CAREER: Social and Emotional Processes Involved in Academic Competence

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The central role of children's academic competence to their developmental course and future is clear. Despite the importance of performing well in school and school readiness, many children experience significant difficulties adapting to school and develop negative attitudes toward school soon after formal classes begin. Many of these early school-related problems predict school dropout, delinquency, and mental health difficulties. Although much is known about how the classroom structure and teacher-child ratios can improve students' academic competence, much less is known about how and why components of children's temperament contribute to their academic competence. The research supported by the CAREER award builds on evidence that children's emotional and behavioral competence is important for school success by (1) examining the joint and interactive roles of children's regulatory abilities and emotionality to academic competence, (2) examining the roles of relationships with teachers and peers and engagement at school as mediators of the relations between regulatory abilities and emotionality and academic competence, and (3) using a longitudinal design to examine if the strength of the hypothesized relations change as children age. To test these hypotheses, Dr. Carlos Valiente and his team will follow 250 students as they progress from kindergarten to 2nd grade. A multimethod, multireporter methodology will be used to assess children's temperament, school-related relationships, school engagement, and academic competence. Each year parents and teachers will report on the key constructs, and children will complete a series of tasks that assess their regulatory abilities. In addition, students' academic competence will be assessed using a standardized achievement test. Finally, this project includes an educational component to mentor undergraduate and graduate students as they prepare for academic research positions. Moreover, the investigator will develop a course on the roles that the family, children's temperament, and children's school relationships play in fostering school success and will offer educational workshops for elementary school teachers on the processes examined in the research. These workshops will provide early opportunities for disseminating findings and increasing the impact of the research. Students' abilities to integrate into the school setting and perform well are important developmental tasks with potential long-term implications. This project will elucidate processes that explain why children's regulatory abilities and emotionality predict measures of their academic competence. A more complete understanding of social processes that promote school success is not only a relevant developmental question, but it also has the potential to provide educators and interventionists with information for prevention and intervention programs. The broader impact of this research is to highlight constructs and processes that can be the target of intervention and prevention programs. As part of this plan for broader impacts, Dr. Valiente will provide educators and interventionists with information to enhance their influence. Moreover, the study is designed to broadly disseminate findings to the scientific community, including future researchers and academic professionals, elementary school teachers and, through these teachers, to students.