SELF-REGULATION, EMOTION EXPRESSION & CLASSROOM ...

The already difficult task of successfully negotiating the transition into preschool or
child care becomes even more difficult in the context of economic hardship. As already
discussed, children from economically disadvantaged homes often begin school with
significantly poorer regulatory skills, diminished on task involvement and inadequate
classroom learning behaviors than do their more affluent peers; consequently they are
at a much greater risk for difficulties academically and socially (e.g., Alexander &
Entwisle, 1988; Bronson, 2000; Howse et al., 2003).
Regarding self-regulation and its relations with classroom behavior, previous
investigations have found socioeconomic variation, indicating that self-regulation skills
may act as a significant protective factor, particularly for children at higher
socioeconomic risk (Raver & Spagnola, 2003; Smith-Donald, Raver, Hayes, & Richardson,
2007). In fact, some research has suggested that individual differences in low-income
children’s self-regulatory prowess (despite its overall mean difference with more
advantaged children) may function as a protective factor, predicting decreased levels of
distress, and higher social and academic functioning (Garner & Spears, 2000; Shultz,
Izard, Ackerman, & Youngstrom, 2001).
In terms of classroom learning behaviors, the previous literature suggests that early
achievement difficulties may stem from motivational factors (Alexander & Entwisle,
1988; Stipek & Ryan, 1997), and that these motivational factors appear to vary between
children who are living in poverty and those who are not (Cicchetti & Sroufe, 2000;
Duncan, Brooks- Gunn, & Klebanov, 1994; Fantuzzo, 2002). Additionally, children living
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