Elsevier

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Volume 35, 2nd Quarter 2016, Pages 76-84
Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Associations of teacher-rated social, emotional, and cognitive development in kindergarten to self-reported wellbeing, peer relations, and academic test scores in middle childhood

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.12.027Get rights and content

Highlights

  • EDI kindergarten teacher ratings have longitudinal discriminant and convergent validity.

  • Language and cognitive development is the strongest predictor of numeracy and literacy.

  • Social competence is the strongest predictor of peer relations.

  • Emotional maturity is the strongest predictor of subjective well-being.

Abstract

In two longitudinal studies, we examined to what extent teacher-rated social competence, emotional maturity, and language and cognitive development in kindergarten (measured with the Early Development Instrument, EDI; Janus & Offord, 2007) are associated with children's self-reported social relations with peers, emotional well-being (measured with the Middle Years Development Instrument, MDI; Schonert-Reichl et al., 2013), and numeracy and literacy (assessed with standardized achievement tests) in middle childhood. The studies were conducted using population-based data linkages (N > 7000) from Western Canada. Using multilevel regression analyses, we found that teacher-rated social competence in kindergarten most strongly predicted 4th graders' self-report of their connectedness to peers, and emotional maturity most strongly predicted emotional well-being. Teacher-rated cognitive and language development in kindergarten most strongly predicted 4th graders' standardized numeracy and literacy test results. We discuss our results with regard to previous findings in the literature, and address methodological and conceptual challenges in regard to examining children's early development across interdependent domains.

Introduction

Two questions pervading the field of developmental psychology are concerned with stability over time and domain-specificity (Sabol & Pianta, 2012). Inseparably connected with these questions are the challenges pertaining to assessing developmental outcomes during the early years (Keating, 2007; Shonkoff & Meisels, 2000). In this paper, we focus on the developmental period ranging from kindergarten (age 6) to grade 4 (age 10), and on the developmental progression in the social, emotional, and cognitive domains.

Numerous studies have examined the relations of social emotional, and cognitive developmental characteristics during the transition to school to later academic achievement domains (e.g., Duncan et al., 2007; Hair, Halle, Terry-Humen, Lavelle, & Calkins, 2006). Also, several studies examined the association between early social and emotional development and later social and emotional development (see La Paro & Pianta, 2000). However, few studies have jointly examined how early social, emotional, and cognitive developmental constructs are jointly related to corresponding constructs in middle childhood; and it has been noted that further empirical research evidence as well as a coherent conceptual integration is needed (La Paro & Pianta, 2000; Ladd, 1999).

To address this gap in the literature, we present two population-based studies that examine in what ways kindergarten teacher ratings of children's characteristics in three developmental domains – social competence, emotional maturity, and language and cognitive development – predict student self-reports of peer relationships and well-being (study 1) and academic outcomes (study 2) in middle childhood. The main objective of the study is to provide further understanding of the developmental progression in the social, emotional, and cognitive domains from early to middle childhood.

Section snippets

Literature review

In our review, we address early predictors of (i) academic achievement and (ii) social and emotional behaviors and characteristics in middle childhood, and summarize (iii) challenges related to differences in construct operationalization and measurement. The extent to which competencies at kindergarten age are related to later academic achievement was examined by Duncan et al. (2007), using six representative longitudinal data sets (four from the US, one each from Canada and the UK). They found

Sample

The sample included 7837 children from 15 public school districts in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Children's ages at the time of assessment ranged from 4.9 to 7.4 (M = 5.6, SD = .3) at Time 1 (i.e., kindergarten in the 2008/09 school year) and 8.3 to 11.4 (M = 9.7, SD = .3) at Time 2 (grade 4 in 2012/13). In our sample, 98% of the children were between 5.1 and 6.2 years old at time 1, and between 9.2 and 10.3 years at time 2, 49% were female, and 23% were non-native English speakers (with children

Predicting Connectedness to Peers and Emotional Well-being at age 10 (EDI–MDI linkage)

Table 2 presents the correlations among the EDI domains and MDI scales. The EDI's Social Competence and Emotional Maturity domains significantly correlated with both MDI scales. The EDI's Language and Cognitive Development domain significantly correlated with the MDI's Connectedness with Peers scale only.

For the regression model with Connectedness to Peers, the covariates (gender, age, and language background) explained about 3% of the child-level variance, which is equivalent to a small

Sample

The sample included 8152 children from 15 public school districts in BC, Canada. We selected children from the same school districts as in study 1, to match the demographic characteristics for our two studies. Children's ages at the time of assessment ranged from 5.0 to 8.0 (M = 5.6, SD = .3) at Time 1 (2004/05 and 2005/06 kindergarten cohorts). Time 2 academic achievement data were collected four years later (i.e., in grade 4). About 98% of the children were between 5.1 and 6.2 years old at time

Predicting academic achievement at age 10 (EDI–FSA linkage)

Table 4 presents the correlations between the EDI domain scores and FSA scores, all of which were statistically significant. In the regression analyses, the EDI's Language and Cognitive Development domain significantly and positively predicted FSA–Numeracy in grade 4. The covariates gender, age, and language background explained 1% of the child-level variance. Language and Cognitive Development explained an additional 11% (p < .001), which is equivalent to a large effect size (Cohen, 1992). The

Discussion

This study represents the first study, to our knowledge, that examined the associations between EDI teacher ratings of children's social, emotional, and cognitive development in kindergarten in relation to connectedness to peers, emotional well-being, and academic achievement in middle childhood, using representative, population-based databases. The results are important in several ways. First, we confirmed our hypothesis that within-domain measures of development are more strongly related over

Conclusion

The present study contributes to our understanding of the association between children's developmental characteristics at school entry and developmental outcomes in the social, emotional, and cognitive domains in middle childhood. From an applied educational perspective, it remains important to further understand the inter-dependence of optimal development in the social, emotional, and cognitive domains, how development can holistically be fostered during the early years, and how positive

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the leadership and vision of the late Dr. Clyde Hertzman, who untimely passed away in February of 2013. This study and our research on children's development and wellbeing are a continuation of his research legacy and the founding of the Human Early Learning Partnership at the University of British Columbia. The first author has received funding from the Lawson Foundation, Ontario, Canada. The third author has received funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health

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