2-015 - Longitudinal Methods for the Study of Self-Regulation and Its Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Developmental scientists seek innovative research designs, measurement tools, and analytical methods to capture complex, dynamic phenomena such as self-regulation and parent-child co-regulation. Typically, studies use observational designs wherein child or dyadic behaviors are micro-coded, second-by-second, yielding rich repeated measures data. These data are often summed or averaged, losing their dynamic nature. This symposium offers three papers that (a) demonstrate how contemporary analytical methods are being used to study regulatory dynamics, (b) highlight how these methods afford and/or constrain articulation and testing of regulation theories, and (c) suggest how these methods may be extended or further developed.
The first paper demonstrates use of unified structural equation models (uSEM) to study the dynamics of young children’s regulation of fear in laboratory situations that are novel and potentially frightening. It highlights the utility and difficulty of using person-specific methods to study between-person and between-task regulatory dynamics.
The second paper draws on a series of studies illustrating how state-space grid (SSG) methods are used to study parent-child co-regulation during challenging family interactions. It highlights the affordances, limitations, and extensions of the approach.
The third paper describes a research program’s history of analytic approaches from rates/proportions, through conditional probabilities to introduce how multivariate multi-level survival analysis (MMSA) can be used to study parent-child interaction. It articulates how parents promote or interfere with child regulatory skill.
The discussant will highlight how these methods can capture developmental theory, explain how dynamic theory is propelling new discovery, and offer cautionary notes.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chairs

• Santiago Morales, Pennsylvania State University

• Pamela M Cole, Penn State Univ

Discussant

• Nilam Ram, Pennsylvania State University

Individual Presentations

• The Utility of Unified Structural Equation Modeling (uSEM) for the Study of Regulation and Dysregulation of Fear - Presenting Author: Santiago Morales, Pennsylvania State University; Elizabeth Ann Shewark, Pennsylvania State University; Adriene M. Beltz, Pennsylvania State University; Peter Molenaar, Pennsylvania State University; Kristin A Buss, Pennsylvania State University

• Advantages and Limitations of the State Space Grid Method for the Study of Parent-Child Coregulation - Presenting Author: Erika S. Lunkenheimer, Colorado State University; Tom Hollenstein, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

• Child Emotional Responses to Parent Discipline: An Application of Multivariate, Multilevel Survival Analysis - Presenting Author: Jim Snyder, Wichita State University