Examining Variability of Young Children’s Self-Regulation Across Context: Findings From Naturalistic Approaches in Four Countries

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The symposium challenges the assumption that self-regulation is an inherently stable skill by exploring within-child variability across contexts. Children’s self-regulation is often assessed in controlled laboratory settings which aim to keep contextual factors constant, making it impossible to uncover natural and meaningful variability. Therefore, ecologically valid measures are needed to understand how self-regulation varies depending on contextual and personal factors. Authors in this symposium examine the range of behaviors that children display in the classroom and what predicts this variability both within and between children. Naturalistic observations are compared with other assessment approaches, and linked to school readiness. Comparing findings from young children across three continents with diverse school systems and cultural contexts will shed light on patterns of stability and variability in self-regulation.
Paper 1 assesses 4-5-year-old Dutch children’s ability to use self-regulation in teacher-led activities and finds that variation in self-regulation can be explained with interactions between temperamental characteristics and performance on a delay task. Paper 2 explores 4-5-year-old children’s ability to apply self-regulation in child-led and teacher-led activities in the United Kingdom. Variability across different situations can be explained by performance on lab measures. Paper 3 demonstrates that 5-6-year-old children in the United States respond to teacher expectations and supports differently depending on their overall abilities to regulate their behavior. Paper 4 compares naturalistic measurement approaches of self-regulation with lab measures and teacher reports in Australia. Longitudinal analyses of 3-5-year-olds indicate that cognitive, but not emotional, aspects of various measurement approaches predict children’s school readiness.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chairs

• Janina Eberhart, University of Tübingen

• Sara Baker, University of Cambridge

Individual Presentations

• Predicting Self-Regulation in Classroom From Parent-Reports and Observed Self-Regulation in Experimental Tasks - Presenting Author: Rianne Kok, Erasmus University Rotterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Nicole Lucassen, Erasmus University Rotterdam

• Stability and Variation of Children’s Self-Regulation in Classroom Contexts - Presenting Author: Janina Eberhart, University of Tübingen; Non-Presenting Author: Sara Baker, University of Cambridge

• Young Children’s Self-Regulation and Contextual Supports in Their Classrooms - Presenting Author: Andrew E. Koepp, University of Texas at Austin; Non-Presenting Author: Dana Charles McCoy, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Stephanie M Jones, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Non-Presenting Author: Deborah J. Leong, Tools of the Mind; Non-Presenting Author: Elena Bodrova, Tools of the Mind

• Pursuing Indicators of Real-World Self-Regulation: A Comparison of Self-Regulation Measurement Approaches - Presenting Author: Steven J Howard, University of Wollongong; Non-Presenting Author: Cathrine Neilsen-Hewett, University of Wollongong