ABSTRACT
We use a biopsychosocial perspective as a guiding framework when describing the development of emotion regulation processes throughout childhood. We first describe the development of emotion regulation with an emphasis on the behavioral aspects. Next, we discuss the maturation and utility of specific biological mechanisms that contribute to the regulation of emotion. We then focus our discussion on the role of caregivers in the development of both biological and behavioral emotion regulation processes. Finally, we review empirical work examining the development of emotion regulation across multiple levels of analysis and over various dimensions of time. We believe that conceptualizing and investigating the development of emotion regulation in this dynamic way will lead investigators to not only consider the multiple levels of functioning involved in emotion management, but also the differing temporal patterns through which emotion regulatory processes can change.
