Bidirectional associations between vocabulary and self-regulation in preschool and their interplay with teacher–child closeness and autonomy support

• Autor(a) principal: Cadima, Joana
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Barros, Sílvia, Ferreira, Tiago, Serra-Lemos, Marina, Leal, Teresa, Verschueren, Karine
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/15901
• topic: Self-regulation; Teacher-child relationships; Autonomy support; Bidirectional effects; Early childhood

tIn the present study, we examine the bidirectional associations between child vocabulary and self-regulation and their interplay with two relational dimensions, teacher–child closeness and autonomysupport in preschool. Participants were 208 young children (50% boys; M = 4 years and 11 months,SD = 0.71) from socially disadvantaged areas in Portugal. Self-regulation and vocabulary were assessed atthe beginning and end of the year. Teachers reported on levels of teacher–child closeness and autonomysupport. A series of path analyses were conducted and tests of direct and indirect effects were includedin the models. Results showed bidirectional effects between self-regulation and vocabulary, such thatself-regulation at the beginning of preschool was a significant predictor of expressive vocabulary at theend of preschool year, and receptive vocabulary skills at the beginning of preschool year predicted self-regulation at the end of preschool year, controlling for earlier receptive vocabulary and self-regulationskills. In addition, teacher–child closeness uniquely predicted expressive vocabulary, whereas teacherautonomy support uniquely predicted self-regulation.