With a little help from my friends?: Self‐regulation in groups of young children

Abstract

This study examined self-regulation in preschool children (mean age=51 months; 47% boys) using three situational assessments tapping delay of gratification and motor control. Assessments represented a novel adaptation for use with both individual (N=116) and groups (N=44) of four familiar peers in ecologically valid settings. Results suggest that preschoolers demonstrate an increasing ability to self-regulate with age, as well as some evidence for girls performing better than boys on the Gift Wrap situational assessment. Children were less able to demonstrate self-regulation in the peer group context as compared to individual assessments. Differences between age groups and gender were not significant when children were assessed with their peers. The influence of peers on self-regulation behavior is a complex relationship with no clear patterns identified in this research. Implications for future research and assessment efforts are discussed.

The Adolescent Self-Regulatory Inventory (ASRI) Adaptation to Portuguese Context

“…Despite the need to introduce some modification indices on items with a closer meaning, Confirmatory Factor Analysis provided a theoretically and empirically satisfactory solution in line with the original two-factor model that distinguishes short and long-term self-regulation, maintaining the correlation with the control measure and equivalent results at the differential studies. Regarding gender, despite conflicting results in the literature, there is a tendency for girls to present higher self-regulation, what tends to be associated with evolutionary issues or least controlling parenting practices over boys (McCabe & Brooks-Gunn, 2007;Raffaelli, Crockett, & Shen, 2005). Also in line with existing research, the results tend to reflect the stability of self-regulation over time (Raffaelli et al, 2005).…”

How Is Chimpanzee Self-Control Influenced by Social Setting?

“…Therefore, in the present experiment we tested chimpanzees with an accumulation delay of gratification test when they were alone as well as when they were housed adjacent to another chimpanzee working on the same type of test. Given the results of a related experiment involving children [10], we predicted that both individuals would show diminished delay maintenance despite being on independent reward delivery schedules. We also predicted that trial termination times by both chimpanzees would be correlated.…”

“…More recently, McCabe and Brooks-Gunn [10] gave children two self-regulatory tasks in which they had to inhibit peeking at a toy or inhibit eating available candy for a period of time either in the presence or absence of a social partner. Children in the social condition performed more poorly than children tested in the solitary condition when asked to delay eating candy or inhibit peeking.…”

“…Further, in the peeking task, children tested alone performed better across increasing ages, but performance did not increase with age in the social condition. McCabe and Brooks-Gunn [10] also reported that children in the social condition tended to imitate the behavior of those around them, whether it was peeking (impulsive response) or using strategies to avoid peeking (self-control). However, there was no relationship between children's performance in the solo conditions and their likelihood to peek at the toy or eat the treats after seeing their social partner do so.…”

Autorregulação e consumo de substâncias na adolescência

“…Se bem que alguma revisão da literatura não refere diferenças entre os gêneros (Colman, Hardy, Albert, Raffaeli, & Crockett, 2006;García del Castillo & Dias, 2007), outras referem maior autorregulação das meninas (Buckner, Mezzacappa, & Baerdslee, 2009;García del Castillo & Dias, 2009;Meece & Painter, 2008). Os nossos resultados vão de encontro a esses estudos, que verificam uma maior dificuldade dos rapazes nas suas competências de regulação emocional e comportamental desde tenras idades (Kochanska, Murray, & Coy, 1997;Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000;McCabe & Brooks-Gunn, 2007;Weinberg, Tronick, Cohn, & Olson, 1999). Pelas práticas parentais, as meninas são mais incentivadas a adiar gratificações do que os rapazes e são colocadas perante um maior contro- lo comportamental.…”