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Abstract
This theoretical paper presents a public health approach for promoting self-regulation across development that is based in cross-disciplinary theory and research. The self-regulation promotion model includes three key approaches that are each dependent on the relationship that children and youth have with caregivers: teaching self-regulation skills, building supportive environments, and providing co-regulation. This model extends the science of self-regulation insofar as it: (1) focuses on promoting wellbeing (not only reducing risks) across domains of functioning, (2) addresses self-regulation intervention across childhood and through young adulthood, (3) integrates multiple theories and applies them to intervention in meaningful ways, and (4) identifies specific strategies that can be used in natural developmental contexts and that address the social ecological environment as well as the individual child. We describe seven key principles that support the model including a description of self-regulation processes and implications for promoting self-regulation at each developmental stage. We end with broad implications for intervention, highlighting the relevance of the self-regulation promotion model for practitioners, policy makers, and prevention researchers.
Details
; Rosanbalm, Katie 2 ; Christopoulos, Christina 2 ; Meyer, Aleta L 3 1 Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; The Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, USA
2 Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University, Durham, USA
3 Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C., USA