3-045 - Cumulative Advantage and Risk as Predictors of School Readiness and Academic Achievement

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

In this symposium, each author investigates a variety of assets or risks that are implicated in children’s readiness for, and success in, elementary school. Each paper is guided by the cumulative risk/advantage perspective and the belief that success in school is fostered through a collection of multiple assets and risks that students bring to elementary school.

The author of paper one utilizes both a cumulative advantage and risk composite to predict adjustment and school readiness. Results demonstrate that the effects of family income on social competence and school readiness are indirect through cumulative family and child advantage. In line with the cumulative advantage perspective, only 1 of 10 variables included in the composites uniquely predicted an outcome above the risk and advantage latent variables.

Paper two presents evidence that an accumulation of kindergarten assets (verbal ability, social competence, effortful control, family income, is positively related to 1st grade assets (close student-teacher relationship, positive school engagement), which in turn predict 2nd grade standardized (and teacher-reported) achievement.

The authors of paper three demonstrate that a combination of early family risks predict children’s self-regulation, a key component of readiness and predictor of later achievement. Results from a latent class analysis illustrate that there is specificity in the relations between risk profile and children’s regulation, and that self-regulation is lowest for children exposed to socioeconomic disadvantage in combination with parental harshness.

Collectively, these papers demonstrate the value of utilizing a cumulative risk/advantage perspective in the study of young children’s school readiness and academic achievement.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Carlos Valiente, Arizona State University

Discussant

• Cybele Raver, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Cumulative Family and Child Advantage Predict Outcomes above the Effects of Income and Cumulative Risk - Presenting Author: Liliana J. Lengua, Univ of Washington

• Longitudinal Prediction of Early Academic Achievement from Family, Child, and School Assets: A Cumulative Advantage Perspective - Presenting Author: Carlos Valiente, Arizona State University; Jodi Swanson, Arizona State University; Robert H Bradley, Arizona State University

• Understanding the Relation Between Multiple Risks and Early Self-Regulation - Presenting Author: Megan E Pratt, Arizona State University; Megan M McClelland, Oregon State University; Shannon Tierney Lipscomb, Oregon State University