SELF-REGULATION, EMOTION EXPRESSION & CLASSROOM ...

potential gender and socioeconomic differences that play a role in a child’s classroom
experience (Howse et al., 2003; Schaefer et al., 2004; Weinberg et al., 1999). The
moderating effects of gender and socioeconomic status will be taken into account.
Although a child’s gender will be classified directly, the determination of whether the
child is attending private child care or Head Start will be used as a proxy for
socioeconomic risk.
Given the consequences of having difficulties with children’s self-regulation and
classroom learning behavior –particularly with children living in poverty – paired with
researchers’ and policy makers’ increasing attention to these consequences, this a
particularly critical time to better understand and target children who are
demonstrating difficulty with self-regulation and consequently at risk for academic
failure (Raver et al., 2009). Understanding the specific functioning of this current model
will provide researchers and those involved with early education an increased likelihood
of readily identifying adjustment difficulties early on in preschool by being able to use
self-regulatory difficulties early on as indicators of future academic difficulty (Webster-
Stratton & Hammond, 1998). In addition, this model may provide researchers and
practitioners with a better understanding of how each of these facets of classroom
functioning are related with each other as opposed to only understanding each of them
separately.
This clearer understanding of the predictors of effective classroom behaviors may
assist researchers and practitioners in the development of more effective identification
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