Chaos in the Home: Association with Preschoolers' Inhibitory Control

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

During the preschool years, the majority of children’s development occurs in the home with their caregivers. The development of inhibitory control, which is the ability to actively ignore irrelevant thoughts or impulses to complete a task (Rothbart & Posner, 1985), is particularly notable at this age due to its proposed link with emotional regulation (Eisenberg et al., 2016). Inhibitory control is important to study because it has been found to predict children’s school readiness and academic achievement (Ursache et al., 2012). One important contextual factor to consider when examining preschoolers’ inhibitory control is home chaos, or the general noise, crowding, and lack of routine in the household (Matheny et al., 1995). Home chaos can create overstimulating environments that young children may withdraw from, potentially interfering with inhibitory control development through desensitization to socialization cues (Vernon-Feagas et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between home chaos and preschoolers’ inhibitory control. We hypothesized that higher levels of home chaos would be associated with lower levels of preschoolers’ inhibitory control.
Participants were 38 mothers and their preschool children ages 3- to 5-years-old (19 boys; Mage = 52.55 months, SDage = 8.36). Children were majority white (82%) with an average household income ranging between $60,000 to $74,999. To measure home chaos, mothers filled out the Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale (Matheny et al., 1995). Children’s inhibitory control was measured observationally with the Dinky Toys task (Kochanska et al., 1996). In this task, children were presented with a box of toys and instructed to keep their hands on their laps and to tell the experimenter which toy they wanted. Inhibitory control was measured based on the child’s strategy, ranging from grabbing a toy (0) to not moving their hands (5).
A hierarchical regression analysis was run to determine the association between home chaos and children’s inhibitory control. Child age, sex, and household income were controlled for because of their assocations with inhibitory control and household chaos (Dumas et al., 2005; Else-Quest et al., 2006; Moilanen et al., 2009). After controlling for child age, sex, and household income, higher levels of home chaos were found to be associated with lower levels of observed inhibitory control (see Table 1).
These results support our hypothesis that higher levels of home chaos are associated with lower levels of inhibitory control in preschoolers, even in a more advantaged sample. These results further support that home chaos is an important construct to consider across socioeconomic levels (Deater-Deckard et al., 2005; Martin et al., 2012). As home chaos was found to be associated with self-regulatory issues, further research is needed to identify possible resources, such as childcare programs, that promote self-regulation skills that may help mitigate these relations (Crespo et al., 2019).

Authors

• Claney Outzen, University of West Florida
  Presenting Author

• Olivia P. Cutshaw, University of West Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kimberly L. Day, University of West Florida
  Non-Presenting Author