Sjálfstjórn fjögurra og sex ára barna á Íslandi: Mat á tvenns konar mælitækjum

Abstract

Behavioral self-regulation includes children's abilities to control their attention and short-term memory, and to inhibit a response. These skills are critical for school success, but few studies have examined self-regulation among children in Iceland. In the present study, an Icelandic translation of two widely-used measures of self-regulation, one behavioral and one assessment tool for parents or teachers, will be described and their validity and reliability will be assessed. Two versions of the behavioral measure were used; the Head-to-toe-Task (HttT; McClelland, et al., 2007) was used with children around the age four, and the Head-Toe- Knees-Shoulder task (HTKS; Cameron Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009) was used with children in first grade. The Child Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS; Bronson, Tivnan, & Seppanen, 1995) is a parent/teacher rated scale consisting of 10 items describing children's self-regulatory behaviors. 111 children in preschool and 111 children in first grade participated in the study and the children's teachers assessed their self-regulatory skills. Results indicated that the Icelandic versions of the HttT, HTKS and CBRS captured substantial variability, had acceptable reliability, and was related to age and outcome measures of language and emergent literacy in the expected directions, which provided information about the validity of the measures. These findings suggest that both measures can be useful for assessment of self-regulation among children around the ages of four and six in Iceland. Implications of these findings for future research and applied work are discussed.

Sjálfstjórn (self-regulation) er ein forsenda farsællar skólagöngu. Sjálfstjórn íslenskra barna hefur lítið verið rannsökuð hingað til. Í þessari grein verður metinn áreiðanleiki og réttmæti íslenskrar útgáfu tveggja sjálfstjórnarmælinga. Önnur er hegðunarmæling í tveimur útgáfum: „Head-to-Toe- Task“ (HttT) fyrir börn á leikskólaaldri og „Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulder“ (HTKS) fyrir börn við upphaf grunnskóla. Hin er matslisti fyrir kennara, „Child Behavior Rating Scale“ (CBRS) þar sem kennarar meta sjálfstjórn barna eftir tíu atriðum. Þátttakendur voru 111 börn á næstsíðasta ári leikskóla og 111 börn í 1. bekk. Dreifing skora allra mælinganna var ásættanleg, samkvæmni var á milli matsmanna (HttT og HTKS), innri stöðugleiki (CBRS) góður og fylgni var á milli allra sjálfstjórnarmælinganna annars vegar og aldurs og forspárbreyta um gengi í skóla hins vegar. Mat kennara greindi betur á milli eldri barnanna en hegðunarmælingin. Áreiðanleiki og réttmæti íslensku útgáfu mælitækjanna voru því í megindráttum ásættanleg og í samræmi við niðurstöður erlendra rannsókna. Í greinarlok er þýðing þessara niðurstaðna fyrir starf á vettvangi rædd.