Zelfcontrole en Copingstrategieën bij Jonge Kinderen

Abstract

Early self-control predicts the development of multiple areas in adult life, such as mental health and risk behaviour. Therefore, it is important to develop an understanding of how self-control is manifested in young children and what strategies could be used in reaching self-control. In this article a wide examination of the concept self-control and coping behaviour in children from three to six years old is given. Furthermore, an extensive description of a method that could be used in research on self-control is provided. Videoobservations of delay of gratification tasks and data-analyses on an existing research are executed, to visualise the background variables that could play a part in the development of self-control. Results show that mainly coping behaviour on visual and motor domains contribute to the establishment of self-control. Moreover, girls perform better than boys on the delay of gratification tasks which might mean their self-control develops earlier in life. A notable effect of parental education is found, with higher parental education having a stronger influence on performance at a younger age than at an older age. The findings of this study show the need of future research on how coping behaviours effect self-control and how background variables relate to this.