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Negative Emotionality and Internalizing Behaviors in Preschool Children: Moderating Role of Inhibitory Control

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Abstract

Negative emotionality in childhood is typically positively associated with internalizing behaviors, whereas inhibitory control is negatively associated with internalizing behaviors. Recent work, however, has also found that inhibitory control paradoxically increases risk for internalizing behaviors in the context of some reactive temperamental styles. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether inhibitory control moderated the association between negative emotionality and prospective internalizing behaviors in typically developing preschoolers (N = 104, 51 girls, Mage = 3.46 years, SDage = 0.19). We found that negative emotionality at T1 was only positively associated with internalizing behaviors at T2 in preschoolers with relatively higher inhibitory control. Our results suggest that relatively high levels of inhibitory control may be less adaptive for children who also have relatively high levels of negative emotionality. Findings are discussed in the context of cognitive overcontrol in understanding risk for internalizing behaviors before formal school entry.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the many children and families who participated in the study. We also thank Emma Biancaniello, Annie Mills, Jennifer Mullen, Sadie Neufeld, and Natalie Stearns, for their assistance with recruitment, data collection, data entry, and coding.

Funding

The present study was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Vanier Doctoral Scholarship awarded to RH and operating grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and SSHRC awarded to LAS.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Erica R. Rodrigues, Raha Hassan & Louis A. Schmidt

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  1. Erica R. Rodrigues
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  2. Raha Hassan
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Correspondence to Erica R. Rodrigues.

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Rodrigues, E.R., Hassan, R. & Schmidt, L.A. Negative Emotionality and Internalizing Behaviors in Preschool Children: Moderating Role of Inhibitory Control. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 53, 1110–1118 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-021-01189-4

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