Targeted self-regulation interventions in low-income children: Clinical trial results and implications for health behavior change.
J Exp Child Psychol
; 208: 105157, 2021 08.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33910138
ABSTRACT
Self-regulation, known as the ability to harness cognitive, emotional, and motivational resources to achieve goals, is hypothesized to contribute to health behaviors across the lifespan. Enhancing self-regulation early in life may increase positive health outcomes. During pre-adolescence, children assume increased autonomy in health behaviors (e.g., eating; physical activity), many of which involve self-regulation. This article presents results from a clinical trial (NCT03060863) that used a factorial design to test behavioral interventions designed to enhance self-regulation, specifically targeting executive functioning, emotion regulation, future-oriented thinking, and approach biases. Participants were 118 children (9-12â¯years of age, Mâ¯=â¯10.2â¯years) who had a history of living in poverty. They were randomized to receive up to four interventions that were delivered via home visits. Self-regulation was assayed using behavioral tasks, observations, interviews, and parent- and child-report surveys. Results were that self-regulation targets were reliably assessed and that interventions were delivered with high fidelity. Intervention effect sizes were very small to moderate (d rangeâ¯=â¯.02-.65, medianâ¯=â¯.14), and most were not statistically significant. Intercorrelation analyses indicated that associations between measures within each target varied based on the self-regulation target evaluated. Results are discussed with regard to the role of self-regulation-focused interventions in child health promotion. Implications of findings are reviewed for informing next steps in behavioral self-regulation interventions among children from low-income backgrounds.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Pobreza
/
Autocontrole
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
Limite:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Exp Child Psychol
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article