Year

2023

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

School of Education

Abstract

Self-regulation (SR) is critical for early childhood development and is considered the ability to control thoughts, emotions, and behaviour toward goal attainment. Significant for academic and social outcomes, and longer-term adult well-being, preschool SR is influenced by biological and environmental influences resulting in heterogenous growth trajectories. Shown to create significant and lasting change, efforts to diminish discrepancies in children’s SR development have resulted in a surge of early intervention programs ranging in design and implementation. Despite the evidence for the significance of the role of parents and the experiences offered by the home learning environment for children’s development there is little in the way of practical guidance and support for parents to engage in SR-promoting behaviours. This PhD research therefore aims to contribute to this gap through the conception, design, implementation, and evaluation of a parent-mediated SR intervention called Partners in Play (PiP). In this body of research we sought to (1) identify mechanisms for effective SR change, (2) operationalise a Theory of Change devised specifically for this PhD program of research and evaluate the effectiveness of PiP in parent autonomy supportive behaviours and children’s SR, and (3) identify key effective PiP intervention components to enable the wider implementation of PiP, with other adults in the lives of children.

FoR codes (2020)

390199 Curriculum and pedagogy not elsewhere classified, 390302 Early childhood education, 520102 Educational psychology

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Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.