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Emotion dysregulation and social competence: stability, change and predictive power
Author(s) -
Berkovits L. D.,
Baker B. L.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/jir.12088
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , social competence , emotional dysregulation , population , social change , clinical psychology , medicine , environmental health , economics , economic growth
Background Social difficulties are closely linked to emotion dysregulation among children with typical development ( TD ). Children with developmental delays ( DD ) are at risk for poor social outcomes, but the relationship between social and emotional development within this population is not well understood. The current study examines the extent to which emotion dysregulation is related to social problems across middle childhood among children with TD or DD . Method Children with TD ( IQ ≥ 85, n = 113) and children with DD ( IQ ≤ 75, n = 61) participated in a longitudinal study. Annual assessments were completed at ages 7, 8 and 9 years. At each assessment, mothers reported on children's emotion dysregulation, and both mothers and teachers reported on children's social difficulties. Results Children with DD had higher levels of emotion dysregulation and social problems at each age than those with TD . Emotion dysregulation and social problems were significantly positively correlated within both TD and DD groups using mother report of social problems, and within the TD group using teacher report of social problems. Among children with TD , emotion dysregulation consistently predicted change in social problems from one year to the next. However, among children with DD , emotion dysregulation offered no unique prediction value above and beyond current social problems. Conclusions Results suggested that the influence of emotion regulation abilities on social development may be a less salient pathway for children with DD . These children may have more influences, beyond emotion regulation, on their social behaviour, highlighting the importance of directly targeting social skill deficits among children with DD in order to ameliorate their social difficulties.