Self-regulatory abilities as predictors of scientific literacy among children in preschool and primary school years

Abstract

Previous evidence suggests that early self-regulation is related to the development of scientific literacy (SL) at preschool and primary school age. However, how (emotionally neutral) executive functions and the more emotion-related facets of self-regulation associate with early SL development remains largely unexplored. Drawing on data from 1,931 children and their parents from a German longitudinal cohort study, the study analysed various facets of self-regulation and unravelled their associations to early SL development at the ages of 5 to 7, while controlling for important child and family factors. The results indicated that inhibitory control and phonological working memory are related to SL at both ages. Furthermore, the effect of these facets on later SL remained significant even after controlling for earlier SL, while the effect of children's parent-reported effortful control on later SL at age 7 was completely mediated by earlier SL at age 5.