Abstract
Relatively little is known about the degree to which subcomponents of self-regulation change during early to middle adolescence. This study considered familial predictors (maternal/paternal regulatory support, antagonistic parenting, and parent-child closeness) of rank-order change in behavioral, emotional and cognitive regulation and perseverance over one year. N = 452 adolescents ages 11–16 years and their parents completed questionnaires and parent-child discussion tasks (48.7% male; 69.6% white). Results indicated minimal direct effects of parenting, though maternal and paternal parenting and parent-child closeness exerted small effects that were moderated by prior levels of cognitive regulation and perseverance. Parents may contribute to the development of complex regulatory capacities that mature after foundational emotional and behavioral regulation competencies.
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Notes
Some scholars argue that regulation (i.e., inhibitory or effortful control) and emotionality comprise temperament (e.g., Rothbart and Ahadi 1994). Space limitations prohibit the inclusion of a comprehensive discussion of this theoretical issue.
At Wave 3, 1.6% of the sample was 11 years old, 21.5% was 12 years, 36.6% was 13 years, 25.0% was 14 years, 14.2% was 15 years, and 1.1% was 16 years old.
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Acknowledgements
We recognize the generous support of the many private donors who provided support for this project. We also thank those families who were willing to spend valuable hours with the team in interviews, the many students who assisted in conducting the interviews, and Mike Brown for assisting with the preparation of this manuscript. We thank the Family Studies Center at BYU, the School of Family Life, and the College of Family Home and Social Science at BYU, and we recognize the generous support of the many private donors who provided support for this project. We also thank those families who were willing to spend valuable hours with our team in interviews, the many students who assisted in conducting the interviews, and Mike Brown for assisting with the preparation of this manuscript.
Authors’ Contributions
K.L.M. conceived of the study, performed the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript. L.P.W. participated in the interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript. D.R.B. assisted with manuscript preparation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
Data collection for this study was funded by grants to individual investigators and to the collective project at Brigham Young University (BYU; Principal Investigator: Randal D. Day). Donors and funding agencies include the following: School of Family Life Endowment (BYU), Family Studies Center Endowment (BYU), Marjorie Pay Hinckley Endowed Chair (BYU), Mary Lou Fulton Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences (BYU), Mentoring Environment Grant (BYU), LB and LW Smith and Family Foundation, Kreutzkamp Family Foundation, Brent and Cheri Andrus Family Trust, and James W. and Carolyn O. Ritchie Supporting Organization.
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The Brigham Young University Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the Flourishing Families Project. The Flourishing Families Project involved human participants who provided informed consent in accordance with the procedures established with the institutional ethics committee. This current study was a secondary data analysis using the Flourishing Families Project data. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. APA ethical standards were followed in this study’s conduction.
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Informed consent or assent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study at each study wave. All parents acknowledged granting their informed consent for their own voluntary participation and their child’s participation in writing; minor children provided assent to participation in writing.
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Moilanen, K.L., Padilla-Walker, L.M. & Blaacker, D.R. Dimensions of Short-Term and Long-Term Self-Regulation in Adolescence: Associations with Maternal and Paternal Parenting and Parent-Child Relationship Quality. J Youth Adolescence 47, 1409–1426 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0825-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0825-6