Poster #54 - Associations between infant and toddler’s classroom quality and social-emotional skills

• In Event: Poster Session 11

Abstract

Children’s early social-emotional skills can predict positive longitudinal social-emotional, cognitive, and language development (Whitted, 2011). As an early predictive indicator, social-emotional skills for infants and toddlers have been targeted in early intervention efforts to promote future successful achievements in home and school (Briggs‐Gowan et al., 2007). Research has demonstrated that parents’ mental health and parenting strategies are crucial factors influencing infant and toddler’s social-emotional skill (Behrendt et 2019 Belsky, 1995). With the majority of infants and toddlers attending early care and education programs, more research is called for to examine how infant-toddler’s initial social-emotional skills affect teacher-child interaction, a central component of classroom quality, which in turn, is associated with the development of infant and toddler’s social-emotional skills. Substantial research has shown that positive classroom quality is associated with preschool-aged children’s social-emotional skills (Broekhuizen et al., 2016; Mashburn et al., 2008), and studies are needed to explore the impact of classroom quality on infant and toddler’s social-emotional skills. The current study addresses this gap using the QCIT, a relatively new observation tool of teacher-child interactions in early education settings serving infants and toddlers. Thus, this study examined how the social-emotional skills of infants and toddlers affect classroom qualities which in turn affect gain in social-emotional skills.

Method
Data for the present study are from a state level early childhood program evaluation project. This study includes 49 infant and toddler classrooms and 361 infants and toddlers. We used data from teacher ratings of child-social emotional skills (Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for infants and toddler; DECA I/T, Powell et al., 2007) collected in fall and spring and classroom observations (QCIT, Atkins-Burnett et al. 2015) in winter.

Results and discussion
We employed multilevel path models to examine associations between classroom quality and the development of social-emotional skills. First, results showed (see Figure 1) that infant and toddler’s social-emotional skills in fall predicted higher support for social-emotional development in classrooms, but this was not associated with social-emotional skills in spring. Second, results showed (see Figure 2) that infant and toddler’s social-emotional skills in fall predicted higher support for language development in classrooms which in turn increased social-emotional skills between fall and spring. The results imply that classrooms having infants and toddlers who had higher social-emotional skills (higher initiative, self-regulation, and attachment) at the beginning of the year may create supportive environments such as higher support for social-emotional and language development. Infants and toddlers who had higher social-emotional skills may create more linguistic interactions which in turn may lead to more social-emotional skill development across a year. Further implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Shinyoung Jeon, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Sherri L Castle, University of Oklahoma

• Denise Ruvalcaba Vega, University of Oklahoma