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1-105 - Peer Influences on Self-regulation and School Adaptation at the Transition from Preschool to Primary School

Thu, March 21, 12:30 to 2:00pm, Hilton Baltimore, Floor: Level 2, Key 10

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

There is a growing recognition that the acquisition of “soft skills” associated with becoming an integrated member of a classroom peer group during early childhood is as important for children’s academic success as they transition from preschool to formal schooling as any explicit numeracy and literacy knowledge (“hard skills”) they may acquire in the preschool setting. Many of these “soft skills” underlie the building of positive social relationships with peers, including the capacities to flexibly regulate behavior, affect, and thought as children engage with classmates in their group.

Each paper in this symposium addresses both social and self-regulatory aspects of child behavior in relation to each other and/or in relation to adapting to the academic and/or social milieu presented by the primary school classroom, using a multi-informant, multi-measure approach. In each of the three papers, indicators of soft skills (e.g., peer acceptance, social engagement with peers, executive function, emotion regulation) were used to predict subsequent soft and hard skills at the end of kindergarten or at the transition to primary school. In each study, soft skills proved significant as predictors, with emotion regulation being most often significant and significant interactions with the engagement and/or acceptance variables were also obtained.

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