Intra-Individual Variability in Children's Self-Regulation in the Classroom: An Observational Study

Children’s ability to self-regulate varies across days and contextual demands. However, the predominant approach in developmental science is to assess self-regulation using between-person approaches, limiting our understanding of how and why children’s self-regulation skills vary intra- and inter-individually. The present study addresses this gap by repeatedly observing children’s self-regulation in the classroom 10 times over five days. The sample consisted of N = 201 Swiss kindergarteners (47.8% female, M = 5.4y., SD = 0.6). We assessed children’s self-regulation using an observational measure that captures two self-regulation dimensions: attention control and inhibitory control. To analyze self-regulation variability, we used dynamic structural equation modeling. The findings indicated substantial intra-individual variability in self-regulation across the 10 classroom observations. Moreover, children differed significantly in the degree of intra-individual variability. These differences were related to children’s age and gender but not to the teacher-student relationship closeness. Overall, the present findings indicate that young children’s self-regulation skills vary substantially from day to day and across classroom activities. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the role of momentary regulatory demands in children’s self-regulation capacities.