United States: A new study says that preschool children who have trouble controlling their emotions and behavior might show more signs of ADHD when they turn seven. Kids between the ages of three and seven who struggle with managing big feelings are also at risk of having more conduct problems and may feel sad or worried as they get older.
The work, led by the University of Edinburgh, is one of the first to look at the relationship between early patterns of emotional regulation and school-age children’s mental health. The findings of the study are presented in Development and Psychopathology.
As reported by the Medicalxpress, such generalizations could aid in the identification of a group for whom targeted support and improving protentional measures before appearing are necessary, the researchers said.
After reviewing a lot of data lead researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Northumbria and Oxford aimed to establish whether the manner in which children aged between 3 and 7 years develop their emotions influences the probability of common mental health problems.
Childhood mental health
They looked at the data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which tracks the lives of about 19,000 children born in 2000 to 2002.
The researchers evaluated questionnaires and interviews administered to parents, which sought information relating to disorder symptoms concerning their children’s behavior, social interactions, and Executive Functioning skills.
They employed statistical methods to estimate the associations of emotional problems, conduct problems and ADHD symptoms at seven years of age.
Results indicated that a predisposition to exhibit high levels of both positive and negative emotions and subsequent delay in the emergence of advanced emotional self-regulation processes correlated with ADHD symptoms, as well as internalizing and conduct problems, in both boys and girls at the age of 7.
This was the case even when other covariates including data on any pre-existing neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions were considered.
Emotion regulation skills are learned from childhood and are believed to become progressively enhanced throughout childhood.” These skills, however, are learned at different paces and slower learning might act as a pointer towards neurodevelopmental and mental health concerns.
The papers provided to us birth the conjecture that tracking courses of emotion regulation over development might assist identify children at risk of mental health problems, said Dr. Aja Murray, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.