Relationships Among Phonological Awareness, Executive Functions, and Self-Regulation in Early Childhood

This study investigated the relationships among phonological awareness (PA), executive functions (EF), and self-regulation (SR) in Turkish first-grade children attending public primary schools during the early stages of formal literacy instruction. Participants were 368 first-grade students in Türkiye. PA was assessed through direct child assessment, whereas EF and SR were measured using teacher-report instruments. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation analyses and multiple linear regression. The findings showed that PA was positively and significantly associated with all SR components, including inhibitory control, attention, and working memory. PA was also positively associated with EF-working memory, EF-inhibitory control, and total EF scores. Regression analyses indicated that SR-inhibitory control and SR-attention were significantly associated with PA, accounting for approximately 10% of the variance. Overall, the findings suggest that regulatory processes are modestly associated with individual differences in PA among first-grade children; however, these associations should be interpreted cautiously given the reliance on teacher-reported EF and SR measures, the high overlap among regulatory indicators, and the modest proportion of explained variance.