Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-6vlrh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-23T01:24:03.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-regulation as a predictor of patterns of change in externalizing behaviors from infancy to adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2017

Nicole B. Perry ,
Susan D. Calkins ,
Jessica M. Dollar ,
Susan P. Keane  and
Lilly Shanahan
Nicole B. Perry*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Susan D. Calkins
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Jessica M. Dollar
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Susan P. Keane
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Lilly Shanahan
Affiliation:
University of Zürich
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Nicole B. Perry, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 51 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55455; E-mail: nperry@umn.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We examined associations between specific self-regulatory mechanisms and externalizing behavior patterns from ages 2 to 15 (N = 443). The relation between multiple self-regulatory indicators across multiple domains (i.e., physiological, attentional, emotional, and behavioral) at age 2 and at age 5 and group membership in four distinct externalizing trajectories was examined. By examining each of these self-regulatory processes in combination with one another, and therefore accounting for their shared variance, we aimed to better understand which specific self-regulatory skills were associated most strongly with externalizing behavioral patterns. Findings suggest that behavioral inhibitory control and emotion regulation are particularly important in distinguishing between children who show normative declines in externalizing behaviors across early childhood and those who demonstrate high levels through adolescence.

Information

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , May 2018 , pp. 497 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition MH 55625, NIMH FIRST Award MH 55584, and NIMH K-Award MH 74077 (all to S.D.C.) and NIMH Grant MH 58144 (to S.D.C. and S.P.K.). The authors thank the families who generously gave their time to participate in the study.

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Integrative guide for the 1991 CBCL/4–18, YSR, and TRF profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M. (1992). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/2–3 and 1992 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. S. (1983). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and revised Behavior Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., Edelbrock, C., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Empirically based assessment of the behavioral/emotional problems of 2- and 3-year-old children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 629–650. doi:10.1007/BF00917246Google Scholar
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms and profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.Google Scholar
Aguilar, B., Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., & Carlson, E. (2000). Distinguishing the early-onset/persistent and adolescence-onset antisocial behavior types: From birth to 16 years. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 109–132. doi:10.1017/S0954579400002017Google Scholar
Beauchaine, T. P., Gatzke-Kopp, L., & Mead, H. K. (2007). Polyvagal theory and developmental psychopathology: Emotion dysregulation and conduct problems from preschool to adolescence. Biological Psychology, 74, 174–184. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.08.008Google Scholar
Belsky, J., Pasco Fearon, R. M., & Bell, B. (2007). Parenting, attention and externalizing problems: Testing mediation longitudinally, repeatedly and reciprocally. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 1233–1242. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01807.xGoogle Scholar
Bongers, I. L., Koot, H. M., van der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2004). Developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors in childhood and adolescence. Child Development, 75, 1523–1537. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00755.xGoogle Scholar
Brame, B., Nagin, D. S., & Tremblay, R. E. (2001). Developmental trajectories of physical aggression from school entry to late adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 503–512. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00744Google Scholar
Broidy, L. M., Tremblay, R. E., Brame, B., Fergusson, D., Horwood, J. L., Laird, R., … Vitaro, F. (2003). Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: A six-site, cross-national study. Developmental Psychology, 39, 222–245. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.39.2.222Google Scholar
Bronson, M. B. (2000). Self-regulation in early childhood: Nature and nurture. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Buss, K. A., Kiel, E. J., Morales, S., & Robinson, E. (2014). Toddler inhibitory control, bold response to novelty, and positive affect predict externalizing symptoms in kindergarten. Social Development, 23, 232–249. doi:10.1111/sode.12058Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D. (2009). Regulatory competence and early disruptive behavior problems: The role of physiological regulation. In Olson, S. & Sameroff, A. (Eds.), Regulatory processes in the development of behavior problems: Biological, behavioral, and social-ecological interactions (pp. 86–115). New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D., & Dedmon, S. E. (2000). Physiological and behavioral regulation in two-year-old children with aggressive/destructive behavior problems. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28, 103–118. doi:10.1023/A:1005112912906Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D., Dedmon, S. E., Gill, K. L., Lomax, L. E., & Johnson, L. M. (2002). Frustration in infancy: Implications for emotion regulation, physiological processes, and temperament. Infancy, 3, 175–197. doi:10.1207/S15327078IN0302_4Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D., & Fox, N. A. (2002). Self-regulatory processes in early personality development: A multilevel approach to the study of childhood social withdrawal and aggression. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 477–498. doi:10.1017/S095457940200305XGoogle Scholar
Calkins, S. D., Graziano, P. A., Berdan, L. E., Keane, S. P., & Degnan, K. A. (2008). Predicting cardiac vagal regulation in early childhood from maternal-child relationship quality during toddlerhood. Developmental Psychobiology, 50, 751–766. doi:10.1002/dev.20344Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D., Graziano, P. A., & Keane, S. P. (2007). Cardiac vagal regulation differentiates among children at risk for behavior problems. Biological Psychology, 74, 144–153. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.09.005Google Scholar
Calkins, S. D., & Perry, N. B. (2016). The development of emotion regulation: Implications for child adjustment. In Cicchetti, D. (Ed.), Developmental psychopathology: Vol. 3. Maladaptation and psychopathology (3rd ed., pp. 187–242). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Campbell, S. B. (2002). Behavior problems in preschool children: Clinical and developmental issues (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, S. B., Spieker, S., Vandergrift, N., Belsky, J., & Burchinal, M. (2010). Predictors and sequelae of trajectories of physical aggression in school-age boys and girls. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 133–150. doi:10.1017/S0954579409990319Google Scholar
Carlson, S. M., & Wang, T. S. (2007). Inhibitory control and emotion regulation in preschool children. Cognitive Development, 22, 489–510. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2007.08.002Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Ackerman, B. P., & Izard, C. E. (1995). Emotions and emotion regulation in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 1–10. doi:10.1017/S0954579400006301Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., Ganiban, J., & Barnett, D. (1991). Contributions from the study of high-risk populations to understanding the development of emotion regulation. In Garber, J., Dodge, K. A., Garber, J., & Dodge, K. A. (Eds.), The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation (pp. 15–48). New York: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511663963.003Google Scholar
Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. A. (1996). Equifinality and multifinality in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 597–600. doi:10.1017/S0954579400007318Google Scholar
Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., & Dennis, T. A. (2004). Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Development, 75, 317–333. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00673.xGoogle Scholar
Crowell, S. E., Beauchaine, T. P., Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., Sylvers, P., & Mead, H. (2006). Autonomic correlates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder in preschool children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 174–178.Google Scholar
Deater-Deckard, K., Beekman, C., Wang, Z., Kim, J., Petrill, S., Thompson, L., & DeThorne, L. (2010). Approach/positive anticipation, frustration/anger, and overt aggression in childhood. Journal of Personality, 78, 991–1010. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00640.xGoogle Scholar
Degnan, K. A., Calkins, S. D., Keane, S. P., & Hill-Soderlund, A. L. (2008). Profiles of disruptive behavior across early childhood: Contributions of frustration reactivity, physiological regulation, and maternal behavior. Child Development, 79, 1357–1376. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01193.xGoogle Scholar
Doussard-Roosevelt, J. A., Porges, S. W., Scanlon, J. W., Alemi, B., & Scanlon, K. B. (1997). Vagal regulation of heart rate in the prediction of developmental outcome for very low birth weight preterm infants. Child Development, 68, 173–186. doi:10.2307/1131844Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Shepart, S. A., Reiser, M., … Guthrie, I. K (2001). The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72, 1112–1134. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00337Google Scholar
Eisenberg, N., Valiente, C., Spinrad, T. L., Cumberland, A., Liew, J., Reiser, M., … Losoya, S. H. (2009). Longitudinal relations of children's effortful control, impulsivity, and negative emotionality to their externalizing, internalizing, and co-occurring behavior problems. Developmental Psychology, 45, 988–1008. doi:10.1037/a0016213Google Scholar
Fergusson, D. M., Lynskey, M. T., & Horwood, L. J. (1996). Childhood sexual abuse and psychiatric disorder in young adulthood: I. Prevalence of sexual abuse and factors associated with sexual abuse. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 1355–1364. doi:10.1097/00004583-199610000-00023Google Scholar
Fortunato, C. K., Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., & Ram, N. (2013). Associations between respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity and internalizing and externalizing symptoms are emotion specific. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 238–251. doi:10.3758/s13415-012-0136-4Google Scholar
Galambos, N. L., Barker, E. T., & Almeida, D. M. (2003). Parents do matter: Trajectories of change in externalizing and internalizing problems in early adolescence. Child Development, 74, 578–594. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.7402017Google Scholar
Garon, N., Bryson, S. E., & Smith, I. M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 31–60. doi:10.137/0033-2909.134.1.31Google Scholar
Gerstein, E. D., Pedersen y Arbona, A., Crnic, K. A., Ryu, E., Baker, B. L., & Blacher, J. (2011). Developmental risk and young children's regulatory strategies: Predicting behavior problems at age five. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39, 351–364. doi:10.1007/s10802-010-9471-5Google Scholar
Gilliom, M., & Shaw, D. S. (2004). Codevelopment of externalizing and internalizing problems in early childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 313–333. doi:10.1017/S0954579404044530Google Scholar
Goldsmith, H. H. (1996). Studying temperament via construction of the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire. Child Development, 67, 218–235. doi:10.2307/1131697Google Scholar
Goldsmith, H. H., & Rothbart, M. K. (1993). The Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery: Locomotor Version 2.02 (Lab-TAB). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Grolnick, W. S. & Farkas, M. (2002). Parenting and the development of self-regulation. In Bornstein, M. H. (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 5. Practical issues in parenting (pp. 89–110). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Hardaway, C. R., Wilson, M. N., Shaw, D. S., & Dishion, T. J. (2012). Family functioning and externalizing behaviour among low-income children: Self-regulation as a mediator. Infant and Child Development, 21, 67–84. doi:10.1002/icd.765Google Scholar
Hartup, W. W. (1974). Aggression in childhood: Developmental perspectives. American Psychologist, 29, 336–341. doi:10.1037/h0037622Google Scholar
Hastings, P. D., & De, I. (2008). Parasympathetic regulation and parental socialization of emotion: Biopsychosocial processes of adjustment in preschoolers. Social Development, 17, 211–238. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00422.xGoogle Scholar
Hill, A. L., Degnan, K. A., Calkins, S. D., & Keane, S. P. (2006). Profiles of externalizing behavior problems for boys and girls across preschool: The roles of emotion regulation and inattention. Developmental Psychology, 42, 913–928. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.5.913Google Scholar
Hinshaw, S. P. (1992). Externalizing behavior problems and academic underachievement in childhood and adolescence: Causal relationships and underlying mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 127–155. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.111.1.127Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four Factor Index of Social Status. Unpublished manuscript, Yale University.Google Scholar
Kochanska, G., Coy, K. C., & Murray, K. T. (2001). The development of self-regulation in the first four years of life. Child Development, 72, 1091–1111. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00336Google Scholar
Kopp, C. B. (1982). Antecedents of self-regulation: A developmental perspective. Developmental Psychology, 18, 199–214. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.18.2.199Google Scholar
Loeber, R., Farrington, D. P., Stouthamer-Loeber, M., Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (1998). The development of male offending: Key findings from the first decade of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. Studies on Crime & Crime Prevention, 7, 141–171. doi:10.1177/0306624X99432003Google Scholar
Martel, M. M., Nigg, J. T., Wong, M. M., Fitzgerald, H. E., Jester, J. M., Puttler, L. I., … Zucker, R. A. (2007). Childhood and adolescent resiliency, regulation, and executive functioning in relation to adolescent problems and competence in a high-risk sample. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 541–563. doi:10.1017/S0954579407070265Google Scholar
Miller, P. H., & Zalenski, R. (1982). Preschoolers’ knowledge about attention. Developmental Psychology, 18, 871–875. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.18.6.871Google Scholar
Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.100.4.674Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2012). Mplus user's guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles: Author.Google Scholar
Nagin, D. S. (2005). Group-based modeling of development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nagin, D. S., & Tremblay, R. E. (2005). What has been learned from group-based trajectory modeling? Examples from physical aggression and other problem behaviors. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 602, 82–117. doi:10.1177/0002716205280565Google Scholar
Odgers, C. L., Moffitt, T. E., Broadbent, J. M., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., Harrington, H., … Caspi, A. (2008). Female and male antisocial trajectories: From childhood origins to adult outcomes. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 673–716. doi:10.1017/S0954579408000333Google Scholar
Porges, S. W. (1985, April 16). US Patent No. 4,510,944. Washington, DC: US Patent and Trademark Office.Google Scholar
Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (2000). Developing mechanisms of self-regulation. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 427–441. doi:10.1017/S0954579400003096Google Scholar
Putnam, S. P., & Rothbart, M. K. (2006). Development of short and very short forms of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 87, 103–113. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa8701_09Google Scholar
Reck, S. G., & Hund, A. M. (2011). Sustained attention and age predict inhibitory control during early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 504–512. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.07.010Google Scholar
Riggs, N. R., Greenberg, M. T., Kusché, C. A., & Pentz, M. A. (2006). The mediational role of neurocognition in the behavioral outcomes of a social-emotional prevention program in elementary school students: Effects of the PATHS curriculum. Prevention Science, 7, 91–102. doi:10.1007/s11121-005-0022-1Google Scholar
Roisman, G. I., Monahan, K. C., Campbell, S. B., Steinberg, L., & Cauffman, E. (2010). Is adolescence-onset antisocial behavior developmentally normative? Development and Psychopathology, 22, 295–311. doi:10.1017/S0954579410000076Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K. (1989). Temperament and development. In Kohnstamm, G. A., Bates, J. E., & Rothbart, M. K. (Eds.), Temperament in childhood (pp. 187–247). Oxford: Wiley.Google Scholar
Rueda, M. R., Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (2005). The development of executive attention: Contributions to the emergence of self-regulation. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28, 573–594. doi:10.1207/s15326942dn2802_2Google Scholar
Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.7.2.147Google Scholar
Seltzer, M. H., Frank, K. A., & Bryk, A. S. (1994). The metric matters: The sensitivity of conclusions about growth in student achievement to choice of metric. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 16, 41–49. doi:10.2307/1164382Google Scholar
Shields, A., & Cicchetti, D. (1997). Emotion regulation among school-age children: The development and validation of a new criterion Q-sort scale. Developmental Psychology, 33, 906–916. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.6.906Google Scholar
Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (2002). Reactively and proactively aggressive children: Antecedent and subsequent characteristics. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 495–506. doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00040Google Scholar