2-115 - Longitudinal perspectives on effortful control: development and parent socialization

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium addresses the development of early emerging inhibitory control abilities that support children in regulating their attention, behavior, and emotions, which we refer to as effortful control (EC). It also addresses how parents promote the development of EC in early childhood. The school readiness literature has identified self-regulation of attention, behavior, and emotions as a centrally important social-emotional dimension that promotes adaptation to the demands of classroom learning (Bierman et al., 2009), with evidence showing the longitudinal association of early childhood EC with kindergarten achievements in literacy and math (Blair and Razza, 2007). EC has origins in developments of attention and inhibitory control that emerge as a coordinated system in late toddlerhood (Murray and Kochanska, 2002) and while EC is conceptualized as a dimension of temperament, evidence suggests it has roots in the co-regulation of behavior between parents and children. Blair, Raver, and Berry’s recent work (2014) emphasizes that early experience with sensitive caregiving promotes EC, whereas exposure to poverty and chronic stress attenuates EC. Three papers report evidence for stability of EC across contexts and over time (ages 3-7 years), and offer evidence for maternal socialization, including prediction from observed caregiving contexts and rich descriptions of socialization strategies. Our discussant raises important issues about the relational context of EC. When parents cannot tolerate infant distress or when children perceive their parent as threatening, children use compulsive inhibitory strategies to protect themselves. How well is compulsive inhibition of initiative and communication differentiated from EC in non-threatening and safe relationships?

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• JoAnn L Robinson, University of Connecticut

Discussant

• Susan Spieker, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Longitudinal Stability and Cross-Contextual Models of Effortful Control from Pre-Kindergarten to Post-First Grade - Presenting Author: Hannah Mudrick, University of Connecticut; JoAnn L Robinson, University of Connecticut

• Longitudinal evidence for early care environments that support children’s self-regulation across attention, emotion & behavior - Presenting Author: Courtney R Lincoln, Univ of Connecticut; Beth S Russell, University of Connecticut; Susan Spieker, University of Washington

• Maternal Emotion Regulation Strategies for Themselves and their children from Birth Through the Preschool Years - Presenting Author: Beth S Russell, University of Connecticut; Courtney R Lincoln, Univ of Connecticut