Direct and Indirect Effects of Early Adverse Childhood Experiences on School Adjustment Across Elementary School

• In Event: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Child Outcomes in School Settings: Implications for Development, Intervention, and Pedagogy

Abstract

Exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has been linked to behavioral and adjustment problems for children as young as 5 years old and may influence how well children navigate the demands of school (Blodgett & Lanigan, 2018). ACEs in the home can impede children’s ability to seek and receive stable, consistent, and supportive care from teachers (Steele et al., 2016). Further, chronic exposure to stress during early childhood impedes children’s abilities to develop appropriate emotion regulation and to cope effectively with stressful situations, which in turn increases anxiety and avoidant behavior (McCoy et al., 2016). However, there remains a lack of research that clarifies the developmental processes that link early ACEs with school adjustment across elementary school, which hinders the ability of schools to adequately intervene for children at risk.
The study combined data from two randomized trials conducted as part of the Head Start REDI (Research-based Developmentally Informed) Project (Bierman, Heinrichs, Welsh, Nix, & Gest, 2017). Participants included 566 prekindergarten children (Mage = 4.67 years, SD = 0.32; 51% girls; 58% European American; 25% African American; 19% Latinx) and their parents. Across the two trials, children and parents were recruited from 44 Head Start classrooms in three counties in Pennsylvania and the majority of families lived below the poverty line (70%). ACE items were scored dichotomously to indicate their presence or absence during the first five years of the child’s life and combined to create a composite index. ACE items in this study are shown in Table 1. Kindergarten teachers reported on their relationships with children using the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 2001). Elementary school teachers reported on children’s internalizing problems in the classroom from kindergarten through third grade using a child behavior scale developed for the REDI project (Bierman et al., 2008). In fifth grade, children reported on their school connectedness using the People in my Life questionnaire (PIML; Murray & Greenberg, 2000). Path analyses were conducted to illuminate the developmental pathways through which ACEs influence student-teacher relationships in kindergarten, internalizing problems across kindergarten through third grade, and school connectedness by fifth grade.
A comprehensive path model demonstrated that ACEs reduced the quality of student-teacher relationships in kindergarten which in turn increased levels of internalizing problems. Further, in reducing early student-teacher relationship quality and increasing internalizing problems across the early elementary grades, ACEs had a negative impact on school connectedness by the fifth grade (Figure 1). These results reflected an indirect pathway linking early ACEs with diminished school connectedness via elevated internalizing problems that result from low quality relationships with teachers.
The study shows that early school adjustment problems at the beginning of elementary school reduce children’s connectedness to school by fifth grade through cascading negative effects. These findings suggest that as children exposed to ACEs face challenging transitions into elementary and middle school, their early experiences in school can have long-term consequences on their school adjustment and could be targeted for preventive interventions to improve their overall educational experience.

Authors

• Meghan Elizabeth McDoniel, Child Trends -Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Karen L Bierman, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author