Self-regulation (SR) is essential for academic attainment, social-emotional well-being, and the development of 21st-century skills (Sylva et al., 2020, Sassu & Roebers, 2016, see Robson, Allen & Howard, 2020 for a review). It is defined as a person’s ability to regulate emotions, cognition, and behavior to an adaptive end (Calkins, 2007). It is an essential developmental skill that emerges very early in life and continues to develop throughout childhood and beyond. Research shows that self-regulation skills differ between children based on their socioeconomic and ethnic background. It is assumed that the complex interplay between child, caregiver, and contextual factors in early childhood shapes self-regulation. However, the role of familial resources in developing self-regulation - especially in families with high psychosocial stress – is not well understood. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing the impact of different types of familial resources on behavioral self-regulation in at-risk, low-SES families in Switzerland.

Behavioral self-regulation is the ability to regulate one’s behavior to adapt to situational demands (Wanless, McClelland, Tominey & Acock, 2011). Research has shown that behavioral self-regulation is an essential prerequisite for preschool as it enables children to follow classroom rules, pay attention to instructions, or regulate emotions (McClelland & Wanless, 2012). It can be measured with the HTKS task, which requires children’s attentional control, working memory, inhibitory control, and motor skills (McClelland, 2014).

Individual development is shaped by a complex interplay between the subject and the subject's developmental context (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Thus, parents as primary caregivers play an important role in developing self-regulation (Calkins, 2011). From an ecological perspective, both the caregiver and the child are embedded within a developmental context (Heft, 2013; Bourdieu, 1992). However, familial resources - understood as preconditions for successful learning - are not equally distributed among all families and contribute to performance gaps between children from different social backgrounds. Such gaps are alarming as they tend to persist or even widen throughout the educational trajectory (Skopek & Passaretta, 2021). Behavioral self-regulation was found to differ between children depending on social background characteristics, commonly in favor of children from families with higher income, high maternal education, or native speaking children (Wanless, McClelland, Tominey & Acock, 2011; Gunzenhauser & von Suchodoletz, 2015; Montroy, Bowles, Skibbe, McClelland & Morrison, 2016). Also, resources can operate mainly in combination with specificities of life circumstances, in other words – support can be especially useful under challenging circumstances (e.g., Hashima & Amato, 1994). In the present study, we aimed to identify proximal familial factors (e.g., patterns of parental behavior) that are relevant to the development of behavioral self-regulation in children growing up in at-risk families in a high-income country context. Therefore, we analyze three types of familial resources as predictors for self-regulation in kindergarten: economical resources, cultural, and social resources. We used data from the longitudinal ZEPPELIN study to address the research questions. The ZEPPELIN study is one of Switzerland's most extensive longitudinal intervention studies with a randomized controlled trial design (RCT).

The data for the analysis stems from the longitudinal ZEPPELIN study. The study investigates the long term effectiveness of early childhood family-based intervention (« Parents as Teachers », PAT, https://parentsasteachers.org/) during the first three years after childbirth for families with high psychosocial risks in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The study follows the participants from child birth (2011) and is currently on going in primary school age in 2022. The sample includes 261 children from 248 families. The families were recruited from an interdisciplinary professional network around childbirth and social services in an urban area. Included families had shown high and multiple psychosocial strains in at least two categories between personal, family, social or material risks. On average, the mothers were 29 years old, 86% were not of Swiss origin, 14% were single-parents, and 40% had no-post compulsory education. The outcome measure, behavioral self-regulation, was measured with the HTKS (Head-Toe-Knee-Shoulder Test, McClelland, 2014) was assessed in the 1st kindergarten (age 5) (M = 27.35, SD = 18.03, range = 0 - 60). The predictor variables were assessed either through standardized interviews or home observations when the child was 12 months and 36 months old. The resources were defined in the style of the classification in PISA 2000 for domestic background factors: SES, cultural capital, and social capital. Maternal education was coded into three categories. Household income was assessed during the standardized interview when the target child was three years old (M = 5407, SD = 2563, in Euros). The interviewer estimated maternal German proficiency using a 4-level Likert scale. The social network was assessed with four items. Received help in child-rearing and social exchange around the topic of parenting was assessed with eight dichotomous items. A stepwise regression analysis was conducted with three types of resources: economical-, cultural-, and social resources. Prior to the main analysis, all necessary assumptions were tested. None of the independent variables were highly correlated. The highest correlation was between income and education r=.38. Thirty-five percent of the subjects had at least one missing datapoint. Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML)-estimation (R package lavaan; Rosseel, 2012) was used to deal with missing data. Early regulations disorders was entered as a control variable as a relevant child-level predisposition.

The results of stepwise regressions showed that at first, household income predicted HTKS significantly (β = .20, p =.01). Next, maternal education and language proficiency in German were added. At this level, income (β = .14, p=.09) and maternal education (β = .15, p =.06) predicted HTKS marginally. Maternal language proficiency was not a substantial predictor for behavioral self-regulation. In the final model, social activities and received help were added as additional predictors. In this model, HTKS was predicted significantly by received help (β = .20, p <.05) and maternal education (β = .16, p <.05). The model was significant and explained 11% of the variance. The results indicate the role of familial resources on behavioral self-regulation in kindergarten. Without considering other resources, higher family economic resources predict higher self-regulation at the kindergarten. However, when considering different types of resources, the predictive power of the family's economic situation decreases. Compared with cultural resources such as maternal education and native language proficiency, both economic resources and maternal education marginally predicted self-regulation skills in kindergarten. When accounting for social resources, social support and maternal education predicted behavioral self-regulation in kindergarten. Jointly considering different types of resources has a major advantage: The relative impact of different resources can be examined. Such a comprehensive analysis marks an essential step in understanding the complex interplay between child, caregivers, and context shaping self-regulation development. The results of the covariance matrix show how familial resources amongst themselves are interconnected and change over time. Thus, the results are relevant for interventions, as family resources vary in stability and malleability. Depending on the societal and educational context, there may be a shift in the importance of resources to predict self-regulation.

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