Given the situation where research attention targeted at toddler group was relatively small, this study aimed to investigate
relationships between toddlers’ emotion regulation abilities and adjustment in daycare center. Considering the previous findings
suggesting that toddler age and gender could affect their adjustment in daycare center, this study included toddler age (months) into
correlation and regression analyses and administered these analyses for each toddler gender. Participants were 189 toddlers (91 male
and 98 female, mean age of 30.16 months old) from 10 daycare centers located in Seoul metropolitan area. Toddlers’ emotion
regulation abilities and adjustment in daycare center were measured using the Toddler Emotion Regulation Abilities Scale(Kim, 2011)
and the Preschool Adjustment Questionnaire (Jewsuwan, Luster, & Kostelink, 1992). Correlations analyses among toddler age, three
emotional regulation abilities dimensions (emotion recognition/expression, emotion management, and emotional coping) and five
adjustment indices (adjustment to routines, peer relationships, positive emotions, ego strength, and prosocial behaviors) revealed mostly
similar relationship patterns but gender differences in the relationships between toddler age and four adjustment indices and between
emotion recognition/expression and prosocial behaviors. Next, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for each of the five
adjustment indices with the step 1 entering toddler age and step 2 entering three emotion regulation abilities. Results suggest that
three emotional regulation abilities significantly incremented explanation for the variance in each of the five adjustment indices.
Emotion management, and emotional coping seemed to be particularly important in predicting these adjustment indices, regardless of
toddler gender. Gender difference in the effects of emotion regulation abilities were found only in the prediction of ego strength and
prosocial behaviors. In the prediction of ego strength, only emotional coping was significant in male, but both emotional coping and
emotion management were significant in female. Noticeably, emotion management abilities were found to have negative effects on
toddler ego strength. In the prediction of prosocial behaviors, all the three emotion regulation abilities were significant in female but
only two (emotion recognition/expression, emotion management) were significant in male. Results were interpreted and clinical
implications of the findings were discussed.