Are Emotion Regulation Strategies Different among 3–6–Year– Old Aggressive Children? Evidence from China

Abstract

Background: During the long–time home quarantine due to COVID–19, preschool-age children can be easily stricken by negative emotions, which give rise to aggressive behaviors. Aggressive behaviors are of different types at the preschool stage. We aimed to investigate the differences of emotion regulation strategies among children age 3–6 yr old with different aggression types and explore the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and aggressive behaviors.
 Methods: The aggressive behaviors of 1,187 children sampled (event sampling method) from 5 kindergartens in five cities in Henan Province of China were observed on the spot in 2020. Three aggression types (i.e., physical, verbal, and indirect) were selected to conduct a questionnaire survey on emotion regulation strategies and discuss the differences among aggressive children in emotion regulation strategies.
 Results: Children of different genders are significantly different in aggressive behaviors and problem solving, as well as children at different age levels in self–comfort, passive reaction, and negative regulation strategies. Significant interaction exists between gender and aggression but not in negative regulation strategy; significant interaction also exists between age and aggression but not in cognitive reconstruction, substitutive activity, and aggressive behavior. Significant differences exist among children of different aggression types in positive and negative regulation strategies. The discrimination accuracy of emotion regulation strategies for aggression types is 66.5%.
 Conclusion: Significant differences exist among 3-6-yr-old aggressive children in emotion regulation strategies, and emotion regulation strategies can effectively distinguish aggressive children of different types.

Children’s emotion regulation strategies in facing the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) World: A systematic narrative review

“…In addition, a total of n=2 studies looked into the parental, caregivers, or environmental influence on the children's application of emotion regulation strategies (Liu et al 2019, Schoppmann et al 2022. Also, n=4 studies aimed to make a comparison of the usage of emotion regulation strategies among children with different age groups and in a different context of family, peers, school, and behaviours (Wan & Savina 2015, Lopesz-Perez et al 2016, Cai et al 2020, Wang & Barrett 2020.…”

“…However, not all articles had an even number of strategies, as few studies mentioned more than one strategy, while some studies interpreted the strategies by giving situational examples, explaining strategies sub-categories and even synonymous terms of the strategies. In correlation, n=10 articles focused on more than one strategy (Wan & Savina 2015, Lopez-Perez et al 2016, Rao & Gibson 2018, Parsafar et al 2019, Atkinson et al 2020, Cai et al 2020, Hipson et al 2019 Attachment assessment at two years has portrayed significant results even though it provides an indirect predictor of social regulation for children aged 10 to 12.…”

“…The distribution of the studies was mostly from 2020 with (n=5)(Atkinson et al 2020, Cai et al 2020, Kao et al 2020, Oeri & Roebers 2020, Wang & Barret 2020. In 2018, n=3 studies were retrieved(Rao & Gibson 2018, Hipson et al 2019, Liu et al 2019.…”

“…The studies investigating children's emotional strategies varied in conducting research. Most of the studies (n=5) were conducted using a quantitative research design(Wan & Savina 2015, Hipson et al 2019, Liu et al 2019, Cai et al 2020, Kao et al 2020. In addition, n=3 identified articles that used quantitative experimental research methods(Parsafar et al 2019, Oeri & Roerbers 2020, Schoppmann et al 2022.…”

“…However, the samples varied; three studies had infants and toddlers(Atkinson et al 2020, Kao et al 2020, Schoppmann et al 2022. The frequent sample used was the preschool age where n=4 studies had them as respondents(Hipson et al 2019, Cai et al 2020, Oeri & Roebers 2020, Wang & Barrett 2020) while n=3 studies had set school-age children as their samples(Wan & Savina 2015, Rao & Gibson 2018, Liu et al 2019). However, one study that applied longitudinal research observed the infants until they reached school age(Boldt et al 2020).…”