Partnering With Parents to Support Young Children's Self-Regulation at Home

• In Event: Advancing Research and Practice on Self-Regulated Learning Through Productive Partnerships

Abstract

Self-regulation (SR) describes how individuals apply strategies to manage cognition, emotion, and behavior to attain goals (Zimmerman, 2008). Studies demonstrate that SR can provide children with an advantage for achieving success in important developmental contexts (e.g., home and school). Research on university-school partnerships that focus on supporting young children’s SR are accumulating (Perry et al., 2015). Our poster describes how we have extended this work to partner with parents and focus on supporting children’s SR at home.

This research program began by exploring how parent factors relate to young children’s SR at home and in school, respectively. In year 1 (2018) we collected self-report data from 95 parents (49 fathers; Mean Age = 34.16 years, SD = 12.33 years) who responded to questions about their parenting stress, child-parent relationship quality, and parenting styles. Also, they provided reports about their children’s SR (64 boys; Mean Age = 6.71 years, SD = 1.74 years). We determined parent stress had a direct negative and statistically significant effect on children’s SR. Authoritative parenting was a direct positive and statistically significant predictor of children’s SR. Finally, mothers reported statistically significantly higher levels of authoritative parenting compared to fathers, and fathers reported statistically significantly higher levels of parent stress compared to mothers.

In year 2 (June 2019) we began interviewing a subset of parents who participated in year 1 of our study to gain a more in-depth understanding of how parents influence, and are influenced by, children’s SR (e.g., a parent described how her child’s poor emotional regulation contributes to sibling conflict and her parent stress). Year 2 also marked the beginning of our collaborative partnership with parents. We have been engaging in activities that focus on: (1) generating a mutual understanding of what young children’s SR is and how it develops; (2) building a co-regulation “toolkit” that gives parents knowledge of a wide range of co-regulation strategies; (3) encouraging parents to practice co-regulation strategies from their “toolkit” and consider the effectiveness with their child/ren; (4) considering how parent stress may disrupt parents’ focus on co-regulation strategies; (5) and developing additional strategies for reducing parent stress. Preliminary evidence suggests that these activities are helping parents to focus on supporting children’s SR. Parents report a more global focus on co-regulation in their interactions with children, as well as using the strategies in their toolkits to better prepare children for situations where their SR may be challenged (e.g., birthday parties).

Our partnership is parent and research informed. Having parents as research collaborators seems promising—they have in-depth knowledge of their child’s development, plus life experiences that have influenced their parenting. Based on our work thus far, we have two practical recommendations for researchers working with families: (1) provide parents with a non-threatening space to explain their parenting and how different factors influence it; (2) consider surface barriers that may threaten parents’ participation in research partnerships (e.g., perceived power differential). These will be elaborated in the AERA session.

Authors

• Lynda Ruth Hutchinson, King's University College

• Cassandra Trevisani, University of Western Ontario