Infants’ attachment security and children’s self-regulation within and outside the parent–child relationship at kindergarten age: Distinct paths for children varying in anger proneness

Abstract

Research in developmental psychology has robustly documented positive associations between parent–child attachment security and the child’s self-regulation (SR). This study of 102 community mothers, fathers, and infants contributes to that research by examining the role of attachment security, observed at 15 months using the Attachment Q-Set, as a predictor of two distinct aspects of self-regulation at 67 months: executive functioning (SR-EF), observed in abstract Stroop-like tasks (Day/Night & Snow/Grass and Tapping), and parent-related (SR-PR), observed within the context of the parent–child relationship in response to the mother’s (SR-MR) and father’s (SR-FR) requests and prohibitions. We also examined child anger proneness, observed at 7 months, as a moderator of those associations. In both mother–child and father–child dyads, child security predicted SR-EF; More secure children performed better in executive functioning tasks. In mother–child dyads, security also predicted SR-MR, but the effect was qualified by the interaction of security and anger proneness, such that the effect was significant only for highly anger-prone children. The effect reflected differential susceptibility: Compared with lower-anger peers, highly anger-prone children developed worse SR-MR if their security was low, but they developed better SR-MR if their security was high. The findings highlight the benefits of a nuanced approach to self-regulation, considering child individuality as interacting with security and examining processes in both mother–child and father–child dyads.