Toddlers seem torn between the enthusiasm to joyously tear into life and continuous frustration, usually brought on by other people. Toddlers have strong emotions. Thier joy is possibly the most intense of the entire lifespan. Their distress, sadness, fear, and anger are sudden and extreme. The terrible twos are the time of tantrums, which are characteristic of most toddlers, not just those with difficult temperaments. This intensity subsides a bit after age three and we say that young children are better regulated than toddlers. What goes on for toddlers that leads to this change?
I’m reading up on the research differentiating emotion regulation and self-regulation early in child development. Susanne Denham’s book on early emotional development, which I’ve been reading, has a lot for preschool but I need more on toddlers. So, I turned to the 2007 chapters in the volume Socioemotional Development in the Toddler Years, edited by Brownell & Kopp. The chapter on toddler emotion regulation is written by Ross Thompson and Rebecca Goodvin.
Their chapter begins with a definition of emotion regulation and highlights some assumptions buried in the definition. “Emotion regulation consists of the extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluaing, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensive and temporaral features, to accomplish one’s goal (Thompson, 1994, pp. 27-28).” Assumption 1 is that regulation affects the dynamics of positve or negative emotion, changing intensity, duration, or pacing. This is situation specific and dependent on individual emotional goals. Assumption 2 is that the efficacy of a given strategy depends on the individual’s overall goals in the situation and is different for children from adults. Individual differences in temperamental reactivity are part of the situation. Assumption 3 is that emotion regulation can be self-regulation or regulation by others. Assumption 4 is that emotional monitoring and evaluation are part of the process and are skills that develop over childhood.
The authors next list six characteristics of the developmental progression of emotion regulation: 1) move from other regulation to self-regulation; 2) increasingly numerous and complex strategies; 3) strategies become increasingly emotion-specific; 4) social and personal goals motivating regulation become increasingly complex; 5) individual differences emerge and stabilize; 6) executive function and language are increasingly involved in emotion regulation.
Early differences in emotion regulation predict long-term outcomes. Research on emotional developoment in toddlers is difficult for several reasons. It is difficult to demonstrate that an apparently regulatory behavior is actually functioning as regulation. Some of the behaviors are multiply determined. Emotional experience and emotion regulation overlap. Emotion regulation within an individual varies across situations and it is difficult to identify patterns or traits. These challenges need to be addressed in research design.
The development of emotion regulation from 1 to 3 is described in terms of five influencing factors that account for change over time and individual differences.
Neurobiological Growth
Excitatory and inhibitory processes in the brain mature with brain growth. Likewise, the HPA axis matures across childhood and adolescence, but system lability decreases during infancy, dependent partially on caregiver responsiveness. Parasympathetic activity also matures during the infant and toddler years. Emotional arousal becomes more graded, sensitive and, ultimately, controllable. Maturation of prefrontal cortex and increased connectivity during toddlerhood also change emotional responding and potential for regulation.
Conceptual Development
Emotional experience in toddlers and its modulation change in response to development of emotional understanding. This understanding includes labels for emotions, information about their causes, understanding of their potential consequences, and awareness of strategies that can change emotions. In addition to labels, I would imagine information about the characteristics of each emotion is also accumulating. Information about the causes of emotions is obtained by toddlers through exposure to contingencies between events or situations and emotions, either their own or others. Toddlers become aware that emotions can be changed. Although executive function is limited, toddlers modulate their emotions through fleeing, removing, restricting perception of, or ignoring emotionally arousing events, all of which depend on knowledge of the connection between perception and emotion. Toddlers also use self-comforting and seek comfort from caregivers when experiencing negative emotion. Negative emotions are aversive and toddlers learn to avoid, reduce, or eliminate them through emotion regulation strategies that are overtly behavioral and do not depend on cognitive maneuvers such as reframing or reappraisal. Results of an observation study of toddlers’ emotion regulation and coping are found in Parritz (1996).
At the same time that toddlers are learning labels and accumulating experience of the contingencies associated with the occurrence of different emotions, they are becoming aware of the self and starting to refer to the self in their talk. This onset of self-awareness coincides with the emergence of the self-conscious emotions, pride, shame, guilt, and embarrassment.
Temperament
Primarilily heritable differences in temperament are linked to differences in emotional experience and regulation. High negative reactivity is associated with lower thresholds of activitation and differences in intensity and persistence of negative emotions, as well as less frequent use of emotion modulation strategies. In cross-sectional studies it is difficult to distinguish emotion experience from emotion regulation, but longitudinal studies may be able to resolve some of the ambiguity as to how the temperament-related differences in emotion modulation come about (Calkins et al., 1999; NICHD, 2004). Behaviorally inhibited toddlers also have distinct emotion modulation patterns, in this case involving greater self-comfort, proximity seeking, and demanding vocalizations that other toddlesrs (Mangelsdorf et al., 1995; Parritz, 1996). Differences in the temperamental dimension of effortful control are also associated with differences in emotion modulation.
Another way temperament affects emotional development in toddlers is through an interaction with caregiving. This includes the degree of “goodness of fit.”
Parenting
Differences in parenting practices, especially mother-infant interactions, are associated with differences in emotional development. The research on these interactions has often been framed in terms of emotion socialization, which includes mother’s responses to child’s emotion (such as approval and disapproval, soothing or support), modeling, and suggestions or instructions. Mothers also providem emotional regulation by strategies such as distraction, soothing, and reassurance (characterized as co-regulation). An interesting question that comes to mind is how does mother’s positive and negative reaction to the child’s experience change the intensity and duration of the emotion. Is it by stimulating the growth of regulatory capacities? Or does the mother’s reactions shape before through operant conditioning? In that case the child’s emotion is not just a reaction, but also a behavior. Or is there another explanation for the effect on children’s emotional experience and expression?
To begin addressing these questions, it might be useful to consider some of the observations made in specific studies, such as those cited in this section of the chapter, as well as similar studies done since the publication of the chapter. Feldman & Klein (2003), for example, found mother’s warm control during free play was associated with child’s emotion regulation independently assessed. Calkins and colleagues (Calkins & Johnson,1998; Calkins et al., 1998) found differences in 18-month old toddler responses to a frustration task based on whether mothers’ behavior was interfering or offering positive guidance. Other studies found emotionally available and sensitive mothers in stressful and emotionally charged situations had toddlers with less intense or dysregulated emotion.
Through co-regulation and social referencing (Klinnert et al., 1983) caregivers modulate toddlers emotion, and the frequency of these supportive practices decline as toddlers and young children gradually learn to use emotion modulation strategies on their own. The amount and quality of maternal co-regulation apparently stimulates growth in toddlers’ own emotional regulation. Mothers also stimulate growth in regulatory skill by creating a calm and predictable environment and a warm positive emotional climate. Emotional expressiveness within families is aanother significant predictor of emotional development (Hlberstadt & Eaton, 2002).
The other aspect of early mother-child interaction that influences the development of emotion expression and modulation is emotion-related talk. Talk stimulates the growth of emotion understanding and this is associated with better emotion regulation (Dunn et al., 1991; Laible, 2004). The way children think about emotions affects emotional intensity and duration, as does the way children learn to think about the circumstances that generate emotions. They learn to think about these things in new ways as a result of caregivers’ talk. For example, a child who sees an event as a serious threat to self will have a more intense and prolonged experience of fear or anger than a child who sees the event as a mild or only potential threat. Talk is the original source of the first strategies that modulate emotion cognitively. Talk can change thinking and children eventually learn that changing thinking changes feelings. Parents can also use talk to coach children to modulate emotional expression to improve their resilience in adverse contexts, such as a dangerous or hostile neighborhood or school setting (Miller & Sperry, 1987).
Attachment Style
Secure, versus insecure, attachment is associated with less intense emotional experience and better use of effective emotion modulation strategies. Kochanska (2001), for example, found insecurely attached toddlers showing increases in fear and anger and decreases in joy across time, an opposite pattern of what was found in securely attached toddlers. Differences in the growth of emotion regulation have also been found to be associated with secure versus insecure attachment (Nachimas et al., 1996; Diener et al., 2002).
Danny the Grim 