School Readiness: Indirect Effects of Emotion Knowledge and Positive Social Behavior

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the social nature of the preschool classroom environment, individual learning processes are inextricably intertwined with social interactions. It thus follows that the interplay between individual children and their classroom peers may impact academic performance and social adjustment. Children who grow up in poverty often face adversities that delay the development of the skills associated with positive social-emotional adjustment at school entry. To foster positive social-emotional skill acquisition and social adjustment in preschool, social-emotional learning interventions target fundamental processes of emotion and social skills development. However, approaches differ in the degree to which programs emphasize explicit lessons designed to teach emotion knowledge and more general positive behavioral supports designed to foster social skills.

Developmental conceptualizations of emotional knowledge have identified expression recognition and situation knowledge as distinct processes for understanding and contextualizing social information. Several theoretical models suggest that the acquisition of emotion knowledge makes differential contributions to school functioning in both cognitive and behavioral domains. In contrast, intervention programs often focus instead or in addition on promoting positive social behavior (e.g., sharing cooperation) with the goal of promoting social harmony and thereby boosting adaptive learning engagement. Conceptually, growth in preschool emotion knowledge and positive social behavior may make unique and complementary contributions to later school cognitive and behavioral adjustment. This study examined the elementary school outcomes produced by a preschool social-emotional learning intervention that enhanced children’s emotion knowledge and prosocial behavior. The goal of the study was to evaluate mechanisms of sustained intervention impact by evaluating mediation models that included measures of growth in emotion knowledge (e.g., expression recognition and situation knowledge) and positive social behaviors. Elementary school outcomes included measures of both academic performance and social adjustment.

Methods: The intervention was conducted in 44 Head Start classrooms in Pennsylvania, located in three counties participating in the REDI program, representing a range of urban and rural regions of the state. Participants were 356 children (17% Latinx, 25% African American, and 58% European American; 54% girls; Mage = 4.59 years at initial assessment) recruited from 44 Head Start classrooms. Most participating families had incomes that were below the federal poverty limit (median annual income = $18,000).

Classrooms were stratified on location (county), length of program (half-day or full-day), and student demographics (% non-white) and then randomized to the intervention or control condition. Classrooms in the same center were always assigned to the same condition, to avoid inadvertent contamination of condition within centers.

Results: Path analyses were conducted using structural equation models with manifest variables to estimate the indirect effect of change in emotion knowledge and positive social behavior on later elementary school outcomes. Significant indirect effects were tested using bootstrapped standard errors. Differential outcomes were found in the contributions of intervention-related growth in preschool emotion knowledge and positive social behavior to elementary school outcomes. Whereas emotion knowledge contributed to academic outcomes and language comprehension scores, positive social behavior was associated with more positive student-teacher relationships and greater social competence (see Figures 1 and 2).

Authors

• Leslie C. Ho, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

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

• Brenda S Heinrichs, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author