Infants' attachment security and children's self-regulation within and outside the parent-child relationship at kindergarten age: Distinct paths for children varying in anger proneness

Lilly C Bendel-Stenzel; Danming An; Grazyna Kochanska

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105433

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Infants' attachment security and children's self-regulation within and outside the parent-child relationship at kindergarten age: Distinct paths for children varying in anger proneness

Journal article

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Infants' attachment security and children's self-regulation within and outside the parent-child relationship at kindergarten age: Distinct paths for children varying in anger proneness

Lilly C Bendel-Stenzel, Danming An and Grazyna Kochanska

Journal of experimental child psychology, Vol.221, p.105433

04/18/2022

DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105433

PMCID: PMC9187604

PMID: 35447426

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/9187604View

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Abstract

Research in developmental psychology has robustly documented positive associations between parent-child attachment security and the child's self-regulation (SR). This study of 102 community mothers, fathers, and infants contributes to that research by examining the role of attachment security, observed at 15 months using the Attachment Q-Set, as a predictor of two distinct aspects of self-regulation at 67 months: executive functioning (SR-EF), observed in abstract Stroop-like tasks (Day/Night & Snow/Grass and Tapping), and parent-related (SR-PR), observed within the context of the parent-child relationship in response to the mother's (SR-MR) and father's (SR-FR) requests and prohibitions. We also examined child anger proneness, observed at 7 months, as a moderator of those associations. In both mother-child and father-child dyads, child security predicted SR-EF; More secure children performed better in executive functioning tasks. In mother-child dyads, security also predicted SR-MR, but the effect was qualified by the interaction of security and anger proneness, such that the effect was significant only for highly anger-prone children. The effect reflected differential susceptibility: Compared with lower-anger peers, highly anger-prone children developed worse SR-MR if their security was low, but they developed better SR-MR if their security was high. The findings highlight the benefits of a nuanced approach to self-regulation, considering child individuality as interacting with security and examining processes in both mother-child and father-child dyads.

Attachment

Fathers

Longitudinal studies

Mothers

Temperament

Self-regulation

Details

Title: Subtitle: Infants' attachment security and children's self-regulation within and outside the parent-child relationship at kindergarten age: Distinct paths for children varying in anger proneness
Creators: Lilly C Bendel-Stenzel - Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Electronic address: lilly-bendel-stenzel@uiowa.edu
Danming An - University of Iowa
Grazyna Kochanska - University of Iowa
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of experimental child psychology, Vol.221, p.105433
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105433
PMID: 35447426
PMCID: PMC9187604
NLM abbreviation: J Exp Child Psychol
ISSN: 0022-0965
eISSN: 1096-0457
Language: English
Date published: 04/18/2022
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences
Record Identifier: 9984244859202771

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