Easily Frustrated Infants: Implications for Emotion Regulation Strategies and Cognitive Functioning

We identified easily frustrated (n=9) and less easily frustrated (n=15) infants from a cohort (n=54) of 10-month-olds with and without a family history of ADHD. Categorization into frustration groups was made on the basis of both parents’ report and a laboratory assessment in which they were denied an attractive toy. Easily frustrated infants: 1) showed no significant relationship to having a family history of ADHD; 2) showed differences in frequency of emotion regulation strategies; and 3) showed significant group differences on assessments of cognitive functioning. Results indicate that easily frustrated infants are not regulating attention well and that better measures of cognitive functioning in relation to effortful control may better show group differences.