Exuberance and externalizing behavior in early childhood: moderating effects of gender, emotion regulation strategy knowledge, and effortful control

Abstract

While social and emotional learning (SEL) content that addresses the regulation of negative emotions has garnered significant attention from early childhood educators and researchers, there is evidence to suggest that some children may especially benefit from increased focus on regulating positive emotions. Children with exuberant temperaments, characterized by high extraversion and surgency and low effortful control, face an increased risk for social and behavioral problems. SEL content specific to exuberance may help these children gain greater control in intensely positive emotional experiences, empowering them to make safe and prosocial choices. The present study investigates the relationship between temperamental exuberance and externalizing behavior problems in preschool age children and the potential influence of factors such as knowledge of exuberance regulation strategies, effortful control, and gender. Using parent reported data on child temperament and behavioral difficulties and scores from baseline assessments of children's knowledge of emotion regulation strategies, this work employs a hierarchical linear regression to test three models of moderation in which exuberance is included as a predictor of externalizing behavior problems, along with one of the secondary predictors. Initial analysis indicated that exuberance accounted for a significant portion of variance in externalizing behaviors. Moderation analyses further revealed that while neither emotion regulation knowledge nor effortful control significantly impacted the relationship between exuberance and externalizing behavior problems, gender was a significant moderator of this relationship.