Contributions of Family Processes to the Development of Delay of Gratification in Preschool-aged Children

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Delay of Gratification in early childhood has predicted long-term positive behavioral and academic outcomes. As a self-regulation ability, Delay of Gratification relates to children’s cognitive control and effortful control. During the preschool years, the development of children’s ability to delay gratification is influenced by parents’ behaviors and family processes. The present study investigated whether and how family dynamics contributed to the development of delay of gratification in young children, after taking children’s cognitive control and effortful control into account.
Our participants were a subset of the nationally-representative sample from the Singapore Early Childhood Development Longitudinal Study (SGLEADS) conducted in 2018-19. They were 2,206 children aged 4-6 and their primary caregivers. Children completed the Delay of Gratification choice paradigm and working memory task. Primary caregivers completed questionnaires on the child’s temperament (effortful control), family SES (education level and economic stress), psychological well-being (emotional distress and cognitive ability), parenting practices (warmth, harsh punishment, and rule-setting), and family conflict resolution. Multiple regression was performed to examine how a child’s ability to delay gratification was associated with family SES, the primary caregiver’s characteristics, and family dynamics.
As shown in Table 1, Delay of Gratification increased with age and favored girls. Primary caregivers’ education level was positively associated with, whereas economic stress (e.g., whether the family can make ends meet) was negatively associated with a child’s ability to delay gratification. The primary caregiver’s cognitive ability, but not emotional distress, accounted for part of the variance in children’s Delay of Gratification. We found that a child’s ability to delay gratification was negatively related to conflicts in the family and positively related to primary caregivers’ limit-setting to children’s daily lives. Parental warmth and harsh punishment did not explain the variance in children’s ability to delay gratification. Finally, the child’s working memory and effortful control acted as two important predictors of Delay of Gratification. After accounting for these two child-level factors, only the child’s age, family conflict resolution, and rule-setting remained significant predictors. Although the predictive effects of the primary caregiver’s education level, cognitive ability and economic stress became non-significant in the final step, results suggested that the influences of family SES and the primary caregiver’s characteristics on Delay of Gratification may be mediated by family dynamics and the child’s cognitive and effortful control. Together, the child’s age, working memory, effortful control, family conflict resolution and rule-setting explained 14% of the variance in a child’s ability to delay instant gratification.
To sum up, Delay of Gratification starts to develop in early childhood rapidly with age, and individual difference in delaying gratification is explained by cognitive control and effortful control. More importantly, the development of Delay of Gratification among preschool-aged children is influenced by parents’ education level and economic stress, which in turn affect family conflict resolution and rule-setting to children’s daily lives. Theoretically, this investigation has enhanced our understanding regarding how family processes influence young children’s Delay of Gratification. Practically, implications for behavioral interventions focused on children’s cognitive and effortful control, family functions and parental scaffolding are suggested.

Authors

• Luxi Chen, National University of Singapore
  Presenting Author

• Jean Yeung, National University of Singapore
  Non-Presenting Author