Interventions supporting early self-regulation: a systematic literature review

This project will review self-regulation interventions for children up to eight years old.

Why this project is important

Self-regulation is foundational to academic achievement, emotional well-being, and physical and mental health.  Strengthening self-regulation can be an effective way of reducing disparities in several key areas of development. However, many teachers and early years practitioners’ lack an understanding of how they can support children’s self-regulation. Before potentially developing an intervention to strengthen children’s self-regulation, the research team will conduct a systematic review of interventions that have been carried out and their characteristics, outcomes, and quality.

What it will involve

The research will be conducted in three stages:

1. Searching for randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental universal interventions designed to improve self-regulation in 0–8-year-olds in England. Self-regulation must be mentioned in the title or description and at least one child-based outcome related to self-regulation skills needs to have been measured.
2. Extracting the sample size and age of participants, characteristics of the intervention, and the intervention’s short and long-term effects.
3. Assessing the studies for selection bias, study design, confounders, blinding, data collection methods, withdrawals and dropouts, intervention integrity, and analyses.

How it will make a difference

Results from the review will be presented at academic conferences and published in briefing papers, journal articles, and a public report.