1. Emotion and Self Regulation
Naomi Ekas
9/28/09

2. 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

3. 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)

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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

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

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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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)

17. 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”

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

19. 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

20. Emotion Regulation Individual differences Temperament Attachment
Parenting
Others???

21. Emotion Regulation
Problems with the construct and research area

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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+)

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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