Longitudinal Intra-Individual and Inter-Individual Relations Between Cognitive and Emotional Self-Regulation Across Adolescence.

Development in multidimensional self-regulation is important because it can be leveraged to enable healthy long-term adjustment. This four-wave study investigated longitudinal associations between two domains of adolescent self-regulation, specifically its cognitive (e.g., planning and decision-making) and emotional components (e.g., control of negative emotions). Participants included 500 adolescents (52% female; T1 Mage = 13.31 years; 76% White; average yearly family income > 100,000 USD). A random-intercepts cross-lagged panel model revealed that, once trait-level longitudinal stability in each regulatory component was controlled, there were small cross-lagged effects from cognitive self-regulation to later emotional self-regulation. Findings warrant additional future research that describes adolescents' multidimensional self-regulation development and its antecedents, in part by appropriately distinguishing between intra- and inter-individual effects.