Consistent routines matter: Child routines mediated the association between interparental functioning and school readiness

Abstract

School readiness is critical to children's academic and social-emotional success at school entry and over time. Using structural equation modeling, this study examined the mediating role of consistent child routines in the association between interparental functioning and school readiness among preschool-aged children in China. Participants included 349 preschoolers and both of their parents. Data were collected across two time points with 1.5 years apart. Consistency in child routines was found to mediate the association between maternal interparental functioning and child school readiness. Specifically, mother-perceived marital satisfaction was positively related to their contributions to coparenting, which further had a positive association with consistency in child routines, and this eventually predicted children's school readiness across multiple indicators. However, different patterns of findings emerged for paternal interparental functioning. Father-perceived marital satisfaction was directly linked to consistency in child routines without the mediation effect of paternal coparenting, which, in turn, predicted school readiness. Fathers’ contributions to coparenting also directly predicted children's social-emotional functioning. The findings have highlighted the importance of establishing and maintaining consistent routines for young children in order to promote school readiness across the preschool period.