UC Davis

Although there is interest in the role of peers in childrens schooling experiences, few researchers have examined associations and related underlying processes between peers emotionality, an aspect of temperament, and childrens academic achievement. This study evaluated whether target childrens (N = 260) own self-regulation, assessed with two behavioral measures, served a moderating function for associations between peers emotionality and childrens own academic achievement in second grade. There was a positive association between peers positive emotionality and reading scores for children with higher self-regulation. Peers negative emotionality was negatively related to target childrens reading scores, particularly for children with higher self-regulation levels, but was unrelated to math scores. Peers positive and negative emotionality did not predict math scores, and there was no strong evidence for the moderating role of target childrens self-regulation in this association. This study highlights the potential role of childrens self-regulation in modulating peer effects on academic achievement, particularly reading.