Examining the relations between self-regulation and academic achievement in third grade student

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a newly designed measure of self-regulation for third grade students, The Remembering Rules and Regulation Picture Task (RRRP). Though research has shown that self-regulation is important for school success, there has been little advancement in how self-regulation is measured. An item analysis (IRT) revealed that a multidimensional model provides the best description of the data and that the RRRP is comprised of two separate factors. The second aim of this study was to determine if the RRRP predicted growth in reading and math skills. Results using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) revealed that the RRRP was found to be significantly associated with gains in math and reading. For math, performance on the RRRP significantly predicted performance on the applied problems test in the spring. For reading, the RRRP was associated with students' scores on the picture vocabulary measure. The RRRP appears to be a promising measure of children's self-regulation skills.