ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Greater self-regulation has been identified as a protective factor for low-income children’s academic achievement. However, we know less about the long-term protective nature of specific aspects of self-regulation. Data were drawn from predominantly African American and Latino children in low-income communities in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio during early childhood (mean age = 4.84 years) and middle childhood (mean age = 9.30 years; n = 348). The current investigation found that preschoolers’ overall self-regulation predicted their academic skills in middle childhood, net of child and family characteristics as well as academic competence during preschool. Furthermore, when executive function (EF) and effortful control (EC) in early childhood were examined as simultaneous predictors of quantitative and literacy scores during middle childhood, there were moderate linkages from EF to both academic domains. Practice or Policy: Our findings suggest that the long-term gains of interventions that focus on fostering global self-regulation in preschool may yield more benefits for math than for reading, especially if such programs target young children’s executive function in particular.

摘要

研究结果：加强自我调节已被认为是低收入儿童学业成绩的保护因素。然而，我们对自我监管特定方面的长期保护性质知之甚少。数据主要来自波士顿、芝加哥和圣安东尼奥低收入社区的非裔美国人和拉丁裔儿童，他们处于幼儿期（平均年龄 = 4.84 岁）和中期（平均年龄 = 9.30 岁；n= 348）。目前的调查发现，考虑到儿童和家庭特征以及学前期间的学术能力，学龄前儿童的整体自我调节能力可以预测他们在童年中期的学术技能。此外，当将儿童早期的执行功能（EF）和努力控制（EC）作为儿童中期定量和识字成绩的同时预测因素进行检查时，发现 EF 与这两个学术领域存在中等联系。实践或政策：我们的研究结果表明，专注于促进学前教育全球自我调节的干预措施的长期收益可能会给数学带来比阅读更多的好处，特别是如果此类计划特别针对幼儿的执行功能。