Effects of Environmental, Maternal, and Child Factors on Preschoolers' Emotion Regulation During a Frustrating Task
Open Access
- Author:
- Mintern, Brianne E
- Graduate Program:
- School Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 10, 2013
- Committee Members:
- Barbara Schaefer, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Dr Elizabeth Skowron, Committee Member
Shirley Andrea Woika, Committee Member
Robert Leslie Hale, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Emotion regulation
preschool
socioemotional development
executive functioning
child maltreatment
Transparent Box task - Abstract:
- The experience of multiple risk factors during childhood negatively influences academic, behavioral, and socioemotional development. Executive functioning (EF), specifically in the form of emotion regulation (ER), is an important determinant of childhood outcomes and later functioning across developmental domains. Adaptive ER strategy use during the Transparent Box task was examined for a sample of 108 preschoolers (nmaltreatment = 62; ncomparison = 46). Based on exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results, an adaptive ER composite was created to include proportion scores for goal-directed and inverse proportion scores for distraction and self-soothing strategies exhibited during the Transparent Box task. When controlling for child gender, age, and gestational age and including group status as an environmental predictor, findings from multiple regression analysis revealed that maternal total years of education, child age, and child IQ served as significant predictors of adaptive ER strategy use for the total sample (N = 96). Based on analysis of variance (ANOVA), the youngest participants demonstrated significantly less time spent using adaptive strategies compared to older participants. Adaptive ER strategy outcomes were not significantly different across group status or gender. Further, higher maternal education was associated with lower adaptive composite scores, though correlation results were not statistically significant. Potential links between ER strategy use and school readiness outcomes and measurement limitations are discussed.