Abstract

This study aimed to examine the unique and joint contributions of behavioral and emotional self-regulation to key but understudied emergent literacy and early social skills, disentangling sex-differentiated paths. The participants were 231 Portuguese preschoolers (50% boys; M_age = 59.5 months; SD = 8.5) enrolled in 47 classrooms. In the first assessment wave, the children’s behavioral self-regulation and receptive vocabulary were individually assessed. The teachers reported on children’s emotional self-regulation. In the second assessment wave, individual assessments on children’s expressive vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, oral-narrative production, and social problem-solving skills were conducted. The results showed that the children’s emergent literacy and early social skills were more related to their behavioral self-regulation than to their emotional self-regulation. Child sex moderated the links between behavioral self-regulation and oral-narrative production skills and the link between emotional self-regulation and early social skills. These findings may have important implications for planning early interventions for developing self-regulation skills.

摘要

本研究旨在检验行为和情绪自我调节对关键但未充分研究的新兴识字能力和早期社交技能的独特和共同贡献，理清性别差异路径。参与者是 231 名葡萄牙学龄前儿童（50% 男孩；M_年龄= 59.5 个月；SD = 8.5) 注册了 47 个教室。在第一轮评估中，孩子们的行为自我调节和接受性词汇被单独评估。老师们报告了孩子们的情绪自我调节能力。在第二轮评估中，对儿童的表达词汇、句法知识、口头叙述产生和解决社会问题的能力进行了单独评估。结果表明，儿童的新兴识字能力和早期社交技能与他们的行为自我调节有关，而不是与他们的情绪自我调节有关。儿童性别调节了行为自我调节和口头叙述生产技能之间的联系，以及情绪自我调节和早期社交技能之间的联系。