In a 3-wave longitudinal study (with assessments 2 years apart) involving 186 early adolescents (M ages of approximately 9.3, 11.4, and 13.4), the hypothesis that parental warmth/positive expressivity predicts children's effortful control (EC) (a temperamental characteristic contributing to emotion regulation) 2 years later, which in turn predicts low levels of externalizing problems another 2 years later, was examined. The hypothesis that children's EC predicts parenting over time was also examined. Parents were observed interacting with their children; parents and teachers reported children's EC and externalizing problems; and children's persistence was assessed behaviorally. Children's EC mediated the relation between positive parenting and low levels of externalizing problems (whereas there was no evidence that children's EC predicted parenting).The development of externalizing problems has been linked to both heredity and environmental factors (Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, in press). In regard to the latter set of influences, one of the more consistent findings is that parental warmth and support are associated with relatively low levels of children's externalizing problems (Caspi et al., 2004;Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994; see Dodge et al., in press). Similarly, parental expressions of positive emotions in the home and in children's presence (albeit not necessarily directed at the child) have been related to low levels of externalizing problems (Eisenberg et al., 2001b; see Halberstadt, Crisp, & Eaton, 1999).Some investigators (Eisenberg, Cumberland, & Spinrad, 1998;Gottman, Katz, & Hooven, 1997) have suggested that one reason for the association between parental warmth/positive expressivity and children's externalizing behavior is through its effects on children's emotionrelated regulation, which includes the modulation of emotion-related physiological responses, motivational states, felt experience, and associated behaviors. According to this view, warm, positive parents rear better-regulated children, who are, in turn, less likely to experience anger or frustration or display externalizing problems such as aggression that stem from these emotional responses.Effortful control (EC), an aspect of temperament defined as "the efficiency of executive attention, including the ability to inhibit a dominant response and/or to activate a subdominant response, to plan, and to detect errors," is believed to play a fundamental role in the regulation of emotion (Rothbart & Bates, in press) and often is used as an index of this capacity (Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000). EC includes the abilities to voluntarily focus and shift attention and to inhibit or initiate behavior-processes used to modulate both internal emotionrelated experience and the overt expression of emotion. The purpose of this study was to Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nancy Eisenberg, Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104. Electronic mail may be sent tonancy.eisenberg@asu.edu.. This study is...

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations of effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and negative emotionality to at least borderline clinical levels of symptoms and change in maladjustment over four years. Children's (N = 214; 77% European American; M age = 73 months) externalizing and internalizing symptoms were rated by parents and teachers at 3 times, 2 years apart (T1, T2, and T3) and were related to children's adult-rated EC, impulsivity, and emotion. In addition, the authors found patterns of change in maladjustment were related to these variables at T3 while controlling for the T1 predictor. Externalizing problems (pure or co-occurring with internalizing problems) were associated with low EC, high impulsivity, and negative emotionality, especially anger, and patterns of change also related to these variables. Internalizing problems were associated with low impulsivity and sadness and somewhat with high anger. Low attentional EC was related to internalizing problems only in regard to change in maladjustment. Change in impulsivity was associated with change in internalizing primarily when controlling for change in externalizing problems. Keywords regulation; effortful control; externalizing problems; internalizing problemsIn recent years, there has been increasing evidence of concurrent and longitudinal relations between children's temperamental characteristics and their maladjustment (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). However, in most of this research, investigators have not differentiated between effortful components of temperamentally based self-regulation (effortful control) and reactive control-related aspects of temperament (e.g., impulsivity), or among various negative emotions. In addition, investigators often have used continuous measures of internalizing or externalizing problem behavior so findings relevant to borderline or clinical levels of problem behaviors were not examined, and issues pertaining to co-occurring symptoms or comorbidity, as indexed in many studies, were not considered. In the present study, relations of effortful control, impulsivity, anger, and sadness to contemporaneous and future externalizing and internalizing problems (co-occurring or pure), as well as to change or stability in maladjustment status, were examined in a 4-year longitudinal study. Dispositional Regulation, Reactivity, and MaladjustmentTemperament has been defined as "constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, in the domains of affect, activity, and attention" (Rothbart & Bates, 2006, p. 100). Self-regulation refers to "processes such as effortful control and orienting that function to modulate reactivity" whereas reactivity refers to "the arousability of motor, affective, and sensory response systems" (Rothbart, Ahadi, Hersey, & Fisher, 2001, p. 1395. Effortful Control, Reactive Behavioral Undercontrol (Reactivity), and MaladjustmentThe component of temperament associated with voluntary self-regulation is effortful control (EC), defined as "the efficiency of ex...

The unique relations of effortful control and impulsivity to resiliency and adjustment were examined when children were 4.5 to 8 years old, and 2 years later. Parents and teachers reported on all constructs and children's attentional persistence was observed. In concurrent structural equation models, effortful control and impulsivity uniquely and directly predicted resiliency and externalizing problems and indirectly predicted internalizing problems (through resiliency). Teacher-reported anger moderated the relations of effortful control and impulsivity to externalizing problems. In the longitudinal model, all relations held at T2 except for the path from impulsivity to externalizing

The relations of children's internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors to their concurrent regulation, impulsivity (reactive undercontrol), anger, sadness, and fearfulness and these aspects of functioning 2 years prior were examined. Parents and teachers completed measures of children's (N = 185; ages 6 through 9 years) adjustment, negative emotionality, regulation, and behavior control; behavioral measures of regulation also were obtained. In general, both internalizing and externalizing problems were associated with negative emotionality. Externalizers were low in effortful regulation and high in impulsivity, whereas internalizers, compared with nondisordered children, were low in impulsivity but not effortful control. Moreover, indices of negative emotionality, regulation, and impulsivity with the level of the same variables 2 years before controlled predicted stability versus change in problem behavior status.

The authors examined the relations among children's effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence with a sample of 7-to 12-year-old children (N = 264). Parents and children reported on children's effortful control, and teachers and children reported on children's school relationships and classroom participation. Children's grade point averages (GPAs) and absences were obtained from school-issued report cards. Significant positive correlations existed between effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence. Consistent with expectations, the teacher-child relationship, social competence, and classroom participation partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in GPA from the beginning to the end of the school year. The teacher-child relationship and classroom participation also partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in school absences across the year. Keywords effortful control; peer and teacher relationships; classroom participation; academic competence Children's academic competence is central to their future success. The importance of successfully navigating the challenges of the school environment is highlighted by findings that academic competence is a significant correlate of positive mental health and high school graduation (Caspi, Elder, & Bem, 1987;Ensminger & Slusarcick, 1992). Despite the importance of school success, 15% of adults report that they have not completed high school (Stoops, 2004). Although the majority of research on school success has focused on curricula, structure, teacher-child ratios, and intelligence, there is an increased awareness of the important roles children's regulatory abilities, school-related relationships, and classroom participation play in contributing to their academic competence. Indeed, Blair (2002) NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript relate to aspects of school success or failure even when controlling for general intelligence at school entry.The literature considering indices of children's regulatory abilities and measures of academic competence is growing, as is the literature on relational and motivational correlates of school success. However, studies that bridge these literatures are rare. The current study begins to fill this gap and was designed (a) to test if effortful control (an index of regulatory abilities) predicts changes in academic competence (i.e., grades and absences) across a school year; (b) to test if students' relationships with teachers and peers, as well as their classroom participation, predict changes in academic competence; and (c) to test if relationships and classroom participation partially mediate the relation between effortful control and academic competence. Simultaneously considering constructs from traditionally different areas of research may clarify if and how children's regulatory abilities predict their academic competence.We used effortful co...