Characterizing preschool children's attention regulation in parent-child interactions: The roles of effortful control and motivation

This study examined relations among effortful control, motivation, and attention regulation in preschoolers within the context of parent-child interactions. Sixty-one low-income children and their mothers participated in a puzzle-matching task. One week later, the children completed a puzzle-matching task independently. Hierarchical regression analyses supported the hypothesis that children's effortful control and motivation is related to the amount of children's attention regulation in the parent-child interaction. The role of effortful control on attention regulation differed for children classified as having mastery- or performance-oriented motivation. Analyses also supported the hypothesis that children's effortful control, motivation and attention regulation predicted children's accuracy on the puzzle-task when working independently. Findings from this study demonstrate the utility of studying individual differences in temperament, motivation, and attention regulation within the context of the parent-child learning environment. Implications for understanding how children's social-cognitive status is related to academic success in impoverished environments are discussed. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.