Early Environmental Support and Elementary School Adjustment as Predictors of School Adjustment in Middle Adolescence

Abstract

Longitudinal data from a high-risk sample (N = 173, male: n = 93, female: n = 80) were used to examine socioemotional antecedents of school adjustment in adolescence. Parental problem-solving support in early childhood and early adolescence and measures of peer competence, externalizing behavior, and emotional health/self-esteem in early middle childhood were examined both independently and in relation to academic achievement in early middle childhood as predictors of high school adjustment. For this sample, early and later parental problem-solving support alone accounted for 13% of the variance in high school adjustment. Early and later parental problem-solving support and measures of peer competence, externalizing behavior, and emotional health/self-esteem in early middle childhood accounted for 32% of the total variance in high school adjustment with or without early academic achievement taken into account. In regression analyses controlling for socioeconomic status and prior achievement, middle childhood socioemotional variables significantly predicted high school adjustment. Modest differences in results for boys and girls were obtained.