Self-Regulation in Portuguese Toddlers and Its Effects on Social and Language Skills

• In Event: The Development of Self-Regulation Across Cultures and Context: Predictors and Sources of Influence

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that self-regulation is crucial for early academic skills and later school performance. However, it remains unclear whether self-regulation is important in toddlerhood, a period in which there is wide variation among children in self-regulation skills. In this study, we tested the effects on self-regulation on later observed engagement, social competence and language skills.

Participants were 268 toddlers from Portugal (age at T1 = 30 months; 48% girls). At the beginning of the school year, several self-regulation components were assessed through direct measures: selective attention (NEPSY Selective visual attention task), working memory (Six Boxes Task) and inhibitory control (PSRA - Toy Wrap). At the middle of the school year, toddler engagement with teachers, peers and tasks was observed throughout the day across several activities with an observation tool (inCLASS). At the beginning of the following year, teachers reported on social skills using the MASCS, and language skills were directly assessed using tasks from the Griffiths. Data were analyzed through regression models with a latent construct for self-regulation. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed factor loadings ranging from 0.47 to 0.55.

Our results revealed that self-regulation was positively associated with observed task engagement, but the association was no longer statistically significant after controlling for child age and sex. After adding the covariates into the models, self-regulation remained a positive predictor of teacher-reported cooperation and expressive vocabulary, even after controlling for prior language skills. These findings have important implications by suggesting that toddler self-regulation is important for later social and language development. The results will be discussed in light of the usefulness of using self-regulation as a target of intervention in early childhood programs.

Authors

• Carolina Guedes, University of Porto
  Presenting Author

• Joana Cadima, Universidade do Porto
  Non-Presenting Author