1-089 - The integration of self-regulation and other school-related competencies in early and long-term educational success

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Self-regulation, including executive functioning and behavioral self-regulation, has been well established as critical for young children’s school readiness and academic success across diverse cultures. This symposium explores how self-regulation co-develops and interacts with other key school-related competencies, such as language and reading, motivation, and motor skills, in early childhood, and how their contribution to academic success may vary by academic subject and gender. As such, the symposium contributes to a more nuanced picture of the nature and role of self-regulation in school readiness and academic success. The four studies present data from three cultures; the U.S., Finland, and Iceland. The first presentation examines the co-development and importance of executive functions and motor skills (with a focus on visiomotor integration) among a U.S. sample, and how they support short- and long-term school success. The second presentation finds reciprocal associations between social- and behavioral competencies, and language and pre-literacy skills, among preschoolers in Finland, and that these associations vary by gender. The third presentation reports that both self-regulation and language / pre-literacy among Icelandic children in preschool predict academic functioning in first grade, but that self-regulation has clearer connections to math, and language to reading, in middle school. The final presentation finds that elementary school students’ science related subjective task value, cost, and self ability beliefs, are interrelated between first and second grade in Finland, and that first graders’ science related task values, cost, and ability beliefs predict their interest in STEM occupation a year later. Again, variation is observed across gender.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Steinunn Gestsdottir, University of Iceland

Individual Presentations

• The role of executive function and motor skills in academic success among children in the U.S. - Presenting Author: Megan McClelland, Oregon State University; Non-Presenting Author: Claire Cameron, University of Buffalo; Non-Presenting Author: Helyn Kim, University of Virgina; Non-Presenting Author: Robert Duncan, Purdue University; Non-Presenting Author: Derek R. Becker, Western Carolina University

• Longitudinal Associations between Social Competence and Language and Pre-literacy Skills - Presenting Author: Eija Pakarinen, University of Jyvaskyla; Non-Presenting Author: Antje von Suchodoletz, New York University Abu Dhabi; Non-Presenting Author: Jenni Salminen, University of Jyvaskyla; Non-Presenting Author: Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, University of Jyvaskyla

• Early Predictors of Fourth-Grade Reading versus Math: The Role of Self-regulation and Early Literacy - Presenting Author: Freyja Birgisdottir, University of Iceland; Non-Presenting Author: Steinunn Gestsdottir, University of Iceland; Non-Presenting Author: John Geldhof, Oregan State Unviversity

• Students’ task values, ability beliefs and STEM aspirations in early science education - A longitudinal study - Presenting Author: Katariina Salmela-Aro, European Association for Developmental Psychology (EADP); Non-Presenting Author: Janica Vinni-Laakso, University of Helsinki; Non-Presenting Author: Jiesi Guo, Australian Catholic University; Non-Presenting Author: Jacque Eccles, University of California, Irvine