3-221 - Self-regulation in the school context: Theoretical issues spanning preschool through adolescence

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

A growing body of research suggests that self-regulation skills are critical during the transition to school and for academic success during later age periods. These findings have promoted policy changes that aim to support students’ self-regulation skills. However, as a consensus forms about the importance of self-regulation for academic success, further studies are needed to clarify theoretical issues concerning the complex associations between self-regulation and the characteristics of children and their learning contexts. This symposium addresses several such issues.
The first study examined whether young children’s self-regulation develops as a function of age or whether exposure to the school environment has an additive impact. The second study examined the association between self-regulation and early literacy as well as the possible moderating effects of gender for predicting later academic achievement. The third study examined the association between two types of self-regulatory processes--executive functions (EF) and intentional self-regulation (ISR)—in early adolescence, as well as their relative predictive validity. The fourth study examined a reciprocal relation between ISR and school engagement and their roles in academic achievement in adolescence.
Together, these studies expand the field’s understanding of self-regulation in the school context by exploring the relation between school-related experiences and self-regulation, and how self-regulatory skills, in conjunction with individual and school-level variables, support academic performance in childhood and adolescence. The more comprehensive information about the role of self-regulation in the school context that this symposium provides is relevant for future research and for shaping learning environments and educational policy.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Steinunn Gestsdóttir, University of Iceland

Individual Presentations

• Revisiting Age- and Schooling-Related Growth in Self-Regulation: A Multi-Level Approach - Presenting Author: G. John Geldhof, Oregon State University; Jennifer K Finders, Oregon State University; Jessica G. Alonso, Oregon State University; Megan McClelland, Oregon State University

• Early Behavioral Self-regulation, Emergent Literacy, and Later Performance in Reading and Math: The Moderating Role of Gender - Presenting Author: Freyja Birgisdóttir, University of Iceland; G. John Geldhof, Oregon State University; Steinunn Gestsdóttir, University of Iceland

• The relation between executive functions and intentional self-regulation in adolescence: Implications for healthy development - Presenting Author: Steinunn Gestsdóttir, University of Iceland; Freyja Birgisdóttir, University of Iceland; Kristjan Ketill Stefansson, University of Iceland

• Do intentional self-regulation and school engagement promote each other and academic achievement in early adolescence? - Presenting Author: Kristjan Ketill Stefansson, University of Iceland; Steinunn Gestsdóttir, University of Iceland