Intra‐Individual Variability in Children's Self‐Regulation in Kindergarten Classrooms: An Observational Study

ABSTRACT

Children's ability to self‐regulate varies across days and contextual demands. However, the predominant approach in developmental science is to assess self‐regulation at a single timepoint in one context, limiting our understanding of how and why children's self‐regulation skills vary intra‐ and inter‐individually. The present study addresses this gap by repeatedly observing children's self‐regulation in the classroom 10 times during two different classroom activities. The sample consisted of N  = 201 Swiss kindergarteners (47.8% female, M  = 5.4y., SD  = 0.6). We assessed children's self‐regulation using an observational measure that captures two self‐regulation dimensions: attention control and inhibitory control. To analyze self‐regulation variability, we used multilevel location‐scale models in a dynamic structural equation modeling framework. The findings indicated substantial intra‐individual variability in self‐regulation across the 10 classroom observations. Moreover, children differed significantly in the degree of intra‐individual variability. When controlling for class membership, differences in attention control variability were related to the teacher‐student relationship closeness. Differences in inhibitory control variability were associated with children's gender, with boys showing higher variability than girls. Overall, the present findings indicate that young children's self‐regulation skills can vary substantially across days and classroom activities. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the role of momentary regulatory demands in children's self‐regulation capacities.