Poster #191 - Predicting the Development of Emotion Knowledge from Pre-K through Kindergarten: Early childhood skills and socioeconomic context

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Children who can accurately identify and understand others’ emotions have higher quality peer relations, higher social competence, higher academic achievement, and fewer behavior problems. Less is known, however, about the factors that influence the early development of emotion knowledge in pre-K and at the critical transition to formal schooling. Understanding the early skills that predict emotion knowledge among children of color growing up in low-income urban environments is particularly important as these children often experience a host of stressors that put them at risk for lower school readiness. This study examines the ways in which pre-academic skills, self-regulation, and social competence, as well as socioeconomic background longitudinally predict the trajectory of emotion knowledge from pre-K through kindergarten.

Participants were children (n = 1034) enrolled in a longitudinal follow-up study of a cluster (school) randomized controlled trial of a pre-K intervention in high-poverty urban schools. Of participating students, 49% were boys; 90% were black; and 47% of students’ parents had a high school education or less. Children’s emotion knowledge was assessed longitudinally, in the fall of pre-K, spring of pre-K, and spring of kindergarten, with the Preschool Emotion Inventory, which assesses emotion knowledge using procedures adapted from Denham (1986) and Garner, Jones, & Miner (1994). Children completed measures of pre-academic skills in the fall of pre-K, during which assessors completed ratings of children’s self-regulation. Teachers and parents also reported on children’s positive peer relations in the fall of pre-K.

We used multilevel growth models to examine predictors of emotion knowledge across the fall of pre-K, spring of pre-K, and spring of kindergarten, using age as our time variable. Standard errors were adjusted for clustering of children at the school level. Full information maximum likelihood was used to deal with potential bias from missing predictor data.

As shown in Table 1, results demonstrate that children who had higher pre-academic skills had greater emotion knowledge at the fall of pre-K, and had slower growth in emotion knowledge. Children identified as having lower self-regulation had lower emotion knowledge at fall of pre-K, but had no difference in growth. Children who had more positive parent-rated peer relations also had greater emotion knowledge at fall of pre-K. Higher parent education, having completed at least a technical degree beyond high school, was associated with higher child emotion knowledge at fall of pre-K, but did not predict growth in emotion knowledge. Pre-K class type was unrelated to emotion knowledge at the fall of pre-K, but being in a full day as compared to a half day pre-K class was associated with greater growth in emotion knowledge across time. As shown in Figure 1, pre-academic skills and self-regulation continued to predict emotion knowledge in the spring of pre-K and in kindergarten but the relation of parental education to emotion knowledge faded by spring of kindergarten.

This study highlights the important roles that early cognitive, behavioral, and social skills as well as socioeconomic background play in the development of early emotion knowledge among low-income urban children of color.

Authors

• Jessica Siegel, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Alexandra Ursache, New York University School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Spring Dawson-McClure, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laurie Brotman, NYU School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author