The importance of children’s development of self-regulation in early life for later school readiness and academic achievement

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the association between children’s trajectory of attention and emotion regulation development across ages 2-3, 4-5 and 6-7, and children’s school readiness at age 4-5 years (n=1868), and academic achievement at 6-7 years (n=1562). The study utilised data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Children were followed prospectively and categorised into trajectory groups of attention and emotion regulation development. School readiness was assessed using the ‘Who am i?’ questionnaire, completed by children at age 4-5. Academic achievement at age 6-7 was rated by teachers using the Academic Rating Scale. Adjusting for potentially confounding parent and child factors, a child’s developmental trajectory of attention regulation, and to a lesser extent emotion regulation, was found to be important for school readiness (high versus low attention regulation trajectory: B=-4.90, p<.001). While children’s attention regulation was found to be important for maths and literacy achievement scores (high versus low trajectory: B=-.42, p <.001, and B=-.42, p <.001, for maths and literacy respectively). This suggests that attention regulation may be an important predictor of school readiness and academic achievement, and a potential target for interventions to improve children’s readiness for and achievement at school.