The relation of attachment security status to effortful self-regulation: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

Secure attachment relationships have been described as having a regulatory function in regard to children's emotions, social cognition, and behavior. Although some theorists and researchers have argued that attachment affects children's self-regulation, most attachment theorists have not strongly emphasized this association. The goal of the current meta-analysis was to determine the magnitude of the relation between attachment security status and effortful control (EC)/top-down self-regulation in children up to 18 years of age. One hundred six papers met the inclusion criteria and 101 independent samples were used in analyses. When secure attachment status was compared with insecure attachment status, a significant relation (effect size [ES]) with EC favoring children with a secure attachment was found (100 studies; 20,350 participants; r = .20). A stronger relation was found when the same coder evaluated attachment than when the coder was different and when the measure of attachment was continuous; other moderators were not significant. Securely attached children were higher in EC than their avoidant (r = .10) or resistant (r = .17) counterparts. Children with organized attachments were higher in EC than those with disorganized attachments (r = .17), although this finding could be due to publication bias. For some comparisons of subgroups (B vs. A, B vs. C, and/or D vs. all others), moderation was found by source of information (higher ES for same reporter), age at assessment of EC and/or attachment (higher ES at older ages), method of attachment (lower ES for observational measures), time difference between assessments or research design (higher ESs for smaller time differences and concurrent findings), and published versus unpublished studies (higher ES for unpublished studies for A vs. B). (PsycINFO Database Record

Developmental cascades of social inhibition and friendships in preterm and full‐term children

“…Consistent with findings of several studies (Clark et al, 2008;Jones et al, 2013;Liu, Calkins, & Bell, 2018;Pallini et al, 2018;Roskam, Stievenart, Meunier, & Noël, 2014;Spinrad, Eisenberg, Gaertner, Popp, et al, 2007), the current study indicates that early positive parenting and secure attachment influence the development of toddlers' selfregulatory abilities in preterm and full-term children. Since children born at lower gestational age face an increased risk of poor early parent-infant relationship quality (Heuser et al, 2018), it is possible that improving parenting early at the neonatal ward may contribute to more adaptive developmental trajectories of social functioning for preterm children, considering the cascading effects found in this study.…”

The Relationship between Family Violence and Self-Control in Adolescence: A Multi-Level Meta-Analysis

“…We also found a moderator effect for the time between measurement of family violence and self-control, with decreasing effect sizes for studies with a longer time gap between the assessment of family violence and subsequent self-control. This is in line with earlier methodological studies on the link between family factors and self-control, similarly indicating that the association is stronger when measured concurrently as compared to longitudinal assessments [60]. This is likely a result of more intervening processes taking place along the way, waning the direct effects of family violence on adolescent self-control.…”

“…The differences in the magnitude of cross-sectional versus longitudinal studies are, however, not well quantified. Earlier meta-analyses on the link between attachment and self-control across the lifespan found larger effect sizes for smaller time differences and larger effect sizes for cross-sectional studies as compared to longitudinal studies [60]. In the same vein, this meta-analysis will explore whether the magnitude of the association between family violence and self-control differs for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.…”

The Heritability of Self-Control: a Meta-Analysis

“…Yet, not all individuals develop the same levels of selfcontrol, which begs the question: 'where do these individual differences come from?'. While the effects of the environment on such individual differences are well documented (Bridgett et al, 2015;Pallini et al, 2018;Willems et al, 2018b), the research on genetic influences on selfcontrol is more nascent. The aim of this study is therefore to perform a meta-analysis to provide a quantitative overview of the heritability of self-control.…”

“…Because self-control is a powerful predictor of health, wealth, and public safety, numerous studies examined why some individuals have higher selfcontrol than others. Most of these studies focused on environmental effects, examining how parenting or peer involvement explains variation in self-control (Finkenauer et al, 2005;Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990;Karreman et al, 2006;King et al, 2018;Pallini et al, 2018).…”