Abstract
Over the last one hundred years, researchers have posited that parent-child interactions and children’s language and self-regulatory abilities are interrelated (e.g., Barkley, 1997, 2016; Salmon et al., 2016; Vygotsky, 1987). Drawing on these past theories, this thesis proposed a model to be tested across three parts for each domain of self-regulation (emotion, cognitive, and behavioural) and language (expressive and receptive vocabulary). The first part aimed to investigate whether language and verbal working memory (VWM) explained unique variance in self-regulation over and above executive functions (EFs). The second, investigated whether parent-child interactions explained unique variance in self-regulation. Ultimately, the final model proposed that VWM would mediate the relationship between language and self-regulation, while parent-child interactions would have a direct effect on self-regulation, with child language also predicted to moderate this relationship. The final sample included 139 children aged 6- to 12-years, 43 of whom met the diagnostic criteria for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The findings suggest that the relationship between language, parenting, and self-regulation appears to differ depending on the domain of language and self-regulation. Receptive language explained unique variance in cognitive and emotion regulation and VWM explained unique variance in cognitive and behaviour regulation, over and above EFs. Importantly, the results indicated that VWM fully mediated the relationships between receptive and expressive vocabulary and cognitive regulation, and the relationship between expressive vocabulary and behaviour regulation. The research also suggested that specific parenting practices relate to behaviour, cognitive, and emotion regulation differentially. Greater inconsistent discipline was related to poorer regulatory abilities across all three domains of self-regulation, while greater involvement was linked only to greater cognitive regulation. Unexpectedly, higher parent-reported positive parenting was related to poorer behaviour and cognitive regulation. Elaborative reminiscing did not explain unique variance in any domain of children’s vocabulary or self-regulation. However, in the presence of lower vocabulary skills, more elaborative reminiscing was linked to greater regulatory abilities. Additionally, receptive language moderated the relationships between some parenting practices and domains of self-regulation. In children with less well-developed receptive vocabularies, greater inconsistent discipline and positive parenting were linked to poorer regulatory abilities. Interestingly, greater corporal punishment was linked to poorer regulation in children with higher receptive vocabularies.
Ultimately, it was concluded that receptive language and VWM appear to be important to self-regulation in primary school-aged children, identifying language as an important area to consider in future self-regulation research and intervention planning. However, the relationships between language, parenting, and self-regulation appear to differ depending on the domain of self-regulation and language investigated. As a result, future research should investigate separate domains of language and self-regulation, rather than domain general measures or composites. The findings are discussed in light of past research and theory on the interrelations between language, self-regulation, and parent-child interactions.