Chan Wendy Wing-Ying, Shum Kathy Kar-Man, Downs Johnny, Sonuga-Barke Edmund J S
School of Academic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK; Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Jan;237:105763. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105763. Epub 2023 Aug 28.
The ability to manage frustration induced by having to wait for valued outcomes emerges across childhood and is an important marker of self-regulatory capacity. However, approaches to measure this capacity in preschool children are lacking. In this study, we introduced a new task, the Preschool Delay Frustration Task (P-DeFT), designed specifically to identify children's behavioral and emotional markers of waiting-induced frustration during the imposed wait period and after the release from waiting. We then explored how waiting-induced frustration relates to individual differences in delay sensitivity and whether it differs between two cultural groups thought to have different attitudes toward children's conduct and performance: Hong Kong (HK) and the United Kingdom (UK). A total of 112 preschool children (mean age = 46.22 months) completed the P-DeFT in a quiet laboratory. Each trial had two stages; first, a button press elicited a Go signal; second, this Go signal allowed children to go to a "supermarket" to pick a target toy. On most trials, the Go signal occurred immediately on the first press. On 6 trials, an unexpected/unsignaled 5- or 10-s pre-Go-signal period was imposed. Frustration was indexed by performance (button presses and press duration), behavioral agitation, and negative affect during the pre-Go-signal wait period and the post-Go-signal shopping task. Parents rated their children's delay sensitivity. Waiting-related frustration expressed during both the pre-Go-signal wait period and the post-Go-signal task varied with (a) the length of wait and (b) individual differences in parent-rated delay sensitivity. UK children displayed more negative affect during delay than their HK counterparts, although the relationship between delay sensitivity and frustration was culturally invariant.
应对因等待有价值的结果而产生的挫败感的能力在整个童年时期逐渐显现，是自我调节能力的一个重要标志。然而，目前缺乏测量学龄前儿童这种能力的方法。在本研究中，我们引入了一项新任务，即学龄前延迟挫败任务（P-DeFT），该任务专门设计用于识别儿童在强制等待期间以及等待结束后因等待而产生的挫败感的行为和情绪标志。然后，我们探讨了因等待而产生的挫败感与延迟敏感性的个体差异之间的关系，以及它在两个被认为对儿童行为和表现有不同态度的文化群体（中国香港（HK）和英国（UK））之间是否存在差异。共有112名学龄前儿童（平均年龄 = 46.22个月）在安静的实验室中完成了P-DeFT。每个试验有两个阶段；首先，按下一个按钮会引发一个开始信号；其次，这个开始信号允许儿童前往“超市”挑选一个目标玩具。在大多数试验中，按下按钮后立即出现开始信号。在6次试验中，会有一个意外的/未发出信号的5秒或10秒的预开始信号期。挫败感通过在预开始信号等待期和开始信号后的购物任务中的表现（按钮按下次数和按下持续时间）、行为激动程度和负面情绪来衡量。家长对他们孩子的延迟敏感性进行了评分。在预开始信号等待期和开始信号后的任务中表现出的与等待相关的挫败感随（a）等待时间的长短和（b）家长评定的延迟敏感性的个体差异而变化。英国儿童在延迟期间比中国香港儿童表现出更多的负面情绪，尽管延迟敏感性和挫败感之间的关系在不同文化中是不变的。
