The Relations of Regulation and Emotionality to Children's Externalizing and Internalizing Problem Behavior

TLDR

Internalizing behavior was defined either as social withdrawal or as a broader set of anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic complaints. The study examined how different types of negative emotion and regulation/control relate to internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors in children aged 55–97 months. Parents and teachers reported on 214 children’s adjustment, dispositional regulation, control, and emotion, while children’s regulation was observed during several behavioral tasks. Children with externalizing problems showed higher anger, impulsivity, and poorer regulation, whereas those with internalizing symptoms exhibited more sadness, lower attentional regulation, and reduced impulsivity, highlighting systematic links between emotion, regulation, and adjustment and distinguishing effortful from less voluntary control.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of different types of negative emotion and regulation and control to 55‐ to 97‐month‐olds' internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Parents and teachers provided information on children's ( N =214) adjustment, dispositional regulation and control, and emotion, and children's regulation was observed during several behavioral tasks. Internalizing was defined in two ways: as social withdrawal (to avoid overlap of items with measures of emotionality) or, more broadly, as anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic complaints. In general, children with externalizing problems, compared with children with internalizing problems and nondisordered children, were more prone to anger, impulsivity, and low regulation. Children with internalizing symptoms were prone to sadness, low attentional regulation, and low impulsivity. Relations between internalizing problems and emotionality were more frequent when the entire internalizing scale was used. Findings suggest that emotion and regulation are associated with adjustment in systematic ways and that there is an important difference between effortful control and less voluntary modes of control.