An Applied Contextual Model for Promoting Self‑Regulation Enactment Across Development: Implications for Prevention, Public Health and Future Research

Introduction Self-regulation has received increasing attention in both the scientific literature and public media, generating over 10,000 peer-reviewed papers published in the past 15 years. This growing focus stems from evidence that self-regulation plays a foundational role in life-long functioning across domains, from mental health and social-emotional wellbeing to physical health, academic achievement, and socioeconomic success (e.g., Buckner, Mezzacappa, & Beardslee, 2009; Dishion & Connell, 2006; Moffitt et al., 2011; Shonkoff & Garner, 2012). At the same time, self-regulation has proven responsive to interventions, making it a powerful target for change (Greenberg, 2006; Piquero, Jennings, & Farrington, 2010). While several theoretical models of self-regulatory processes have been suggested by scholars (e.g., Hoyle & Gallagher, 2015), little translational work has been done to integrate theories and apply them to intervention in useful and usable ways. Indeed, work towards making the complex science of self-regulation understandable and accessible is considered a priority for prevention science (Shonkoff, 2018). Our intention with this paper is to help move the science of self-regulation into explicit recommendations for the field. Our applied contextual model for promoting self-regulation in children and youth, identified as the Self-Regulation Promotion Model, is designed to enable prevention scientists, educators, program administrators, and policy makers to enhance existing approaches that target the social ecological environment as well as at the child. While providing a framework for prevention and intervention, we also emphasize that a focus on self-regulation skills and strategies can promote healthy development and wellbeing on a population level. This broad, strengths-based orientation is grounded in the belief that self-regulation is a normative developmental process that can be strengthened with systematic and intentional effort. This perspective differs from much of the self-regulation literature that focuses on mechanisms explaining risk behaviors and poor developmental trajectories (e.g., Heatherton & Wagner, 2011). In