ED477641 2003-07-00 Young Children's

Emotional Development and School

Readiness. ERIC Digest.

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Young Children's Emotional Development and School Readiness. ERIC

Digest...........................................................................1

LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH................................................ 2

INTERVENTIONS WITH CHILDREN ENTERING SCHOOL............2

CONCLUSION.................................................................. 4

FOR MORE INFORMATION..................................................4

ERIC Identifier: ED477641

Publication Date: 2003-07-00

Author: Raver, C. Cybele

Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education

Champaign IL.

Young Children's Emotional Development and

School Readiness. ERIC Digest.

THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT

ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC

The current emphasis on children's academic preparedness continues to overshadow

the importance of children's social and emotional development for school readiness

ED477641 2003-07-00 Young Children's Emotional Development and School Readiness.

ERIC Digest.

Page 1 of 8
(Raver & Zigler, 1997). Research, however, indicates that young children's emotional

adjustment matters--children who are emotionally well adjusted have a significantly

greater chance of early school success, while children who experience serious

emotional difficulty face grave risks of early school difficulty. This Digest presents a brief

overview of longitudinal research linking children's emotional development to school

readiness and early school success and then discusses interventions designed for

children entering school.

LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH

Over the past 20 years, research has demonstrated that children's emotional and social

skills are linked to their early academic standing (Wentzel & Asher, 1995). Children who

have difficulty paying attention, following directions, getting along with others, and

controlling negative emotions of anger and distress do less well in school (Arnold et al.,

1999; McClelland et al., 2000). For many children, academic achievement in their first

few years of schooling appears to be built on a firm foundation of children's emotional

and social skills (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1997; O'Neil et al., 1997).

Specifically, emerging research on early schooling suggests that the relationships that

children build with peers and teachers are based on children's ability to regulate

emotions in prosocial versus antisocial ways and that those relationships then serve as

a "source of provisions" that either help or hurt children's chances of doing well

academically (Ladd et al., 1999, p. 1375). Psychologists find that children who act in

antisocial ways are less likely to be accepted by classmates and teachers (Kupersmidt

& Coie, 1990; Shores & Wehby, 1999). They participate less frequently in classroom

activities and do more poorly in school than their more emotionally positive, prosocial

counterparts, even after one controls for the effects of children's preexisting cognitive

skills and family backgrounds (Ladd et al., 1999). One caveat is that children's early

academic skills and emotional adjustment may be bidirectionally related, so that young

children who struggle with early reading and learning difficulties may grow increasingly

frustrated and more disruptive (Arnold et al., 1999; Hinshaw, 1992). Although our

understanding of the causal and reciprocal influences of children's cognitive, language,

and emotional competencies on later academic achievement would greatly benefit from

additional research, the bulk of longitudinal evidence of the importance of social and

emotional adjustment for children's success in early academic contexts is convincing

and clear.

INTERVENTIONS WITH CHILDREN ENTERING

SCHOOL

Given the evidence that children's emotional adjustment plays an important part in

predicting their likelihood of school success, the next question is "How do we aid

children to develop emotional competence and avoid emotional difficulties so that they

come to school ready to learn?" Interventions have been implemented at the family,

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Page 2 of 8 ED477641 2003-07-00 Young Children's Emotional Development and School Readiness.

ERIC Digest.
child care, school, and clinical site levels to address these difficulties as children enter

school. (A detailed discussion of interventions designed for children before they start

school can be found in Raver [2002].) Based on programmatic intensity, these programs

include the following:

Low-Intensity Interventions in the Classroom. A wide range of interventions identify

children's entry into formal schooling as a prime opportunity to affect children's social,

emotional, and academic competence. Some programs have been implemented to

change the way that children think about emotional and social situations. Using

modeling, role play, and group discussion, teachers can devote relatively small amounts

of class time to instruct children on how to identify and label feelings, how to

appropriately communicate with others about emotions, and how to resolve disputes

with peers (e.g., Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1999; Quinn et al.,

1999). The potential gain is that such programs can be offered to all children in a given

classroom for relatively low cost. The potential drawback is that these programs may

have only a modest, short-term impact on children's social and emotional behaviors

(Quinn et al., 1999).

Low- To Moderate-Intensity Interventions in the Home--Parent Training Programs.

Based on a body of research that views parenting as playing a key role in children's

emotional adjustment, a number of interventions have been designed to reduce

children's risk for emotional difficulties by helping parents to increase their positive

interactions with their children, to set firm limits on children's negative behaviors, and to

reduce their use of harsh parenting practices when the adults become angry or upset

(see, e.g., McEvoy & Welker, 2000). These programs vary in approach, intensity, and

the location in which they are implemented (e.g., home visiting programs, telephone

support, parenting skills workshops). Generally, these programs have shown moderate

success (Kazdin, 1987). One concern is that the link between harsh parenting and

children's manifestation of behavior problems has been found to hold true for White

families but not African American families in some studies, suggesting that interventions

must be placed in culturally grounded frameworks (Deater-Deckard & Dodge, 1997). A

second concern is that the effects of these programs may be more transitory than long

lasting (Corcoran, 2000).

"Multi-Pronged" Home/School Interventions for Children at Moderate Risk. These

programs address children's emotional and behavioral difficulties at home and in school.

Although more costly to run and targeted at fewer children, these programs are

expected to pay off in the long run by reducing the prevalence of costly outcomes such

as criminal offenses and dropping-out of school (Kazdin, 1997; McEvoy & Welker,

2000). Results from a number of experimental studies (using randomized designs)

suggest remarkable effectiveness of these multipronged programs in reducing children's

disruptive behavior. These gains range from modest improvements to strong gains in

children's social, emotional, and academic skills (Eddy et al., 2000; Stoolmiller et al.,

2000; Webster-Stratton & Taylor, 2001). These programs have also shown

effectiveness in reducing the likelihood that children will engage in delinquent behaviors

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

ED477641 2003-07-00 Young Children's Emotional Development and School Readiness.

ERIC Digest.

Page 3 of 8
(Stoolmiller et al., 2000) and in being held back a grade or more, than did the

less-expensive, lower-intensity, classroom-only interventions described earlier (Vitaro et

al., 1999). Some researchers, however, have pointed out that these findings are not

sustained over longer periods of time, and that children's high school dropout rates are

not significantly affected by the intervention program.

High-Intensity Clinical Interventions for High-Risk Children. A small percentage of young

children in poverty struggle with serious emotional and behavioral disturbance. A range

of programs are designed to lower the risk of young children's development of serious

problems in families struggling with multiple, chronic stressors such as high risk of

maltreatment, mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence. School-based

mental health consultation programs, for example, pair psychologists, social workers,

and psychiatrists with local school districts in order to identify, assess, and treat young

children who are in serious emotional and behavioral trouble. Clinicians from local

community mental health organizations observe classrooms, provide teachers with

training, and provide child- and family-centered psychotherapy (Cohen & Kaufmann,

2000). As of this writing, no evaluations of school-based consultation programs using

randomized trial design could be found; however, the potential for such programs

seems promising.

CONCLUSION

How can we explain the varying levels of effectiveness that have been demonstrated

across different types of interventions? Three cautions are offered to explain variation in

programmatic success. First, programmatic success is reliant in great measure on the

extent to which programs succeed in enlisting families' participation (Brooks-Gunn et al.,

2000). Second, it may be unreasonable to expect long-term emotional and behavioral

gains on the part of young children if their families continue to face chronic, structural

stressors that erode children's psycho-social health. Third, we must recognize that the

economic, employment, and policy contexts of high-risk families have changed

substantially from the conditions under which many models of interventions were

originally designed and implemented over 20 years ago (e.g., Olds et al., 1998). Even

given these cautions, however, research clearly demonstrates the importance of

children's emotional adjustment to early school success.

This Digest was adapted from "Emotions matter: Making the case for the role of young

children's emotional development for early school readiness," by C. Cybele Raver, in

the Society for Research in Child Development's Social Policy Report, 16(3), 3-19.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Arnold, D. H., Ortiz, C., Curry, J. C., Stowe, R. M., Goldstein, N. E., Fisher, P. H., Zeljo,

A., & Yershova, K. (1999). Promoting academic success and preventing disruptive

behavior disorders through community partnership. JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

Page 4 of 8 ED477641 2003-07-00 Young Children's Emotional Development and School Readiness.

ERIC Digest.
PSYCHOLOGY, 27(5), 589-598.

Brooks-Gunn, J., Berlin, L., & Fuligni, A. (2000). Early childhood intervention programs:

What about the family? In J. Schonkoff & S. Meisels (Eds.), HANDBOOK OF EARLY

CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Cohen, E., & Kaufmann, R. (2000). Early childhood mental health consultation.

Washington, DC: Center for Mental Health Services, SAMHSA, U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services.

Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (1999). Initial impact of the Fast Track

prevention trial for conduct problems: II. Classroom effects. JOURNAL OF

CONSULTING AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 67(5), 648-657.

Corcoran, J. (2000). Family interventions with child physical abuse and neglect: A

critical review. Children and Youth Services Review, 22(7), 563-591.

Deater-Deckard, K., & Dodge, K. A. (1997). Externalizing problems and discipline

revisited: Nonlinear effects and variation by culture, context, and gender.

PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY, 8(3), 161-175.

Eddy, J. M., Reid, J. B., & Fetrow, R. A. (2000). An elementary school-based prevention

program targeting modifiable antecedents of youth delinquency and violence: Linking

the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT). JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL AND

BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS, 8(3), 165-176.

Hinshaw, S. P. (1992). Externalizing behavior problems and academic

underachievement in childhood and adolescence: Causal relationships and underlying

mechanisms. PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN, 111(1), 127-155.

Kazdin, A. E. (1987). Treatment of antisocial behavior in children: Current status and

future directions. PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN, 102(2), 187-203.

Kupersmidt, J. B., & Coie, J. D. (1990). Preadolescent peer status, aggression, and

school adjustment as predictors of externalizing problems in adolescence. CHILD

DEVELOPMENT, 61(5), 1350-1362. EJ 423 461.

Ladd, G. W., Birch, S. H., & Buhs, E. S. (1999). Children's social and scholastic lives in

kindergarten: Related spheres of influence? CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 70(6), 1373-1400.

EJ 602 156.

Ladd, G. W., Kochenderfer, B. J., & Coleman, C. C. (1997). Classroom peer

acceptance, friendship, and victimization: Distinct relational systems that contribute

uniquely to children's school adjustment. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 68(6), 1181-1197. EJ

556 037.

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

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ERIC Digest.

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McClelland, M. M., Morrison, F. J., & Holmes, D. L. (2000). Children at risk for early

academic problems: The role of learning-related social skills. EARLY CHILDHOOD

RESEARCH QUARTERLY, 15(3), 307-329. EJ 633 373.

McEvoy, A., & Welker, R. (2000). Antisocial behavior, academic failure, and school

climate: A critical review. JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL

DISORDERS, 8(3), 130-140. EJ 613 025.

Olds, D., Henderson, C. R., Jr., Cole, R., Eckenrode, J., Kitzman, H., Luckey, D., Pettitt,

L., Sidora, K., Morris, P., & Powers, J. (1998). Long-term effects of nurse home

visitation on children's criminal and antisocial behavior: A 15-year follow-up of a

randomized controlled trial. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION,

280(14), 1238-1244.

O'Neil, R., Welsh, M., Parke, R. D., Wang, S., & Strand, C. (1997). A longitudinal

assessment of the academic correlates of early peer acceptance and rejection.

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, 26(3), 290-303.

Quinn, M. M., Kavale, K. A., Mathur, S. R., Rutherford, R. B., & Forness, S. R. (1999). A

meta-analysis of social skills interventions for students with emotional and behavioral

disorders. JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS, 7(1), 54-64.

Raver, C. C. (2002). Emotions matter: Making the case for the role of young children's

emotional development for early school readiness. SOCIAL POLICY REPORT, 16(3),

3-19.

Raver, C. C., & Zigler, E. F. (1997). Social competence: An untapped dimension in

evaluating Head Start's success. EARLY CHILDHOOD RESEARCH QUARTERLY,

12(4), 363-385. EJ 563 068.

Shores, R. E., & Wehby, J. H. (1999). Analyzing the classroom social behavior of

students with EBD. JOURNAL OF EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS,

7(4), 194-199. EJ 599 246.

Stoolmiller, M., Eddy, J. M., & Reid, J. B. (2000). Detecting and describing preventive

intervention effects in universal school-based randomized trials targeting delinquent and

violent behaviors. JOURNAL OF CONSULTING AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 68(2),

296-306.

Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (1999). Prevention of school dropout

through the reduction of disruptive behaviors and school failure in elementary school.

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY, 37(2), 205-226. EJ 598 786.

Webster-Stratton, C., & Taylor, T. (2001). Nipping early risk factors in the bud:

Preventing substance abuse, delinquency, and violence in adolescence through

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

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ERIC Digest.
interventions targeted at young children. PREVENTION SCIENCE, 2(3), 165-192.

Wentzel, K. R., & Asher, S. R. (1995). The academic lives of neglected, rejected,

popular, and controversial children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 66(3), 756-763. EJ 503

790.

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Title: Young Children's Emotional Development and School Readiness. ERIC Digest.

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Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Early Childhood Education, Emotional

Development, Interpersonal Competence, Intervention, Learning Readiness, Peer

Relationship, School Readiness, Social Development, Teacher Student Relationship,

Young Children

Identifiers: Emotional Regulation, ERIC Digests

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