TY - JOUR
T1 - An experimental task to measure preschool children's frustration induced by having to wait unexpectedly
T2 - The role of sensitivity to delay and culture
AU - Chan, Wendy Wing Ying
AU - Shum, Kathy Kar Man
AU - Downs, Johnny
AU - Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J.S.
N1 - Funding Information:
We express heartfelt gratitude to the children, parents, and preschools for their participation and support and to master of science students for their help in this project. Special credit is given to Adrian S. W. Tam for his technical support and for programming the P-DeFT. This work was supported by the Centre for Doctoral Studies of King’s College London (W.C.) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London (E.S-B.).
Funding Information:
We express heartfelt gratitude to the children, parents, and preschools for their participation and support and to master of science students for their help in this project. Special credit is given to Adrian S. W. Tam for his technical support and for programming the P-DeFT. This work was supported by the Centre for Doctoral Studies of King's College London (W.C.) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London (E.S-B.). The data that support the findings of this study and other study materials are available on request from the corresponding author (E.S-B.). W.C.: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, visualization, and writing–original draft; K.S.: resources, supervision, and writing–review & editing; J.D.: funding acquisition, methodology, resources, and software; E.S-B.: conceptualization, methodology, resources, supervision, and writing–review & editing.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2024/1
Y1 - 2024/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Cultural differences
KW - Delay aversion
KW - Delay sensitivity
KW - Frustration
KW - Preschoolers
KW - Waiting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168834848&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105763
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105763
M3 - Article
C2 - 37647841
AN - SCOPUS:85168834848
SN - 0022-0965
VL - 237
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
M1 - 105763
ER -