Development
How does self-control develop in infants and toddlers?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Different types of self-control develop along independent paths during infancy and do not show stable individual differences between the first and second assessments.
Key findings
The researchers found that while toddlers at 16 months of age showed improved self-control compared to their performance at 10 months, individual performance was highly unstable over time. There were no meaningful correlations between an infant's ability to resist touching a prohibited object and their ability to solve competitive choice tasks. This suggests that different types of inhibitory control do not develop under a single unified system during infancy but instead follow separate, independent paths.
Methodology
Researchers tracked self-control in a sample of one hundred and fifteen infants. They tested these children at 10 months of age and again at 16 months of age, using tasks such as a toy prohibition game, a touchscreen game, and the A-not-B task.
Limitations
This study does not establish a long-term developmental trajectory because the testing only spanned from 10 to 16 months of age. It cannot rule out the possibility that language comprehension issues or social confusion caused infants to fail the prohibition tasks rather than a lack of self-control. Furthermore, severe floor effects at 10 months of age—where most infants touched the forbidden objects very quickly—may have hidden true underlying links and stability over time.
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