This study examined developmental associations between growth in domain-general cognitive processes (working memory and attention control) and growth in domain-specific skills (emergent literacy and numeracy) across the pre-kindergarten year, and their relative contributions to kindergarten reading and math achievement. One hundred sixty-four Head Start children (44% African American or Latino; 57% female) were followed longitudinally. Path analyses revealed that working memory and attention control predicted growth in emergent literacy and numeracy skills during the pre-kindergarten year, and furthermore, that growth in these domain-general cognitive skills made unique contributions to the prediction of kindergarten math and reading achievement, controlling for growth in domain-specific skills. These findings extend research highlighting the importance of working memory and attention control for academic learning, demonstrating the effects in early childhood, prior to school entry. We discuss the implications of these findings for pre-kindergarten programs, particularly those designed to reduce the school readiness gaps associated with socio-economic disadvantage.

Despite their potentially central role in fostering school readiness, executive function (EF) skills have received little explicit attention in the design and evaluation of school readiness interventions for socioeconomically disadvantaged children. The present study examined a set of five EF measures in the context of a randomized-controlled trial of a research-based intervention integrated into Head Start programs (Head Start REDI). Three hundred fifty-six 4-year-old children (17% Hispanic, 25% African American; 54% girls) were followed over the course of the prekindergarten year. Initial EF predicted gains in cognitive and social-emotional skills and moderated the impact of the Head Start REDI intervention on some outcomes. The REDI intervention promoted gains on two EF measures, which partially mediated intervention effects on school readiness. We discuss the importance of further study of the neurobiological bases of school readiness, the implications for intervention design, and the value of incorporating markers of neurobiological processes into school readiness interventions.Growing up in poverty significantly increases the likelihood that children will start school well behind their advantaged peers in key areas of language development and emergent literacy skills (Zill et al., 2003). Perhaps even more critically, many will start school without the social-emotional maturity and classroom behaviors that foster "readiness to learn," impeding their rate of progress once in school, and contributing to gaping disparities in school performance, high school graduation rates, and long-term employment potential (Campbell & von Stauffenberg, 2008;McClelland, Acock, & Morrison, 2006;Ryan, Fauth, & Brooks-Gunn, 2006). Rates of child poverty are on the rise in the United States, now affecting nearly one out of five children (Children's Defense Fund, 2005), making the problem of understanding and promoting school readiness a national priority.Recent efforts to promote school readiness for children growing up in poverty have focused on improving the instructional content of preschool programs, particularly Head Start programs, to enhance children's acquisition of key emergent literacy skills (such as letter identification and phonemic sensitivity) that are strong predictors of later achievement (Lonigan, Burgess, & Anthony, 2000). Although important, instructional strategies that focus narrowly on promoting the memorization of discrete content may "miss the mark" developmentally. The long-term impact of preschool interventions may depend on the degree to which they foster the development of mental systems that support learning and adaptive learning behaviors (Blair, 2002). For this reason, the Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000) and others have underscored the importance of promoting self-regulation and social competence in preschool Copyright ©2008 Cambridge University Press Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Karen Bierman, Pennsylvania ...

Forty-four Head Start classrooms were randomly assigned to enriched intervention (Head Start REDI- Research-based, Developmentally Informed) or “usual practice” conditions. The intervention involved brief lessons, “hands on” extension activities, and specific teaching strategies linked empirically with the promotion of: 1) social-emotional competencies, and 2) language development and emergent literacy skills. Take-home materials were provided to parents to enhance skill development at home. Multi-method assessments of 356 4-year-old children tracked their progress over the course of the one-year program. Results revealed significant differences favoring children in the enriched intervention classrooms on measures of vocabulary, emergent literacy, emotional understanding, social problem-solving, social behavior, and learning engagement. Implications are discussed for developmental models of school readiness and for early educational programs and policies.

This prospective longitudinal study examined the unique and combined effects of neighborhood characteristics on parental behaviors in the context of more distal and more proximal influences. With a sample of 368 mothers from high-risk communities in 4 parts of the United States, this study examined relations between race (African American or European American), locality (urban or rural), neighborhood characteristics, family context, and child problem behaviors, and parental warmth, appropriate and consistent discipline, and harsh interactions. Analyses testing increasingly proximal influences on parenting revealed that initial race differences in warmth and consistent discipline disappeared when neighborhood influences were considered. Although generally culture and context did not moderate other relations found between neighborhood characteristics, family context, and child behaviors, the few interactions found highlight the complex influences on parenting.

We evaluated the efficacy of a mindful parenting program for changing parents’ mindfulness, child management practices, and relationships with their early adolescent youth and tested whether changes in parents’ mindfulness mediated changes in other domains. We conducted a pilot randomized trial with 65 families and tested an adapted version of the Strengthening Families Program: For Parent and Youth 10–14 that infused mindfulness principles and practices against the original program and a delayed intervention control group. Results of pre-post analyses of mother and youth-report data showed that the mindful parenting program generally demonstrated comparable effects to the original program on measures of child management practices and stronger effects on measures of mindful parenting and parent–youth relationship qualities. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that the mindful parenting program operated indirectly on the quality of parent–youth relationships through changes in mindful parenting. Overall, the findings suggest that infusing mindful parenting activities into existing empirically validated parenting programs can enhance their effects on family risk and protection during the transition to adolescence.

This study examined relations among mothers' hostile attribution tendencies regarding their children's ambiguous problem behaviors, mothers' harsh discipline practices, and children's externalizing behavior problems. A community sample of 277 families (19% minority representation) living in three geographic regions of the United States was followed for over 4 years. Mothers' hostile attribution tendencies were assessed during the summer prior to children's entry into kindergarten through their responses to written vignettes. Mothers' harsh discipline practices were assessed concurrently through ratings by interviewers and reports by spouses. Children's externalizing behavior problems were assessed concurrently through written questionnaires by mothers and fathers and in the spring of kindergarten and first, second, and third grades through reports by teachers and peer sociometric nominations. Results of structural equations models demonstrated that mothers' hostile attribution tendencies predicted children's future externalizing behavior problems at school and that a large proportion of this relation was mediated by mothers' harsh discipline practices. These results remained virtually unchanged when controlling for initial levels of children's prekindergarten externalizing behavior problems at home.

This study identified profiles of 13 risk factors across child, family, school, and neighborhood domains in a diverse sample of children in kindergarten from 4 US locations (n = 750; 45% minority). It then examined the relation of those early risk profiles to externalizing problems, school failure, and low academic achievement in Grade 5. A person-centered approach, latent class analysis, revealed four unique risk profiles, which varied considerably across urban African American, urban white, and rural white children. Profiles characterized by several risks that cut across multiple domains conferred the highest risk for negative outcomes. Compared to a variablecentered approach, such as a cumulative risk index, these findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the early precursors to negative outcomes. For example, results suggested that urban children in single-parent homes that have few other risk factors (i.e., show at least average parenting warmth and consistency and report relatively low stress and high social support) are at quite low risk for externalizing problems, but at relatively high risk for poor grades and low academic achievement. These findings provide important information for refining and targeting preventive interventions to groups of children who share particular constellations of risk factors. KeywordsMultiple risks; risk profiles; person-centered; latent class analysis; child behavior problems Children live within multiple contexts, including the family, the school, and the neighborhood, and characteristics of those contexts contribute to the development of competence or adjustment problems (Bronfrenbrenner, 1979;Cicchetti, 1993). Although it can be useful to examine the role of individual risk factors, they seldom operate in isolation (Cicchetti, 1993). In fact, they often are highly related both within and across ecological levels (e.g., child, family, school, and neighborhood). Findings from numerous longitudinal studies support the value of a holistic/ecological approach to examining the multiple risk factors associated with children's future adjustment problems (Gorman-Smith, Tolan, & Henry, 2000;Greenberg, et al., 1999;Greenberg, Speltz, DeKlyen, & Jones, 2001;Keller, Spieker, & Gilchrist, 2005;Rutter, 1979;Sameroff & Seifer, 1990).This study assumed such a multivariate approach, in which children's characteristics and outcomes are influenced by factors including the social context of their family, the nature of NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript interactions they have with their parents, the quality of their neighborhoods, their experiences with their teachers and classmates, and the climate of their schools. Although we know that each of those factors is contributory, it is less clear how all of those factors interact to lead toward or deflect children from specific outcomes. The beginning of elementary school and the beginning of middle school represent two critical developmental time periods during which the transition in conte...

This study examined whether attendance and quality of participation in parent management training predicted treatment response. Data were from 445 parents (55% minority, 62% single; almost all of low socioeconomic status) who had 1st-grade children with severe conduct problems. Quality of participation in weekly parent groups was based on group leader ratings. Parent outcomes were based on interviewer ratings, behavioral observations, parent reports, and teacher ratings. Results of hierarchical linear models suggested that few family characteristics predicted attendance in this efficacy trial and that attendance was not related to changes in parenting over the year. However, several family characteristics predicted quality of participation in parent management training, and this in turn predicted changes in parental perceptions, warmth, physical punishment, and school involvement. From a clinical perspective, these findings suggest that it is not enough to get parents to attend sessions; it is also necessary to facilitate their active engagement in the therapeutic process.