OBJECTIVETo study the development of self-regulation competence and its relationship with behavioral problems in Chinese children with the method of questionnaire assessment.

METHODSThe subjects of the study consisted of 18 to 36 months old toddlers and 3 to 6 years old children. Self-regulation competence in this study included effortful control and self-regulation development. Effortful control is the concept described in Rothbart theory. Attentional focus and inhibitory control were two components in effortful control, which mainly reflect the positive control of emotion and behavior. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) and Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) were adopted to assess the attentional focus and inhibitory control of effortful control and impulsivity in children at different ages. Achenbach's Children Behavioral Checklist was used to measure behavioral problems in three to five years old children.

RESULTSTotally 114 18 to 36 months old toddlers and 443 3 to 6 years old children were enrolled in data analysis. (1) The internal consistency of attentional focus in ECBQ and CBQ, alpha (Cronbach) value was respectively 0.89 and 0.75. The internal consistency of inhibitory control, alpha value was respectively 0.84 and 0.78. The alpha value of self-regulation development was respectively 0.84 and 0.94. (2) In 18 to 36 months old toddlers, there was no significant difference between genders in effortful control and self-regulation development. In 3 to 6 years old children, the score of girls' effortful control was higher than the score of boys' effortful control, the scores of girls' self-regulation development factor except regulation motion were significantly higher than boys (t = 4.27 and 11.14, P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). (3) The self-regulation competence including attentional focus, inhibitory control and all the factors in self-regulation development was significantly higher with age in three to six years old children (F = 2.9-10.16, P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). Children in this period already had some regulation skills. The development of regulation competence and regulation skill was not on the same step. Some were fast and some were slow. (4) The scores of attention focus and inhibitory control had significantly positive correlation with the general score of self-regulation development, the coefficient of partial correlation analysis was 0.52 and 0.64, respectively (P < 0.001). (5) The impulsivity had no significant correlation with self-regulation competence in 18 to 36 months old toddlers. The scores of impulsivity and behavioral problems scores had significantly negative correlation with attentional focus, inhibitory control and self-regulation development in 3-to-6 years old children. The coefficients were at low level, none was beyond -0.30 (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONSEffortful control or self-regulation had sex differences, girls had higher competence than boys, except motivation of self-regulation. But such sex differences did not show significant difference in children younger than three years of age in this study. This phenomenon is consistent with the development of self-regulation reported by Kopp. Child self-regulation competence increases with age. Generally speaking, the lower self-regulation competent, the higher impulsivity and behavioral problems, but the correlation was at a low level. For assessment and prediction of occurrence of behavioral problems, self-regulation competence should be combined with the other influential factors.