Effortful control (EC) in early childhood is a robust predictor of later mental health, social-emotional adjustment, and academic performance. EC is defined as the ability to regulate behavioral and emotional reactivity, and develops most rapidly during preschool-age years, a time recognized as a critical period to intervene and prevent later psychopathology. However, we have little to no knowledge of the basic etiological processes underlying EC in young children, which precludes the development of effective interventions based on mechanisms of action. Mastery of EC skills is reliant on the successful integration of brain processes underlying neural and behavioral systems, and event-related potentials (ERPs) represent a confluence of these systems, making it an ideal tool to understand the neurobehavioral underpinnings of EC in children. Two common conflict-monitoring ERPs known as the error-related negativity (ERN) and N2 are thought to index aspects of EC in children, but the nature and function of these markers is not understood. The present study used a short-term targeted training of effortful control (EC) as an experimental manipulation to address whether (1) the ERN and N2 are valid markers of EC in young children (aged 4-5 years), and (2) whether training-induced changes in EC as indexed by behavioral and neural measures are associated with changes in social-emotional adjustment problems. While results across behavioral, neurophysiological, and informant-reported methods indicated that EC skills were not substantially impacted by targeted EC training, they also suggested that the ERN and N2 may be dynamic measures of EC skills in young children, and may reflect similar processes in this age period. Future research would benefit from developing measures that are more sensitive to detecting changes in EC skills during this age period in order to better understand the coherence between brain and behavior processes that support the maturation of EC.
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