{
 "title": "Emotional regulation skills at 3, 4 and 5: what differs by age and what doesn't",
 "description": "Emotional regulation skills by age, 2025 US survey data: sharing and persistence grow a lot from 3 to 5, while frequent temper loss stays rare, about 6%.",
 "url": "https://raisingstoics.com/research/data/emotional-regulation-skills-by-age",
 "question": "\"How often does this child …?\" asked of parents of children ages 0–5 (topical questionnaire T1), with answers Always, Most of the time, About half the time, Sometimes, Never. We show Always + Most of the time.",
 "measure": "Share of children, % (parent report)",
 "unit": "percent",
 "source": {
  "short": "NSCH 2025 · our analysis",
  "name": "U.S. Census Bureau and HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau, 2025 National Survey of Children's Health, topical public-use file; analysis by Raising Stoics",
  "url": "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/nsch/data/datasets.html",
  "license": "Public domain (U.S. Government work). Estimates are our own calculations; HRSA and the Census Bureau are not responsible for them",
  "licenseUrl": "https://www.usa.gov/government-works",
  "question": "\"How often does this child …?\" asked of parents of children ages 0–5 (topical questionnaire T1), with answers Always, Most of the time, About half the time, Sometimes, Never. We show Always + Most of the time."
 },
 "license": "Public domain (U.S. Government work). Estimates are our own calculations; HRSA and the Census Bureau are not responsible for them",
 "method": "We used the 2025 NSCH topical public-use file (Stata version) from the U.S. Census Bureau and kept children ages 3, 4, and 5 (SC_AGE_YEARS). For each question we calculated the weighted share answering Always or Most of the time, using the child weight FWC, among children with a valid answer. 95% confidence intervals use Taylor linearization with strata defined by state and sampling stratum and the household as the sampling unit. Unweighted sample sizes are 2,060–2,230 children per age and question. For TEMPER and CALMDOWN we used the recoded variables TEMPER_R and CALMDOWN_R provided in the file. Single-year estimates have wide intervals; differences of a few points between ages may not be meaningful.",
 "takeaways": [
  "Some emotional regulation skills grow steadily between 3 and 5. Sharing toys or games \"always or most of the time\" rises from 61% at age 3 to 69% at 4 and 79% at 5. Keeping at a task when it's hard rises from 33% to 41% to 48%. Focusing on a task for a few minutes rises from 71% to 81% to 89%.",
  "Frequent difficulties are uncommon at every age. Only about 6% of children lose their temper always or most of the time, and 7–8% have trouble calming down that often, with no clear change from 3 to 5.",
  "Difficulty waiting for a turn \"always or most of the time\" is lower at 5 (8%) than at 3 and 4 (13% each).",
  "Not everything improves on a straight line. Difficulty switching from one activity to another is reported for 14–19% of children, with no steady decline between 3 and 5 in this one year of data."
 ],
 "items": [
  {
   "label": "Shares toys or games · age 3",
   "value": 60.8,
   "range_low": 56.5,
   "range_high": 65
  },
  {
   "label": "Shares toys or games · age 4",
   "value": 68.9,
   "range_low": 64.3,
   "range_high": 73.4
  },
  {
   "label": "Shares toys or games · age 5",
   "value": 79.3,
   "range_low": 75.9,
   "range_high": 82.6
  },
  {
   "label": "Can focus on a task for a few minutes · age 3",
   "value": 70.5,
   "range_low": 66.3,
   "range_high": 74.8
  },
  {
   "label": "Can focus on a task for a few minutes · age 4",
   "value": 81.3,
   "range_low": 77.3,
   "range_high": 85.2
  },
  {
   "label": "Can focus on a task for a few minutes · age 5",
   "value": 88.7,
   "range_low": 86.6,
   "range_high": 90.8
  },
  {
   "label": "Keeps working at a task even when it is hard · age 3",
   "value": 33.3,
   "range_low": 29.4,
   "range_high": 37.3
  },
  {
   "label": "Keeps working at a task even when it is hard · age 4",
   "value": 40.5,
   "range_low": 35.8,
   "range_high": 45.1
  },
  {
   "label": "Keeps working at a task even when it is hard · age 5",
   "value": 47.7,
   "range_low": 43.4,
   "range_high": 52.1
  },
  {
   "label": "Has difficulty waiting for their turn · age 3",
   "value": 12.9,
   "range_low": 9.8,
   "range_high": 15.9
  },
  {
   "label": "Has difficulty waiting for their turn · age 4",
   "value": 12.9,
   "range_low": 9.2,
   "range_high": 16.7
  },
  {
   "label": "Has difficulty waiting for their turn · age 5",
   "value": 8.4,
   "range_low": 6.3,
   "range_high": 10.5
  },
  {
   "label": "Has trouble calming down · age 3",
   "value": 7.1,
   "range_low": 5.1,
   "range_high": 9.2
  },
  {
   "label": "Has trouble calming down · age 4",
   "value": 7.5,
   "range_low": 5.4,
   "range_high": 9.5
  },
  {
   "label": "Has trouble calming down · age 5",
   "value": 8.1,
   "range_low": 5.8,
   "range_high": 10.4
  },
  {
   "label": "Loses their temper · age 3",
   "value": 6,
   "range_low": 4.1,
   "range_high": 7.8
  },
  {
   "label": "Loses their temper · age 4",
   "value": 5.4,
   "range_low": 3.5,
   "range_high": 7.3
  },
  {
   "label": "Loses their temper · age 5",
   "value": 5.9,
   "range_low": 3.9,
   "range_high": 7.8
  }
 ],
 "csv": "https://raisingstoics.com/research/data/emotional-regulation-skills-by-age.csv",
 "chart_embed": "https://raisingstoics.com/research/embed/emotional-regulation-skills-by-age",
 "image": "https://raisingstoics.com/research/og/emotional-regulation-skills-by-age.png",
 "credit": "Raising Stoics (raisingstoics.com)"
}