Little is known about toddlers' acquisition of specific emotion regulation (ER) strategies, and how early ER is shaped by temperament. This study investigated if 24-month-old German toddlers, predominantly from families with high levels of parental education (N = 96, n = 49 male), learned the ER strategy distraction through observational learning,…

The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

This paper presents a unitary approach to emotion and emotion regulation, building on the excellent points in the lead article by Cole, Martin, and Dennis (this issue), as well as the fine commentaries that follow it. It begins by stressing how, in the real world, the processes underlying emotion and emotion regulation appear to be largely one and…

Affective neuroscience and cognitive science approaches are useful for understanding the components of emotion regulation; several examples from current research are provided. Individual differences in emotion regulation and a focus on the context of emotion experience and expression provide additional tools to study emotion regulation, and its…

Examined relationship of regulatory control to preschoolers' peer interactions. Found that children high in effortful control were relatively unlikely to experience high levels of negative emotional arousal in response to peer interactions, but this relationship held only for moderate to high intense interactions. Socially competent responding was…

Examined whether putative regulatory behaviors widely assumed to be conceptually associated with certain behavioral strategies were associated with the changes in fearful and angry distress in 6-, 12-, and 18-month-olds. The key finding was that the use of some putative regulatory behaviors (distraction and approach) reduced the observable…

Examined relationships between maternal depression and children's self-concept, self-control, and peer relationships. Found that multiple risk factors, such as the father's mental state and parents' marital status, rather than maternal depression alone, explained much of the variability in children's social and emotional competence. (MDM)

Spontaneous expressive control of negative emotion was examined in two studies of children three- to nine-years-old using an experimental "disappointing" situation. Study 1 examined facial expressions, verbalizations, and spontaneous references to emotional expression control. Study 2 examined the expressive behavior of 20 preschool…

Examined relations of children's regulation and emotionality to their social functioning. Found that resiliency mediated effects of individual differences in attentional regulation on social status and socially appropriate behavior, and that negative emotionality moderated the positive relation between attentional control and resiliency. Also…