The effects of parenting on emotion and self-regulation

Abstract

The capacity to regulate one’s own arousal, attention, emotion, and cognition to manage goal-directed behaviors is a crucial skill that impacts on almost every area of one’s life. The development of such self-regulatory skills during childhood is considered an early indicator for later life successes, as effective self-regulation is predictive of a multitude of short and long-term outcomes including school-readiness, relationships with peers and family, academic achievement, feelings of higher self-worth, ability to cope with stress, less substance abuse and law breaking, and better mental health. Children’s self-regulatory capacities are greatly influenced by environmental experiences, such as the quality of parenting they receive. This chapter considers ways in which parenting facilitates self-regulation in children. Following a brief overview of the normative development of self-regulation during childhood, the chapter specifically examines the impact of parenting on the development of children’s executive functions, effortful control, compliance, and emotion regulation. A range of classic theoretical models are reviewed and empirical studies showcased. As self-regulation is a broad and multidimensional construct, the chapter also discusses some of the related conceptual and methodological issues