Abstract
This study uses canonical correlation analyses to explore the relationship between multiple predictors of school readiness (i.e., academic readiness, social readiness, and teacher-child relationship) and multiple temperamental traits using data from the second wave (age 54 months, n = 1226) of the longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD; NICHD ECCRN 1993). This longitudinal study collected data on a large cohort of children and their families from birth through age 15. For academic readiness, only one temperamental constellation emerged, representing the construct of effortful control (i.e., high attentional focusing, high inhibitory control). For peer interactions, two significant constellations emerged: “dysregulated” (low inhibitory control, low shyness, and high activity), and “withdrawn” (high shyness, low inhibitory control, low attentional focusing). Finally, the analyses exploring child-teacher relationships revealed two significant constellations: “highly surgent” (high activity, low inhibitory control, low shyness) and “emotionally controlled” (low anger/frustration and high inhibitory control). Results of this study form a more nuanced exploration of relationships between temperamental traits and indicators of school readiness than can be found in the extant literature, and will provide the groundwork for future research to test specific hypotheses related to the effect temperamental constellations have on children’s school readiness.
Highlights
Children’s successful adjustment to formal school is rooted, in part, in their temperamental traits (e.g., [1,2]), including reactive traits, such as shyness [3], and regulatory traits, such as inhibitory control [4,5]
The full model including all functions was significant (Wilks’s λ = 0.772; F [56, 3214.87] = 2.83, p < 0.001), where the full model effect size, similar to an r2, was equal to (1 − λ), or 0.228. This can be interpreted as the full model explaining 22.8% of the variance between the temperament variable set and the school readiness variable set
These results suggest that certain temperamental traits are associated with the likelihood that a child will have a successful transition to school, especially in terms of academic and socio-emotional competencies
Summary
Children’s successful adjustment to formal school is rooted, in part, in their temperamental traits (e.g., [1,2]), including reactive traits, such as shyness [3], and regulatory traits, such as inhibitory control [4,5]. The extent to which a child is academically and socio-emotionally ready for formal schooling (i.e., school readiness) is characterized by multiple indicators [7]; univariate approaches are not ideal for fully capturing the complexity of the relationships between temperament and school readiness. In this study, we used multivariate statistical analyses (i.e., canonical correlations) to predict multiple indicators of school readiness using composites of temperamental traits in an attempt to more comprehensively explain this relationship. School readiness is a broad, multidimensional construct that explains children’s characteristics, present before school entry, that are predictive of positive outcomes in academic settings [8]. School readiness may be conceptualized via academic and social-emotional lenses. Social-emotional readiness encompasses the social and behavioral competencies that facilitate children’s
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