{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","title":"Inhibitory Control vs Emotion Regulation. A Mind the Kids","description":"Have you ever wondered how a child's ability to manage their emotions and impulses might shape their later mental health? And, what if one of the most important predictors isn't about how clever they are, but how well regulated they are on the inside?\n\nThis episode of the Mind the Kids podcast features Lilja Jónsdóttir, a PhD student at the Department of Psychology at Uppsala University, Sweden, who will shortly take up a postdoctoral research position in child and adolescent psychiatry at Uppsala's Department of Medical Sciences.\n\nHosted by Mark Tebbs, the conversation explores her paper, Examining Early Inhibitory Control and Emotional Regulation as Predictors of Childhood Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: A Longitudinal Study, co-authored with her supervisor Professor Karen Brocki, co-supervisors Dr. Matilda Frick and Dr. Andreas Frick of Stockholm University, and fellow PhD researcher Emma Heemann.\n\nThe discussion unpacks the hierarchical development of self-regulation, examining how simpler skills such as inhibitory control — the ability to override an automatic impulse, illustrated through the classic marshmallow test — feed into more complex abilities like emotion regulation. Drawing on data from the long-running Effect Project, a longitudinal study following 94 typically developing children in Uppsala from infancy, Lilja explains how inhibitory control was measured at age four using the day-night Stroop task, emotion regulation was assessed at age six via validated parent-report measures, and internalizing and externalizing problems were captured at nine to ten years using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.\n\nContrary to prior research and theoretical expectations, the study found no link between early inhibitory control and later emotion regulation or behavioural outcomes. Instead, emotion regulation at age six emerged as a robust, transdiagnostic predictor of both internalizing problems (such as worry and withdrawal) and externalizing problems (such as impulsivity and defiance) three to four years later — a finding that held even within a relatively advantaged community sample, strengthening the case for universal, early support.\n\nThis conversation is essential listening for clinicians, educators, and parents interested in child development, self-regulation, and early intervention. Lilja discusses the importance of co-regulation between caregivers and children, promising directions for emotion-regulation-focused support, and why publishing null results — such as the absence of an inhibitory control effect here — matters for advancing the field.\n\nRead the JCPP Advances paper 'Examining early inhibitory control and emotion regulation as predictors of childhood internalizing and externalizing problems: A longitudinal study'\nLilja K. Jónsdóttir, Matilda A. Frick, Andreas Frick, Emma J. Heeman, Karin C. Brocki\nFirst published: 07 January 2026\nhttps://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.70093\n\nGet a free CPD/CME certificate for listening to this podcast by registering for a FREE ACAMH Learn account at https://bit.ly/4fF4BBW\n\nVisit https://www.acamh.org\nFacebook and LinkedIn search / ACAMH\nInstagram https://www.instagram.com/assoc.camh\nBluesky https://bsky.app/profile/acamh.bsky.social\nX https://x.com/acamh","author_name":"'Mind the Kids': an ACAMH podcast","author_url":"https://audioboom.com/channels/4939688-mind-the-kids-an-acamh-podcast","provider_name":"Audioboom","provider_url":"https://audioboom.com","width":480,"height":95,"thumbnail_url":"https://audioboom.com/i/43763365/600x600/c","thumbnail_width":600,"thumbnail_height":600,"html":""}