Poverty is a powerful factor that can alter lifetime developmental trajectories in cognitive, socioemotional, and physical health outcomes. Most explanatory work on the underlying psychological ...processes of how poverty affects development has focused on parental investment and parenting practices, principally responsiveness. Our primary objective in this article was to describe a third, complementary pathway—chronic stress and coping—that may also prove helpful in understanding the developmental impacts of early childhood poverty throughout life. Disadvantaged children are more likely than their wealthier peers to confront a wide array of physical stressors (e.g., substandard housing, chaotic environments) and psychosocial stressors (e.g., family turmoil, separation from adult caregivers). As exposure to stressors accumulates, physiological response systems that are designed to handle relatively infrequent, acute environmental demands are overwhelmed. Chronic cumulative stressors also disrupt the self‐regulatory processes that help children cope with external demands.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Secure attachment relationships have been described as having a regulatory function in regard to children's emotions, social cognition, and behavior. Although some theorists and researchers have ...argued that attachment affects children's self-regulation, most attachment theorists have not strongly emphasized this association. The goal of the current meta-analysis was to determine the magnitude of the relation between attachment security status and effortful control (EC)/top-down self-regulation in children up to 18 years of age. One hundred six papers met the inclusion criteria and 101 independent samples were used in analyses. When secure attachment status was compared with insecure attachment status, a significant relation (effect size ES) with EC favoring children with a secure attachment was found (100 studies; 20,350 participants; r = .20). A stronger relation was found when the same coder evaluated attachment than when the coder was different and when the measure of attachment was continuous; other moderators were not significant. Securely attached children were higher in EC than their avoidant (r = .10) or resistant (r = .17) counterparts. Children with organized attachments were higher in EC than those with disorganized attachments (r = .17), although this finding could be due to publication bias. For some comparisons of subgroups (B vs. A, B vs. C, and/or D vs. all others), moderation was found by source of information (higher ES for same reporter), age at assessment of EC and/or attachment (higher ES at older ages), method of attachment (lower ES for observational measures), time difference between assessments or research design (higher ESs for smaller time differences and concurrent findings), and published versus unpublished studies (higher ES for unpublished studies for A vs. B).
Public Significance Statement
A modest, positive relation between quality of children's attachment and their top-down self-regulation (effortful control) was found. This finding is consistent with the conclusion that efforts to improve the quality of the parent-child attachment might foster children's effortful self-regulation, although it is also possible that children's top-down regulation affects the quality of their attachment or both aspects of functioning are affected by a third variable, such as genetics or maternal sensitivity. Moderational analyses also suggest that attachment quality is associated with top-down self-regulation to a greater degree for older than younger children, although this finding may be due in part to how attachment has been assessed at different ages. Thus, it is important in future work to learn more about how the mode of assessing attachment affects the relation of attachment quality to other variables such as top-down self-regulation.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
— This article considers the effects of psychosocial stress on child development and describes mechanisms through which early stress in the context of poverty affects the functioning of neural ...networks that underlie executive functions and self‐regulation. It examines the effects of early experience on glucocorticoid and catecholamine levels that influence neural activity in areas of the brain associated with executive functions, primarily as studied in animal models. Finally, it considers the strengths and limitations of this research, its relevance to understanding stress reactivity from the perspective of biological sensitivity to context, and the implications for the study of risk and resilience processes and early intervention to prevent developmental delays.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Summary
When conceptualizing work performance as requiring self‐control, scholars often employ a resource‐depletion perspective. However, this perspective neglects the role of self‐control motivation ...and self‐regulation strategies. In this diary study, we examine self‐control motivation (viz. motivation to control impulses) and depletion at the beginning of work and at midday as predictors of afternoon task performance. Additionally, we investigate morning aversive tasks as an antecedent of increased depletion and decreased self‐control motivation. Further, we examine the role of self‐regulation strategies (organizing, meaning‐related strategies, and self‐reward) for maintaining and improving performance when depleted or low in self‐control motivation. Data from a 2‐week diary study with three daily measurements (N = 135 employees; n = 991 days) were analyzed. Multilevel path modeling showed that self‐control motivation at the beginning of work and depletion at midday predicted afternoon task performance. We found that self‐reward in the afternoon counteracts the negative relationship between depletion and task performance. Further, we found an indirect effect from morning aversive tasks on task performance via depletion at noon buffered by afternoon self‐reward. Organizing and meaning in the afternoon were positively related to afternoon task performance. Findings suggest that self‐control motivation is important for task performance, in addition to low depletion. Moreover, results highlight that self‐regulation strategies are beneficial for task performance.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
We propose a self-regulation model of grandiose narcissism. This model illustrates an interconnected set of processes through which narcissists (i.e., individuals with relatively high levels of ...grandiose narcissism) pursue social status in their moment-by-moment transactions with their environments. The model shows that narcissists select situations that afford status. Narcissists vigilantly attend to cues related to the status they and others have in these situations and, on the basis of these perceived cues, appraise whether they can elevate their status or reduce the status of others. Narcissists engage in self-promotion (admiration pathway) or other-derogation (rivalry pathway) in accordance with these appraisals. Each pathway has unique consequences for how narcissists are perceived by others, thus shaping their social status over time. The model demonstrates how narcissism manifests itself as a stable and consistent cluster of behaviors in pursuit of social status and how it develops and maintains itself over time. More broadly, the model might offer useful insights for future process models of other personality traits.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•A classroom-based intervention increases behavioral self-regulation for children.•A classroom-based intervention increases cognitive flexibility for children.•A classroom-based intervention is ...beneficial for English language learners’ math.
The present study examined the efficacy of a self-regulation intervention for children experiencing demographic risk. Utilizing a randomized controlled design, analyses examined if children (N=276 children in 14 Head Start classrooms; M age=51.69, SD=6.55) who participated in an 8-week self-regulation intervention demonstrated greater gains in self-regulation and academic achievement over the preschool year compared to children in a control group. In addition, indirect intervention effects on achievement outcomes through self-regulation were explored and differential intervention effects for English language learners within a sample of children from low-income families were tested. Results indicated that children in the intervention group demonstrated stronger levels of self-regulation compared to the control group in the spring of the preschool year. Group comparisons also revealed that the intervention was related to significantly higher math skills for children who were English language learners. In other words, English language learners who participated in the intervention demonstrated stronger levels of math in the spring of preschool in comparison to children in the control group and relative to English speakers who also participated in the intervention. The present study provides support for the efficacy of a school readiness intervention in promoting self-regulation and achievement in young children, especially English language learners.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
This study investigates antecedents of procrastination, the tendency to delay the initiation or completion of work activities. We examine this phenomenon from a self-regulation perspective and argue ...that depleted self-regulatory resources are an important pathway to explain why and when employees procrastinate. The restoration of self-regulatory resources during episodes of non-work is a prerequisite for the ability to initiate action at work. As sleep offers the opportunity to replenish self-regulatory resources, employees should procrastinate more after nights with low-quality sleep and shorter sleep duration. We further propose that people’s social sleep lag amplifies this relationship. Social sleep lag arises if individuals’ preference for sleep and wake times, known as their chronotype, is misaligned with their work schedule. Over five consecutive workdays, 154 participants completed a diary study comprising online questionnaires. Multilevel analyses showed that employees procrastinated less on days when they had slept better. The more employees suffered from social sleep lag, the more they procrastinated when sleep quality was low. Day-specific sleep duration, by contrast, was not related to procrastination. We discuss the role of sleep for procrastination in the short run and relate our findings to research highlighting the role of sleep for well-being in the long run.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
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