DFG Research Group "Self-regulation as a resource in coping with developmental demands - a prospective analysis from middle childhood to adolescence".

Funded by the DFG (FOR 5034)
Head: Prof. Dr. Petra Warschburger
Collaborators: Michaela Gmeiner (project coordinator), Christian Gericke (since 04/2023), Anna Krasotkina (until 12/2022)
Duration: August 2021 - July 2024

Self-regulation (SR) is a central psychological resource that allows individuals to respond adequately to a wide range of situational demands and to successfully pursue their own goals. Accordingly, high self-regulation is related to multiple positive developmental outcomes. Research has so far focused mainly on (pre-)school age, whereas relatively little is known about the development and importance of self-regulation in adolescence. However, self-regulation is particularly relevant in adolescence, as external regulation (e.g., by parents) gradually decreases, decisions are increasingly made in a self-determined manner, and numerous youth-specific developmental demands (e.g., autonomy development; integration into the peer group) have to be met.

The DFG research group "Self-regulation as a resource in coping with developmental demands - a prospective analysis from middle childhood to adolescence" aims to trace the development of a wide range of self-regulatory competencies from middle childhood to adolescence. In addition, their effects on coping with age-typical developmental demands in adolescence in interaction with further factors are to be investigated prospectively and multimethodally.

The research group comprises a total of six subprojects. In addition to the spokesperson Prof. Petra Warschburger, Prof. Dr. Birgit Elsner (University of Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Rebecca Bondü (Berlin School of Psychology), Prof. Dr. Annette Klein (Psychoanalytic University Berlin), and Dr. Robert Busching (University of Potsdam) are also involved. The research group addresses a wide range of relevant developmental demands in adolescence.

The research group's project builds on the already available extensive longitudinal data set of the PIER ("Potsdamer Internale Entwicklungs-Risiken") study. Two further survey waves with 1,600 adolescents and their parents are planned. The aim is to contribute to the further development of the theoretical understanding of self-regulation through the comprehensive empirical data. Practical implications for the promotion of positive development are to be derived from this.

Subproject 5: The influence of self-regulation and stigmatization on weight and binge eating in the developmental course from middle childhood to adolescence.

Funded by the DFG (FOR 5034)
Head: Prof. Dr. Petra Warschburger
Collaborators: Nele Westermann, Astrid Brückner
Duration: August 2021 - July 2024

In this subproject, the interplay between stigmatization and self-regulation during development and their influence on weight status and conspicuous eating behavior will be investigated. Using longitudinal data, we will a) analyze the bidirectional relationship between the variables, b) examine the role of internalization on this relationship, and c) consider self-regulation as a mediating variable between stigma and weight and binge eating. The findings will contribute to this.

Further subprojects are:

P_01: Influences of self-regulatory competencies on moral behavior and moral-related personality aspects in adolescence.
(Prof. Dr. Rebecca Bondü, Berlin School of Psychology)

P_02: The influence of peers on the development of self-regulation in a classroom context: a longitudinal multilevel analysis.
(Dr. Robert Busching, University of Potsdam)

P_03: Individual profiles of basal self-regulation facets (executive functions) in childhood and adolescence: Identification, developmental course, relation to social information processing and Theory of Mind.
(Prof. Dr. Birgit Elsner, University of Potsdam)

P_04: Self-regulation as a predictor of developmental trajectories of internalizing symptoms in the course from middle childhood to adolescence (Prof. Dr. Annette Klein, International Psychoanalytic University Berlin)

P_06: Self-regulation competencies as well as internal and external factors as predictors of aggressive and antisocial behavior in adolescence (Prof. Dr. Rebecca Bondü, Psychological University of Berlin)