FINAL PROJECT

‘Adolescent Development & Identity Formation: How Ineffective Emotion Regulation

Course Lecturer:

Moh. Syahrun Ibrahim, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D.

Written by:

BERLIANI ISABEL K. MOHAMAD

321424007

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAMMJE

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND CULTURE

GORONTALO STATE UNIVERSITY

2025
 5W1H Case Study Analysis Details

What Impact of childhood emotion regulation on academic and social outcomes.

Who 4-year-old participant.

When 2025 (observation during early childhood, age 4).

Where Home environment simulating kindergarten.

Why To inform interventions for better emotional, social, and academic

How Naturalistic observation, structured tasks, qualitative analysis, behavioral

BACKGROUND

Emotions call forth a coordinated set of behavioural, experiential, and physiological response
tendencies that together influence how we respond to perceived challenges and opportunities
(Gross, 2002), however, emotions do not force us to respond in certain ways, they only make
it more likely we will do so; this malleability permits us to regulate our emotions. When afraid,
we may run, but do not always do so. When angry, we may strike, but do not always do so.
And when amused, we may laugh, but do not always do so. How we regulate our emotions
matters: Our wellbeing is inextricably linked to our emotions. emotional responses can also
mislead us, particularly when contemporary physical and social environments differ
dramatically from those that shaped our emotions over the millennia (Gross, 1999). This
process is inherently linked to social contexts, as peers, family, and societal expectations shape
self-perception and belonging. Meanwhile, childhood emotional regulation; the ability to
manage emotional responses, lays the groundwork for these developmental tasks. Research
shows that ineffective emotion regulation in early life, often rooted in parental modeling of
maladaptive strategies, predicts challenges in social competence and academic outcomes
(Spinrad, 2006; Morris, 2015; Milojevich, 2020).

This study is important because adolescence is a critical period for identity formation and
academic development, both of which are profoundly influenced by emotional regulation skills
acquired during childhood. Ineffective emotion regulation can negatively impact students’
academic performance and social integration. Understanding how early emotional regulation
deficits translate into academic challenges can inform educators, parents, and policymakers in
creating targeted interventions that support emotional and academic development. Ultimately,
this research aims to bridge gaps between emotional health and educational success, fostering
more holistic approaches to adolescent development that promote resilience, self-awareness,
and improved learning outcomes.

METHOD

The participant in this study was a 4-year-old child observed within a naturalistic home
environment that simulated a kindergarten school setting. This familiar and comfortable
context was chosen to facilitate the examination of the child’s cognitive and behavioral
development in a realistic manner. Data collection was conducted over a series of sessions,
each involving structured activities designed to engage the child cognitively and socially.
Examples of these activities included learning to identify alphabets and completing coloring
book tasks, which provided opportunities to observe problem-solving abilities, attention, and
interaction with the environment.

Throughout each session, the child’s responses to various social and environmental stimuli
were systematically recorded, with a particular focus on emotional expression, coping
strategies, and behavioral adjustments. The primary aim was to identify patterns in how the
child regulated emotions and to explore the impact of these regulatory processes on cognitive
tasks such as attention and problem-solving, as well as on social interactions. Detailed
observational notes and behavioral checklists were used to document these instances, enabling
a qualitative analysis of the relationship between emotion regulation and the child’s cognitive
and social functioning.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The early childhood years have recently been identified as a crucial period for the development
of important executive functions such as attention, inhibition, working memory. In terms of
academic success, inefficient emotion regulation physiologically inhibits a child’s use of higher
order cognitive processes (e.g., working memory, attention, and planning) in the classroom
(Graziano, 2007). One consequence of this disruption in higher order cognitive processes is an
inability to attend to and retain novel information presented by the classroom teacher. In
addition to directly affecting cognitive processing, emotion regulation may also be indirectly
related to early academic success. One mechanism by which children’s emotion regulation
skills may contribute to their early academic success is through behavioural control. Another
potential mechanism by which emotion regulation skills affect children’s early academic
success is the quality of the student-teacher relationship. The quality of children’s relationships
with their teachers has increasingly been recognized as an important contributor to children’s
early school adaptation (Steinberg, et. al, 1995; Graziano, 2007). A high-quality student-
teacher relationship supports the child (e.g., offering praise, encouragement, guidance, and
discipline) throughout the challenging and novel educational environment to which the child
must adjust, this relation was mediated by children’s behavioral regulation in the classroom
(i.e., their ability to refrain from disruptive behavior in the classroom).

The findings in the observation revealed notable deficits in emotion regulation, adversely
affecting cognitive and behavioral development. During alphabet identification tasks, the child
exhibited distress and frequent distractions, indicating a limited attention span and impaired
focus. These findings suggest underdeveloped regulatory capacities that compromise
concentration and task persistence, consistent with literature linking emotion dysregulation to
disruptions in working memory and attentional control. Subsequent coloring sessions
corroborated these observations, as the child displayed impatience and distress, often
abandoning tasks prematurely. This pattern underscores the detrimental impact of poor emotion
regulation on motivation and cognitive engagement, supporting theoretical models that
associate emotional dysregulation with impaired executive functions critical for problem-
solving and sustained attention. Moreover, the child’s regulatory challenges likely extend to
social domains, potentially eliciting frustration, withdrawal, or disruptive behaviors that
impede peer relationship formation and social competence. Recurrent distress during structured
tasks may also diminish the quality of interactions with caregivers or educators, thereby
limiting supportive scaffolding essential for academic and social advancement. To conclude,
the data affirm the pivotal role of emotion regulation in cognitive and socio-emotional
development. The observed regulatory inefficiencies contribute to a cycle of distress and
diminished academic performance, highlighting the necessity for early interventions to
enhance emotion regulation, thereby promoting improved cognitive engagement and social
functioning.
CONCLUSION

The study highlights the critical role of emotion regulation in early childhood development,
particularly its influence on cognitive, behavioral, and social domains. Emotion regulation
involves coordinated behavioral, experiential, and physiological responses to challenges and
opportunities, but it does not rigidly determine behavior, allowing for flexibility and regulation
(Gross, 2002). Effective emotion regulation is foundational for wellbeing and academic
success, as poor regulation can disrupt higher-order cognitive functions such as attention,
working memory, and planning, which are essential for learning (Graziano, 2007). Moreover,
emotion regulation impacts behavioral control and the quality of student-teacher relationships,
both of which facilitate early school adaptation and social competence (Steinberg et al., 1995;
Graziano, 2007). The observation of a 4-year-old child in a naturalistic setting revealed deficits
in emotion regulation manifesting as distress, distraction, impatience, and task abandonment
during cognitive tasks. These regulatory challenges impaired the child's ability to maintain
focus and motivation, consistent with research linking emotional dysregulation to executive
function impairments. Additionally, poor emotion regulation likely hinders social interactions
and the formation of supportive relationships with caregivers and educators, which are crucial
for scaffolding academic and social development. In conclusion, the findings affirm that early
emotion regulation is pivotal for cognitive engagement and socio-emotional development.
Deficits in this domain can create a cycle of distress and diminished academic performance,
underscoring the need for early interventions aimed at enhancing emotion regulation skills.
Such interventions can promote resilience, improve attention and problem-solving abilities,
and foster positive social relationships, ultimately supporting better academic and
developmental outcomes in children
REFERENCES

Graziano, P. A., Reavis, R. D., Keane, S. P., & Calkins, S. D. (2007). The role of emotion
regulation in children's early academic success. Journal of school psychology, 45(1), 3-19.

Gross, J. J. (2002). Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social

Milojevich, H. M., Machlin, L., & Sheridan, M. A. (2020). Early adversity and children's
emotion regulation: Differential roles of parent emotion regulation and adversity
exposure. Development and Psychopathology, 32(5), 1788-1798.

Spinrad, T. L., Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Fabes, R. A., Valiente, C., Shepard, S. A., ... &
Guthrie, I. K. (2006). Relation of emotion-related regulation to children's social competence: a
longitudinal study. Emotion, 6(3), 498.

Morris, N. (2015). Parent-child co-regulation predicting emotion regulation in early