A longitudinal study of children’s social behaviors and their causal relationship to reading growth

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating the causal effects of social behaviors on subsequent reading growth in elementary school, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) data. The sample was 8,869 subjects who provided longitudinal measures of reading IRT scores from kindergarten (1998)(1999) to fifth grades (2003)(2004) in the United States. To examine the causal relationship, propensity score methods were used to match higher and lower groups in four social behavior domains such as Approaches to learning, Interpersonal skills, Internalizing problem behavior and Externalizing problem behavior. Results showed that the matched sample achieved sufficient pretreatment balance between the two groups. To examine the effects of social behaviors on the reading growth, multilevel growth model (MGM) was employed. Comparisons of the matched samples showed that children in the high groups of pro-social behavior or in the low groups of problem behavior at kindergarten entrance started with higher reading skills and developed reading achievement faster than those who were not. This study suggests that children's early social behavior is crucial in reading development. Practical implication and direction of future research are also discussed.

Word Reading Skills and Externalizing and Internalizing Problems from Grade 1 to Grade 2—Developmental Trajectories and Bullying Involvement in Grade 3

“…Disruptive and withdrawn behaviors may distract children from instruction and classroom activities, interfering with their ability to learn and leading to delayed reading acquisition and underachievement (Lim & Kim, 2011;McClelland, Acock, & Morrison, 2006). Some studies suggest a reciprocal relationship between reading and problem behaviors, at least for certain students (Morgan et al, 2008;Trzesniewski et al, 2006), or that common cause variables, such as poor attention, may lead to problems in reading, emotions, and behavior (Carroll et al, 2005;Fleming et al, 2004;Willcutt & Pennington, 2000).…”

Internalizing Behaviors and Hyperactivity/Inattention: Consequences for Young Struggling Readers, and Especially Boys

“…Externalizing and internalizing behavior. Analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) datasets have found that children entering school with early literacy struggles are more likely to display higher rates of internalizing (e.g., anxiety, depression) and externalizing (e.g., aggression, noncompliance) behaviors throughout elementary school (Morgan, Farkas, & Wu, 2009), and that children with higher ratings of externalizing behaviors demonstrate slower initial growth in reading (Lim & Kim, 2011). The associations between reading struggles and behavior problems are not something young children can be expected to simply "grow out of," as studies have corroborated significant relationships between the two throughout elementary school (Lin et al, 2013) and into adolescence (Arnold et al, 2005).…”

Coping Power Dissemination Study: Intervention and Special Education Effects on Academic Outcomes

“…Children's social skills have been found to have a strong relation with their academic performance in general (Malecki & Elliott, 2002), and children's prosocial behavior (sharing, cooperating, helping others when faced with problems) has been found to have a direct effect on grades (Wenzel, 1993) and on reading and math achievement (Caprara et al, 2000). Links between children's interpersonal behaviors and their reading achievement have been especially noted (Lim & Kim, 2011;Wang & Algozzine, 2011) and appear to be bidirectional. Children with poor social skills in kindergarten have remained behind their peers through sixth grade (McClelland & Hansen, 2011), whereas children who have difficulty learning to read have had later externalizing problems (Halonen et al, 2006;Willcutt & Pennington, 2000).…”

“…There are several potential explanations for the link between children's social behavior and their reading and language arts skills (Lim & Kim, 2011). First, children with better social skills are likely to have more cooperative interactions with peers and teachers, and this May 2012 / 201 is likely to lead to greater success during group reading activities.…”

“…Second, children's behavioral regulation skills may underlie both their social skills and their reading development. Children's attentiveness, task persistence, and organization skills are believed to influence children's listening and reading comprehension (Lim & Kim, 2011), and those same regulation skills have been a direct focus of the Coping Power program. Certain basic aspects of the Coping Power program may also have beneficial effects on the reading achievement of aggressive children.…”