The relations among language, regulation, and social behavior in pre-kindergarten age children.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Children's functioning in the developmental domains of language, regulation, and social behavior has been related to school adjustment at the time of school entry. Although past research suggests language ability and regulation skills may be developmentally related to children's social behavior functioning, the nature of these associations is as yet unclear. Furthermore, measurement and process limitations inherent to assessing child readiness in these and other domains during kindergarten registration have yet to be resolved. Accordingly, the present study examined the interdependent relations among children's functioning in language, regulation, and social behavior domains, the utility of risk profiles involving linguistic and regulatory skill deficits in predicting social behavior adjustment, and the utility of kindergarten registration as a developmental context within which to assess child readiness in the domains of language, regulation, and social behavior. Eighty-two pre-kindergarten age children and their parents participated in this cross-sectional study. Results revealed positive relations between language ability and social behavior, regulation skills and social behavior, language ability and regulation skills. Children's ability to regulate distress mediated the relation between language processing ability and prosocial behavior. Finally, children's at risk status for regulation skill deficits was a better predictor of their social behavior adjustment than was their risk status for language difficulties. Findings are discussed with respect to implications for re-conceptualizing developmental theory in this area, re-formulating models of association among language, regulation, and social behavior, and re-structuring readiness assessments to better evaluate child functioning in these domains during kindergarten registration activities. Furthermore, findings from the present study suggest it is clear that context is important to developmental models of the relations among language, regulation, and social behavior. Future longitudinal research is needed to further clarify the developmental relations among children's linguistic, regulatory, and social behavioral functioning in order to facilitate children's positive transition to kindergarten and subsequent school adjustment and success.