Psychologist Ethan Kross explains that emotional regulation starts right after birth, with something as simple as skin-to-skin contact. As kids grow, we can help shape how they understand and manage emotions.
Childhood is the perfect time to introduce tools like the “Batman Effect,” where kids use superhero personas to handle tough situations. Teaching these science-backed strategies early on not only helps kids navigate emotions but can even boost their grades and overall well-being.
ETHAN KROSS: As caretakers, we're in the position to shape our kids’ values and beliefs when it comes to their emotional lives.
How does attention impact my emotions? How can I perspective-shift? What about other people?
And it doesn't end. It just changes course as kids’ brains begin to develop and become more capable of implementing more advanced tools.
The first thing we do when a baby is born is we hold the baby. That is an act of co-regulation, skin-to-skin contact. We are teaching a child from that very young age that proximity to a caretaker is a form of regulation. So emotion regulation begins in the seconds following birth.
If we go to childhood, this is the ideal time to start motivating our kids to care about these things. Some children don't think it's possible to manage their emotions. But there's certain kinds of emotion regulation tools that have been specifically tailored for work with kids.
One great example of this is something that we call ‘The Batman Effect.’ The Batman Effect involves teaching a kid to adopt the alter ego of a superhero when they're dealing with adversity. So by asking a kid to adopt that positive alter ego, you're essentially teaching them how to shift their perspective, how to step outside themselves, so that they can engage in that difficult situation more productively.
As kids get older, the opportunity to expose them to a wider set of emotion regulation tools gets a lot easier. We've actually worked with several high schools to develop an emotion regulation curriculum. Kids who learn about how to manage their emotions using science-based tools, they're more likely to use those healthy tools when they struggle with emotions in their daily life compared to kids who are not exposed to those tools.
It’s not published yet. But what we are seeing in this work is that the more kids learn about how to manage their emotions using these science-based tools, the more their GPAs actually improve over time. These tools have the potential to make a difference on outcomes that really matter.
We have a rich resource of information concerning science-based tools that we can disseminate to kids in a very structured way. And I don't think it's ever too soon to start teaching your kids how to manage their emotions. The more we do that, I think the more effective we will be as a society.
