Measuring preschoolers' behavioral self-regulation in the contexts of child-adult interactions

• Main Authors: Wang, Shuang, Liu, Cong, Byrne, Elizabeth M., Xie, Hongbin
• Format: Article
• Published: Springer 2024
• Subjects: BF Psychology; L Education (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/47143/; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05453-9

Children's self-regulation is associated with their concurrent and long-term school achievement. Theorists have argued the importance of child-adult interactions in the development of children's self-regulatory skills. However, empirical findings are mixed and have produced small or modest effect sizes, which could be due to the low ecological validity of the self-regulation measures typically used. In this study, an adult-reported scale, the Child Self-Regulation in Interaction Scale (CSIS), was developed to measure preschoolers' behavioral self-regulation in their daily interactions with adults. The psychometric properties of CSIS were also examined. A total of 1015 children and their mothers from multiple regions in China participated in this study. Factor analysis indicated that a three-factor model (namely Inhibition, Updating, and Shifting) was the best fit for the data. The CSIS also had good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and criterion validity. Additionally, the three-factor model showed satisfactory gender and longitudinal measurement invariance. The results suggest that the CSIS is a reliable and valid instrument. Children's self-regulatory behaviors may vary in different contexts. A context-specific measure of self-regulation may have stronger ecological validity by tapping into context-specific behavioral demands and is thus likely to have greater value and utility.