Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Summary

An experimental paradigm was created to measure the effects of self-distancing in young children (4-6-year-olds). Self-distancing is a process through which individuals adopt a less egocentric perspective. This paradigm has been used to examine the effects of self-distancing on young children's self-regulation.

Abstract

Self-distancing (i.e., creating mental distance between the self and a stimulus by adopting a less egocentric perspective) has been studied as a way to improve adolescents' and adults' emotion regulation. These studies instruct adolescents and adults to use visual imagery or language to create distance from the self before engaging in self-regulation tasks and when thinking about past and future events. For example, adults are asked to recall past, negative emotional experiences from either a first-person perspective (no distance) or a third-person perspective (self-distanced). These studies show that a self-distanced perspective allows adults to cope more adaptively when recalling negative feelings. However, the self-distancing paradigm used with adults was not developmentally appropriate for young children. This modified self-distancing paradigm involves instructing children to think about their thoughts, feelings, and actions from different perspectives that vary in their distance from the self while completing a self-regulation task. The paradigm involves randomly assigning children to use one of three perspectives: self-immersed, third-person, or exemplar. In the self-immersed condition, children are asked to think about themselves using the first-person perspective (e.g., "How am I feeling?") and no distance is created from the self. In the third-person condition, children are asked to create distance from the self by using the third-person perspective (e.g., "How is [child's name] feeling?"). In the exemplar condition, the greatest distance from the self is created by asking children to pretend to be a media character and to think about that character's thoughts and feelings (e.g., "How is Batman feeling?"). Studies using the self-distancing paradigm with 4-6-year-olds have found that as the amount of distance from the self increases (self-immersed < third-person < exemplar), children perform better on self-regulation tasks. These findings suggest that the strategies implemented in the self-distancing protocol may be useful to include in self-regulation interventions for young children.

Introduction

Self-regulation is the ability to deliberately control one's thoughts, actions, and emotions. Self-regulation involves the interaction between "reactive" and "deliberate" processes and is a general concept that includes several different types of skills such as emotion regulation, executive function, perseverance, and effortful control (i.e., parent-reported temperament measure of self-regulation)¹. Several studies have found that self-regulation is associated with and predictive of many important cognitive and social outcomes^2,3. Additionally, early self-regulation ....

Protocol

All methods described here were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Minnesota and complied with guidelines for research with human subjects. Written informed consent was obtained from a parent or guardian of the child participants, and verbal assent was obtained from children given they were too young to provide written consent.

1. Procedure

1. Randomly assign 4-6-year-old children to one of three experimental conditions: self-immersed, third-person, or exemplar.
   NOTE: It is optional to include a control group that receives no special modifications to the standard task instructions.
2. Obta....

Results

Overall effectiveness of self-distancing
The self-distancing paradigm has been used in several studies focusing on young children's self-regulation including executive function skills, perseverance, and emotion regulation. To determine the effectiveness of self-distancing, children's performance on the target task is compared across the different self-distancing conditions (self-immersed, third-person, and exemplar). Studies with children between the ages of 3 and 6 y.......

Discussion

The child self-distancing paradigm described herein is important because it is developmentally appropriate and capitalizes on young children's love for role-play²³. Previous research shows that this method can be successfully implemented with children between 4 and 6 years of age and that children who create the most theoretical distance from the self by pretending to be a popular media character show better performance on self-regulation tasks than children who use the first-person perspectiv.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Child-sized table
2 Child-sized chairs (one for child and one for experimenter)
Camera to record children working on the task for coding their behaviors later
A laminated sheet of paper with pictures of four media characters that are popular with children of the study’s age range in their specific culture			In past studies, Batman, Superman, Bob the Builder, Rapunzel, Elsa (Frozen), and Dora the Explorer have been used.
Props associated with each media character that children can wear while working on the target task			For example, a cape for Batman, a tool belt for Bob the Builder, a tiara for Rapunzel, and a backpack for Dora the Explorer.
Laptop/computer to play audio reminders if audio reminders are used			These recordings should say the following for each condition every 60 seconds: Self-immersed: "Am I working hard?" Third- person: "Is [child’s name] working hard?" Exemplar: " Is [media character’s name] working hard?" This is one option for reminding children of their distancing condition. The type of reminder used will depend on the target task and if the experimenter will be present in the room during the target task.
Plain stickers to write "I" or the child's name to be used as reminders for the self-immersed and third-person condition			Stickers can be placed on the apparatus being used or on children's hands to remind them of their self-distancing strategy. These stickers would have the letter "I" for the self-immersed condition or their name spelled out for the third-person condition. This is one option for reminding children of their distancing condition. The type of reminder used will depend on the target task and if the experimenter will be present in the room during the target task.
Stickers with pictures of 4 media characters chosen for exemplar condition			Stickers with pictures of the media characters used in the study can be purchased and placed on the apparatus being or on the children's hands to remind them of their self-distancing strategy. This is one option for reminding children of their distancing condition. The type of reminder used will depend on the target task and if the experimenter will be present in the room during the target task.
Ipad or tablet with developmentally approariate and entertaining game for children in the age range being studied downloaded onto it			"Where's My Water" is one example of an app that can be used for 4-6-yea-olds. The app should be developmentally appropariate for the age range being studied and a game that children of that age want to play. This is only needed if the perseverance target task is used.
Laptop/computer with go/no-go task program described in the protocol			This is only needed if the perseverance target task is used.
Cardboard keyboard overlay to cover keys that are not needed for the go/no-go task			This is only needed if the perseverance target task is used.
Sticker illustrating iPad game to put on the "break" key on the computer keyboard			This is only needed if the perseverance target task is used.