TY - JOUR
T1 - Behavioral self-regulation and relations to emergent academic skills among children in Germany and Iceland
AU - von Suchodoletz, Antje
AU - Gestsdottir, Steinunn
AU - Wanless, Shannon B.
AU - McClelland, Megan M.
AU - Birgisdottir, Freyja
AU - Gunzenhauser, Catherine
AU - Ragnarsdottir, Hrafnhildur
N1 - Funding Information:
The German project was financed by a grant given to the Research Group “The Empirics of Education: Economic and Behavioral Perspectives” in the context of the German Excellence Initiative at the University of Freiburg . The Icelandic project was supported by grants from The Icelandic Research Fund and The University of Iceland Research Fund to the study “Development in Early Childhood: Self-Regulation, Language Development and Literacy”. We wish to thank teachers, parents, and children for their participation.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - The present study investigated a direct assessment of behavioral self-regulation (the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders; HTKS) and its contribution to early academic achievement among young children in Germany and Iceland. The authors examined the psychometric properties and construct validity of the HTKS, investigated gender differences in young children's behavioral self-regulation, and explored relations between the HTKS and a teacher report of behavioral self-regulation (the Child Behavior Rating Scale; CBRS) and emerging academic skills. Findings supported the construct validity of the HTKS when used with young German and Icelandic children. Multilevel analyses revealed gender differences, particularly on the CBRS teacher-rated measure. Finally, higher levels of behavioral self-regulation were related to higher academic skills after important background variables were controlled, although some cross-cultural differences in the predictive utility of the HTKS and CBRS were observed. Overall, these results extend prior psychometric work on the HTKS to samples of young European children and support the importance of understanding of the role behavioral self-regulation in young children's development.
AB - The present study investigated a direct assessment of behavioral self-regulation (the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders; HTKS) and its contribution to early academic achievement among young children in Germany and Iceland. The authors examined the psychometric properties and construct validity of the HTKS, investigated gender differences in young children's behavioral self-regulation, and explored relations between the HTKS and a teacher report of behavioral self-regulation (the Child Behavior Rating Scale; CBRS) and emerging academic skills. Findings supported the construct validity of the HTKS when used with young German and Icelandic children. Multilevel analyses revealed gender differences, particularly on the CBRS teacher-rated measure. Finally, higher levels of behavioral self-regulation were related to higher academic skills after important background variables were controlled, although some cross-cultural differences in the predictive utility of the HTKS and CBRS were observed. Overall, these results extend prior psychometric work on the HTKS to samples of young European children and support the importance of understanding of the role behavioral self-regulation in young children's development.
KW - Academic achievement
KW - Behavioral self-regulation
KW - Early childhood
KW - Europe
KW - Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders Task (HTKS)
KW - School readiness
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2012.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2012.05.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84870012928
SN - 0885-2006
VL - 28
SP - 62
EP - 73
JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
IS - 1
ER -