Teacher-Child Racial Congruence and Young Children's Preschool Adjustment.

The purpose of this study was to explore how adjusted preschoolers were to preschool when their teachers were either racially congruent or racially incongruent and whether gender moderated these associations. In this study, 259 preschoolers (50% boys; Mage = 53.84 months; 63% White, 37% Black) in 44 classrooms at 16 federally- and privately-funded centers/preschools were rated for their adjustment to preschool using teacher (N = 44; 100% women, 52% White, 38% Black, 2% Asian, 5% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 2% Latine) reports and direct child assessments. Multi-level structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously address the non-independence of the data by estimating higher-level variance components (i.e., variance on a total of six preschool adjustment outcomes out due to the classroom and due to the center) as well as correlated outcomes. Accounting for classroom-level variance as well as school-, classroom-, and child-level covariates, these analyses revealed main effects for gender and teacher-child racial congruence, and not for race, but higher-order interactions were significant. White girls with White teachers scored higher than White girls with Black teachers on four outcomes. Black girls with Black teachers scored higher than Black girls with White teachers on three outcomes and lower on two outcomes. White boys with White teachers scored lower than White boys with Black teachers on three outcomes. Black boys with Black teachers scored lower than Black boys with White teachers on five outcomes and higher on one outcome. Magnitudes of associations found ranged from small to large across the analyses. These findings add to the growing literature concerning teacher racial congruence suggesting its association with preschool adjustment may be moderated by race and gender of the child. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms accounting for these associations.

Preschoolers' emotion expression and regulation: relations with school adjustment.

Children's expression and regulation of emotions are building blocks of their experiences in classrooms. Thus, the authors' primary goal was to investigate whether preschoolers' expression or ability to regulate emotions were associated with teachers' ratings of school adjustment. A secondary goal was to investigate how boys and girls differed across these associations. Children's social-emotional behaviors in Head Start and private childcare center classrooms were observed, and using a series of measures, teachers' ratings of children's social competence, attitudes toward school, positive teacher relationships, and cooperative participation were collected. Three factors of children's school adjustment were extracted from these indicators. A series of hierarchical regressions revealed that emotion expression and regulation were indeed associated with children's reported school adjustment, with the strongest associations stemming from children's negative emotion expression and their emotion dysregulation. Many of these associations were also different for boys and girls. The results corroborate and extend the authors' earlier findings, and have implications for social-emotional programming to maximize children's early school success.

Teachers' Consistency of Emotional Support Moderates the Association Between Young Children's Regulation Capacities and Their Preschool Adjustment.

Objectives: Preschool teachers' consistency of warm, sensitive, and responsive interactions with children may be more important than average levels and may moderate the association between children's cognitive and emotion regulation and their preschool adjustment. Methods: A sample of 312 boys and girls aged 32 to 68 months in 44 classrooms at 16 privately-funded centers and Head Starts completed assessments of emotional and cognitive regulation and were rated by their teachers using measures of social-emotional functioning. Teacher-child interactions were rated for emotional support. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously explore three aspects of preschool adjustment. Results: Children who were the least regulated were more adjusted to preschool in classrooms where teachers were more consistent in their emotional support, over and above mean emotional support and after controlling for child- and preschool-level covariates. Conclusions: Consistency matters for children's preschool adjustment perhaps even more so than average levels of emotional support.

The Development of Cognitive Reappraisal From Early Childhood Through Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Methodological Recommendations.

Cognitive reappraisal is an important emotion regulation strategy that shows considerable developmental change in its use and effectiveness. This paper presents a systematic review of the evidence base regarding the development of cognitive reappraisal from early childhood through adolescence and provides methodological recommendations for future research. We searched Scopus, PsycINFO, and ERIC for empirical papers measuring cognitive reappraisal in normative samples of children and youth between the ages of 3 and 18 years published in peer-reviewed journals through August 9th, 2018. We identified 118 studies that met our inclusion criteria. We first present a quantitative review of the methodologies used to investigate cognitive reappraisal in children and adolescents, with attention to variations in methodologies by the sample age range. We then present a qualitative review of findings with attention to: (1) the age at which children begin to effectively use cognitive reappraisal to regulate their emotions, and (2) developmental changes in cognitive reappraisal from early childhood through adolescence. We consider how methodological differences may contribute to inconsistencies in findings, highlight gaps in the literature that remain to be addressed, and make recommendations for future directions.

Emotion regulation, pain interference and affective symptoms in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease.

BACKGROUND: The ability to regulate emotion is associated with affective disorders and the experience of pain. However, little is known about emotion regulation in youth with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), a population that regularly experiences pain and symptoms of depression and anxiety. This study examines the relationship between emotion regulation and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain interference in youth with SCD. METHODS: Participants ages 8-20 at a university-based pediatric sickle cell clinic completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), self-report measures assessing use of emotion regulation strategies. Participants also completed the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS), measures for symptoms of anxiety, depression, and pain interference. Multiple regression models tested associations between use of emotion regulation strategies and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain interference. RESULTS: Participants were 51 patients with SCD, 30 female and 21 male, with a mean age of 13.02 years (SD = 0.47, mid-max = 8-20). Use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies was associated with increased symptoms of depression (r = .58), anxiety (r = .45) and pain interference (r = .30) in youth with SCD. LIMITATIONS: Potential limitations of our study include small sample size, use of youth self-report measures, and participant selection contingent on the ability to attend an outpatient appointment. CONCLUSION: Identifying maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in youth with SCD may provide clinicians with targeted pathways for improving emotional and psychological functioning.

Self-Regulation in Preschool: Examining Its Factor Structure and Associations With Pre-academic Skills and Social-Emotional Competence.

Self-regulation in early childhood is an important predictor of success across a variety of indicators in life, including health, well-being, and earnings. Although conceptually self-regulation has been defined as multifaceted, previous research has not investigated whether there is conceptual and empirical overlap between the factors that comprise self-regulation or if they are distinct. In this study, using a bifactor model, we tested the shared and unique variance among self-regulation constructs and prediction to pre-academic and social-emotional skills. The sample included 932 preschool children (M age = 48 months, SD = 6.55; 49% female), their parents, and their teachers in the United States. Children's self-regulation was assessed using measures of executive function, behavioral self-regulation, and emotion regulation. The bifactor model demonstrated a common overarching self-regulation factor, as well as distinct executive function and emotion regulation factors. The common overarching self-regulation factor and executive function predicted children's pre-academic (i.e., mathematics and literacy) and social-emotional skills. The emotion regulation factor predicted children's social-emotional skills. Identifying the shared and unique aspects of self-regulation may have important implications for supporting children's regulatory skills as well as their success in school.

Teaching emotion regulation in schools: Translating research into practice with the RULER approach to social and emotional learning.

Emotion regulation skills are critical to young children's school readiness and later academic achievement, as well as educators' efficacy, stress, and job satisfaction. In this article, we demonstrate how the science of emotion regulation can be translated into practical steps for educating teachers and students in schools. We begin with the crucial role of supporting educators in developing their own emotion regulation skills. We also discuss concrete and accessible tools that can be used to support both educators' own skill development and that of their students. We demonstrate how educators can integrate the teaching of emotion regulation through direct instruction, its integration into existing curricula, and daily practices and routines. The examples we provide are part of RULER, an evidence-based, whole school approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) that was developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER is grounded in the theory of emotional intelligence, which emphasizes the critical role of emotion regulation in healthy development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional and organizational supports for preschoolers' emotion regulation: Relations with school adjustment.

Preschool teachers, like parents, support children in ways that promote the regulation capacities that drive school adjustment, especially for children struggling to succeed in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to explore the emotionally and organizationally supportive classroom processes that contribute to the development of children's emotion regulation and executive control. Emotion regulation and executive control were assessed in 312 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children. The 44 teachers of these children completed questionnaires asking about 3 components of children's school adjustment: Positive/Engaged, Independent/Motivated, and Prosocial/Connected. Observations of classroom emotional and organizational supports were conducted. Results of multilevel models indicated emotion regulation was significantly associated with the Positive/Engaged school adjustment component, but only when teachers' emotional and organizational supports were taken into account. Children with lower levels of emotion regulation, who were also in less supportive classrooms, had the lowest scores on the Positive/Engaged component. Children's executive control was associated with the Independent/Motivated and Prosocial/Connected components independently of teacher effects. In general, moderate support was found for the notion that teachers' supports can be particularly helpful for children struggling to regulate their emotions to be better adjusted to school. Children's emotionally salient classroom behaviors, and teachers' emotion scaffolding, are discussed.