Peer-reviewed article
Relations of child effortful control to personality, well‐being and parenting
Helena R. Slobodskaya, Evgeniya N. Petrenko, Svetlana V. Loginova, Olga S. Kornienko, Елена Александровна Козлова ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined effortful control—the ability to manage attention and behaviour—in 365 Russian preschool children and how it relates to personality, parenting and well-being. Children with higher effortful control showed more prosocial behaviour, fewer behavioural problems and better emotional well-being. Girls and older children scored higher on effortful control than boys and younger children. The research suggests that parenting may influence children's behaviour partly through its effect on effortful control.
Key points
- Effortful control has four components: inhibitory control, attentional control, low-intensity pleasure and perceptual sensitivity
- Girls scored higher than boys on effortful control, perceptual sensitivity, inhibitory control and low-intensity pleasure
- Higher effortful control was associated with more prosocial behaviour and fewer externalising and internalising problems
- Effortful control was linked to personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness, and with positive emotions and low negative affect
- Effortful control may mediate the relationship between parenting and child behaviour outcomes
Limitations
This study relies on parent and teacher reports rather than direct observation or measurement, which may introduce bias. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causal relationships, only associations.
Abstract
This study examined effortful control and its relations to personality, parenting and well-being in a community sample of Russian preschool children (N = 365, 46% girls) using parent-reported effortful control scale from the very short form of the children's behaviour questionnaire, the inventory of child individual differences-short version, the Alabama parenting questionnaire-preschool revision, the self-reporting questionnaire, and parent and teacher reports on the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. The findings confirmed the four-factor structure of effortful control, including inhibitory control, attentional control, low-intensity pleasure and perceptual sensitivity. Girls demonstrated higher scores than boys on effortful control, perceptual sensitivity, inhibitory control and low-intensity pleasure. Older children scored higher than younger on inhibitory control and perceptual sensitivity and lower on low-intensity pleasure. Gender and age accounted for less than 3% of the variance in effortful control. Effortful control was associated with personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness, and with positive emotions and low-negative affect. Higher effortful control was associated with higher levels of prosocial behaviour and lower levels of externalising and internalising problems. Structural modelling showed that the effect of parenting on child prosocial and problem behaviours may be mediated by effortful control.