Self-regulation and Psychopathology in Young Children

Abstract

The current study examined concurrent relationships between children's self-regulation, measured behaviorally and by parent-report, and children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The aim was to distinguish which components of self-regulation (attention vs. inhibitory control, "hot" vs. "cool" regulation) best predict dimensional symptomatology and clinical disorders in young children. The participants were 120 children, ages 4-8 years old. Results showed that greater parent-reported attention was associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Behaviorally-measured hot inhibitory control related to fewer internalizing symptoms, whereas parent-reported inhibitory control related to fewer externalizing symptoms. Similar patterns emerged for clinical diagnoses, with parent-rated attention most strongly predicting disorders across domains. Results support prior evidence implicating self-regulatory deficits in externalizing problems, while also demonstrating that components of self-regulation are impaired with internalizing symptoms. Further, different sub-components of self-regulation relate to different dimensions of psychopathology in children. Interventions should target these areas in children at-risk for disorders.

Keywords: Attention; Externalizing; Inhibitory control; Internalizing; Self-regulation.

Figure 1:

Inhibitory and attentional control can be conceptualized as separable components of self-regulatory control. Both components can be considered along a hot-to-cool spectrum in which hot self-regulation (red) occurs during emotion-laden tasks, whereas cool self-regulation (blue) is more strictly cognitive in nature. For the present study, inhibitory control was indexed across the hot to cool spectrum using behavioral and parent-report measures, whereas attentional control was indexed only at mid-spectrum with parent-report (see tasks/measures listed in white).