Socioeconomic Risk and School Readiness: Longitudinal Mediation Through Children's Social Competence and Executive Function.

Rosemarie E Perry,Clancy Blair,Stephen H Braren,Family Life Project Key Investigators

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01544

Abstract

The association of socioeconomic status with academic readiness and school achievement is well established. However, the specific contributions of cognitive and social aspects of self-regulation, and potential reciprocal relations between them in the prediction of school readiness and early school achievement have not previously been examined. This study examined mediational processes involving children's executive function (EF) skills at 58 months and Grade 1 (G1) and social competence in Kindergarten (K) and G1, as potential pathways by which early-life poverty-related risks influence Grade 2 (G2) math and reading achievement. Data came from the Family Life Project, which is a prospective longitudinal study of 1,292 children and families followed from birth in primarily low-income, non-urban counties in Pennsylvania (PA) and North Carolina (NC). Autoregressive cross-lagged mediation analyses indicated that EF at 58 months through EF at G1 mediated negative associations between cumulative risk exposure and academic skills, with this pathway mediating 36% of the total effect. Furthermore, social competence at K through EF at G1 mediated negative associations between early-life cumulative socioeconomic risk and academic skills, mediating 16% of the total effect. These findings provide evidence that poverty-related risks can influence school readiness and academic achievement via EF. Additionally, these results provide preliminary support for the premise that social competence through EF is a pathway by which cumulative poverty-related risk predicts early academic competence. Our findings are consistent with studies demonstrating developmental associations between EF and social competence. Furthermore, our findings are consistent with prekindergarten programs for children in poverty that emphasize both cognitive and social aspects of self-regulation.

Highlights

Decades of research have converged on the finding that growing up in poverty can negatively impact a child’s academic abilities and achievement throughout the lifespan (Lacour and Tissington, 2011; Solano and Weyer, 2017)
Our independent variable was negatively associated with our proposed mediating variables: Cumulative Risk was negatively associated with each observed indicator of social competence at K and Grade 1 (G1), as well as executive function (EF) at 58 months and G1
Our proposed mediating variables were positively associated with academic outcomes at Grade 2 (G2): Social behavior measures at K and G1 were positively related to Brief Reading and Applied Problems at G2

Summary

Introduction

Decades of research have converged on the finding that growing up in poverty can negatively impact a child’s academic abilities and achievement throughout the lifespan (Lacour and Tissington, 2011; Solano and Weyer, 2017). Such socioeconomic disparities are globally observed and emerge early in life, with exposure to poverty increasing the probability that a child will enter school behind their more advantaged peers in emergent math and literacy skills (Ryan et al, 2006; Engle and Black, 2008). Children with high levels of cognitive control and social-emotional skills are more able to attend to academic tasks, follow teachers’ instructions, plan, exchange knowledge with peers, model appropriate peer behavior, and devote resources to learning, relative to their less competent peers (Denham et al, 2013)

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