Latent Profiles of Teacher-Reported Self-Regulation and Assessed Executive Function in Low-Income Community Preschools: Relations With Motor, Social, and School Readiness Outcomes

Abstract

This study contributes to understandings of early childhood self-regulation and executive function, and their components, through taking a person-centered approach to investigating how these skills cluster together in children aged 4–5years. A sample of children (N=206) from preschools in low socioeconomic communities were assessed through teacher report of self-regulation and three executive function tasks at the commencement of the preschool year. Outcome variables included teacher report of social skills and behavioral problems, and children’s school readiness and visual motor integration skills were directly assessed. When the scores from this low-income sample were compared to available norms, over 70% of children scored below the 50th percentile in executive function measures, approximately 20% were below average in self-regulation skills, 48% were delayed in school readiness scores, 36% had above average levels of internalizing problems, and 25% were above average in externalizing problems. A series of four latent profile models each used different measurement approaches and combinations of self-regulation and executive function components. In three of the four models (two which combined self-regulation and executive function measures and one with teacher report of self-regulation only), a high skill and low skill profile were found with 31 to 42% of children in the low profile depending on the model. Children were very similarly classified across all three models. When three executive function scores were modeled alone, a more complex three-profile solution emerged (low, moderate, and high) with 52% in the low profile. Children identified in the low profiles across all models were at greater risk of poorer school readiness, visual motor integration and social skills, and increased behavioral problems. Taken together, the findings suggest that self-regulation and executive function skills tend to cluster together at this age and in this low-income sample. Composite scores of teacher report of self-regulation are somewhat sufficient in identifying children who also have poorer executive function skills and are at risk of poorer motor, social, and school readiness outcomes. These children are an important target group for additional supports prior to school entry.

A translational application of music for preschool cognitive development: RCT evidence for improved executive function, self‐regulation, and school readiness

“…All outcome measures were moderately associated with one another across all three time points. As documented in previous papers (Williams & Bentley, 2021), children in the study performed well below published norms (Howard & Melhuish, 2017), which was expected given the selection of very low socioeconomic communities.…”

Profiles of executive functions in middle childhood and prediction of later self-regulation

“…One might assume that the prevalence of certain profiles is dependent on the sample demographics: the low-inhibition profile might become more prevalent in a sample with a lower SES. This assumption would parallel a prior LPA carried out in preschool-aged children from low-income communities, in which a low-EF profile had a high prevalence of 52% ( Williams and Bentley, 2021 ). Additionally, the low-inhibition profile may potentially correlate with ADHD, as observed frequently in boys with poor inhibitory control ( Dajani et al, 2016 ; Jacobson et al, 2018 ).…”

“…This assumption is contrasted by findings showing that demographic variables including age, binary sex, SES, and multilingualism are associated to childhood EF performance. Older age and higher SES are associated with increased EF abilities in middle childhood in general ( Lensing and Elsner, 2018 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Holl et al, 2021 ; Williams and Bentley, 2021 ). In particular, multilingualism is associated with increased cognitive flexibility, due to multilingual children’s early need to switch between the languages they learned dependent on the context they are in ( Relyea et al 2023 ).…”

Self-Regulation Patterns in Kindergarten Children: A Latent Profile Analysis

“…Only a handful of studies have applied a person-centered analytical approach to examine self-regulation patterns in children. However, heterogeneity in self-regulation has been shown in several samples, including economically mixed (Litkowski et al, 2020;Williams et al, 2016) and economically disadvantaged samples (Bayly & Bierman, 2022;Williams & Bentley, 2021). Focusing on cognitive regulation, Litkowski et al (2020) found five cognitive regulation profiles in kindergarten children: In addition to a high, average, and vulnerable profile, the results indicated two profiles with mixed performance patterns across the cognitive assessments and teacher ratings.…”