Behavioral Self-Regulation, Early Academic Achievement, and the Effectiveness of Urban Schools for Low-Income Ethnic Minority Children

Self-regulation in toddlers and the emergence of pre-academic disparities

A growing body of research has examined how children's self-regulation during early and middle childhood mediates SES disparities in academic achievement. Evidence suggests that these self-regulation skills begin developing even earlier, during the toddler years, but more work is needed examining how different measures of self-regulation relate to key constructs such as socioeconomic status (SES) and toddlers' pre-academic skills. In this online study, we examine multiple approaches to measuring self-regulation using confirmatory factor analyses and assess the extent to which self-regulatory skills help explain SES differences in early math and language skills among a sample of 158 two- and three-year-old children. Self-regulation was assessed through a battery of parent- and examiner-ratings. Children's counting, cardinality, and vocabulary skills were measured online through direct assessments and parent surveys. Two self-regulation factors emerged representing parent-reported and observational measures, and only observational measures of self-regulation mediated associations between SES and children's math and language skills. Parent-reported self-regulation was not uniquely related to SES or children's pre-academic skills, underscoring the need for careful consideration of how self-regulation is measured among toddlers when examining its associations with pre-academic skills.

Culture, parenting, and language: Respeto in Latine mother-child interactions

The cultural value of respeto (respect) is central to Latine parenting. Yet, how respeto manifests in the interactions of Latine parents and their young children remains unexamined. Low-income Mexican immigrant Spanish-speaking mothers and their 2.5-year-old toddlers (N = 128) were video-recorded during play (M _age = 30.2 months, SD = 0.52), and two culturally informed items of respeto were coded: parent calm authority and child affiliative obedience. Respeto related to standard ratings of mother and child interactions (e.g., maternal sensitivity and child engagement) but also captured unique features of parent-child interactions. Respeto related to mothers' and toddlers' language production and discourse during the interaction, and explained unique variance in language variables above standard ratings of mother-child interaction. This is the first effort to document a culturally salient aspect of dyadic interaction in Mexican immigrant mothers and young children and to show that respeto relates to language use during mother- child interactions.

Der längsschnittliche Zusammenhang zwischen vorschulischen Selbstregulationsfähigkeiten und akademischen Kompetenzen in der Grundschule

Zusammenfassung. Die Vorhersagekraft selbstregulatorischer Fähigkeiten für die Entwicklung früher akademischer Kompetenzen wurde vielfach hervorgehoben. Allerdings bestehen häufig variierenden Definitionen von Selbstregulation, die mit verschiedenen Operationalisierungsvarianten einhergehen. Das Ziel dieses systematischen Reviews ist es, unter Berücksichtigung der verschiedenen Definitionen, eine Übersicht der Ergebnisse zur Vorhersagekraft vorschulischer Selbstregulationsfähigkeiten auf die akademischen Kompetenzen in der Grundschule zu erstellen. Eine systematische Literaturrecherche in den bibliografischen Fachdatenbanken Web of Science, PsycINFO und Psyndex ergab 1.509 Studien, von denen 22 Studien die weiteren Einschlusskriterien erfüllt haben. Trotz unterschiedlicher Erhebungsmethoden und Definitionen unterstützen die Studienergebnisse übereinstimmend die bedeutende Rolle vorschulischer Selbstregulationsfähigkeiten für die Entwicklung mathematischer Kompetenzen und Lese- und Schreibfähigkeiten in den frühen Grundschuljahren. Insbesondere kognitive Aspekte der Selbstregulation scheinen im Zusammenhang mit der Schulleistungsfähigkeit von Kindern zu stehen. Implikationen für frühe Trainingsmaßnahmen und die Übertragbarkeit der Erkenntnisse der vorwiegend internationalen Studien auf das deutsche Bildungssystem werden diskutiert.