To compete or not compete: Contributions of children’s regulation and gender to their competitive behaviors

Abstract

Preschool children naturally display competitive behavioral patterns. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the association between preschool children’s regulation (regulatory and control components) and competitive behaviors (task-oriented and other-referenced). A total of 260 preschool children (47.7% girls) ranging in age from 49 to 72 months (M = 63.83, SD = 6.17) were recruited for the current study. The participating teachers reported on children’s regulation and competitive behaviors. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses that accounted for the nesting structure of the data revealed that children’s regulation and control skills were significantly related to their task-oriented competition. Child gender moderated the association between regulation and task-oriented competition such that being highly regulated contributed to children’s task-oriented competition, specifically for boys. Control skills were negatively associated with children’s other-referenced competition. Implications of the study and future directions are discussed.