Self-regulation is an individual difference characteristic of adolescents that includes goal setting, planning, and task persistence, as well as the more immediate ability to manage emotions and attention in such a way as to promote longer term outcomes such as health, relationship satisfaction, and goal attainment (Schmeichel and Baumeister 2004). This core temperamental individual difference factor clearly covaries with child and adolescent problem behavior such as hyperactivity, antisocial behavior and early substance use (Beauchaine and Neuhaus 2008), as well as young adult substance use (Cadoret 1992; Whiteside and Lynam 2001). It is hypothesized that by adolescence, individual differences are partially attributable to temperament (see Rothbart 2011; Wills and Dishion 2004) but also to a set of skills learned in the context of family and school environments (Dishion and Patterson 2006), which are reinforced in friendships (Tipsord and Dishion in prep) and, later on, in successful intimate relationships (Gottman and Levenson 1984).
