Abstract
The current study sought to investigate the extent to which early childhood educators’ confidence in knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy for supporting early self-regulation predicted educator behavior and children’s self-regulation outcomes. Data from a diverse sample of 165 early childhood educators participating in a cluster Randomized Control Trial evaluation of a self-regulation intervention were utilized to evaluate the construct validity, reliability and predictive properties of the Self-Regulation Knowledge, Attitudes and Self-Efficacy scale. Evaluation via traditional (EFA, Cronbach’s Alpha) and modern approaches (Rasch Analysis) yielded a valid and reliable 25-item scale, comprising three distinct yet related subscales (i.e., confidence in knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy). For educators assigned to the intervention group, self-efficacy significantly predicted educators perceived competency to implement the self-regulation intervention as well as their perceptions around the effectiveness of the intervention to enhance children’s self-regulation. For educators assigned to the control group (i.e., practice as usual), educator attitudes longitudinally predicted children’s end-of-year status and change in self-regulation (over 6 months later). Findings from this study suggest the importance of pre-school educators’ beliefs for fostering early self-regulation and highlight a need to further explore the impact of these beliefs with regard to educator engagement with intervention.
Highlights
Compelling evidence for the pivotal role of self-regulation for lifelong outcomes, and its susceptibility to change over and above age-related development, have propelled it to the forefront of contemporary efforts to enhance children’s developmental trajectories (Moffitt et al, 2011; Wass et al, 2012)
The same study found a positive association between children’s prosocial behavior and teacher self-efficacy to engage in supportive practices. Together these findings suggest triadic reciprocal causation (Bandura, 1986) between teacher self-efficacy, educator behavior and children’s self-regulation and necessitate the need for a scale which allows for the investigation of this within early childhood samples
No respondents who completed the scale in the preliminary review or in the current study reported difficulty using this scale, and data showed good range and distribution (Table 2)
Summary
Compelling evidence for the pivotal role of self-regulation for lifelong outcomes, and its susceptibility to change over and above age-related development, have propelled it to the forefront of contemporary efforts to enhance children’s developmental trajectories (Moffitt et al, 2011; Wass et al, 2012). In terms of enacting self-regulatory change in the early years, the ubiquity of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and critical role of educator practice for shaping children’s outcomes (Melhuish et al, 2015) have seen a proliferation of ECEC-based self-regulation interventions (e.g., Bodrova and Leong, 2007) While such approaches often utilize educators as Educator Beliefs and Early Self-Regulation mediators for enacting child self-regulatory change, no ECECbased self-regulation intervention studies to date have sought to consider or measure intervention effects on educator characteristics which underpin practice (e.g., educator beliefs); nor have they considered how differing levels of such characteristics (e.g., more positive attitudes) may influence educator engagement in training or effective implementation of intervention endorsed practice. Predictive validity analyses were undertaken to investigate whether and to what extent educator scores on this scale predicted educator’s engagement with and perception of a selfregulation intervention and the self-regulation abilities of children in their care
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