Factors Related to School Readiness in Children: A Cross-Sectional Analytic Study of Elementary School Children in Manado

Abstract

Objectives
 School readiness is an overall condition of someone which makes him/her ready to give response or answer in a certain way to various situations. This study aims to determine the factors related to school readiness.
 Methods
 This is an analytic observational study with cross-sectional design, conducted at 4 elementary schools in Malalayang district, Manado, Indonesia between August – November 2018 (n=150). The significant value used is p <0.01. Data wasanalyzed using SPSS for Windows version 23.
 Results
 Of 150 subjects there were 109 children who were ready for school and 41 children who were not ready for school. Of the five factors studied, it was found that stunted affected school readiness (OR 21.6; 95% CI: 6.68-70.32, p<0.000), maternal education status affected school readiness (OR 4.1; 95% CI: 1.75-9.63, p<0.001), socio-economic status affects school readiness (OR 5.1; 95% CI: 2.35-11.11, p<0.000), and preschool affect school readiness (OR 6.8; 95% CI: 3.1-14.9, p<0.0001). In multivariate analysis, there were three factors that had an association with school readiness, namely height, preschool participation and socioeconomic status (OR 34.4; 95% CI: 7.19-166.6, p<0.001, OR 6.5; 95% CI: 2.28-18.55 p<0.0001, OR 4.8l; 95% CI: 1.59-14.92 respectively).
 Conclusion
 There were associations between height, maternal education status, socio-economic status and participation in preschool with school readiness. There was no association observed between the employment status of mothers and school readiness. Height of the children was strongly associated with school readiness.