Consistency of Teacher-Child Interactions and Child Developmental Gains in Self-Regulation Across Preschool

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Self-regulation begins to develop in early childhood, as children learn to manage their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors (Blair & Raver, 2015). High quality early childhood education positively impacts children’s self-regulation and other social-emotional skills in preschool and beyond (McCoy et al., 2017; Weiland & Yoshikawa, 2013). One key component of classroom quality is teacher-child interactions, often studied through classroom observations that involve aggregating scores across cycles of observation to represent average classroom quality. However, this mean-level approach may obscure important variation in classroom quality that is relevant to children’s outcomes. Classrooms with greater variability in quality may be unpredictable or stressful and thus result in poor development outcomes for young children (Zinsser et al., 2013). Classroom consistency may be particularly important in facilitating self-regulation, given the importance of structure and consistent expectations for children’s development of these skills (Rosanbalm & Murray, 2017).

Some recent research has in fact found that consistency is a predictor of children’s social skills and academic outcomes in preschool and kindergarten, over and above average quality (Brock & Curby, 2014; Curby, Brock, & Hamre, 2013). The current study extended this pervious work by exploring how consistency of classroom quality related specifically to children’s self-regulation development across preschool. We hypothesized that children in preschool classrooms where the quality was more consistent would show greater gains in self-regulation from fall to spring, compared to children in classrooms with lower levels of consistency.

This study included a sample of 694 children from two cohorts in 101 preschool classrooms within a mid-Atlantic state (Table 1 for descriptive statistics). Classroom quality was measured using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) in fall, winter, and spring. Classrooms were observed by trained observers for five 10-minute cycles. Observers rated teachers on the three CLASS domains of quality (Emotional support, Classroom Organization, Instructional Support). Classroom consistency was measured by computing the average standard deviation for each domain across each CLASS observation for a measure of across day consistency, with higher scores indicating lower levels of consistency. Children’s self-regulation was measured using teacher-report, the behavioral control subscale of the Teacher Child Rating Scale (TCRS; Hightower et al., 1986), in the fall and spring.

In order to account for the nested nature of the data, we used multilevel models to examine the relations between classroom consistency and child outcomes (Table 2). In predicting spring child outcomes, we controlled for skills in the fall, child age, gender, and race, teacher’s years of experience, and average classroom quality. Consistency of classroom quality was marginally related to children’s self-regulation in the spring. Children in classrooms with higher levels of consistency (i.e., lower SDs) had slightly higher gains in self-regulation, compared to children in classrooms with lower levels of consistency (i.e., higher SDs). For our presentation, we will also replicate this initial model using directly assessed and observed classroom-embedded self-regulation as outcomes. Overall, findings will have implications for future research and measurement of classroom quality and children’s self-regulation development in early childhood education settings.

Authors

• Kelsey Ann Clayback, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Amanda P Williford, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason Downer, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Khara Lynn Pence Turnbull, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author