Support children's self-regulation

Publication

Research Publication: Cognitive and psychophysiological predictors of inductive and physical discipline among parents of preschool-aged children

This article in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Family Psychology shows that parents with lower levels of impulse control and nonverbal intelligence are more likely to endorse the use of physical discipline, such as spanking, in response to their preschool-aged child's misbehavior. Parents low in physiological arousal when at rest report fewer child behavior problems the more they endorse the use of physical discipline.

Research Publication: Latent class analysis of maternal depression from pregnancy through early childhood - Differences in children’s executive functions

This study shows mothers in the United Kingdom who reported clinically significant depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy, infancy, and toddlerhood had children who performed worst on measures of inhibition during the elementary school years. Inhibition is a key executive function that supports self-regulation, such as emotion regulation and impulse control.

Research Publication: The role of different screen media devices, child dysregulation, and parent screen media use in children’s self-regulation

This study shows that preschool-aged children’s screen time on mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, is more negatively related to their self-regulation than their TV use. Children’s earlier self-regulatory deficits and parental screen time were mostly unrelated to their media use, and their self-regulation was unrelated to parents’ screen time. As young children are increasingly exceeding screen time guidelines, these findings encourage parents and other caregivers to limit children’s screen media use in early childhood.

Research Publication: Curvilinear Relations Between Preschool-Aged Children’s Effortful Control and Socioemotional Problems - Racial-Ethnic Differences in Functional Form

This published study of PACT Study data collected from Davis families between 2016 and 2019 shows that preschool-age children who are racial-ethnic minorities or non-Hispanic White differ most in internalizing problems, such as anxiety and social withdrawal, among those with low self-regulation.

The relationship between young children's use of mobile screen devices and their self-regulation

Amanda Lawrence, Ph.D., and Daniel Choe, Ph.D., found associations between young preschool-aged children's performance on behavioral measures of self-regulation and their parent-reported age at which they began using screen media devices and their current amount of screen media device use. Children who began using screen media devices at a young age and those who currently spent more hours per week specifically using mobile screen devices, such as smart phones and tablets, performed more poorly on self-regulation measures.