Effortful Control, Behavior Problems, and Peer Relations: What Predicts Academic Adjustment in Kindergartners from Low-Income Families?

Abstract

This study examined the role of effortful control, behavior problems, and peer relations in the academic adjustment of 74 kindergarten children from primarily low-income families using a short-term longitudinal design. Teachers completed standardized measures of children’s effortful control, internalizing and externalizing problems, school readiness, and academic skills. Children participated in a sociometric interview to assess peer relations. Research Findings: Correlational analyses indicate that children’s effortful control, behavior problems in school, and peer relations are associated with academic adjustment variables at the end of the school year, including school readiness, reading skills, and math skills. Results of regression analyses indicate that household income and children’s effortful control primarily account for variation in children’s academic adjustment. The associations between children’s effortful control and academic adjustment did not vary across sex of the child or ethnicity. Mediational analyses indicate an indirect effect of effortful control on school readiness, through children’s internalizing problems. Practice or Policy: Effortful control emerged as a strong predictor of academic adjustment among kindergarten children from low-income families. Strategies for enhancing effortful control and school readiness among low-income children are discussed.

Utilizing the desired results developmental profile as a measure of school readiness: evaluating factor structure and predictors of school readiness

“…Children's effortful control also significantly predicted school readiness scores on the DRDP index, with children rated as having higher effortful control abilities also scoring higher on the DRDP index. This is also consistent with previous research considering effortful control as a predictor of multiple measures of school readiness (Morris et al, 2013;Thompson et al, 2013;Son et al, 2013;Valiente et al, 2013).…”

“…For children with lower effortful control abilities, engagement in academic tasks may be more difficult and have a subsequent effect on learning. Early effortful control measures have been linked with both concurrent academic achievement in the form of school readiness as well as later academic achievement longitudinally (Morris et al, 2013;Thompson et al, 2013;Son, Lee, & Sung, 2013;Valiente et al, 2013). Based on this research, we also examine effortful control as a predictor of our school readiness index.…”

Kindergarten Social Withdrawal and Reading Achievement: A Cross-Lagged Path Model for at-Risk Learners

“…In general, further study examining the interplay between social withdrawal and reading may also benefit from a more nuanced examination of the pathways through which the predictive relationship travels. Specifically, research on low‐income kindergarten students has demonstrated that effortful control has had an indirect effect on school readiness through internalizing, but not externalizing, symptoms (Morris et al., ). The present study did not include explicit measures of effortful control, but it stands to reason that effortful control, classroom participation, attention, and school liking may all be avenues for exploration as potential mediators of the association between social withdrawal and attenuated academic learning.…”

Elementary students’ effortful control and academic achievement: The mediating role of teacher–student relationship quality

“…For example, preschoolers' behavioral regulation (assessed with the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task which requires attention, working memory, and inhibiting dominant responses to perform a non-dominant demand; Diamond, 2002) predicted concurrent academic achievement, controlling for earlier levels of achievement and behavioral regulation (McClelland et al, 2007). There is also some longitudinal evidence for the association between effortful control (e.g., assessed with a variety of behavioral measures of inhibitory control and set shifting) and academic achievement (Clark, Pritchard, & Woodward, 2010; McClelland et al, 2014; Morris et al, 2013; Ponitz et al, 2009), although the use of control variables across studies has been inconsistent. For example, effortful control (measured with behavioral and adults' reports of inhibitory control and attentional focusing/shifting) in kindergarten positively predicted math and reading achievement in kindergarten or second grade (Cerda, Im, & Hughes, 2014; Valiente, Lemery-Chalfant, & Swanson, 2010), controlling for background variables (e.g., socioeconomic status [SES]) but not prior academic achievement.…”