Affective characteristics that predict preschool achievement in disadvantaged children

To determine the affective components that are related to cognitive achievement the following seven characteristics were examined: 1) delay of gratification, 2) relationship with achievement model, 3) dependency, 4) motor inhibition, 5) self‐control, 6) self‐concept, and 7) risk taking. A cognitive ability measure was used as a covariate to remove the purely intellectual factor from the measure of achievement to insure that the characteristics being examined were of an affective nature. Results of the regression analysis indicated that self‐concept accounted for a singnificant (p. < .05) percentage of achievement variance for both the boys and the girls. Self control, delay of gratification, and motor inhibition accounted for a significant percentage of variance (p. < .05) for the boys but not for the girls. However, risk taking was related (p. < .05) to school readiness for the girls but not for the boys.