BEHAVIORAL-CORRELATES OF SELF-CONTROL AT 33 MONTHS

Self-control behavior of 48 33 month-old children was examined during two delay of-gratification tasks. Children were categorized as high, medium, and low in self control on the basis of their cumulative delay time. Instances of attention shifts, body movements, as well as social and object referencing were coded throughout the two delay periods. Results showed significant group differences in behavioral tactics. Children in the low group looked at and touched the forbidden object more often; members of the medium group used more social referencing, and those in the high group were more likely to reference nonforbidden objects. Findings also suggested that high controllers were more likely to use self-distraction tactics involving shifts in attention from one object to another during the delay period. Separate analyses for each task indicated that the observed delay tactics were stable from one context to the other. These findings substantiate results from other research on self-control with 3-year-old children and also document different behavioral styles of self-regulation during delay of gratification.