'Same but different': Associations between multiple aspects of self-regulation, cognition and academic abilities

Self-regulation (SR) refers to the ability to control both behaviors and internal states against a backdrop of conflicting or distracting situations, drives, or impulses. In the cognitive psychology tradition, SR is commonly... [ view full abstract ]

Self-regulation (SR) refers to the ability to control both behaviors and internal states against a backdrop of conflicting or distracting situations, drives, or impulses. In the cognitive psychology tradition, SR is commonly measured with performance-based tests of executive functioning, whereas in the personality psychology tradition, SR is usually assessed with report-based measures of impulse control, effortful control and temperament. The goal of this project was (1) to comprehensively examine the structure of associations between multiple SR constructs stemming from the cognitive and personality psychology traditions; (2) to estimate how these constructs, individually and collectively, relate to mathematics and reading abilities beyond psychometric measures of processing speed and fluid intelligence; and (3) to estimate extent to which genetic and environmental factors mediated the observed associations. Data were available for 1019 child participants from the Texas Twin Project (M age = 10.79, Range = 7.8-15.5). Results highlighted the differentiation among cognitive and personality aspects of SR, both at observed and genetic levels. After accounting for processing speed and fluid intelligence, EF remained a significant predictor of reading and mathematics abilities. Educationally relevant measures of personality - particularly an openness factor representing curiosity and self-concept - incrementally contributed to individual differences in reading ability. Collectively, measures of cognition, SR and other educationally relevant aspects of personality accounted for the entirety of genetic variance in mathematics and reading ability. The current findings point to the important independent role that each construct plays in academic settings.