Peer-reported Social Functioning Predicts Emerging Literacy and Math skills: A Longitudinal Investigation in Preschool Children

• In Event: 1-105 - Peer Influences on Self-regulation and School Adaptation at the Transition from Preschool to Primary School

Integrative Statement

Evidence shows that adaptive social functioning promotes preschoolers’ academic school readiness (e.g., McWayne et al., 2004; Palermo et al., 2007), besides theory of mind (TOM) and self-regulatory dimensions, such as emotion regulation (ER) and executive functions (EF) (e.g., Blair, 2002; Blair & Razza, 2007; Miller et al., 2013; Pellicano et al., 2017). Nevertheless, the state of art of the literature suffers from a few gaps: studies rely only on teachers’ report, whereas peers also have been shown to provide reliable reports of classmate’s social adaptation (Cillessen, 2009; Gazzelle et al., 2015; Newcomb et al., 1993). Secondly, only one study investigated the joint influence of social functioning and other skills shown to impact school readiness, showing that it mediated the impact of EF on literacy and math skills (Baptista et al., 2016); unfortunately, the concurrent design does not allow drawing clear conclusions on the direction of the influences.
This study attempted to address these gaps: through a longitudinal design it investigated how peer-reported social functioning contributed to school readiness, together with other relevant aspect of child functioning. 409 healthy children (52% male; M age= 61.93 months; SD= 3.87), attending the last year of kindergarten, all with IQ >70, were recruited in 8 schools of urban areas in Italy. A multi-informant, multi-method design was implemented. Measures collected at the beginning of the year (Fall) were: fluid IQ (CPMT, Raven, 1956); TOM (Wellman & Liu, 2004); two EF shown to impact literacy and math skills (e.g., Leppanen et al., 2008; McClelland et al., 2007), i.e., inhibitory control through a Go/no-Go task (BIA4-6; Marzocchi et al., 2010) and sustained attention (Leiter-3; Roid & Miller 2002); teachers’ report of emotion regulation (ERC, Shields & Cicchetti, 1997). Social functioning was assessed through social preference (SP, Coie et al., 1982). At the end of the year (Spring) literacy and math prerequisites were assessed through validated batteries (PRCR-2/2009; Cornoldi et al., 2009; BIN 4-6; Molin et al., 2007). Multilevel models, with children (Level 1) nested within classrooms (Level 2), showed that EF (factor scores), ER, TOM and SP contributed independently to predict literacy, .15
Results support independent, rather than mediated, contributions of social functioning and regulatory skills to school readiness. Social preference partially moderated the impact of regulatory skills: this result suggests that positive social relationships with peers might compensate for deficits in self-regulation, whereas children experiencing low social preference need to put more effort in self-regulation to succeed in early academic achievements. Implications to improve peer engagement in order to promote school readiness, especially for children with lower regulatory skills, will be discussed.

Authors

• Gabrielle Coppola, University of Bari Aldo Moro
  Presenting Author

• Rosalinda Cassibba, University of Bari Aldo Moro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cristina Semeraro, Department of Education, Psychology, Communication University of Bari "Aldo Moro”, Italy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Barbara Iacobellis, Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro
  Non-Presenting Author