A primary focus of the Emotion Regulation Lab is to examine the interplay between child approachful exuberance and sources of self-control, both internal (inhibitory control) and external (parenting and socialization). In this observational study, we are measuring behavioral, physiological (vagal tone), and parent-child relationship factors that may together help us better understand the development of emotion regulation in children who vary in exuberance.

We have a significant body of knowledge about shy children. Much less is known about emotion regulation and adjustment in outgoing children: those children who show relatively high levels of temperamental approach and exuberance. A small but growing body of research suggests that the associations between child adjustment and control capacities depends on whether the child is relatively high or low in temperamental approach. We are extending this research by conducting a longitudinal examination of parenting factors, multiple measures of effortful and cognitive control, child emotion regulation in multiple contexts, and physiological measures of regulatory capacity (vagal tone) in order to better understand the development of child emotion regulation in exuberant children.

This project is being conducted in collaboration with Angela Crossman at the Psychology Department of John Jay College, CUNY, and Nurper Gökhan at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY.

In this study, we also are examining children's developing understanding of emotion regulation, whether this rarely-studied aspect of emotion understanding is distinct from understanding other internal states, such as sensory perceptions, and whether understanding emotion regulation is associated with observed emotion regulation behaviors. This project is being conducted in collaboration with Pamela Cole at the Pennsylvania State University Department of Psychology and Deborah Kelemen at the Boston University Department of Psychology.