Exploring the Association between Dual Language Learning Preschool Children’s’ Self-Regulation Skills and Behaviors in the Classroom Context

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

The number of Spanish-English speaking dual language learners (DLLs) in the early education system has increased over the past decade (ACF, 2013). Young DLLs lag behind their monolingual peers by kindergarten entry (Reardon & Galindo, 2016). The achievement gap continues to widen during formal schooling (Rumberger & Tran, 2010), making it critical to support the early social-emotional needs of DLL children from low-income homes. The preschool classroom is an integral part of DLL children’s learning environment and is a key factor in the development of DLLs’ social-emotional skills. However, to date, no studies have examined the association between DLL children’s self-regulation skills and their behaviors in various contexts of the preschool classroom.
The current study expands on the literature investigating DLLs’ early social-emotional skills by using a within group approach to 1) examine the factor structure of DLLs’ self-regulation and 2) examine the association between DLLs’ self-regulation skills and behavior in three settings of the classroom (i.e., peers, teachers, and academic tasks).
A total of 342 Spanish-English-speaking DLLs (48.80% female) from 40 Head Start classrooms, 37 to 63 months old (M=49.91, SD=6.78) participated. In the fall, children were screened for DLL status to remain in the sample using the PreLAS2000 (Duncan & DeAvila, 1998). The Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment (PSRA) (Smith-Donald et al., 2007) was used to directly assess children in the fall. The PSRA consists of several tasks designed to assess Cool Executive Control (CEC) and Hot Executive Control (HEC) (see Table 1). In the spring, teachers rated children’s behaviors in three contexts, peers, teachers, and academic tasks, using the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Interaction (Lutz et al., 2002).
To examine the factor structure of DLLs’ self-regulation skills, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and path modeling was conducted in Mplus (Muthén & Muthén, 2019). A two-factor model, with CEC and HEC as latent factors, was used to examine the association between self-regulation skills and behaviors in classroom contexts (see Figure 2). HEC was positively associated with DLLs’ behaviors with peers (b=.292, p<.05) and academic tasks (b=.376, p<.01), but not with teachers. CEC was not associated with behavior in the preschool classroom.
The factor structure of CEC and HEC is aligned with previous studies that have found that DLL’s self-regulation is best explained as two separate factors (Frechette, 2019). DLLs with higher HEC skills were rated as behaving better with peers and tasks, suggesting that HEC abilities are specifically tied to success in various areas of the preschool classroom. The lack of a significant association between HEC and interactions with teachers may suggest that teachers are able to use classroom behavioral modification rules to successfully interact with all children in their classroom, regardless of their HEC abilities. The relation between HEC, peer, and task behaviors may indicate that teachers should provide opportunities to support developing HEC skills (e.g., waiting turns to play with a desirable toy) for DLL children. These findings stress the critical role HEC skills play in DLL children’s classroom interactions, potentially setting the stage for lifelong social success.

Authors

• Elizabeth Marie Frechette, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Brooke M Rumper, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daryl B Greenfield, University of Miami
  Non-Presenting Author