Linda S. Pagani

School readiness and later achievement.

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Adolescent Behavioral, Affective, and Cognitive Engagement in School: Relationship to Dropout

BACKGROUND High school dropout represents an important public health issue. This study assessed the 3 distinct dimensions of student engagement in high school and examined the relationships between the nature and course of such experiences and later dropout. METHODS We administered questionnaires to 13,330 students (44.7% boys) from 69 high schools in the province of Quebec (Canada). During 3 consecutive high school years, students reported their behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement to school. Information on later dropout status was obtained through official records. RESULTS Although many adolescents remained highly engaged in high school, one third reported changes, especially decreases in rule compliance, interest in school, and willingness to learn. Students reporting low engagement or important decrements in behavioral investment from the beginning of high school presented higher risks of later dropout. CONCLUSION School-based interventions should address the multiple facets of high school experiences to help adolescents successfully complete their basic schooling. Creating a positive social-emotional learning environment promises better adolescent achievement and, in turn, will contribute to a healthier lifestyle.

School Readiness and Later Achievement: Replication and Extension Using a Nationwide Canadian Survey

In this article we replicate and extend findings from Duncan et al. (2007). The 1st study used Canada-wide data on 1,521 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) to examine the influence of kindergarten literacy and math skills, mother-reported attention, and mother-reported socioemotional behaviors on 3rd-grade math and reading outcomes. Similar to Duncan et al., (a) math skills were the strongest predictor of later achievement, (b) literacy and attention skills predicted later achievement, and (c) socioemotional behaviors did not significantly predict later school achievement. As part of extending the findings, we incorporated a multiple imputation approach to handle missing predictor variable data. Results paralleled those from the original study in that kindergarten math skills and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised scores continued to predict later achievement. However, we also found that kindergarten socioemotional behaviors, specifically hyperactivity/impulsivity, prosocial behavior, and anxiety/depression, were significant predictors of 3rd-grade math and reading. In the 2nd study, we used data from the NLSCY and the Montreal Longitudinal-Experimental Preschool Study (MLEPS), which was included in Duncan et al., to extend previous findings by examining the influence of kindergarten achievement, attention, and socioemotional behaviors on 3rd-grade socioemotional outcomes. Both NLSCY and MLEPS findings indicated that kindergarten math significantly predicted socioemotional behaviors. There were also a number of significant relationships between early and later socioemotional behaviors. Findings support the importance of socioemotional behaviors both as predictors of later school success and as indicators of school success.

Effects of grade retention on academic performance and behavioral development.

This study examined the controversial practice of grade retention and childrens academic and behavioral adjustment using data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children. We employed an autoregressive modeling technique to detect the impact of being held back during primary school on subsequent academic performance and behavioral development until age 12 years. The results indicate both a short- and long-term negative influence on academic performance for boys and girls. Childrens anxious, inattentive, and disruptive behaviors persisted and, in some cases, worsened after grade retention. These prospective associations were long lasting and more pronounced when grade retention occurred early in primary school. Boys were more vulnerable to the negative influence of grade retention on academic performance and classroom disruptiveness. Disruptive behavior in girls was comparatively less associated with long-term consequences than boys. Nevertheless, girls experienced both short- and long-term academic performance problems in the aftermath of grade retention. Childrens prosocial behavior appeared unaffected by grade retention. These results are independent of what would have been expected by the natural course of academic and behavioral development.

Prevalence of Psychiatric Diagnoses and the Role of Perceived Impairment: Findings from an Adolescent Community Sample

The present study examined psychiatric functioning in a community sample of adolescents aged 14 to 17 years (average age of 15 years). We administered the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-2.25 (DISC-2.25) to 1,201 adolescents and their mothers to obtain prevalence estimates of DSM-III-R disorders and the amount of perceived impairment associated with these disorders. While adolescent females reported a significantly higher prevalence of psychiatric disorders than males (15.5% vs. 8.5%), mothers indicated no sex difference. Compared with adolescent males, females had significantly higher rates of internalizing, anxiety. and depressive disorders. In contrast, the prevalence of externalizing disorders was significantly higher among adolescent males. The inclusion of an impairment criterion had a significant impact in reducing the prevalence rates of overall psychiatric disorders. This reduction occurred mainly through impairments effects on internalizing disorders, specifically anxiety-based disorders (i.e., simple and social phobia). Given the limited research on the effect of impairment on the prevalence of adolescent psychiatric disorders, future work in this area seems warranted.

School readiness and later achievement: a French Canadian replication and extension.

We first replicated the data analytic strategy used in Duncan et al. (2007) with a population-based data set of French-speaking children from Quebec (Canada). Prospective associations were examined between cognitive, attention, and socioemotional characteristics underlying kindergarten school readiness and second grade math, reading, and general achievement. We then extended this school readiness model by including motor skills as an additional element in the prediction equation and expanded the original strategy by including classroom engagement. The Montreal Longitudinal-Experimental Preschool Study, featured in Duncan et al., served as the Canadian reference group. In the replication model, kindergarten cognitive and attention characteristics predicted achievement by the end of 2nd grade. Although inconsistent across outcomes, behavioral problems and skills also emerged as predictors of some aspects of later achievement. Coefficients for kindergarten math skills were largest, followed by attention skills, receptive language skills, attention problems, and behavior. Most coefficients resembled those generated in the initial study. In our extension model, fine motor skills added their significant contribution to the prediction of later achievement above and beyond the original key elements of school readiness. Our extension model confirmed prospectively associations between kindergarten cognitive, attention, fine motor, and physical aggression characteristics and later achievement and classroom engagement by the end of 2nd grade. Although they comparatively showed better long-term benefits from stronger early attention skills, girls with less kindergarten cognitive skills were more vulnerable than boys with similar deficits when predicting 2nd grade math.

Prospective Associations Between Early Childhood Television Exposure and Academic, Psychosocial, and Physical Well-being by Middle Childhood

OBJECTIVE To estimate the influence of early childhood television exposure on fourth-grade academic, psychosocial, and lifestyle characteristics. DESIGN Prospective longitudinal study. SETTING Institut de la Statistique du Québec, Québec, Canada. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1314 (of 2120) children. Main Exposure Parent-reported data on weekly hours of television exposure at 29 and 53 months of age. We conducted a series of ordinary least-squares regressions in which childrens academic, psychosocial, and lifestyle characteristics are linearly regressed on early and preschool television exposure. OUTCOME MEASURES Parent and teacher reports of academic, psychosocial, and health behaviors and body mass index measurements (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) at 10 years of age. RESULTS Adjusting for preexisting individual and family factors, every additional hour of television exposure at 29 months corresponded to 7% and 6% unit decreases in classroom engagement (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.02 to -0.004) and math achievement (95% CI, -0.03 to 0.01), respectively; 10% unit increases in victimization by classmates (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.05); 13% unit decreases in time spent doing weekend physical activity (95% CI, 0.81 to 2.25); 9% unit decreases in activities involving physical effort (95% CI, -0.04 to 0.00); higher consumption scores for soft drinks and snacks by 9% and 10% (95% CI, 0.00 to 0.04 and 95% CI, 0.00 to 0.02), respectively; and 5% unit increases in body mass index (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.05). Preschool increments in exposure also made a unique contribution to developmental risk. CONCLUSIONS The long-term risks associated with higher levels of early exposure may chart developmental pathways toward unhealthy dispositions in adolescence. A population-level understanding of such risks remains essential for promoting child development.

Risk factor models for adolescent verbal and physical aggression toward mothers

Contributing to the family violence and conflict literature, we examine prospective and concurrent risk factors associated with verbal and physical aggression toward mothers by 15/16 year-old adolescent sons and daughters. Data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children is used to examine the influence of socioeconomic factors, inherent individual and family environment factors, and prospective and concurrent parenting process factors as predictors of adolescent aggression (in the last 6 months). A childhood behavioural pattern characterised by physical aggression generated the highest risk of adolescent-directed verbal and physical aggression toward mothers. Aggressive parental punishment in the last 6 months significantly predicted aggression toward mothers. A childhood life-course of violence seems to culminate in verbal and physical aggression toward mothers during adolescence. Given this building-up process from childhood, harsh parental punishment of the adolescent seems to only increase the odds of adolescent aggression. No sex differences were observed.

Life course turning points: The effect of grade retention on physical aggression

Our objective is to advance the life course analytical framework by demonstrating a model for testing two of its tenets. The first is whether the individuals developmental history conditions the response to a turning point event. The second is whether the influence of a major life event upon an individuals developmental course depends upon the timing of the event. We test both propositions in an analysis of the effect of grade retention on a childs trajectory of physical aggression. Our analysis is based on data from a longitudinal study of 1,037 boysfrom schools in the lowest socioeconomic areas in Montreal, Canada. We find clear evidence that a developmental history of physical aggression conditions the childs response to grade retention. The evidence on whether the timing of retention affects this response is less clear.

Disruptive behavior, peer association, and conduct disorder: testing the developmental links through early intervention.

We tested three competing models regarding the role of deviant friends in the trajectory linking early disruptiveness with later conduct problems through the use of a preventive intervention program. The program was implemented during the second and third grade. One model predicted that the program would positively affect later conduct problems by facilitating nondeviant peer association during early adolescence. The second model predicted a direct impact of the program on later conduct problems through the reduction of early disruptiveness. The third model predicted an interaction between postintervention disruptiveness and association with less deviant friends. The results showed that the programs effects on later conduct problems were mediated by the reduction in disruptiveness and by the association with less deviant friends. However, the positive effect of associating with less deviant friends depended on whether childrens disruptiveness had been reduced or not by their participation in the program, thus supporting the third model. We recommend using intervention studies to test developmental models.