Temperament and Emotion Regulation in Child and Adolescent Development

Temperament refers to early‐emerging individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation that shape how children and adolescents experience and express emotion. Emotion regulation encompasses the strategies and processes by which young people modulate the intensity, duration and expression of their feelings in response to internal and external demands. These two domains interact dynamically: a child high in negative emotionality may require more effortful control to manage frustration, while a youth with strong self-regulation skills may buffer the impact of temperamentally driven stress. Across development, this interplay influences social relationships, academic engagement and mental health trajectories. For example, children with undercontrolled temperaments may struggle with peer conflict, whereas those with resilient profiles harness positive emotionality to bolster coping. Caregiving quality and environmental adversity further moderate these pathways, underlining the importance of family context. Global research highlights both universal patterns—such as the protective role of effortful control—and culture‐specific nuances, including the influence of sibling status or societal stressors on adaptive regulation. Insights into temperament–emotion regulation links inform targeted prevention and intervention strategies aimed at promoting resilience and reducing risk for internalising and externalising problems.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have examined the longitudinal impact of negative emotionality on social and emotional well-being. In a cohort of preschool children in eastern China, higher negative emotionality predicted greater loneliness two years later, with a preference for solitary play mediating this link. Importantly, having siblings moderated the pathway, such that sibling presence buffered only children against the intensifying effect of negative emotionality on solitude preference and subsequent loneliness.

Another investigation assessed whether externalising behaviours, often deemed maladaptive, might in fact protect against the physiological burden of early adversity. In a sample followed from age nine into late adolescence, higher levels of aggression and rule-breaking attenuated the association between cumulative risk exposure and allostatic load, a marker of chronic physiological dysregulation. This counterintuitive finding was particularly pronounced among males, suggesting that certain behavioural tendencies can serve a functional, regulatory purpose under stress.

Temperament and Emotion Regulation in Child and Adolescent Development publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in temperament and emotion regulation in child and adolescent development across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Temperament: Innate individual differences in emotional reactivity and self-regulation that form the foundation of personality.

Emotion regulation: The processes by which individuals influence the onset, intensity, duration and expression of their emotions.

Negative emotionality: A temperament dimension characterised by a tendency to experience negative affect such as fear, frustration or sadness.

Effortful control: The ability to inhibit a dominant response and activate a subdominant response, supporting goal-directed behaviour and self-regulation.

Allostatic load: The cumulative physiological wear and tear on the body resulting from repeated or chronic stress.

Externalising behaviours: Observable actions, such as aggression or rule-breaking, often viewed as maladaptive but which can serve regulatory functions under certain conditions.

References

1. Longitudinal effects of negative emotionality on loneliness in early childhood considering solitude preference and sibling status. Scientific Reports (2025).
2. Externalizing Behaviors Buffer the Effects of Early Life Adversity on Physiologic Dysregulation. Scientific Reports (2019).
3. Child temperament as a longitudinal predictor of mother–adolescent interaction quality: are effects independent of child and maternal mental health?. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2024).
4. Exposure to intimate partner violence alters longitudinal associations between caregiver depressive symptoms and effortful control in children and adolescents.. Development and Psychopathology (2023).