Children’s effortful control and academic achievement: do relational peer victimization and classroom participation operate as mediators?

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Abstract

Given that early academic achievement is related to numerous developmental outcomes, understanding processes that promote early success in school is important. This study was designed to clarify how students’ (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = 0.39 year) effortful control, relational peer victimization, and classroom participation relate to achievement, as students progress from kindergarten to first grade. Effortful control and achievement were assessed in kindergarten, classroom participation and relational peer victimization were assessed in the fall of first grade, and achievement was reassessed in the spring of first grade. Classroom participation, but not relational peer victimization, mediated relations between effortful control and first grade standardized and teacher-rated achievement, controlling for kindergarten achievement. Findings suggest that aspects of classroom participation, such as the ability to work independently, may be useful targets of intervention for enhancing academic achievement in young children.

Introduction

The development of reading and math skills during the first years of formal school lays the foundation for later academic success and future social and economic opportunities (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2004, U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Despite efforts to ensure that students progress academically and graduate, many children experience significant early academic challenges that are likely to hinder eventual academic success. For example, in recent years, nearly 40% of fourth graders in the United States failed to achieve basic levels of reading (National Institute for Literacy, 2008), less than 50% of fifth graders could solve word problems involving measurement and rate, and less than 25% of fifth graders could solve problems using fractions (National Science Board, 2008). There is mounting evidence that many academic difficulties, especially in the early elementary years, have roots in students’ temperament, and especially effortful control (EC: an index of self-regulation; Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000), yet the processes underlying this relation are not entirely clear. The goal of this paper was to advance the understanding of how EC is important to the emergence of academic achievement.

Self-regulation (versus emotional reactivity), is one of the two main components of temperament (Rothbart & Bates, 2006) and has been defined as “processes used to change one’s own emotional state, to prevent or initiate emotion responding (e.g., by selecting or changing situations), to modify the significance of the event for the self, and to modulate the behavioral expression of emotion” (Eisenberg, Valiente, & Eggum, 2010, p. 682). EC is central to self-regulation (Eisenberg et al., 2010) and is defined as “the efficiency of executive attention—including the ability to inhibit a dominant response and/or to activate a subdominant response, to plan, and to detect errors” (Rothbart & Bates, 2006, p. 129). The abilities to focus and shift attention and to appropriately activate or inhibit behavior are at the core of EC abilities and are integral to the regulation of behavior, attention, and emotion.

Partly due to evidence that EC is central to adaptive functioning across time and situations (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), Rothbart and Bates (2006) encouraged investigators to consider indirect (e.g., mediated effects) relations between EC and key developmental outcomes to clarify why relations exist. Consistent with this perspective, Eisenberg et al. (2010) recently proposed a heuristic model showing that mechanisms within the classroom context, such as the quality of students’ interactions with their peers and their participation in classroom activities, may mediate the relations between EC and changes in academic achievement. Specific to the present study, students’ EC is hypothesized to be associated with relationship-quality with peers, specifically relational peer victimization, which in turn might facilitate learning and achievement. Likewise, EC is predicted to aid in the participation of goal-directed activities, even when such participation is not always enjoyable, which is also expected to foster academic success.

Both Izard (2002) and Eisenberg, Sadovsky, and Spinrad (2005) posited that promoting EC and related skills can foster achievement, perhaps because multiple components of EC, such as attention (e.g., focusing on reading assignments) and inhibitory control (e.g., tuning out attractive distractions) provide academic benefits (Blair & Dennis, 2010). Elementary school students high in EC often feel connected with the school setting and enjoy participating in classroom learning centers that involve active work with materials or peers (e.g., hands-on reading with recorded narration, group construction of a terrarium using soil and plants; Silva et al., 2011, Valiente et al., 2007). In contrast, students with low EC have problems with appropriate attention allocation and with modulating their emotions, and these students are susceptible to academic problems (Cantwell and Satterfield, 1978, Hinshaw, 1992).

In samples of children in preschool and elementary school, reported or observed indices of EC are often modestly positively related to academic outcomes, such as early reading abilities, math skills, and school attendance (Blair and Razza, 2007, Hill and Craft, 2003, NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2003, Valiente et al., 2010, Valiente et al., 2008). In addition, whether EC relates to achievement – and especially changes in achievement – across academic years, may depend on whether achievement is measured via standardized tests or reports cards (Duckworth, Quinn, & Tsukayama, 2012). Standardized measures are thought to more fully reflect academic achievement, whereas teachers’ report of achievement may be more influenced by students’ self-control (see Duckworth et al., 2012). Both standardized and teachers’ reports of achievement were utilized in the present study to examine specificity in associations during early elementary school.

Despite growing interest, there is limited evidence on why EC is related to achievement, as well as whether EC remains predictive beyond prior levels of achievement. Based on theoretical/heuristic models advanced by Eisenberg et al. (2005) and Raver (2002) the current authors hypothesized that relational peer victimization and classroom participation operate as mediators. There is some support for these processes in elementary school samples, yet empirical evidence is limited to mainly concurrent associations (Swanson et al., 2012, Valiente et al., 2008). Consequently, the goal of this paper was to advance the literature by examining whether, across time, EC is related to academic achievement via relational peer victimization or students’ classroom participation.

Relational peer victimization involves attempting to bring harm by manipulating or threatening to damage the victim’s relationships, often by teasing, malicious gossip, or group exclusion (Crick et al., 2002, Kochenderfer and Ladd, 1996, Reijntjes et al., 2010). Despite intervention efforts, relational victimization remains prevalent in the early grades: Kochenderfer and Ladd (1996) reported that 42% of kindergartners experienced some relational victimization and 15% experienced a lot of relational victimization. Evidence that negative peer interactions in elementary school predict increased risk of under-achievement and unemployment at age 18 necessitates investigations of child-level characteristics associated with these kinds of interactions (Woodward & Fergusson, 2003). Relational peer victimization may be negatively associated with academics because it impedes beneficial relationships with other peers; relationally victimized students often experience difficulties in multiple peer relationships, limiting learning opportunities from an important source of educational assistance (Kochenderfer and Ladd, 1996, Ladd, 2005, Welsh et al., 2001). From the self-determination perspective, academic achievement requires emotional well-being, belonging, and connectedness with peers (Ryan & Deci, 2000), both of which might be undermined by the experience of relational victimization. In addition, being the target of relational victimization may negatively affect students’ self-evaluations and self-efficacy in the academic arena (Flook, Repetti, & Ullman, 2005). Finally, the stress associated with relational victimization may exhaust cognitive resources that would otherwise be available for learning new educational material (Segerstrom, 2010).

Several studies demonstrate negative relations between broad measures of elementary school students’ peer victimization (i.e., including constructs that tap both relational and physical victimization) and achievement (see Espelage et al., 2013, Iyer et al., 2010, Nakamoto and Schwartz, 2010), but there are few data specifically on relational victimization. Despite relatively low base rates of relational peer victimization, such victimization experiences are negatively related to elementary school children’s teacher-reported achievement, but not standardized measures of achievement (Schwartz, Gorman, Nakamoto, & Toblin, 2005). Among middle-school and high-school students, relational victimization appears to be negatively related to teacher-reported and standardized achievement (Schwartz et al., 2013, Thijs and Verkuyten, 2008). The present study aimed to advance this line of inquiry by testing relations involving specifically relational victimization within a short-term longitudinal study predicting changes in achievement in the early years.

EC should be significantly related to relational peer victimization if relational peer victimization functions as a mediator. Students low in EC, in particular, may be especially prone to experiencing inappropriate or hurtful relational victimizing by peers, because they have less capacity to manage emotions and behaviors than students high in EC, and peers may not tolerate this well. In contrast, children high in EC appear to regulate emotion and behavior in a manner that fosters positive social interactions with both peers and adults (Eisenberg et al., 1997, Valiente et al., 2008). Among the limited evidence available, Shields and Cicchetti (2001) found that in a sample of maltreated 8- to 12-years-olds, low EC-related abilities were predictive of experiencing victimization by peers. In addition, 9- to 14-year-old students with attentional problems have been rated by self, peers, parents, and teachers as experiencing higher overall relational victimization than peers without attentional problems (Wiener & Mak, 2008). Whether EC is longitudinally related to relational victimization is unclear given a lack of data, but this hypothesis is supported by longitudinal relations between EC and a broad composite of victimization that involves both physical and relational victimization (Hanish et al., 2004, Iyer et al., 2010). In summary, children low in EC may experience relational peer victimization and subsequent poorer academic performance, but the available evidence is sparse.

Investigators have increasingly focused attention on the extent to which students actively participate in the classroom setting as a potential remedy to declines in achievement. In line with conceptualizations framed by Ladd, Birch, and Buhs (1999) and others (Buhs, 2005, Fredricks et al., 2004), classroom participation was operationalized as students’ independent or self-directed behavior in the classroom, willingness to adhere to the social expectations of the classroom, and independent work on academic tasks. This form of participation, a facet of academic engagement, is important: Merely attending and listening to teachers lacks active academic involvement, which often fosters academic interest and performance (Ladd et al., 1999). Children low in classroom participation are believed to be at risk for school failure beyond the effects of race, ethnicity, or family income (Finn, 1993). Classroom participation may contribute to achievement because it directs actions and activities, provides opportunities to practice educational lessons, and is valued in the education system (Ladd and Dinella, 2009, Wigfield et al., 2006). Some evidence indicates that elementary school students’ classroom participation is related to achievement concurrently (Buhs, 2005, Valiente et al., 2008) and prospectively (Ladd and Dinella, 2009, Ladd et al., 1999).

The theoretical model advanced by Eisenberg et al. (2005; also see Zhou, Main, & Wang, 2010) implicates classroom participation as a proximal academic behavior influenced by EC. The antecedents of classroom participation are diverse, including aspects of culture, family, and dispositional characteristics, as well as social peer networks (see Fredricks et al., 2004). The focus of the current study was on the predictive value of EC, in part because of a growing research interest in temperament-based predictors of achievement. Students high in EC likely feel comfortable in social settings and are able to focus attention and manage emotions and behaviors in ways that minimize distractions and allow for active classroom participation and learning. In addition, because young children’s EC is positively related to cooperation and compliance (Kochanska et al., 1997, Spinrad et al., 2012), it is hypothesized that students high in EC will be prone to cooperate with directions regarding classwork and that they will use both the classroom time and materials as directed. The proposition that EC is associated with achievement via students’ classroom participation is consistent with a cumulative advantage perspective (DiPrete & Eirich, 2006), such that specific skills foster the development of other skills (Cunha & Heckman, 2008). For example, EC-related abilities in kindergarten may contribute to the accumulation of other advantageous assets (e.g., participation in classroom activities in first grade), which increase the likelihood of yet other assets (e.g., high performance). Findings from two studies suggest that elementary school children’s reported EC and reported classroom participation are positively related (Iyer et al., 2010, Valiente et al., 2008).

The first few years of elementary school are critical to students’ academic progress (Sameroff & Haith, 1996). An emerging body of evidence identifies EC as important to success during this developmental season. The current study advanced this line of inquiry by (a) testing whether classroom participation and relational victimization operate as mediators, (b) testing whether EC and the mediators were related to achievement assessed via a standardized measure and teacher-reported achievement, and (c) testing whether the process of mediation was significant while controlling for prior levels of achievement. Toward this goal, EC in the fall of kindergarten was examined as a predictor of first-graders’ achievement, while controlling for achievement assessed in kindergarten. Second, EC in fall of kindergarten was examined as a predictor of first graders’ fall relational peer victimization experiences or classroom participation. Third, first-grade-fall relational peer victimization and classroom participation were tested as mediators of the relations between kindergarten-fall EC and disparate measures of academic achievement in spring of first grade, while controlling for kindergarten achievement. The timing of assessments was selected such that the predictor temporally occurred before the mediator, which in turn was assessed before the outcome. Positive zero-order relations were expected between EC, classroom participation, and achievement. Negative relations were expected between relational peer victimization and EC and achievement. Relational peer victimization and classroom participation were expected to mediate relations between EC and achievement. To provide a conservative test of the hypothesized relations, three demographic variables that often relate to EC and achievement, including socioeconomic status (Bradley and Corwyn, 2002, Duncan et al., 2010, Ponitz et al., 2008), sex (Eisenberg et al., 2001), and age (Bedard & Dhuey, 2006) were included as covariates.

Section snippets

Participants

Two-hundred ninety-one elementary school children (46% girls), along with their parents and teachers, comprised two cohorts recruited from 29 regular education kindergarten classrooms in six schools during the 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 school years. All parents and teachers provided consent and children provided assent. Children were 5.66 years old (SD = .39 year), on average, at recruitment. Parents’ reports of children’s sex and race or ethnicity showed that the sample represented the sex and

Analytic strategy

First, descriptive analyses were conducted to test for relations with SES, age, or sex and to confirm that variables were normally distributed. Second, zero-order correlations among the variables were analyzed. Third, a series of regressions to test the main hypotheses was estimated. Fourth, to formally test for the presence of mediation, confidence limits of the mediated effect were estimated via the statistical program RMediation, a program which accounts for the possibility of non-normal

Discussion

The chief aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal relations between EC and academic achievement across the first years of school and to test whether relational peer victimization and classroom participation mediated these relations. Whereas the majority of previous empirical work has relied on concurrent designs or on one reporter or methodology to test relations between socioemotional variables and achievement, research questions in this investigation were tested across grades and

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    This research was funded, in part, by National Science Foundation Grant BCS-0546096 awarded to Carlos Valiente. We thank the principals, teachers, and students of the Gilbert and Kyrene School Districts for their support of this research.

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