The importance of self‐regulation: a mediator of early socio‐emotional difficulties on later socio‐emotional and relational outcomes

Abstract

Research suggests that a childhood diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with poorer teacher–child relationship quality and higher rates of externalising behaviours. It is proposed that the socio‐emotional problems experienced by those children with ASD and/or ADHD lead to poor teacher–child relationship quality and an increase in externalising behaviours. It is also proposed that self‐regulation skills and language ability may mediate these relationships. Data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) from 5107 participants whose ages ranged from 2 to 3, 6 to 7 and 10 to 11 years were used for these analyses. Outcome variables were teacher–child relationship quality and externalising behaviours. There were direct effects between ADHD/ASD and externalising behaviours (SDQ). Externalising behaviours were also fully mediated by self‐regulation. All other models showed significant partial mediation. Findings suggest that language was not significantly related to either outcome variable. These results support the conclusion that self‐regulation is a protective factor for those diagnosed with ASD and other disorders with associated socio‐emotional problems such as ADHD. Results also suggest that a focus on self‐regulation skills in educational programs has the potential to improve socio‐relational outcomes for all children with socio‐emotional difficulties.

The relationship between preservice science teachers' perceived role modeling and self‐regulation skills in science

“…Although relationship self‐regulation is generally thought of as an individual process, their research documented an interpersonal dimension to also exist that paves the way for positive relationships among relationship self‐regulation strategies, effort, and relationship satisfaction. Nucifora and Walker's (2021) study supported the conclusion that self‐regulation is a protective factor for people who've been diagnosed with disorders associated with socioemotional problems. Their results also reported that a focus on self‐regulation skills in education programs has the potential to improve socio‐relational outcomes for all children with socioemotional difficulties.…”

Social gradient in use of health services and health‐related quality of life of children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review

“…While there is literature on the negative impacts of ADHD on children's HRQoL (Lloyd et al., 2011 ; Nucifora & Walker, 2021 ), the association between SES with HRQoL for children with ADHD has largely been unexplored. We found only two studies that investigated this topic, both of which found an impact of SES on HRQoL of children with ADHD: Owens ( 2020 ) reported a negative association between SES and perceived self‐competence and school behaviours among medicated children with and van der Kolk et al.…”

Lärares relationskompetens i möte med elever med ADHD

“…Elevernas beteende, som stundtals uppfattas vara utagerande, tenderar att påverka lärares känslor, och på lång sikt även deras interaktion, med dessa elever (Nucifora & Walker, 2021). Det utagerande beteendet verkar också vara det största hindret för goda lärar-elev-relationer (Zendarski et al, 2020) och det som lärare upplever som mest utmanande i relationen till dessa elever .…”

“…De tre subkategorierna ska förstås som verktyg som kan fungera som stöd vid identifikation och analys av viktiga, men sällan noterade, kvaliteter i lärares interaktioner med elever . När det gäller arbetet med att undervisa elever med ADHD har det visat sig att det ofta finns tillkortakommanden hos lärare avseende förmågan att bygga relationer (Nucifora & Walker, 2021), samtidigt som elever ofta upplever att deras relationer till lärare brister . Utifrån teoretiska antaganden om sociala band (Scheff, , 1990, och RCM som analysmodell för hur relationer kan förstås och utvecklas i klassrummet har denna avhandlings studier utformats, i förlängningen med intentionen att utveckla lärares klassrumspraktik och möten med elever med ADHD.…”