Children's Self-Efficacy as a Buffer of Temperamental Inhibition and Impulsivity in the Prediction of Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors.

Abstract

This study tested children's self-efficacy as a moderator of the associations among temperamental indices of impulsivity and inhibition and their subsequent internalizing and externalizing behaviors two years later. Participants included 243 families, including mothers and preschool children (M age = 4.60 years; 56% girls; 54% Black or multi-racial, 19% Latinx; median annual income = $36,000). The current study utilized a multi-method, multi-informant longitudinal design with two measurement occasions spaced two years apart. Findings from the structural equation modeling analyses indicated that the latent interaction between children's behavioral inhibition and self-efficacy selectively predicted residualized change in their internalizing symptoms over a two-year period, β = -.22, p = .02. In contrast, the latent interaction between children's impulsivity and self-efficacy specifically predicted residualized change in their externalizing symptoms across the two-year timespan, β = -.18, p = .03. Follow up analyses of the two interactions supported the hypothesis that self-efficacy buffered children from the specific risks associated with exhibiting high levels of impulsivity and behavioral inhibition.