Author's personal copy Early Childhood Research Quarterly 23 (2008) 141–158 Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood Claire E. Cameron Ponitz a,∗ , Megan M. McClelland b , Abigail M. Jewkes c , Carol McDonald Connor d , Carrie L. Farris b , Frederick J. Morrison a a University of Michigan, Department of Psychology, United States b Oregon State University, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, United States c Saginaw Valley State University, College of Education, United States d Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University, United States Received 29 August 2006; received in revised form 23 January 2007; accepted 28 January 2007 Abstract Behavioral aspects of self-regulation, including controlling and directing actions, paying attention, and remembering instructions, are critical for successful functioning in preschool and elementary school. In recent years, several direct assessments of these skills have appeared, but few studies provide complete psychometric data and many are not easy to administer. We developed a direct measure of children’s behavioral regulation, the Head-to-Toes Task, and report performance of participants aged 36–78 months, including a group of Spanish-speaking children, from two different sites (N = 353; N = 92). We examined construct validity, examiner reliability, sources of variation, and associations between task scores and background characteristics. Results showed that the task was valid, reliable, and demonstrated variability in children’s scores. A cross-classified hierarchical growth curve analysis indicated that girls, participants assessed in English, and higher-socioeconomic status (SES) children achieved slightly higher average scores than did boys, Spanish-speaking and lower-SES children, but effect sizes were small. Older participants achieved higher scores than did younger children, and there were no effects for site. Results suggest that the Head-to-Toes Task is an informative and easy-to- administer direct assessment of children’s behavioral regulation. We discuss implications for its use in early childhood settings. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Behavioral regulation; Cross-classified hierarchical model; Early childhood; Growth curves; Observational measure Young children’s academic and social success depends on a variety of skills, including emergent literacy and basic knowledge of math and vocabulary (Miller, Kelly, Zhou, & Campbell, 2005; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2001). Beyond early academic competence, the ability to regulate behavior also signifies whether or not children will prosper in school. Self-regulation describes a broad construct representing the skills involved in controlling, directing, and planning emotions, cognitions, and behavior, and is important for functioning in varied contexts, including classrooms (Baumeister & Vohs, 2004; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). In early educational settings, strong self-regulation has been linked with effective classroom behavior and high achievement, whereas poor self-regulation forecasts future problems in school (Blair, 2002; Bronson, 2000; Fabes, ∗ Corresponding author at: Center for Advanced Study of Teaching & Learning (CASTL), University of Virginia, 350 Old Ivy Way, Suite #300, Charlottesville, VA 22908, United States. Tel.: +1 734 647 9439; fax: +1 734 615 0573. E-mail address: cameron.ce@gmail.com (C.E. Cameron Ponitz). 0885-2006/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.01.004