Early Developmental Trajectories of Externalizing Behaviors and Academic Achievement

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Problem:
Externalizing behavior is associated with a multitude of negative outcomes, including academic underachievement (Turney & McLanahan, 2014). Only one study has investigated how developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors across early childhood relate to academic achievement. This major study found that children with high and moderately-high externalizing behavior over time had poorer academic achievement in middle childhood than children with low levels of problems (Campbell et al., 2006). The sample participants were diverse with respect to family income but not ethnicity. Given the higher risk of both externalizing problems and academic underachievement (e.g., e.g., Hemphill, Vanneman, & Rahman, 2011) among low-income ethnic minority children, it is important to examine relations between developmental paths of externalizing behavior and achievement within this population. Given the negative outcomes associated with academic underachievement (e.g., van Lier et al., 2012), it is important to determine behavioral pathways associated with underachievement to help determine supports needed to promote children’s optimal development. Thus, the goal of the current study is to investigate how developmental trajectories of externalizing behavior from age 2½ to first grade are related to academic achievement in first grade in a sample of low-income African American and Hispanic children.
Method:
Data for the present study came from a longitudinal study examining the development of school readiness and academic achievement among low-income ethnic minority children. Families were recruited when the child was 2½ years old with follow-ups when the child was 3½, in kindergarten, and in first grade. The ethnically-diverse sample of 407 children (219 boys) was 186 Hispanic (46%), 170 non-Hispanic African American, and 51 multiracial/multiethnic (12%). Average income-to-needs ratios were 0.59 for African American and 0.92 for Hispanic families.
Mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) at each wave to measure externalizing behaviors. Children’s academic achievement was assessed using the Woodcock-Johnson III Revised (WJ-R) (Woodcock, 1990) in kindergarten and first grade. The subtests of Letter Word Identification and Word Attack were our measures of reading achievement and Applied Problems measured math achievement.
Results:
Group based trajectory modeling (Nagin, 2005) of externalizing scores yielded a four-group solution as the best fit to the data. The trajectory groups identified indicated very low stable, low stable, moderate, and chronic high externalizing behaviors across early childhood and the transition to school. One-way ANOVAs revealed significant differences between group membership and achievement. Overall, children in the chronic high group had the poorest achievement in both reading and math; achievement scores of children in the very low stable and low stable externalizing behavior groups were significantly higher.
Conclusion:
Early developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors across early childhood and the transition to school were associated with academic achievement in first grade within a sample of low-income, ethnic minority children. Given these findings, it is crucial that children who exhibit moderate or high trajectories of externalizing behaviors be targeted with interventions that aim to reduce these behaviors to promote positive outcomes.

Authors

• Brianna Turney Ricker, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Daniel Frank Pacheco, University of Texas at Dallas
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret Tresch Owen, University of Texas at Dallas
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret O'Brien Caughy, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author