SELF-REGULATION, EMOTION EXPRESSION & CLASSROOM ...

significantly behind their peers in math and reading all of the way into sixth grade, with
the gap widening over time (McClelland et al., 2000).
In addition to classroom learning behaviors, we have discussed other facets of a
child’s development and their classroom experience that are thought to play an
important role in their success, such as self-regulation, and on-task involvement. All of
these variables are thought to be impacted by a child’s environment. However, many of
the previous investigations on self-regulation, on-task involvement and classroom
learning behaviors has been relatively homogenous, where investigations refrain from
including a child’s gender or socioeconomic status in the investigation. Instead, previous
investigations have often been conducted with a gender-neutral population of children
from typical, economically normative, private child care populations, or from more
economically disadvantaged Head Start populations, with little overlap. In the next
section I discuss the importance of including both gender and socioeconomic risk into
any current model of self-regulation and classroom learning behaviors.
Gender & Socioeconomic Risk
Gender. The physiological and gender-related socialization literature suggests that
gender plays a significant role in the development of self-regulation. For example,
enduring gender differences are found when considering self-regulation, with girls
found to exhibit higher self-regulatory ability than boys during preschool and
kindergarten (Stifter & Spinrad, 2002). Kochanska and colleagues (2000) suggested that
these gender differences can be detected earlier than the preschool period; it was
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