Emotion and Self Regulation Naomi Ekas 9/28/09

Self-Regulation Children do not come into this world with all of the skills necessary to regulate their behavior It is around 2 years that we really start to see children monitoring behavior

Self-Regulation Ability to comply with a request, initiate and cease activities according to situational demands, to modulate the intensity, frequency, and duration of verbal and motor acts in social and educational settings, to postpone acting upon a desired object/goal, and to generate socially approved behavior in the absence of external monitors (Kopp, 1982)

Self-Regulation Neurophysiological modulation Birth to 2-3 months Reflexes

Self-Regulation Sensorimotor modulation 3 months - 9 months + Engage in voluntary motor acts (reach & grab, hand to mouth, etc.) and change that act in response to environmental demands No awareness of meaning of situation

Self-Regulation Control 9-12 months to 18 + months Emerging ability of children to show awareness of social or task demands and modulate behavior/emotions E.g. compliance to demands

Self-Regulation Emergence of self-control and the progression to self-regulation 24 + months Compliance, delay an act on request Representational thinking and recall memory Limited flexibility

Self-Regulation Self-regulation 36 + months Flexibility!!!

Emotion Regulation In addition to regulating behaviors, children must also regulate emotional experiences Development of emotion regulation abilities follows Kopp’s description of emergence of self-regulation Reflexes to flexible management

Emotion Regulation Emotion regulation consists of the extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensive and temporal features, to accomplish one’s goals

Emotion Regulation Monitoring, evaluating, modifying Not only negative emotions Not only dampening emotions, but also increasing

Emotion Regulation Extrinsic influences Intrinsic influences Parents!!! Critical in the early months Intrinsic influences temperament

Emotion Regulation Intensive and temporal features Intensity - subdue or enhance Speed or slow onset or recovery Reduce or increase lability (range) Limit or enhance persistence over time

Emotion Regulation Accomplish one’s goals Must be regarded functionally What are regulator’s goals for that situation?

Emotion Regulation What is regulated? Control of underlying arousal processes through maturing systems of neurophysiological regulation Diffuse excitatory processes decline in lability during first year Cortical inhibitory controls emerge gradually during infancy Nervous system reactivity

Emotion Regulation Attention processes Emotion can be regulated by managing the intake of emotionally arousing information Redirecting attention As they get older can do things like internal redirection of attention (e.g. thinking of something pleasant during unpleasant situation)

Emotion Regulation Other components of information processing Alter interpretations “He didn’t really die, he just got frightened and ran away” “It’s just pretend”

Emotion Regulation Increase access to coping resources Regulating emotional demands of familiar situations

Emotion Regulation Importance of social interaction Others can help regulate our emotions (e.g. mothers soothing young infant) Importance of attachment relationship Others can help us with our interpretations of situations Modeling behavior of those around us

Emotion Regulation Individual differences Temperament Attachment Parenting Others???

Emotion Regulation Problems with the construct and research area

Self-Regulation Background Internally-directed capacity to regulate attention, affect, and behavior with the goal of responding effectively to environmental and internal cues and demands Rapidly developing in childhood Involves managing, modulating, inhibiting, and enhancing attention behavior and emotions Related to social and academic success Needed for successful transition into kindergarten High quality day care may facilitate children’s SR skills

Self-Regulation Increased levels of quality day care linked to increased behavior problems, which may reflect low levels of self-regulation Genetic and experiential differences may cause children to differentially respond to their experiences (differential susceptibility) DRD4 7+ allele may moderate the effects of children’s experiences on developmental outcomes thought to reflect SR skills

Study Aims Test the degree to which children’s early childcare experiences (quality, quantity, & type) predict SR skills in prekindergarten Test the degree to which these relations are conditional on genotype (DRD4 7+)

Measures Self-Regulation: Continuous Performance Task – computer based task where children press a key if the stimulus is presented on the screen More errors is associated with lower academic achievement and higher levels of aggression & inattention Higher errors = higher inattention Day-Night Stroop – card task where children say “day” if they see a picture of the moon and “night” if presented with a picture of the sun Higher scores indicate more inhibitory control Delay of Gratification – children asked to wait 7 minutes to receive a larger prize Waiting 7 min reflects more “desire based” inhibitory control Latent measure of inattention – made up of teacher report forms and observational measures

Measures cont. Quantity of childcare - averaged hours in non-maternal care per week Collected every 3/4 months until 54 months Quality of childcare – caregiver-child interactions at 6, 15, 24, 36, and 54 months Rated on various likert scales at different intervals Type of childcare – center-based care children spent more than 50% of time in non-maternal care

Measures cont. Genotype – DNA collected at 15 years old DRD4 7+ was coded if homozygous or heterozygous for the 7-repeat allele versus those without a copy of the allele

Childcare, Inhibitory Control & Inattention: DNS DRD4 7+ children who spent fewer hours in nonmaternal care showed more effective performance on the DNS task than DRD4 7+ children who spent more hours in childcare The beneficial effect was present for DRD4 7+ children in few hours of childcare but was not a risk factor for children with high number of hours in childcare

Childcare, Inhibitory Control & Inattention: DOG DRD4 7+ children in few hours of childcare had better inhibitory control in DOG task Difference was only present for children attending few hours of childcare

Continuous Performance Task Results Inhibitory control – higher quality care was associated with fewer commission errors on the CPT Attention – DRD4 7+ allele is associated with more effective attention when children spend fewer hours in childcare Commission errors are pushing button in response to non-stimulus picture

Inattention & Impulsivity Results DRD4 7+ allele is associated with lower levels of inattention/impulsivity if children experience few hours of childcare Descriptively, DRD4 7+ allele is associated with higher levels of inattention/impulsivity if children experience high number of hours in childcare