The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation: Predicting preschoolers' delay of gratification from mother-toddler interactions.

Abstract

Toddlers' use of effective attention deployment strategies to cope with separation from the mother and with maternal behavior predicted the use of effective delay-of-gratification strategies at age 5, even though the contexts, measures, and manifest behaviors were different. Toddlers who used distraction strategies during a brief separation from the mother were able, at age 5, to delay immediate gratification longer for more valued rewards. Toddlers who explored at a distance from a controlling mother when she tried to engage the child also delayed longer and used more effective delay strategies at age 5, compared with toddlers who did not distance themselves. Toddlers whose mothers were not controlling showed the opposite pattern: Those who did not distance themselves from the mother's bids had longer preschool delay times and more effective strategies. Strategic attention deployment was shown to be an enduring self-regulatory skill visible in early development across domains, measures, and over time.

Cites (6)

1. A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure
   Mischel, Walter, Shoda, Yuichi · 1995 · Psychological Review
2. Delay of gratification in children.
   Mischel, Walter, Shoda, Yuichi, Rodriguez, Monica L. · 1989 · Science
3. A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification: dynamics of willpower
   Metcalfe, Janet, Mischel, Walter · 1999 · Psychological Review
4. The nature of adolescent competencies predicted by preschool delay of gratification.
   Mischel, Walter, Shoda, Yuichi, Peake, Philip K. · 1988 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
5. Arousal, affect, and attention as components of temperament.
   Derryberry, Douglas, Rothbart, Mary K. · 1988 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
6. The Pennsylvania infant and family development project III: The origins of individual differences in infant–mother attachment: Maternal and infant contributions
   Belsky, Jay, Rovine, Michael, Taylor, Dawn G. · 1984 · Child Development

Show all 6 references

Cited by (18)

1. Executive functions
   Diamond, Adele · 2013 · Annual Review of Psychology
2. Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative framework.
   Garon, Nancy, Bryson, Susan E., Smith, Isabel M. · 2008 · Psychological Bulletin
3. Annual Research Review: On the relations among self‐regulation, self‐control, executive functioning, effortful control, cognitive control, impulsivity, risk‐taking, and inhibition for developmental psychopathology
   Nigg, Joel T. · 2017 · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
4. Effects of physical activity on children’s executive function: Contributions of experimental research on aerobic exercise
   Best, John R. · 2010 · Developmental Review
5. Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children
   Carlson, Stephanie M., Meltzoff, Andrew N. · 2008 · Developmental Science

See all 186