What Factors Influence Emotion Regulation in Infancy

1
What Factors Influence Emotion Regulation in
Infancy?
2
Abstract

• The most common strategies are passive
  disengagement and physical regulation.
• Highly reactive infants show deficiencies in
  emotion regulation development.
• When caregivers are unavailable, infants use more
  regulation.
• Father-infant avoidant attachment is associated
  with employment of distraction and self-soothing.
  
• Physical stimulation can contribute to the
  negative emotional state of the infant.

3
What Is Emotion Regulation?

• Definition
• Intrinsic and extrinsic processes responsible for
  identifying, supervising, evaluating, and
  altering emotional reactions (Thompson, 1994).

• Function
• To manage arousal, control behaviors and
  reactions, and thereby define and adjust
  interactions to fit both individual and social
  demands.
• If unable to master the task of emotion
  regulation, deleterious emotional arousal and
  the misleading identification and misdirection of
  emotions (Kostuik Fouts, 2002) can result,
  possibly leading to socially inappropriate
  behaviors and a limited ability to adapt to
  spontaneous experiences.

4
Strategies of Self Emotion Regulation In Infancy
5
Temperament

• Anger and Frustration (Calkins, et al., 2002)
• Results
• Easily frustrated infants used more physical
  regulation, scanning, and mother orienting, and
  less distraction.
• In addition, they received lower scores on
  attention task exercises and were observed to
  have higher activity levels.
• Conclusions
• A lack of focused attention coupled with a
  tendency to be very active and easily distressed
  may predispose the child to be unable to exert
  control over his or her behavior. (Calkins, et
  al., 2002)

6
Temperament

• Effects of Excessive Crying (Stifter Spinrad,
  2002)
• Results
• Excessive criers exhibited significantly lower
  levels of self-regulation even after controlling
  for negative reactivity.
• Higher levels of regulation were associated with
  less negativity.
• Conclusions
• Inattention that results from excessive crying
  inhibits infants ability to internalize
  regulation techniques, hence disturbing emotion
  regulation development.
• Findings supported by Calkins, et al. (2002).

7
Infant-Caregiver Interactions

• Parent Availability (Bridges, et al., 1997)
• Parent Active
• Infants negative expression significantly
  decreased.
• Infants levels of active engagement increased.
• Parent Passive
• More physical and self-soothing techniques
  observed.
• Infants utilized more object focus.
• Infants distress levels significantly higher in
  mother-passive than in father-passive situations.
• Cross parent analysis reveal possible influence
  of type of parent-infant interaction (caregiver
  sensitivity (?)) experienced on emotion
  regulation.

8
Attachment Quality (Diener, et al., 2002)

• Infant-Father Attachment
• Avoidant Attachment
• Distraction and self-soothing most common
  techniques.
• Secure Attachment
• Infants exhibited fewer self-soothing behaviors.
• Infant-Mother Attachment
• No association between attachment quality and
  emotion regulation strategy found.
• Similar to Bridges, et al., implies a role of
  caregiver interaction type on regulation.

9
Physical Stimulation

• Effects of Maternal Touch (Hernstein Campos,
  2001)
• Negative Expression
• Tension Increase
• Infants demonstrated more negative emotional
  displays.
• Less initiation of play.
• Decrease duration of play.
• Relaxation
• Infants exhibited no differences from control
  infants in initiation or duration of play.
• Positive Emotion
• No major changes or differences in infants
  disposition for either condition.

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Summary

• The most common methods of emotion regulation in
  infants at 4 months are passive disengagement and
  physical strategies.
• Highly frustrated infants exhibit deficiencies in
  emotion regulation development.
• Tension increase in physical stimulation via
  maternal touch increases negativity (regulates
  emotion) and hence emotion regulation in infants.
  
• The level of emotion regulation necessary and the
  type of regulation utilized depends on parent
  availability in stressful situations.
• The use of particular regulation techniques is
  associated with attachment quality in
  infant-father relationships.

11
References

• Bridges, Lisa J. (1997). Infant Emotion
  Regulation with Mothers and Fathers. Infant
  Behavior and Development 20(1). 47-57.
• Calkins, Susan D., Dedmon, Susan E., Gill,
  Kathryn L., Lomax, Laura E., and Johnson, Laura
  M. Frustration in Infancy Implications for
  Emotion Regulation, Physiological Processes, and
  Temperament. Infancy, 3(2). 175-197.
• Diener, Marissa L., Mangelsdorf, Sarah C.,
  McHale, Jean L., Frosch, Cynthia A. Infants
  Behavioral Strategies for Emotion Regulation With
  Fathers and Mothers Associations With Emotional
  Expressions and Attachment Quality. Infancy 3(2).
  153-17.
• Hertenstein, Mathew J., Campos, Joseph J. (2001).
  Emotion Regulation via Maternal Touch. Infancy
  2(4). 549-566.
• Stifter, Cynthia A., Spinrad, Tracy L. (2002).
  The Effect of Excessive Crying on the Development
  of Emotion Regulation. Infancy 3(2). 133-152.
• Kostiuk, Lynne M., Fouts, Gregory T. (2002).
  Understanding of Emotion Regulation in Adolescent
  Females with Conduct Problems A Qualitative
  Analysis. The Qualitative Report 7(1).
  www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR7-1/kostiuk.html