1-062 - The School Readiness of Latino Children: Importance of Self-Regulation for Early Achievement

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Despite the growing number of Latino immigrant children in preschool and elementary school in the United States (Kena, et al., 2016), little research exists on Latino children’s self-regulation (McClelland & Cameron, 2011). The evidence that does exist, suggests that demographic factors play an important role in predicting self-regulatory processes for Latino children, although the direction of associations may vary. Given the rapid shifts in demographics and the importance of promoting Latino children school readiness skills, this symposium leverages the demographic diversity of Latino children to explore their self-regulation and early achievement. These papers examine: (1) the relations between executive function, bilingual language ability, and science achievement of Latino DLL children attending Head Start; (2) the longitudinal relation between a behavioral measure of self-regulation and early reading and mathematics academic achievement of Latino children enrolled in Head Start; (3) the differences in reading and mathematics trajectories (kindergarten to second grade) associated with speaking Spanish at home and parental foreign-born status, and explores self-regulatory processes as explanatory factors that account for demographic difference in achievement; and (4) the relation between parental education and residential mobility on early literacy, mathematics, and inhibitory control for low-income Latino preschoolers, and the extent to which associations vary as a function of ELL status. By using rich datasets with information on the demographic and developmental processes of Latino populations, these four papers uniquely contribute to our understanding of the complex interplay between self-regulatory processes, early achievement, and the demographic characteristics of Latino children.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chairs

• Natalie L. Bohlmann, Montana State University—Billings

• Natalia Palacios, University of Virginia

Individual Presentations

• Executive Functioning, Bilingual Language Development, and Science Achievement across the year in Latino DLLs attending Head Start - Presenting Author: Lisa J. White, Department of Psychology, University of Miami; Daryl B. Greenfield, Department of Psychology, University of Miami

• Trajectories of Hispanic Preschoolers’ Socioemotional Adjustment and Elementary School Achievement - Presenting Author: Rebecca Bulotsky-Shearer, University of Miami; Paul McDermott, University of Pennsylvania; Michael L. Lopez, Abt Associates

• The Mediating Role of Self-Regulation: Latino Children’s Home-Language, Parental Foreign-Born Status, and Early Achievement - Presenting Author: Natalia Palacios, University of Virginia; Natalie L. Bohlmann, Montana State University—Billings

• The Influence of Family Demographic Factors on School Readiness: Variation by Latino English Language Learners Status - Presenting Author: Guadalupe Díaz, University of California, Irvine; Megan McClelland, Oregon State University