The Effect of Cognitive, Emotional and Behavioral Self-Regulation Performances on Academic Achievement: The Case of Elementary School Second Grade Students

The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of cognitive regulation, emotional regulation, and behavioral regulation, which are the dimensions of self-regulation, on academic achievement. Forty-one second grade elementary school students (age x̄= 8±,45, n= 19 girls, 22 boys) selected from rural and urban centers were included in the study in which participants' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral self-regulation performances were measured and their relationships with academic achievement were analyzed. The results showed that behavioral regulation performance was not related to other regulation performance and academic achievement (r= -,06 - ,06, p> ,05), while cognitive regulation (r= ,75, p< ,01) and emotional regulation (r= ,59, p< ,01) had significant relationships with academic achievement. According to the regression analysis, cognitive regulation explains 57% of the variance in academic achievement and emotional regulation explains 7% of the variance in academic achievement. When the means were compared by gender and age, it was found that the cognitive regulation performance of girls (x̄ = 281,05±90,93) was higher than that of boys (x̄= 207,64±101,95) (F= ,63, t= 2,42). Considering the other means, it was concluded that emotional regulation performance and academic achievement did not differ significantly according to gender and age. The results were discussed in the context of the literature, and the fact that behavioral regulation performance is not related to other regulation domains and academic achievement, and the relatively small number of participants, although it is a performance measure, are considered as limitations of the current study. Therefore, it is recommended to develop an activity that validly measures behavioral regulation performance for future studies and to replicate the current study with more participants.