The Link Between Black Preschoolers’ Effortful Control and Their Positive and Conflictual Teacher Interactions: Moderating Role of Family Involvement and Emotionally Supportive Classrooms

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ABSTRACT Research Findings: The relationships between children and their teachers are crucial for their social-emotional development and academic achievement. Effort control, an important self-regulation skill during preschool, is often linked to teacher-child interactions. However, research often overlooks the impact of implicit racial associations on Black children in early childhood education, leading to findings reported from a deficit perspective and failing to consider developmental variability and the heterogeneity of Black children. This study leverages data collected from 346 Black families, with 4-year-old children in publicly funded preschool programs, to investigate the relationship between preschoolers’ effortful control and their positive and conflictual teacher interactions. Further, it explores key sociocultural contexts, such as emotional support at school and home-based family involvement in education, as protective factors that may moderate the proposed association between effortful control and Black children’s interactions with teachers. Effortful control was not associated with teacher-child interactions. Additionally, family home-based involvement did not moderate the relationship between effortful control and teacher-child interactions; however, classroom emotional support did moderate the link between effortful control and positive teacher-child interactions. Practice or Policy: This study emphasizes the necessity for early education strategies that prioritize equity and incorporate differentiated, culturally responsive practices.