Longitudinal relations among language skills, anger expression, and regulatory strategies in early childhood

Abstract

Researchers have suggested that as children's language skill develops in early childhood, it comes to help children regulate their emotions (Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010; Kopp, 1989), but the pathways by which this occurs have not been studied empirically. In a longitudinal study of 120 children from 18 to 48 months of age, associations among child language skill, observed anger expression, and regulatory strategies during a delay task were examined. Toddlers with better language skill, and whose language skill increased more over time, appeared less angry at 48 months and their anger declined more over time. Two regulatory strategies, support seeking and distraction, explained a portion of the variance in the association between language skill and anger expression after toddlerhood.

Figure 1

Example full model of language initial level and slope predicting anger end level and slope. Note. Circles represent latent variables and squares represent manifest variables. Numbers on the unidirectional arrows from latent variables to manifest variables indicate loadings in the lambda matrix for the creation of linear growth models.

Figure 2

Example full model of language initial level and slope predicting strategies at all three ages, which in turn predict anger end level and slope. Note. Bidirectional arrows between latent language and anger levels and manifest strategy variables represent correlations between variables measured at the same assessment. Unidirectional arrows among latent language variables, strategy variables, and latent anger variables represent predictions. Note that there was no unidirectional or bidirectional association tested between 48mo strategy and anger slope, because a later event cannot predict or be correlated with change preceding it in time.

Figure 3

Trimmed model of language skill predicting anger expression. Note. * = p < .05. For clarity, covariates are not pictured.

Figure 4

Trimmed model of anger expression predicting language skill. Note. Dashed lines indicate marginal findings where p < .10. For clarity, covariates are not pictured.

Figure 5

Trimmed model for language skill, support-seeking, and anger expression. Note. * = p < .05. Covariates and manifest variables that create the latent support-seeking factor (latency to first bout of support-seeking and average length of support-seeking) are not pictured for clarity.

Figure 6

Trimmed model for language skill, distraction, and anger expression. Note. * = p < .05. Dashed lines indicate marginal findings where p < .10. For clarity, covariates are not pictured.