# The Role of Self-Regulation and Classroom Self-Regulatory Supports in Early Education

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $514,408

## Abstract

Project Summary
Debates about the potential of public pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs to close poverty-related early
education and health gaps occupy center-stage for scientists, policymakers, and education and public health
officials. While there is substantial evidence to support the power of pre-k to promote positive development in
the short-term, the mechanisms that explain those positive short-term effects are poorly understood. Moreover,
there is no evidence examining pathways for sustaining positive short-term effects into early primary schooling
(1st – 4th grade) to guide actionable decisions to improve education and health for vulnerable young children.
We focus on children’s self-regulatory skills (e.g., attention and impulse control; management of emotions;
memory, planning, and organization) and the public pre-k classroom features that support their development
as prime candidates for mechanisms linking pre-k with education and health outcomes for three reasons: (1)
the brain regions underlying developing self-regulatory skills are compromised among children who have
experienced significant economic adversity; (2) self-regulatory skills have been empirically documented to
underlie education and health outcomes; and (3) self-regulatory skills are sensitive to intervention and thus
malleable during the early childhood years. The proposed 5-year longitudinal, multi-method study will build this
evidence base by first assessing a pre-k boost to low-income children’s self-regulatory, education, and health
outcomes in kindergarten, and then by examining associations among this triad of outcomes, as well as testing
whether self-regulatory skills explain associations between pre-k participation and education and health
outcomes at kindergarten entry. We then examine mechanisms associated with pre-k classroom self-
regulatory features as they explain associations between pre-k participation and kindergarten outcomes,
investigating self-regulatory classroom features as mediators of kindergarten self-regulatory, education, and
health outcomes. Our final goal capitalizes on the longitudinal study design to explore the processes
underlying sustained pre-k impacts: we will test for the presence of and pathways to any sustained pre-k
effects through 4th grade, focusing on classroom processes that may underlie fade-out of pre-k impacts. Data
will be collected in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) district, which hosts a nationally recognized pre-k program,
the impacts of which we will study beginning at kindergarten entry. In each year of the proposed project – from
K through 4th grade – the project will include direct assessments of children’s self-regulatory, education, and
health outcomes, classroom observations and teacher interviews to gather information on classroom
processes and practices, and parent interviews. To analyze our data, we will employ a mix of econometric,
OLS regression, and multilevel modeling approaches. Findings will illuminate t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9999347
- **Project number:** 5R01HD092324-03
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Anna D. Johnson
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $514,408
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9999347

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9999347, The Role of Self-Regulation and Classroom Self-Regulatory Supports in Early Education (5R01HD092324-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9999347. Licensed CC0.

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