Self Regulation and Race/Ethnic Disparities in School Readiness

少数族裔儿童比非少数族裔儿童更有可能早早经历学业失败。学业失败风险的增加与一系列家庭因素有关，如家庭贫困、母亲抑郁、母亲受教育程度低以及严厉/惩罚性的育儿方式。在儿童层面上，更好的自我调节与较低的问题行为水平、更好的学习准备和更理想的学习适应在学校的早期阶段相关。尽管最近关于自我调节及其与入学准备情况的关系的研究有所增长，而且人们对弥补贫困的少数族裔儿童的成绩差距很感兴趣，但对处于危险中的儿童和/或种族多样化的样本进行的研究很少，关于学龄前儿童快速成长期间的自我调节的纵向数据也很少，对于高风险样本的研究也很少。此外，很少有研究探讨母职关系和父职关系对幼儿的社会情绪和自我调节发展的综合影响，以及这些关系对与学业准备有关的能力发展的影响。在这项研究中，我们将跟踪调查低收入非裔美国人和拉美裔家庭中的360名儿童，年龄从30岁到42个月，反复评估自我调节能力和上学准备情况。该项目的具体目标如下：目标1.确定与在非洲裔儿童和拉丁裔儿童中发展自律和入学准备有关的普遍和特定文化的育儿价值观和做法，这些儿童大多是墨西哥裔。目的2.在这些30至42个月大的儿童中，确定与自我调节的改变和入学准备的改变相关的普遍和特定文化的育儿价值观和做法。家访将在两个时间点(30m和42m)进行，措施将包括儿童自我调节任务、对学习准备情况和社交能力的评估、家庭种族/民族社会化做法和育儿价值观，以及对母子和父子互动质量的观察性评级。分析方法将包括多元线性回归、结构方程建模和潜在增长曲线分析。 拟议的项目在许多重要方面涉及美国再投资和复苏法案(ARRA)。首先，该项目将直接创造15个新的就业机会(6个全职和9个兼职)，并间接为德克萨斯州贡献超过400万美元的经济增长。此外，这项研究的结果将对缩小早期学术成就的差距具有重要的科学和政策意义。

Minority children are more likely to experience early academic failure than are non-minority children. Increased risk of academic failure is associated with a host of family factors such as family poverty, maternal depression, low maternal education, and harsh/punitive parenting. At the child level, greater self regulation is associated with lower levels of problem behaviors, greater academic readiness, and more optimal academic adjustment during the early school years. Despite the recent growth of research on self-regulation and its relation to school readiness as well as compelling interests in remedying the achievement gap for poor, minority children, little research has been conducted with at risk and/or with ethnically diverse samples, and very little longitudinal data on self regulation over the period of its rapid growth in the preschool years are available for high risk samples. Further, very few studies have examined the combined impact of both maternal and paternal relationships on socioemotional and selfregulatory development of young children and the impact of these relationships on the development of capacities related to academic readiness. In this study, we will follow a sample of 360 children in low income African American and Latino families from age 30 through 42 months with repeated assessments of emerging capacities for self regulation and school readiness. The specific aims for the project are as follows: Aim 1. To identify universal and culture-specific parenting values and practices associated with the development of self-regulation and school readiness among high risk across African American children and Latino children who will mostly be of Mexican descent. Aim 2. To identify universal and culturespecific parenting values and practices associated with the change of self regulation and with the change in school readiness among these children from 30 to 42 months of age. Home visits will be conducted at two time points (30m and 42m), and measures will include child self regulation tasks, assessments of academic readiness and social competence, family racial/ethnic socialization practices and parenting values, and observational ratings of the quality of mother-child and father-child interactions. Analytic methods will include multiple linear regression, structural equations modeling, and latent growth curve analysis. The proposed project addresses the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) in a number of important ways. First, the project will directly create 15 new jobs (6 full time and 9 part-time), and indirectly contribute over $4M in economic growth for the State of Texas. In addition, the results of this research will have important scientific as well as policy implications for reducing disparities in early academic achievement.