understanding these developmental shifts is crucial for supporting children's self-regulation skills.
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