TY - JOUR
T1 - Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood
AU - Cameron Ponitz, Claire E.
AU - McClelland, Megan M.
AU - Jewkes, Abigail M.
AU - Connor, Carol Mc Donald
AU - Farris, Carrie L.
AU - Morrison, Frederick J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the members of the University of Michigan Pathways to Literacy project, the OSU Kindergarten Readiness Study, and the participating families, teachers, and school district administration and personnel at both sites who made this study possible. The Pathways to Literacy project was supported by the National Institute of Child and Human Development and the National Science Foundation under grant numbers R01 HD27176 and 0111754, respectively. Additional funding was provided by the US Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences under grant number R305H04013. The OSU Kindergarten Readiness Study was supported by Oregon State University.
PY - 2008/6
Y1 - 2008/6
N2 - Behavioral aspects of self-regulation, including controlling and directing actions, paying attention, and remembering instructions, are critical for successful functioning in preschool and elementary school. In recent years, several direct assessments of these skills have appeared, but few studies provide complete psychometric data and many are not easy to administer. We developed a direct measure of children's behavioral regulation, the Head-to-Toes Task, and report performance of participants aged 36-78 months, including a group of Spanish-speaking children, from two different sites (N = 353; N = 92). We examined construct validity, examiner reliability, sources of variation, and associations between task scores and background characteristics. Results showed that the task was valid, reliable, and demonstrated variability in children's scores. A cross-classified hierarchical growth curve analysis indicated that girls, participants assessed in English, and higher-socioeconomic status (SES) children achieved slightly higher average scores than did boys, Spanish-speaking and lower-SES children, but effect sizes were small. Older participants achieved higher scores than did younger children, and there were no effects for site. Results suggest that the Head-to-Toes Task is an informative and easy-to-administer direct assessment of children's behavioral regulation. We discuss implications for its use in early childhood settings.
AB - Behavioral aspects of self-regulation, including controlling and directing actions, paying attention, and remembering instructions, are critical for successful functioning in preschool and elementary school. In recent years, several direct assessments of these skills have appeared, but few studies provide complete psychometric data and many are not easy to administer. We developed a direct measure of children's behavioral regulation, the Head-to-Toes Task, and report performance of participants aged 36-78 months, including a group of Spanish-speaking children, from two different sites (N = 353; N = 92). We examined construct validity, examiner reliability, sources of variation, and associations between task scores and background characteristics. Results showed that the task was valid, reliable, and demonstrated variability in children's scores. A cross-classified hierarchical growth curve analysis indicated that girls, participants assessed in English, and higher-socioeconomic status (SES) children achieved slightly higher average scores than did boys, Spanish-speaking and lower-SES children, but effect sizes were small. Older participants achieved higher scores than did younger children, and there were no effects for site. Results suggest that the Head-to-Toes Task is an informative and easy-to-administer direct assessment of children's behavioral regulation. We discuss implications for its use in early childhood settings.
KW - Behavioral regulation
KW - Cross-classified hierarchical model
KW - Early childhood
KW - Growth curves
KW - Observational measure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=43649084156&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=43649084156&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.01.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:43649084156
SN - 0885-2006
VL - 23
SP - 141
EP - 158
JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -