Temperamental surgency and emotion regulation as predictors of childhood social competence

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Abstract

The primary aims of the current study were to longitudinally examine the direct relationship between children’s temperamental surgency and social behaviors as well as the moderating role of children’s emotion regulation. A total of 90 4.5-year-old children participated in a laboratory visit where children’s temperamental surgency was rated by experimenters and children’s emotion regulation abilities were assessed. The summer before entry into first grade, children’s social behaviors with unfamiliar peers were observed in the laboratory and mothers completed a questionnaire about children’s social behaviors. Supporting our hypotheses, results revealed that children high in temperamental surgency developed more negative peer behaviors, whereas children low in temperamental surgency were more likely to develop behavioral wariness with peers. Emotion regulatory behaviors were found to moderate the relation between temperamental surgency and aggression, where high-surgent children who showed high levels of social support seeking were less likely to be rated by their mothers as high in aggression. Furthermore, results revealed that low-surgent children who showed high levels of distraction/self-soothing were more likely to show behavioral wariness around unfamiliar peers, whereas high-surgent children who used more distraction/self-soothing behaviors were rated by their mothers as lower in social competence.

Highlights

► This study examined child surgency, emotion regulation, and social behaviors. ► Emotion regulation moderated the relation between surgency and social behaviors. ► High surgent children high in social support seeking were less aggressive. ► Low surgent children high in distraction/self-soothing showed behavioral wariness. ► High surgent children high in distraction/self-soothing were less socially competent.

Introduction

The development of social competence, frequently defined as children’s ability to initiate and maintain effective interactions with their peers (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006), is a fundamental task during early childhood and a robust predictor of later mental health as well as social and academic outcomes (e.g., Carlton and Winsler, 1999, Denham and Holt, 1993, Ladd et al., 1999). Temperament theory and research has proven to be important in identifying the foundation of childhood social competence by showing that variation in children’s temperamental predispositions may influence the processes that support or hinder socially competent behaviors (Eisenberg et al., 2000, Fox et al., 1995, Rubin et al., 2002). Although various temperament dimensions and types have been investigated for their role in the development of children’s social competence, additional research is needed regarding the development of socially competent behaviors in children varying in their approach to novelty specifically. What little we do know is that although children who are high in approach are very sociable and display high levels of positive affect, they are also at risk for being rejected by their peers (Gunnar, Sebanc, Tout, Donzella, & van Dulmen, 2003) and developing externalizing behaviors, such as aggression and conduct problems (Berdan et al., 2008, Schwartz et al., 1996, Stifter et al., 2008a), that affect their social competence. On the other hand, children who are low in approach tend to display higher levels of shyness around peers (Kagan, 1999, Rubin et al., 2002) and lower levels of social competence (Fox et al., 1995), and they are at risk for developing internalizing behaviors (Biederman et al., 1993, Nilzon and Palmerus, 1998), such as anxiety, that limit their ability to interact effectively with their peers.

One mechanism that might explain these outcomes is the development of effective emotion regulation. Due to limits that are frequently placed on their attempts to approach aspects of their environment, children high in approach are more likely to experience high levels of anger/frustration (Derryberry and Reid, 1994, Rothbart and Bates, 2006, Rothbart et al., 2000). Likewise, children who are low in approach are characterized by high levels of negative reactivity (e.g., Garcia-Coll et al., 1984, Putnam and Stifter, 2005), which many believe puts them at risk for developing maladaptive behaviors later in childhood. It has been speculated that the pathways by which some children varying in their approach to novelty become socially well adjusted, whereas others develop maladaptive social behaviors, are through their ability to regulate negative emotions (e.g., Coplan et al., 1994, Polak-Toste and Gunnar, 2006, Rubin et al., 1995, Stifter et al., 2008a). This hypothesis has yet to be fully addressed in the literature and appears to be a promising line of research; thus, the current study aimed to longitudinally examine the contribution of children’s temperamental approach and ability to regulate emotions to children’s social competence.

It is commonly agreed on by temperament theorists that children show distinctive responses when faced with novel situations and stimuli. Although there are different methodologies for measuring and labeling children varying in their levels of approach, children that are low in approach, typically identified as inhibited or low in temperamental surgency, are predisposed to display negative reactivity, wariness, and anxiety when presented with unfamiliarity (Garcia-Coll et al., 1984, Kagan, 1997). On the other hand, children who are more likely to approach novelty are typically labeled as uninhibited, exuberant, or high in surgency (e.g., Calkins et al., 1996, Garcia-Coll et al., 1984, Putnam and Stifter, 2005, Rothbart et al., 2001). Typically, these children are characterized as high in positive affect, activity level, and impulsivity and low in shyness and withdrawal. In the current study, children were measured on the continuous temperament trait of surgency.

Low-surgent children are more likely to display shy and socially withdrawn, or solitary, behavior in the face of familiar and unfamiliar peers during early and middle childhood (Burgess et al., 2003, Kagan, 1999, Kagan et al., 1987, Rubin et al., 2009, Rubin et al., 2002). Because these children avoid or withdraw from social situations that heighten their fear, they have been found to be lower in social competence (Fox et al., 1995) and are frequently reported to have more internalizing problems (e.g., Biederman et al., 1993, Nilzon and Palmerus, 1998). However, many inhibited children never develop internalizing behaviors and social difficulties, and it is still largely unknown why some inhibited children develop appropriate social behaviors, whereas others develop socially withdrawn behaviors and internalizing difficulties.

Fewer studies have investigated how high-surgent children interact with their peers than have investigated the relation between low-surgent children and social outcomes. Existing research indicates that high-surgent children are more frequently involved in group play with peers (Kochanska & Radke-Yarrow, 1992) and exhibit more sociable behaviors among unfamiliar peers in a laboratory setting (Rubin et al., 1995) and the classroom (Rimm-Kaufman & Kagan, 2005). Although these studies suggest that high-surgent children are more socially outgoing, it has also been found that they are at risk for developing aggression and subsequent peer rejection (Gunnar et al., 2003). In addition, high-surgent children are more likely to exhibit externalizing behavior problems (Berdan et al., 2008, Schwartz et al., 1996, Stifter et al., 2008a), suggesting that although children high in temperamental surgency are outgoing and sociable, such behaviors may put them at risk for maladaptive outcomes. Given the need for additional research to illuminate the conditions by which children varying in their levels of temperamental surgency develop positive or poor social behaviors, the current study aimed to investigate the direct pathways between temperamental surgency and later social behaviors.

In addition to the important role of children’s temperamental predisposition in the development of social adjustment, much research has shown that children’s ability to regulate emotions has vital effects on their capacity to engage in positive controlled behavior that promotes adaptive interactions with others (Calkins et al., 1999, Raver et al., 1999). Indeed, children’s ability to flexibly control emotional arousal, or emotion regulation, is a central developmental task during childhood (Kopp, 1982, Thompson, 1994). Although the development of emotion regulation begins early in life, children’s ability to regulate emotions continues to mature throughout the preschool years and into childhood as more multifaceted strategies of regulating their emotions are developed (Kopp, 1989). In particular, the preschool period marks continued development of self-awareness and important changes within children’s social environment as networks begin to include peers within the school and neighborhood environments. The presence of these new situations gives children additional information regarding emotions, the social acceptability of emotions, and how to regulate arousal in given circumstances (Kopp, 1989).

Much existing research on the relationship between children’s emotion regulation and social competence has relied heavily on parent and teacher reports of children’s behaviors. Some investigations also have examined the behavioral strategies children use to modulate their emotions as one important approach to measuring children’s emotion regulation (e.g., Calkins et al., 1999, Gilliom et al., 2002, Stifter and Braungart, 1995, Supplee et al., 2009), but a large portion of this research has focused on the developmental periods of infancy and toddlerhood. In general, this literature on emotion regulation strategies has found that more active constructive behavioral strategies, such as active distraction, social support seeking, and information gathering, are related to positive and adaptive outcomes for children (Calkins and Johnson, 1998, Grolnick et al., 1996, Raver et al., 1999, Silk et al., 2006), whereas strategies that are passive and “primitive” in nature (e.g., self-soothing, avoidance) are commonly related to maladaptive child outcomes (Eisenberg et al., 1994, Stifter and Braungart, 1995). It has been hypothesized that passive strategies are less effective because they do not change the source of negative emotion but instead help children to regulate emotion in the current moment.

Although much research has suggested that the development of successful emotion regulatory abilities is vital to all children, the influence of emotion regulation on the development of socially competent behaviors could depend on children’s ability to regulate the predominate emotion associated with their temperament. For example, although high-surgent children are predisposed to have many adaptive characteristics, such as exhibiting positive affect and being socially outgoing (Putnam and Stifter, 2005, Rothbart et al., 2001), they are also prone to anger (Rothbart et al., 2000), likely due to the limits imposed on their high approach behavior.

A good amount of research has found that unregulated anger is related to aggressive maladaptive social behaviors (e.g., Eisenberg et al., 1994, Gilliom et al., 2002, Rothbart et al., 1994). Indeed, even though a functionalist view of emotions proposes that anger motivates goal-oriented behavior and, therefore, can serve an adaptive purpose (Saarni, Mumme, & Campos, 1998), unregulated anger may generate aggressive and oppositional behaviors that negatively affect peer interactions and prevent socially adaptive problem-solving abilities. Thus, high-surgent children’s inability to regulate their propensity toward anger may put them at an escalated risk for negative social outcomes because their poor anger regulation may cause them to act inappropriately in social situations even though at other times they are highly positive (Polak-Toste & Gunnar, 2006). In support of this position, Stifter and colleagues (2008a) found that during a disappointing situation, exuberant children who displayed higher levels of negative emotion and lower levels of positive/neutral emotion were rated by their parents as having higher levels of externalizing and total problem behaviors than exuberant children who could regulate their emotional expression.

On the other hand, even though low-surgent children do not show high levels of approach and most likely react differently than high-surgent children in frustration-eliciting situations, this is not to say that low-surgent children do not experience negative emotions that require regulation. Indeed, at least one study found that low-surgent children displayed higher levels of negative emotion in a disappointing situation than high-surgent children (Stifter, Dollar, & Cipriano, 2011). Thus, the ability to regulate negative emotions is likely also very important for low-surgent children’s social adjustment (e.g., Coplan et al., 1994, Rubin et al., 1995).

This study addressed two goals. The first goal was to examine the direct relationship between temperamental surgency and children’s social behaviors later in childhood. The existing literature shows that although high-surgent children are social with peers (Kochanska and Radke-Yarrow, 1992, Rimm-Kaufman and Kagan, 2005), they are also at risk for showing aggressive behaviors (Gunnar et al., 2003) and developing externalizing behavior problems (Berdan et al., 2008, Schwartz et al., 1996, Stifter et al., 2008a) that are likely to interfere with positive peer interactions. Therefore, we hypothesized that surgent children would be sociable with other children, but in a manner that would elicit negative reactions from their peers. Based on past studies, we also expected children higher in surgency to be rated as higher in aggression than children low in temperamental surgency. Low-surgent children were expected to be low in social competence, but for different reasons. Given the extant literature (Burgess et al., 2003, Rubin et al., 2002), it was hypothesized that children low in surgency would show higher levels of behavioral wariness with peers than high-surgent children.

As previously mentioned, high surgent children are prone to experience high levels of anger and unregulated anger is linked to maladaptive social behaviors. In addition, low surgent children are temperamentally inclined to show negative emotions that likely contributes to their lack of social competence. Thus, the second goal of the current study was to investigate children’s emotion regulation abilities in a frustration-eliciting situation as a moderator between surgency and later social behaviors. In line with the existing literature regarding the adaptive role of active regulation strategies (e.g., Silk et al., 2006, Supplee et al., 2009), we hypothesized that highly surgent children who could use active, goal-oriented strategies (e.g., goal-directed behavior, social support seeking) to regulate their emotions in a frustrating situation would show fewer negative behaviors in the peer setting and be rated as lower in aggression by their mothers. In other words, it was hypothesized that highly surgent children would be successfully keeping their anger at a manageable level to accomplish their goal if they were able to show persistence (e.g., Thompson, 1994).

On the other hand, given low-surgent children’s inclination toward negative reactivity and withdrawal, as well as their risk for developing behavioral wariness in social situations (Coplan et al., 1994, Rubin et al., 1995, Stifter et al., 2011), we hypothesized that children low in surgency who used passive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., self-soothing behaviors) instead of active independent strategies (e.g., goal-directed behavior) would show higher levels of behavioral wariness around unfamiliar peers. In other words, because low-surgent children likely need to up-regulate approach behaviors and show more assertive, goal-driven behaviors in the peer context, passive emotion regulation strategies are likely to perpetuate their inclination toward withdrawing from situations that are challenging and uncomfortable.

Observers’ ratings of children’s reaction to novel persons, shyness/fearfulness, activity level, and positive affect across two laboratory visits were used to create a measure of children’s temperamental surgency at 4.5 years of age. In addition, children’s negative affect and the behaviors they used to regulate their emotions during the Locked Box task, a frustration-eliciting situation, were observed. By accounting for both children’s emotional reactivity and their putative emotion regulation behaviors, we aimed to provide a more robust measure of children’s emotion regulation. Social behaviors were derived from an interaction with unfamiliar peers as well as maternal ratings of children’s aggressive and socially competent behaviors prior to entering first grade. These measures provided us with the opportunity to assess children’s social behaviors in various settings using different raters.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample used for the current investigation was part of two larger longitudinal studies investigating temperament, emotional expression, and emotion regulation from infancy (2 weeks) to 7 years of age. Participants were drawn from a nonurban area in the northeastern United States. A total of 90 children (43 girls and 47 boys) were re-recruited from these studies when children were preschoolers. This new sample of children participated in laboratory visits when the children were 4.5 and 5.5 years

Results

Means and standard deviations for all study variables are shown in Table 1. There were no gender-related differences in temperamental surgency, putative emotion regulatory behaviors, and social behaviors. Therefore, gender was not considered in subsequent analyses. Intercorrelations were computed among all study variables prior to conducting our primary analyses (see Table 2). Of note, surgency was positively related to negative peer behaviors (r = .29, p < .05) and parent-rated aggression (r = .23, p

Discussion

There is a scarcity of research investigating the role of temperamental surgency and emotion regulation in the development of adaptive/maladaptive social behaviors with peers. Furthermore, existing research on the relationship between children’s emotion regulation and social competence has relied heavily on parent and teacher reports of children behaviors, and developmental research on the strategies that children use to regulate their emotions has focused largely on infants and toddlers. To

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to the second author (MH 050843). We thank the families who participated in this study. Special thanks go to the research assistants who worked on the study.

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