Longitudinal relations of children’s effortful control, impulsivity, and negative emotionality to their externalizing, internalizing, and co-occurring behavior problems.

Abstract

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 role of temperament in children's affective and behavioral responses in achievement situations

“…Contrary to our Hypotheses 1b and 3b, children's negative emotionality was not found to be uniquely related to their task avoidance or anxiety. Previously, negative emotionality has been found to be associated, for example, with elementary school students' state anxiety (e.g., Eisenberg et al, 2009;Nelson et al, 1999). In the present study, negative emotionality did show a significant bivariate correlation with active task avoidance, although it was not a significant predictor for task avoidance when the impacts of other temperamental characteristics were taken into account.…”

“…Temperament has been examined in relation to, for example, students' achievement, student-teacher interactions, problem behavior, and psychosocial functioning at school (e.g., Eisenberg et al, 2009;Nelson, Martin, Hodge, Havill, & Kamphaus, 1999;Valiente, Lemery-Chalfant, & Swanson, 2010;Zhou, Main, & Wang, 2010). For example, studies among kindergartners and elementary school students have found good self-regulation or high effortful control to be positively related to students' self-efficacy (Liew, McTigue, Barrois, & Hughes, 2008), academic competence (Liew et al, 2008;Valiente et al, 2010;Zhou et al, 2010), classroom participation (Valiente, Lemery-Chalfant, Swanson, & Reiser, 2008), school liking (Valiente, Lemery-Chalfant, & Castro, 2007), and work habits (Curby, Rudasill, Edwards, & Pérez-Edgar, 2011).…”

“…Empirical findings among middle school students have shown that negative emotionality is associated with low levels of academic performance and selfperceived competence (Guerin, Gottfried, Oliver, & Thomas, 1994;Gumora & Arsenio, 2002). Moreover, negative mood or negative emotionality (such as expressions of anger and sadness) are positively related to elementary and middle school students' anxiety and depression (Eisenberg et al, 2009;Gumora & Arsenio, 2002;Nelson et al, 1999). The role of positive emotionality in academic functioning has received hardly any research interest (see Valiente et al, 2012).…”

Prenatal maternal depression and child serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) and dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) genotype predict negative emotionality from 3 to 36 months

“…As noted above, the link between NE and later problematic behaviour and psychopathology has been well established (e.g., Eisenberg et al, 2009). The moderating role of NE in treatment outcome aimed at improving internalizing and externalizing behaviour (Blair, Mitchell, & Blair, 2005) suggests that targeting contributing factors of NE could be effective in preventing the development of childhood psychopathology.…”

“…NE is associated with the development of later problematic behaviour and psychopathology (Eisenberg et al, 2009;Fox, Henderson, Rubin, Calkins, & Schmidt, 2001;Hyde, Mezulis, & Abramson, 2008). For example, fearful temperament is associated with childhood anxiety disorders (Degnan, Alma, & Fox, 2010;Goldsmith & Lemery, 2000), while NE is associated with depression (Phillips, Lonigan, & Driscoll, 2002) and maladjustment (Eisenberg et al, 2009). Understanding early influences of NE on socio-emotional development (Davis, Glynn, Schetter, Hobel, Chicz-demet, & Sandman, 2007;Davis, Snidman, Glynn, Dunkel Schetter, & Sandman, 2004;Hayden et al, 2010;Hayden et al, 2007) could inform efforts at prevention and early intervention.…”