The proposed research will attempt to specify with increasing precision the rile of individual differences in children's self-regulatory competencies as a determinant of their psychological resilience for coping with adverse life conditions in the course of development. Building on recent findings by the P.I. that point to the potential value of self-regulatory competencies beginning early in life as a predictor of long-term adaptive/maladaptive outcomes, the research program will systemically assess and trace the development of those self-regulatory competencies in a population of children varying in risk factors. We will obtain samples including New York inner-city youngsters at potentially high risk for school failure and a wide range of disadvantageous behavioral and social-emotional outcomes. To examine how the self-regulatory system evolves and interacts with to affect the development of adaptive/maladaptive outcomes over time, we will use an accelerated longitudinal design with a tree-year follow-up. We will assess children from preschool to early adolescence in three cohorts to identify the interactions, stability, and change in this developmental course. To specify the components of self-regulatory competence, the research will focus on: children's knowledge and understanding of basic self-control processes; their future-oriented decision-making and choice; nd their cognitive-attentional skills and strategies in executing self-control and pursuing delayed rewards and goals at the behavioral (action) level. Each component will be assessed systematically, including links to theoretically relevant variables such as cognitive maturity, and efficacy and outcome expectancies, as they impact on age-specific adaptive/maladaptive outcomes in the course of early development.
