Citation

Nozadi SS, Spinrad TL, Eisenberg N, Eggum-Wilkens ND. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 2015; 38: 60-69.

Affiliation

T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.appdev.2015.04.005

PMID

26089582

PMCID

PMC4467833

Abstract

The mediating and moderating roles of self-regulation in the associations of dispositional anger and fear to later conduct and anxiety symptoms were tested. Mothers and teachers rated children's anger and fear at 54 months (N = 191), and mothers reported on children's symptoms of anxiety and conduct disorders at 72 and 84 months (Ns = 169 and 144). Children's self-regulatory ability was assessed using the Tower of Hanoi task at 72 months. Children's self-regulation mediated the association between early dispositional fear and 84-month mother-reported anxiety disorder symptoms above and beyond the effects of earlier generalized anxiety symptoms. Children's anger directly predicted relatively high mother-reported conduct and anxiety disorder symptoms.

FINDINGS are discussed in terms of the importance of considering self-regulation as potential mechanism relating early childhood dispositional reactivity to later psychopathology symptoms.

Language: en