Improving children’s self-regulation and executive functions: a pilot intervention with immigrant mothers

Abstract Self-regulation―comprising behavioral and emotional regulation and cognitive processes (i.e., executive functions)―is pivotal for children’s social development and achievement. Parents, especially mothers, can promote children’s self-regulation, however, relevant parental interventions are scarce. Moreover, showing appropriate self-regulation strategies in different contexts can be challenging for collectivistic-oriented immigrant children living in individualistic-oriented countries. This study developed and investigated a pilot intervention for collectivistic-oriented immigrant mothers and their children, aged 5–11 years, living in Switzerland, aiming to improve the children’s self-regulation and executive functions. Fifteen mothers (11 Turkish, 2 Albanian, 1 Spanish-Portuguese-German, and 1 Portuguese; M Age = 36.92, SD Age = 3.10) and 20 children ( M Age = 7.15; SD Age = 1.84) participated in the pilot intervention. The intervention lasted 6 weeks and consisted of 3 training sessions for mothers and 3 self-learning phases with translated learning materials (videos and exercises) for mothers and their children. In a pre- and post-test, the mothers rated their children’s executive functions and behavioral self-regulation. The mothers also rated their domain-specific self-efficacy in supporting children’s self-regulation based on the intervention content. In addition, we assessed the acceptability of the pilot intervention based on interviews with 7 mothers. The participants strongly adhered to the intervention and reported an overall high level of acceptance. We found a significant increase in the mothers’ domain-specific self-efficacy regarding self-regulation. Furthermore, we found positive and significant pre-post changes in most children’s executive functions but not in behavioral self-regulation.