Young Children’s Adjustment to School Following the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Risk and Resilience in Early Childhood During the COVID-19 Pandemic: From a Social Equity Perspective

Abstract

Young children’s successful adjustment to formalized education is a critical component of their end-of-year outcomes and potentially their long-term academic achievement (Hausken & Rathbun, 2002; Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000; Schulting et al., 2005). The COVID-19 outbreak of 2020 forced schools to pivot to remote learning or, as for some early childhood programs, to close altogether (Lee & Parolin, 2021; Silverman et al., 2020; Timmons et al., 2021). For children from low-income households, who frequently face early adversity and have fewer resources at home to support the transition to school, these disruptions in their early school experiences may present additional challenges to their school adjustment. Furthermore, access to in-person and remote schooling options during the 2020-2021 school year disproportionately disadvantaged low-income children and children with special needs (Engzell et al., 2021; Fox et al., 2021; McCoy et al., 2021).
In this analysis, we explore young children’s (ages 4-7 in September of 2021) adjustment to the 2021-2022 school year after the disruptions of the previous academic year. We use longitudinal survey data from a representative sample of New York City families (N = 988) with young children to examine variation in overall school adjustment by 1) child and family demographic factors, 2) experiences of material hardships net of other demographic factors, and 3) the child’s school experiences (no school, in-person school, fully remote, or hybrid) during the prior school year, net of material hardships and other demographics.
Parents reported on their child’s dispositions and behaviors toward school during the first month of the school year using a modified version of the ECLS-K: 2011 survey items (see Table 1). These seven survey items were averaged and standardized to reflect the child’s overall adjustment to school (α=0.78). Measures of material hardships capture families’ ability to afford basic expenses in five domains: food, housing, utilities, medical care, and general finances.
Preliminary OLS regression models (Table 2) indicate that children from families who experienced any material hardship (out of the five types) had significantly lower levels of school adjustment (β = -0.19, p < 0.01) than children from families without hardship (Model 1). As shown in Model 2, the count of material hardships was also associated with lower levels of school adjustment (β = -0.09 ~ -0.27, p < 0.05). The negative effect of hardships on adjustment is robust to the inclusion of the child’s school experience during the prior year in the regression model (Model 3). Across all models we find that girls had higher levels of school adjustment than boys (β = 0.08, p < 0.05) and children with IEPs had lower levels of adjustment than children without IEPs (β = -0.08 ~ -0.10, p < 0.05). Additional models, including the moderating effects of material hardships on child gender, IEP status, and previous school experiences, will be presented. Implications for post-pandemic efforts at improving equity in the early educational experience and closing the educational opportunity gap will be discussed.

Authors

• Jill Gandhi, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn M. Neckerman, Columbia University

• Jane Waldfogel, Columbia University