Through the use of action research methodology, this exploratory study examines the relationship between explicit grammar teaching and the development of year 8 students’ metalinguistic knowledge. The research particularly focuses on exploring the transfer of new grammatical knowledge into the students’ own writing, as well as charting their abilities to articulate the design decisions underpinning their linguistic choices. Throughout the research, students were encouraged to employ a range of supportive self-regulation strategies to meet the cognitive demands of writing. The research was conducted over one academic year and involved three different teaching and reflection cycles. Three students, with differing attainment levels, were selected at the start of the research process to be case studies. Their written work was analysed at five different points during the year: a pre-test writing assessment; a post teaching test assessment and after each of the three teaching cycles. Students were also encouraged to write reflective commentaries outlining their linguistic and grammatical choices. These data sets were complemented by the addition of case study participant interviews which were conducted within a few weeks of completing their written assessments. Both the commentaries and interviews were used to elicit students’ metalinguistic reflections regarding their written texts and the writing process as a whole. This data was inductively coded and analysed in order to identify patterns in students’ reflections. The findings are presented in case study form, highlighting individual student’s transfer and articulation of their new grammatical knowledge. This study reinforces recent research into the complexities associated with bridging the gap between grammar transfer and grammar articulation and therefore contributes to the growing body of research in this area.

Self-regulation is essential for successful social functioning, yet more remains to be understood about the influence of peers on this important developmental skill. This study examined the influence of verbal peer victimization on the growth of self-regulation across four years of early adolescence using parallel process growth modeling. For all adolescents, higher levels of self-regulation buffered early adolescents from the effects of negative peer interactions. In addition, early adolescents with initially low levels of self-regulation also had higher levels of depression and experienced higher levels of peer victimization than their better regulated peers. Importantly the Family Check-Up, a brief preventative intervention, resulted in improvements in self-regulation that was sustained over time. The relationship between peer victimization and self-regulation was not predictive; however, a significant persisting association was observed suggesting that improvements in adolescent self-regulation abilities help buffer youth from the impact of negative peer interactions. This research highlights the importance of the social context on the development of self-regulation during adolescence and contributes novel findings of the effect of contextual variables on self-regulation development. These findings support an ecological prevention approach, including family-centered intervention and social-emotional curricula, to promote increased self-regulation and reduce peer victimization among adolescents.

Every year, millions of preschool-age children make the transition into kindergarten. This transition from preschool to kindergarten can be difficult for children who have not mastered the basic school readiness skills involved in a successful transition. Although school readiness is broadly defined and involves several basic skills, the present study focuses on the specific contribution of cognitive self-regulation and early literacy skills. The present study examined the effects of preschool progress in cognitive self-regulation and early literacy skills on kindergarten readiness using descriptives, Pearson correlations, analysis of variance, and multilevel growth modeling. Three research questions are described and utilized. Research question 1 examined the growth in early literacy and cognitive self-regulation skills across the preschool year, research question 2 examined the relationship between early literacy and cognitive self-regulation skills, and research question 3 examined differences in student skills across three sites. Participants included preschool students, ages 4 to 5, from three different school districts. Early literacy and cognitive self-regulation data were collected at the beginning, middle and end of the preschool year. Overall, results yield a better understanding of the relationship between early literacy and cognitive self-regulation skills in preschool students and how community-level factors affect these skills in order to better support early intervention in preschools. More specifically, results of the first research question indicated that students made growth in both early literacy skills and cognitive self-regulation skills across the preschool year, and scores in the beginning of the preschool year were significantly correlated with scores at the end of the preschool year. Results of the second research question indicated a strong relationship between early literacy skills and cognitive self-regulation across the preschool year, and results of the third research question highlighted differences in growth rates across sites. Possible mediating variables are described in the discussion. Limitations of the study and future research directions are discussed.

A large body of research has demonstrated that the experience of romantic jealousy is often associated with a variety of negative outcomes. However, evolutionary psychologists have provided evidence that jealousy is an adaptive emotion that can aid with mate retention. Together these lines of research suggest that jealousy may at times work to protect and enhance one’s relationship, whereas in other cases it could lead to harmful consequences. Considering the varying outcomes of jealousy, it is critical that research explore more specifically how this complex state operates and how it affects individuals’ functioning. In the present research I conducted 2 separate studies in order to examine how jealousy is related to self-control. In Study 1 I used an online survey to examine how individuals’ trait self-control was related to their levels of chronic jealousy. Results showed that trait self-control was negatively associated with cognitive and behavioral jealousy but was not associated with emotional jealousy. Additionally, all 3 components of jealousy explained variance in self-control above and beyond the effects of self-esteem and rejection sensitivity. In Study 2 I used hypothetical scenarios in order to experimentally examine how imagined infidelity would impact individuals’ state self-control. Furthermore, based on research demonstrating sex differences in distress based on different types of infidelity, I examined how imagined sexual and emotional infidelity would differentially impact males’ and females’ state self-control. Using a 3 x 2 between-subjects design, participants from a primarily young adult sample were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: emotional infidelity, sexual infidelity, and a control. Afterward, state self-control was assessed through a behavioral task. Results showed no differences in state self-control based on condition and no difference between males and females based on type of infidelity. There was a main effect for sex, such that males generally showed higher self-control than females across all 3 conditions. Although the results demonstrate that chronic jealousy and trait self-control are associated constructs, the findings from Study 2 suggest that the experience of jealousy not does impact state self-control. Methodological concerns are addressed and future avenues are presented for researching how jealousy and self-control may be related.

abstract: The ability to self-regulate is arguably the single most important skill a child develops early in life. Self-regulation skills are consistently linked to indices of health, success, and wellbeing. The predominating perspective in self-regulation developmental research has emphasized the role of the early caregiving environment, specifically maternal characteristics and behavior, in shaping infants’ emerging regulatory skills. Using two complementary studies, this dissertation draws from a longitudinal sample of 322 low-income, Mexican American mother-infant dyads to better understand mothers’ and infants’ unique roles in contributing to emerging infant regulatory processes. The first study explores the unique contributions of intrinsic (i.e., infant gaze) and extrinsic (i.e., maternal gaze) factors in understanding infant dysregulated emotion and behavior during mother-infant interactions. Using actor partner interdependent models (APIMs), the role of infant and maternal gaze in understanding infant dysregulation were examined longitudinally across three mother-infant interaction tasks (i.e., soothing, teaching, and peekaboo), as well as within task. The expected relations among gaze and dysregulation did not emerge in the longitudinal model; however, differential patterns of associations emerged by task. Findings are discussed within the intersection of risk, culture, and the dyadic interaction context. The second study connects patterns of specific maternal behaviors (i.e., acknowledging, gaze, vocal appropriateness, appropriate range of affect, consistency of style, resourcefulness, and touch) associated with maternal sensitivity to infant cortisol reactivity and recovery. Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed four distinct combinations of maternal sensitivity behaviors. One pattern emerged as a risk profile—differentiated by higher maternal stress—and was associated with significantly more infant cortisol recovery compared to other profiles. Both studies offer a more nuanced understanding of the respective roles of infant and maternal factors in the development of self-regulation. Further explication of developmental processes involved in early regulatory functioning has implications for advancing both scientific knowledge and improved targeting of prevention and early intervention efforts to promote optimal child outcomes, particularly in populations that at increased risk for developmental psychopathology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Family and Human Development 2019

This qualitative study identified the strategies that secondary French teachers use in their classroom to show students that they have made progress in their learning. Six teachers participated in this study. Data were collected from interviews, class observations, and artifacts used by the teachers. The findings suggest that teachers use a variety of strategies to help their students to know that they have made progress. These strategies include various forms of formative assessments, self-assessments, and self-reflections. The findings reveal that teachers choose to use these strategies because they are able to help their students develop characteristics of autonomous learners.

Previous research suggests that self-regulation interventions are effective in improving students' self-regulatory skill and school performance in a wide variety of educational domains. Inspired by social cognitive theory (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997) and goal setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990), I designed, implemented, and examined the beneficial impact of a two-part intervention to teacher effective self-regulation (i.e., goal setting and self-reflection) of 62 high school students with special needs (40 males, 22 females) during in-class math instruction. Results indicate that the two-part intervention led to high self-efficacy judgments and to better math performance compared to students with special needs who were randomly assigned into a delayed-treatment control group. Students in the intervention group also perceived the math instruction they received more positively. Results also show that, after participating in the intervention, all participants students with special needs increased their variety of self-regulatory strategies, and attributed their performance to more controllable (e.g., effort, strategy) causes. The gains in self-regulatory strategies and adaptive attributions, while significant in their own right, helped students experience a significant gain in their post-intervention math performance as well.

Research on perspective taking generally points to positive outcomes, but a small and growing body of literature highlights conditions where perspective taking can instead lead to undesirable outcomes. The goal of this dissertation study is to test a model of how taking the perspective of someone who struggles to control food consumption may negatively influence prejudice and discrimination toward heavy people. My model predicts that taking the perspective of someone who is effortfully trying not to eat, which requires the use of self-regulatory processes, vicariously depletes the perspective-taker’s own self-regulatory capacity. Whether that depletion leads to greater expressions of prejudice and discrimination toward heavy people depends on whether the person has high or low levels of implicit prejudice toward heavy people, and how internally or externally motivated the person is to control weight prejudice. Study participants were randomly assigned to read one of three first-person diary entries about a person in a social context where food was present. The degree to which the food described in the diary entry was appetizing, and whether the person was hungry and tempted to eat the food was manipulated. Half of the participants were instructed before reading the diary entry to take the perspective of the person in the story, while the other half were instructed to simply read the diary entry. Self-regulatory capacity was measured and tested as a mediator between perspective taking and both prejudice and discrimination. Effort and individual differences in implicit attitudes about weight and motivation to control weight prejudice were measured and tested as moderators in the model. Results did not support the primary study model hypotheses.

Previous literature has suggested that creative students often have difficulties adapting to academic and social contexts, even if they are intellectually gifted (Goertzel & Goertzel, 1960; Kim, 2008). Creative individuals' difficulties in social adaptation can be explained better by introducing the concept of self-regulation, since self-regulation has been found to be a strong predictor of one's academic success, school engagement, and peer social acceptance (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005). Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between creative potential and self-regulation among gifted young adults. In addition, this study aims to examine the moderating effects of parenting styles on that relationship. Participants in this study were 311 high achieving students who participated in the Honors Program at the Midwestern University. Their creative potential was assessed by the Runco Ideation Behavior Scale (Runco, Plucker, & Lim, 2001). Results showed that there was no relationship between creative potential and short-term self-regulation. However, creative potential was positively related to the long-term self-regulation of gifted young adults after controlling the effect of gender and semester in the college/university, although it was a small correlation (partial r=.132, p Findings from this study refute the position that gifted individuals' creative potential may relate negatively to their self-regualtion capacities Findings also suggest that authoritative parenting can nurture children's long-term self-regulation without hindering creative potential development.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a Self-Regulated Learning Music Practice Strategies Curriculum (SRL-MPSC) on Self-Efficacy in music practice, Self-Regulation in music practice, Music Performance Achievement, Processing Speed, and Meta-Cognitive Awareness for high school instrumentalists. The goal of the fifteen-day music training using the SRL-MPSC, was to teach adolescents how to practice more effectively, think meta-cognitively and develop musical independence while enhancing self-efficacy, performance achievement, processing speed and meta-cognitive awareness. Results of this study suggest that a 15-day music training intervention using the Self-Regulated Learning Music Practice Strategies Curriculum, significantly enhanced participant’s Music Performance Achievement, F, (1,33) = 11.28, p =.002, d = 1.98, self-perceptions of Self-Regulation in music practice, F (1,33) = 16.91, p = .001, d = 1.98. and Self-Efficacy in Music Practice F (1,33) = 13.81, p =.001, d = 2.10. Based upon the results of this study, teaching students to practice effectively using strategies, cooperative group activities along side daily rhythmic audiation, sight reading and scale study, will develop independent musicianship, increase confidence and musical competence, broaden the literature level and increase student motivation to practice.