Behavioral Regulation in Pre-Kindergarten: The Interplay between Hot and Cool Regulation and the Classroom Context

One important predictor of school readiness and later academic outcomes is the early development of self-regulation. Self-regulation, particularly executive function has been found to impact not only educational outcomes but more generalized developmental trajectories. The roles of hot and cool regulation in the pre-kindergarten period will be analyzed by exploring the relationships between regulation, the classroom context, and child-level outcomes such as school readiness and task orientation in the classroom environment. Behavioral, cognitive, and observational measures were analyzed in a sample of preschool children across two assessment points, and found potential differential impacts of the preschool classroom context across subgroups of children with varying levels of regulatory abilities. Children’s school readiness scores as well as task orientation within the classroom and the child’s ability to regulate were moderated by the quality of the preschool classroom. The conclusions drawn from this study were based upon data collected with a small pilot sample of participants as part of a larger, ongoing study and should be further explored in larger, more diverse populations. REGULATION IN PRE-KINDERGARTEN 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my faculty adviser, Dr. Jennifer Coffman for her support, advice, and mentorship. I have truly enjoyed the incredible opportunity to work in her labs for the past two years. I have appreciated everything she has done for me in completing this project and realizing my academic and personal goals. I am especially thankful for her willingness to answer emails at all hours, edit my work at any point, and generally guiding me throughout my senior thesis project. I also wish to thank my faculty adviser, Dr. Peter Ornstein for his support, vast experience and knowledge, and allowing me to be a part of his lab during my time at Carolina. I have valued his guidance more than I can express. Dr. Cathi Propper has been invaluable in every step of this project. I owe her a debt of gratitude for all the time she has dedicated to my project and for her mentorship. The advice and feedback she provided me has been helpful beyond measure. I greatly appreciate the efforts of all of the members of the LEAPS study who made this thesis possible with their tireless efforts in data collection and coding. I especially want to thank Kesha Hudson and Marie Chardon for answering my questions, both large and small, along the way. Additionally, I want to say a special thanks to Dr. Cathi Propper and Omar Shehata for making the task of coding enjoyable and efficient. I want to express my appreciation to the Psychology Department and Honors Program, specifically Dr. Beth Kurtz-Costes and Dr. Mark Hollins for serving as the Honors Director over this past year. They were always available to listen or provide advice and their guidance helped keep me on track throughout this process. REGULATION IN PRE-KINDERGARTEN 4 I extend my gratitude to the children and families that participated in the LEAPS Project. I appreciate the children and their invaluable contribution to this project, as well as their parents who have worked to schedule their children’s visits and provide us with help and support throughout this project. I would like to thank the preschool programs and teachers that allowed us to be involved with the children and classrooms. Next, I thank my friends and family for their encouragement and excitement throughout this process. I am so grateful to my roommates for listening to me practice my presentation repeatedly and to my parents who have always helped keep me focused and grounded. I am grateful for the Morehead-Cain Foundation, trustees and staff for bringing me to Carolina where I have had the most incredible opportunities. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support for the LEAPS project from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institute of Health: (1 R21 HD075309-01). REGULATION IN PRE-KINDERGARTEN 5 Behavioral Regulation in Pre-Kindergarten: The Interplay between Hot and Cool Regulation and the Classroom Context A variety of factors have been suggested as possible predictors of school readiness and early academic achievement in preschool-aged children. Such factors include self-regulation, persistence, attentiveness, flexibility, motivation and organization. These factors are collectively referred to as approaches to learning (Grining, Votruba-Drzal, Maldonado-Carreno, & Haas, 2010). Research suggests that these approaches to learning may predict academic outcomes throughout early elementary school (Blair & Razza, 2007). More research is needed to clearly understand the relationship between each approach and later academic outcomes. Specifically, more research is needed to understand the individual child-level differences present upon entering kindergarten and how those differences impact academic achievement and create a bidirectional relationship with the classroom context.