Transcript Emotion Regulation as Mediator of Intervention Effects on Early Conduct Problems Elizabeth C.

Emotion Regulation as Mediator of Intervention Effects
on Early Conduct Problems
Elizabeth C. Shelleby & Daniel S. Shaw
Rationale
• Two factors that are associated with the development of conduct
problems (CP) in early childhood and shown to be modifiable
through interventions are emotion regulation (ER) and parenting
•Problems with ER, particularly regulating anger and dealing with
frustrating situations, are factors that have differentiated typical
children from those with early CP (Cole & Zahn-Waxler, 1992)
•Dimensions of parenting have been linked to the emergence of CP
in early childhood, including responsiveness and harsh control
(Campbell et al., 1996; Pettit et al., 1997)
•Because young children are reliant upon caregivers to assist them
in the management of their emotions and behavior, it is important
to consider how parents affect the development of ER
•Researchers have theorized that anticipatory proactive parenting
might be especially instrumental in preventing children from
becoming easily upset and in developing ER (Thompson, 1994)
Research Hypotheses
•This study examines whether increases in caregiver’s proactive
parenting (PP) brought about by a family-centered intervention
across ages 2-3 were associated with more adaptive ER at age 3,
and whether more adaptive ER at age 3 in turn mediated the
previously reported association between improvements in PP from
ages 2-3 and decreases in the growth of CP from ages 2-4
Method
Measures
Growth model with ECBI Problem Factor
•Emotion regulation at age 3: Two behaviors coded from a waiting task
(distraction and focus on delay object) and one coder rating of the
question: “Does child seem dysregulated and difficult to manage?”
Higher levels indicate poorer regulation
•Child conduct problems at ages 2-4: Parent report of child behavior
from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Externalizing Factor and
Eyberg Problem Behavior Inventory (ECBI) Problem Factor
Results
Bivariate Associations
•Modest significant correlations in the expected direction between all
three indicators of ER and the age 4 CBCL factor (i.e., rs = .10 to .23,
ps <.01 to <.05) and modest significant associations between two of
the ER indicators and the age 4 ECBI factor (rs = .13 and .19, p<.01)
with a trend for the association with active distraction (p<.10)
•Modest significant association in the unexpected direction between
FCU and higher levels of focus on the delay object (r = .08, p < .05)
•Modest significant correlations between PP at age 2 and the coder
rating of ER (r = -.12, p < .05) and between PP at age 3 and all
indicators of ER (rs = -.11 to -.25, ps < .05)
Multivariate Analyses using latent growth curve
modeling in SEM (Muthén & Muthén, 2009)
Growth model with CBCL Externalizing Factor
Summary of Findings
•Results indicate adequate model fit for both models
•ER at age 3 was significantly associated with growth in CP from
ages 2-4 in both the CBCL and ECBI models
•In the CBCL model, proactive parenting at age 3 was associated
with ER at age 3 at a trend level and mediation was not supported
•In the ECBI model, proactive parenting at 3 was significantly
associated with ER at age 3 and mediational pathways were
significant a trend level
•The FCU was modestly unexpectedly associated with poorer ER
Participants
• 731 families were recruited from WIC Clinics in Charlottesville,
VA, Eugene, OR, and Pittsburgh, PA; 49% female; 28% African
American, 50% European American, 13% biracial, 9% other;
66.3% had an annual income < $20,000 at age 2; randomly
assigned to Family Check-Up (FCU) intervention or control group
Measures
• Proactive parenting at ages 2 and 3: Coders rated each parent on
his/her tendency to anticipate potential problems and provide
prompts or other structural changes to avoid young children
becoming upset or involved in problem behavior. Examples include
“parent redirects the child to more appropriate behavior if the child
is off task or misbehaves” and “parent uses verbal structuring to
make the task manageable” (alpha = .84)
Discussion
•ER plays an important role in the growth of CP in early childhood
and should be considered as a target for future intervention work
• Proactive parenting may be instrumental in helping children
develop ER abilities
•The unexpected intervention effect could be due to an increase in
parental limit-setting which in turn may evoke more problematic
child behavior in the short term but improve behavior after a longer
follow-up
For more information, please contact Elizabeth C. Shelleby, M.S. ([email protected]).
Acknowledgements: Thank you to all of the children and families participating in the
Early Steps Project. Research was supported by grant 016110 to Drs. Daniel S. Shaw,
Thomas J. Dishion, and Melvin N. Wilson from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.