Developmental Patterns of Behavioural Self-Regulation and Peers in Early Childhood

• Author / Creator

  Burke, Kenda

• The acquisition of behavioural self-regulation is a key developmental task of early childhood that involves integrating working memory, attention, and inhibitory control. Although behavioural self-regulation improves on average across early childhood, there is undoubtedly heterogeneity in the developmental patterns of behavioural self-regulation in early childhood. Children’s behavioural self-regulation is often thought to be influenced by their interactions with primary caregivers, with little focus given to how early peer relations may be associated with children’s behavioural self-regulation. Peer relations emerge in early childhood and may be important as children learn to regulate their behaviour in the classroom context. The current study examines heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of behavioural self-regulation in early childhood and examines early peer relations (acceptance, sociability, rejection, and conflict) as predictors and outcomes of these behavioural self-regulation trajectories. Data come from a two-year longitudinal study that followed two cohorts of children (N = 443) across preschool and kindergarten. Latent growth mixture modeling was used to examine heterogeneity in children’s behavioural self-regulation. Five distinct latent class trajectories were identified: advanced developers, early developers, moderate developers, typical developers, and late developers. Early peer acceptance differentiated between these trajectories: children who were more accepted by their peers at the start of preschool were more likely to be classified in the advanced and early developers trajectories relative to the typical and late developers trajectories. Peer acceptance, sociability, and rejection at the end of kindergarten were also associated with these trajectories. Children classified in the advanced developers trajectory experienced less peer rejection than children classified in the late developers trajectory at the end of kindergarten, but were less sociable than children classified in the typical developers trajectory. Children classified in the early and typical developers trajectories were rated by teachers as more accepted by peers at the end of kindergarten than children classified in the late developers trajectory. These findings suggest that early peer acceptance may support children’s development of behavioural self-regulation and that gains in behavioural self-regulation may support positive peer relations over time.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • early childhood
  • peer relations
  • behavioural self-regulation

• Graduation date

  Fall 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3NV99S76

• License

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