Predictors of Academic Success in 9- to 11-Year-Old Homeless Children: The Role of Executive Function, Social Competence, and Emotional Control

Abstract

Widening achievement gaps between homeless and highly mobile (HHM) youth and their peers highlight the need for research to understand effects of risk and adversity on development to promote resilience and positive adaptation. Youth living under the poverty line experience more risk and adversity, leading to difficulty in multiple domains including academic achievement. Effortful control has been established as a protective factor among young HHM children; however, the impact of other factors including social competence and emotional control on functioning in early adolescence remains less clear. The current study examined effortful control, social competence, and emotional control in adaptive processes in 86 children, aged 9 to 11, living in an emergency homeless shelter. Consistent with expectations, emotional control and social competence each contributed to academic achievement, above and beyond effortful control and IQ. Emotional control moderated effortful control on reading ability. Implications of these findings, including policy and practice, are discussed.