Emotion regulation (ER) is a crucial skill in adulthood and its acquisition represents one of the key developmental tasks in early childhood. Literature evidenced also that the ER is an important component in predicting children's social competence as reported by parents and teachers. Peer relations and social interaction abilities are crucial in school-age years to promote the adaptive development of children. In school-age, the management and understanding of their emotions continue to improve further, and it is in this evolutionary phase that children find themselves having to learn to respond and adequately control stimuli that cause stress. Thus, it is important to investigate the role of ER in different social difficulties, and to analyze the participating roles of different components of ER specifically in externalizing and internalizing problems. The aims of the present study are: to analyze the associations between different components of emotion regulation and many difficulties of school-aged children, as reported by parents and teachers; to compare the two descriptions, from parents and teachers, about externalizing and internalizing children's problems; finally to analyze the different components of emotion regulation linked to externalizing and internalizing reported problems. A series of MANCOVA and hierarchical regressions (controlling for gender and age) will be conducted in order to test the hypotheses. Main findings would be reported and discussed in a scientific paper.
The construct of emotional regulation is inclusive of many aspects and declined in various ways depending on the context and the observer. Furthermore, it is known that it is a crucial ability in developmental years and a protective factor for future social wellbeing (Daniel et al., 2020). During the school period, children learn to regulate their emotions and it is essential that they acquire confidence in social interactions. Different ER components are scantly investigated during this life period. Moreover, it is important to distinguish children behaviors in the family, established by parents, and those in the main socialization environment such as school, reported by teachers. Both externalizing and internalizing problems are risk factors for psychological and social development (Achenbach, 2001). Furthermore, children who are high in approach are very sociable and display high levels of positive affect, are also at risk for being rejected by their peers (Gunnar et al., 2003) and developing externalizing behaviors, such as aggression and conduct problems (Berdan et al., 2008), that affect their social competence. On the other hand, children who are low in approach tend to display higher levels of shyness around peers (Rubin et al., 2002) and lower levels of social competence, and they are at risk for developing internalizing behaviors (Nilzon & Palmerus, 1998), such as anxiety, that limit their ability to interact effectively with their peers. One mechanism that might explain these outcomes is the development of effective ER. Due to limits that are frequently placed on their attempts to approach aspects of their environment, children high in approach are more likely to experience high levels of anger/frustration. Thus, it is important to analyze different components of ER in social difficulties, during a particular period that involves peer relations and different social contexts, like the primary school period. Starting from the fact that the most important variable in the ER in predicting social conduct is the management of negative emotions (Dollar & Stifter, 2012), the tendency to emotional lability and negativity is a crucial skill that we would deeply investigate in association with externalizing and internalizing problems. Investigating the role of ER and different ER's components in different behavioral problems is crucial to prevent maladaptive development and to implement specific intervention programs for children.