Developmental Trends in Self‐regulation among Low‐income Toddlers

Abstract

The attainment of self-regulatory skills during the toddler years is an understudied issue, especially among low-income children. The present study used growth modeling to examine the change over time and the final status in children's abilities to self-regulate, in a sample of 2,441 low-income children aged 14 to 36 months. Positive growth in their self-regulation occurred between 14 and 36 months, but individual variation was observed in both the growth rates and final status. Children who showed high degrees of negativity at 14, 24 and 36 months grew at slower rates than other children. Boys and children high in negativity had lower scores in self-regulation at 36 months than girls and children with low negativity, whereas higher quality mother-child interactions at 14 and 24 months were associated with better self-regulation at 36 months. The results suggest that some children may be at risk for developing problems in regulation because of mother-child interaction patterns and child characteristics such as high negativity.

Longitudinal Connections of Maternal Supportiveness and Early Emotion Regulation to Children’s School Readiness in Low-Income Families

“…Our findings suggest that early maternal supportiveness likely reflects an important developmental period during which parenting has an impact on child development. These findings further corroborate the importance of consistency and quality of parenting during the earliest years for a competent transition to school (Chazan-Cohen et al, 2007;McCarty, Zimmerman, DiGiuseppe, & Christakis, 2005;Raikes et al, 2007).…”

“…The scale consists of seven items that assess children's responses by scoring items on a 5-point scale ranging from not at all (1) to all the time (5), with higher scores indicating more positive responses. This scale has been used extensively as an indicator of children's self-regulatory competence (e.g., Chazan-Cohen et al, 2007;Raikes et al, 2007;Vogel, Bradley, Raikes, Boller, & Shears, 2006). The alpha in our study was .96.…”

“…Children with easy-going temperaments (i.e., less challenging emotionality and negativity) are more likely to elicit parental responses that are more supportive emotionally and behaviorally than children with difficult temperaments (i.e., higher in negativity and challenging emotionality; Thompson & Goodwin, 2007). Toddlers with high negativity also demonstrate slower rates of growth in self-regulation during their early years (Raikes et al, 2007). We expected that emotionality might be an important covariate in our study.…”

“…Studies of children from low-income families, using data from the national Early Head Start Research and Evaluation (EHSRE; Love et al, 2005), have revealed key findings regarding parenting quality and children's outcomes. For example, Raikes et al (2007) found that parenting quality mediated mother-child interactions and children's self-regulatory growth during the children's first 3 years. Lugo-Gil and Tamis- LeMonda (2008) found that lower-quality parenting reduced children's early cognitive development.…”

“…Supportiveness has been linked to children's cognitive development (Mistry, Benner, Biesanz, Clark, & Howes, 2010) and to young children's emotion regulation, both concurrently and longitudinally (Fabes, Leonard, Kupanoff, & Martin, 2001;Raikes, Robinson, Bradley, Raikes, & Ayoub, 2007). Studies of children from low-income families, using data from the national Early Head Start Research and Evaluation (EHSRE; Love et al, 2005), have revealed key findings regarding parenting quality and children's outcomes.…”