Adaptive and effortful control and academic self-efficacy beliefs on achievement: A longitudinal study of 1st through 3rd graders

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Abstract

The linkages between self-regulatory processes and achievement were examined across 3 years in 733 children beginning at 1st grade (M = 6.57 years, S.D. = .39 at 1st grade) who were identified as lower achieving in literacy. Accounting for consistencies in measures (from 1 year prior) and for influences of child's age, gender, IQ, ethnicity and economic adversity on achievement, results indicate that adaptive/effortful control at 1st grade contributed to both academic self-efficacy beliefs at 2nd grade, and reading (but not math) achievement at 3rd grade. Although academic self-efficacy did not partially mediate the linkage between adaptive/effortful control and achievement, academic self-efficacy beliefs were positively correlated with reading and math. Results support the notion that early efforts to promote children's self-regulatory skills would enhance future academic self-beliefs and achievement, particularly in literacy.

Section snippets

Theoretical rationale

Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) has shaped the conceptualization and empirical knowledge of how self-beliefs relate to personal agency and how efficacy influences academic motivation, learning, and achievement (Bandura, Caprara, Barbaranelli, Gerbino, & Pastorelli, 2003; Wigfield, Eccles, Schiefele, Roeser, & Davis-Kean, 2006). According to social cognitive theory, self-efficacy refers to whether a person perceives herself or himself as capable of mobilizing and maintaining effort

Participants

Participants were 733 first grade children (53% male) participating in a longitudinal study examining the impact of grade retention on academic achievement from three school districts (one urban, two small cities) in Central and Southeast Texas. Participants were relatively low achieving in literacy for their individual school districts, scoring below the median on a state approved district-administered measure of literacy taken in either May of kindergarten or September of first grade. In

Plan of analyses

Descriptive and preliminary analyses were first conducted, and differences in children's age, gender, IQ, ethnicity and economic adversity on the major variables of this study were examined. Correlational analyses were then conducted to examine within and across-time relations between measures of adaptive/effortful control (i.e., inhibitory control and ego-resiliency), academic self-efficacy beliefs, and reading and math achievement. Using SEM, the potential direct and indirect influences of

Discussion

This is the first study, to our knowledge, to empirically examine the contributions of temperamental effortful control and self-efficacy beliefs simultaneously on academic achievement. Our findings demonstrate that adaptive/effortful control at 1st grade contributed to positive academic self-efficacy beliefs at 2nd grade, and contributed to literacy (but not math) 2 years later. Although academic self-efficacy did not partially mediate the linkage between adaptive/effortful control and

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      Self-efficacy can be seen as a necessary condition for intrinsic motivation: students need to experience themselves as competent readers before they can enjoy reading (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Existing research suggests that children's reading self-efficacy relates to reading achievement in the early years of primary school (Lee & Jonson-Reid, 2016; Liew et al., 2008; McTigue et al., 2019; Peura, Aro, et al., 2019). Concerning the effect of self-efficacy specifically on the reading comprehension of primary school students, Hornstra et al. (2013) found that growth in self-efficacy was related to growth in reading comprehension.

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