Foundations for early learning: Self-Regulation and school readiness in contexts of adversity

About the Project

Early adversity, including socioeconomic disadvantage and challenges in early caregiving environments, is associated with variation in children’s cognitive and educational outcomes. However, these broad associations conceal a central scientific question: why do some children exposed to similar early adversity follow resilient developmental trajectories while others experience sustained difficulties?

Understanding this heterogeneity is critical for improving models of school readiness and for designing more effective early support systems. This PhD will address this question by focusing on early self-regulation in infancy and toddlerhood as a key developmental mechanism linking early environments to later cognitive and educational outcomes.

The project will use large-scale longitudinal cohort data to identify distinct developmental profiles of self-regulation. Advanced quantitative methods, including person-centred approaches such as latent profile analysis, will be used to characterise heterogeneity in developmental trajectories and examine how these profiles are shaped by early adversity and predict later cognitive and educational outcomes.

A complementary qualitative component will explore how early self-regulation difficulties are understood and managed by parents and early years practitioners, including health visitors and early years professionals.

Together, these approaches aim to provide an integrated account of early developmental pathways and their implications for school readiness.