The current study took a person-centered approach to examine the heterogeneity of changes in children's emotions and persistence during a goal-blocking task and examined how different profiles of emotions and persistence related to children's self-regulation. Children's anger, sadness, and persistence were rated in a goal-blocking task in…

Effective emotion regulation is critical for establishing and maintaining positive relationships, and it has previously been linked to several indicators of social competence. Theories agree that one core characteristic of adaptive emotion regulation is the ability to flexibly adapt emotion regulation strategies to situational demands (i.e.,…

Parental reflective functioning (PRF) is considered to be a key factor in the development of emotion regulation in children, which in turn plays an important role in their psychosocial functioning. This study aimed to explore the mediating role of children's emotion regulation in the relationship between parental reflective functioning and…

Executive functions (EF) have been identified as important predictors of children's proximal and distal development. Recent research highlights pretend play as a potential mechanism for EF development, and there has been a call to identify for whom pretense in most beneficial. The current study investigated whether an association found between…

Children's tendency to delay gratification predicts important life outcomes, yet little is known about how to enhance delay of gratification other than by teaching task-specific strategies. The present research investigated the effect of exposing children to a model who experiences the exertion of willpower as energizing. In two experiments, 86 4-…

Background: Beginning with a proposition that physical education (PE) and early childhood education (ECE) build affinities through shared developmental interests, this article works the gaps made possible when PE meets with ECE in unfamiliar ways. Through a shared investment in the normalizing and minoritizing functions of child development, how…

This study examines the impact of the 2 × 10 relationship-building strategy (consisting of a two-minute conversation with a child once a day for 10 days). Participants were four preschool teachers and eight preschool children from a university-based lab school. Teachers completed pre- and post-intervention scales (Strengths and Difficulties…

Although the functionalist perspective on emotional development posits that emotions serve adaptive functions, empirical tests of the role of anger mostly focus on how anger contributes to dysfunction. Developmentally, as children gain agency and skill at emotion regulation between the ages of 36 months and 48 months, their modulation of anger may…

Research Findings: This study examined whether physical coercion and psychological control by mothers and fathers can influence preschoolers' use of physical and relational aggression, and whether the relations are moderated by children's effortful control in a Hong Kong Chinese sample. Data were collected from a sample of 168 children (88 girls;…

This study examined the moderating role of effortful control in the association between interparental conflict and externalizing problems in a diverse sample of preschool children (N = 243; M age = 4.60 years). Using a multimethod, multi-informant, prospective design, findings indicated that the relation between interparental conflict and…

This analysis examined key protective factors among preschool children in low-income, rural areas. Teacher-reported Devereux Early Childhood Assessments for Preschoolers were completed for 182 Head Start children (54% female, 46% male) from seven rural, midwestern communities. The majority of children were in the typical range for each protective…

The psychological and cognitive impacts of COVID-19 on children are still unfolding; however, several researchers have noted negative effects of quarantine on youth (Orgilés et al., 2020) and parents (Fontanesi et al., 2020). The abrupt departure from preschool due to social distancing and potential family disharmony associated with financial and…

Pre-kindergarten (pre-k) is thought to have both direct and indirect effects on children's outcomes in early elementary school. Direct pre-k effects consistently include moderate to large gains in academic skills and sometimes include increases in problem behaviors that affect acquisition of skills in school. Indirect pre-k effects assume that…

This study aimed to examine the unique and joint contributions of behavioral and emotional self-regulation to key but understudied emergent literacy and early social skills, disentangling sex-differentiated paths. The participants were 231 Portuguese preschoolers (50% boys; M[subscript age] = 59.5 months; SD = 8.5) enrolled in 47 classrooms. In…

The present study analyses the emotional expression of children in the preschool context. Students of preschool education observed 70 children in preschool institutions from various Slovenian regions. The children expressed different emotions in terms of their valence and complexity, with joy being the most frequently expressed emotion (f = 96% or…