Examining the Relationships Between Emotion Regulation, Social Relationships, and Temperament
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Date
2012-10-04
Authors
MacDonald, Beth
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract
The present study investigated the relations between emotion regulation,
temperament, and the quality of social relationships. Previous research has examined
these variables and determined emotion regulation abilities and temperament were
appropriate predictors of social functioning. However, the majority of research examining
such variables has been conducted in younger populations, outside of Canada. Therefore,
the present study contributed to the knowledge base because of the age of participants as
well as the location of the research.
Within the Cape Breton Victoria Regional School Board, parents and teachers of
31 Grade One students completed questionnaires assessing temperament, social
functioning, and emotion regulation abilities. Specifically, teachers completed the School
Social Behavior Scale (Merrell, 2002) and parents completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist(Shields& Cicchetti, 1997) and the Colorado Child Temperament Inventory
(Buss & Plomin, 1984). This thesis explored two main hypotheses: children rated as
possessing a difficult temperament (i.e. high on scales of emotionality and shyness and
low on scales of sociability and soothability) would experience greater difficulty
regulating emotions and experiencing positive social relationships and children rated as
possessing an easy temperament (i.e. low on scales of emotionality and shyness, and high
on scales of soothability and sociability) would demonstrate the reverse pattern. Also,
children rated as high in emotion regulation would be rated as having positive social
relationships and would demonstrate few anti-social behaviors and children rated as low
in emotion regulation would demonstrate the reverse pattern.
Following data analyses, several interesting findings were discovered. For
example, the first hypothesis was partially supported while there was no evidence to
support the second. However, the most interesting finding was the role of temperament.
Multiple Regression analyses were conducted to examine if social behavior could be
predicted from emotion regulation and temperament variables. While there were
significant results for some of the temperament variables in this prediction, no
statistically significant results were noted for the emotion regulation variables.
Analyses revealed temperament variables account for 41% of the variance in Peer
Relations, 40% of the variance in Self-Management, and 49% of the variance in
Academic Behavior. Temperament variables were therefore found to be a significantly
better predictor of social relationships as compared to emotion regulation abilities.
Significant correlations included Negativity showed a significant positive
correlation with Emotionality as well as a significant negative relationship with Attention,Soothability, and Emotion Regulation. Emotion Regulation was positively correlated with
Attention and Soothability. In addition, Attention showed a significant positive
correlation with Peer Relations, Self-Management, and Academic Behavior. Finally,
Shyness showed a significant negative correlation with Peer Relations. A discussion
regarding speculation behind the current findings, and implications of the current
research is provided.
Description
Keywords
emotion regulation , social relationships , school children