Early Childhood Correlates of School Readiness

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

School readiness is often viewed as a measure of a child's socioemotional and academic competencies necessary for success in kindergarten and beyond (Hair, Halle, Terry-Humen, Lavelle, & Calkins, 2006). Understanding biological and environmental correlates of school readiness can inform interventions targeted at long-term academic outcomes. The present study investigated unique contributors to school readiness, including maternal emotional availability, socioeconomic status, hair cortisol as an index of chronic physiological stress and salivary cortisol as an index of daily physiological stress regulation.

Ninety one preschoolers (45 female, M=42.467 months, SD=1.519) participated in the present study. Children were administered the Bracken School Readiness Assessment. Parent-child interactions were coded using the Emotional Availability Scales to index maternal sensitivity, structuring, hostility and intrusion. Parents were trained to take at-home salivary cortisol samples collected across three days, yielding indices of cortisol levels at waking and bedtime, diurnal slope, and area under the curve. Hair cortisol samples were taken during an in-lab visit. A composite variable for socioeconomic status accounting for income to needs ratio, parental education, and parental occupational prestige was used for analysis.

School readiness was positively related to socioeconomic status, maternal sensitivity, and maternal structuring, and negatively related to maternal intrusion, maternal hostility and child hair cortisol concentration (Table 1; p’s<.001-.016). Interestingly, none of the salivary cortisol measures were related to school readiness. Stepwise linear regression analyses showed that higher socioeconomic status (𝛃=.368, p<.001) and lower maternal intrusion (𝛃=.364, p<.001) were unique contributors to school readiness (F(2,79)=19.770, p<.001). The combined model accounted for 31.7% of the variance.

These results suggest that individual differences in environmental factors like socioeconomic status and maternal intrusion may relate to individual differences in school readiness. Interestingly, even when accounting for socioeconomic status, individual differences in maternal intrusion contributed to school readiness. One possible mechanism for this might be that intrusive mothers may fail to show patience and/or effectively scaffold with their children when teaching them academic concepts. Additionally, these results suggest that chronic physiological stress, indexed by hair cortisol, is a better correlate of school readiness than daily physiological stress regulation, indexed by diurnal salivary cortisol. Additionally, the biological measure of hair cortisol may not predict school readiness above and beyond socioeconomic status. Future research should examine the effectiveness of maternal skill interventions on school readiness.

Authors

• Arcadia Ewell, Boston University
  Presenting Author

• Katie Kao
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charu Tuladhar, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jerrold Meyer, UMass-Amherst
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda R Tarullo, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author