Baseline inequalities: Social skills as moderator of low-income preschoolers’ early math trajectories

• In Event: 3-080 - Beyond Numeracy: Varied Predictors of Mathematics Knowledge

Integrative Statement

Children from low-income families often enter kindergarten behind their higher income peers academically, particularly in math (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011). Recent findings also indicate gaps in social-emotional aspects of school readiness (e.g., eagerness-to-learn, peer interactions; Duncan & Magnuson, 2011), fueling debate about cross-domain relations and, specifically, which social skills matter for promoting early math skills. This study explores the role that social skills at preschool entry may play in moderating the rate at which low-income children learn math during preschool. Using longitudinal growth modeling, this study asks, Do social skills at preschool entry moderate math trajectories across a preschool year?

Participants (N=76) were a diverse sample of 3-6 year old children (see Table 3.1) recruited from an early childhood center in a northeastern U.S. state. There were four participating preschool classrooms, two of which receive Head Start funding. Approximately 80% of children in each participating classroom consented into the study; the sample reflected center demographics. Child assessments were conducted 4-5 times (M=3.4 per child) over a 10-month period (baseline assessment in November).
Children’s early math skills were assessed using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability-3rd Edition (Ginsburg & Baroody, 2003) and the Challenging Situations Task (Denham, Bouril & Belouad, 1994) was used to capture children’s social problem-solving skills. Controls were included for children’s age, baseline language (measured by PPVT; Dunn & Dunn, 2007), race/ethnicity and gender.

Preliminary results indicate that children’s adaptive social problem-solving (i.e., prosocial or disengaging from aggressor) at preschool entry is associated with differences in the rates at which children learn math skills across the preschool year, controlling for baseline PPVT and age (see Fig. 3.1). Specifically, children who begin preschool with more adaptive social problem-solving skills have a slight advantage in math skills at preschool entry and, importantly, have, on average, steeper math learning trajectories during the preschool year than peers who have fewer social skills at baseline (β=.07,SE=.04,p=0.05; see Fig. 3.1). Specifically, the prototypical child with more social skills upon entering preschool has, on average, a 5.12 TEMA score whereas the prototypical child with fewer social skills has an average math score of 4.29 at preschool entry. By year’s end, the prototypical child with more social skills at preschool entry would be expected to have a 12.99 TEMA score (i.e., gaining 7.87 points) whereas the prototypical child with fewer social skills (at baseline) would be predicted to have an average end-of-year TEMA score of only 9.45 (i.e., gaining only 5.16 points).

Findings illustrate a considerable increase in the math gap that is associated with a difference in social problem-solving skills at preschool entry, suggesting that low-income children with more adaptive social problem-solving strategies—when they begin preschool—learn math faster compared to their peers with fewer of these social skills. Thus, social skills may play an important role in the development of early math skills and warrant more investigation. Results provide an important foundation for guiding curricular decision-making and time-allocation in preschool programs serving children from low-income families.

Authors

• Bonnie Mackintosh, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Meredith Rowe, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author