Taking a Person-Centered Approach to Examine Preschoolers' Expressive Control

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

Preschoolers’ abilities to regulate negative emotions are positively associated with their social competence (Liew et al., 2004) and behavioral regulation (Stifter et al., 2008). Observational studies using a disappointment paradigm reveal that preschoolers do spontaneously attempt to control their negative emotion displays, termed expressive control, and these abilities vary depending on whether children are in the presence of others (Cole, 1986; Cole et al., 1994). Parasympathetic processes, measured using respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), are considered physiological substrates of self-regulation (Lunkenheimer et al., 2015). Preschoolers’ stable RSA suppression during challenge is positively associated with self-regulation (Calkins & Keane, 2004), though research suggests RSA augmentation after an emotional perturbation or during socially challenging situations is reflective of active emotion regulation (Hastings et al., 2008; Shih et al., 2018). The present study aims to examine whether subgroups of preschoolers can be identified based on observed expressive control during the Disappointment Gift Task (DGT) when the experimenter was present (EP) versus absent (EA), and whether different subgroups exhibit differences in children’s parasympathetic processes during this negatively-valenced emotional context.

Children aged 42-months (N=118; 52% male; 80% White) completed the DGT (Cole, 1986) in the laboratory. Child affect was coded in real time using Cole’s (1986) procedures and Ekman and Friesen’s (1978) Facial Action Coding Systems (FACS). Negative affect codes and positive and neutral (PN) affect codes were summed for an overall duration of negative affect and duration of PN affect during the EP and EA conditions, respectively. Electrocardiogram data were also collected to compute RSA; the child’s reactivity to disappointment was calculated by subtracting their average RSA while waiting for a gift from their average RSA after receiving a disappointing gift, and their reactivity to recovery by subtracting their average RSA after receiving a disappointing gift from their average RSA after receiving a desirable gift (recovery).

For the four affect conditions, hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward’s method) suggested a four-cluster solution was appropriate. The k-means method was used to extract the mean durations for negative and PN affect across parts of the DGT for the four clusters (see Figure 1). Analyses of variance revealed only a marginally significant difference in RSA reactivity to disappointment among clusters, F(3, 50)=2.63, p=.06. However, there was a significant difference in RSA reactivity to recovery among clusters, F(3, 50)=3.72, p=.02; the Highly Negative group experienced significantly higher reactivity than both the Regulating and Problem-Solving preschoolers. In particular, Highly Negative children experienced suppression through to recovery, b=-0.66, SE=0.23. t=-2.92, p=.01, while Regulating and Problem-Solving preschoolers experienced no significant change in RSA.

These findings indicate there is important variability in children’s behavioral and physiological responses to negatively-valanced emotional contexts. Clustering children based on their affect responses was meaningful in predicting differences in physiology; in particular, Highly Negative children demonstrated RSA suppression, indicating a stress response to challenge even through to recovery from an emotional perturbation. Future research taking a person-centered approach is needed to understand how children’s behavioral and biological responses intersect to shape the development of their emotion regulation abilities.

Authors

• Frances M. Lobo, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Anna M Zhou, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin A. Buss, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Dollar, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author