Elsevier

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Volume 36, 3rd Quarter 2016, Pages 212-222
Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Classroom quality at pre-kindergarten and kindergarten and children’s social skills and behavior problems

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.01.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We focused on the continuity of classroom quality during the transition to school.

  • Pre-kindergarten (PK) and kindergarten (K) classroom quality were observed.

  • Higher quality PK and K were related to more social skills and fewer behavior problems.

  • Associations were stronger for kindergarten outcomes than for first grade outcomes.

  • In first grade, higher quality PK appeared to be the stronger predictor.

Abstract

Focusing on the continuity in the quality of classroom environments as children transition from preschool into elementary school, this study examined the associations between classroom quality in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten and children’s social skills and behavior problems in kindergarten and first grade. Participants included 1175 ethnically-diverse children (43% African American) living in low-wealth rural communities of the United States. Results indicated that children who experienced higher levels of emotional and organizational classroom quality in both pre-kindergarten and kindergarten demonstrated better social skills and fewer behavior problems in both kindergarten and first grade comparing to children who did not experience higher classroom quality. The examination of the first grade results indicated that the emotional and organizational quality of pre-kindergarten classrooms was the strongest predictor of children’s first grade social skills and behavior problems. The study results are discussed from theoretical, practical, and policy perspectives.

Introduction

Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has shown that higher quality early care and education (ECE) is positively related to children’s social–emotional development (Barnett, 2011, Lamb and Ahnert, 2006, NICHD ECCRN, 2006). All studies find that associations with ECE diminish after children leave those settings, but some studies find that the positive associations of higher quality ECE remain significant over time (Belsky et al., 2007; Campbell, Ramey, Pungello, Sparling, & Miller-Johnson, 2002; Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Savelyev, & Yavitz, 2010; Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001; Vandell et al., 2010), and other studies find that these positive associations eventually disappear (Deater-Deckard, Pinkerton, & Scarr, 1996; Lipsey, Hofer, Dong, Farran, & Bilbrey, 2013; Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001; Puma et al., 2012). One common explanation for these diminishing associations is that children’s new social contexts, such as kindergarten classrooms, become more important as children transition from preschool into elementary school. For example, children who need the most support in terms of their socio-emotional skills and who could benefit the most from higher quality ECE often transition into lower quality elementary schools (Currie and Thomas, 2000, Lee and Loeb, 1995), thus potentially tempering with social skills acquired in higher quality preschool classrooms. Another possibility for diminishing links between preschool classroom quality and children’s social-emotional skills is that having only one year of higher quality ECE may not provide enough time for children to develop stable positive social–emotional skills (Cunha, Heckman, Lochner, & Masterov, 2006). The primary goal of the present study, thus, was to examine classroom quality during the two consecutive years before and after the transition from preschool settings to elementary school and children’s subsequent social and behavioral skills. Using a large sample of children living in low-wealth rural communities, we investigated how classroom quality in the year prior to kindergarten (pre-K) and in kindergarten was associated with children’s social skills and behavior problems concurrently at the end of kindergarten and one year later in first grade.

During early childhood, children develop at a rapid rate. Children’s experiences and relationships during this period are critical for their future development (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Consistently, interventions and investments during the early years appear to have a much higher rate-of-return than interventions at any other stage of life (Heckman, 2006). Higher quality ECE experiences can bear lasting positive relations with child outcomes, next in magnitude to the relations between family characteristics and child outcomes (for reviews, see Barnett, 2011, Yoshikawa et al., 2013). There is robust evidence that higher quality ECE experiences are related to children’s early academic skills (Burchinal, Kainz et al., 2014, Yoshikawa et al., 2013). Early academic achievement, however, is not the sole predictor of life success (Levin, 2012). The well-known experimental Perry preschool project, for example, found few long-lasting intervention effects on later student academic achievement, but participating children did show better general educational and life outcomes (e.g., higher high school graduation rates and employment status and less criminal history; Heckman et al., 2010). Similar results have been found in a longer-term follow-up Head Start evaluation (Garces, Thomas, & Currie, 2000), showing that Head Start children had better general educational outcomes (i.e., high school graduation rates and college attendance) and were less likely to be charged with a crime, compared to their non-Head Start siblings. It has been suggested that improving children’s social–emotional skills may serve as an alternative mechanism through which higher quality ECE experiences are associated with better life outcomes (Heckman, 2006).

Several studies have shown that higher quality ECE experiences are linked to fewer child behavior problems and more social skills. For example, recent experimental studies demonstrate that comprehensive social–emotional curricula and professional development that focuses on teachers’ responsive interactions can enhance children’s social skills, behavior regulation, and emotion understanding (Bierman et al., 2014, Landry et al., 2014). Comparable advantages of high process quality ECE (e.g., teacher–child interactions) for children’s social skills and behavior problems are found in observational studies (NICHD ECCRN, 2006, Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001), with positive behavioral links sometimes extending to adolescence (Vandell et al., 2010).

An often-used reliable and valid tool to assess classroom quality is the Classroom Assessment Scoring system (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008). Conceptually, the CLASS consists of three domains: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support. The Emotional Support and Classroom Organization domains are regarded as most relevant for children’s social–emotional functioning. These domains assess the provision of positive teacher–child interactions and proactive organization and management of children’s behavior in the classroom, both of which are necessary factors in the successful development of social and behavioral skills (Downer, Sabol, & Hamre, 2010; Hamre et al., 2013).

Studies that have used the CLASS in the pre-K period or in early elementary school years highlight the links between emotionally supportive and well-managed classrooms and children’s social skills and behavior problems. For example, high levels of emotional support in the pre-K year were related to increases in children’s social competence and to decreases in children’s problem behavior at the end of the pre-K year (Burchinal, Vandergrift, Pianta, & Mashburn, 2010; Mashburn et al., 2008), and one year later (Curby et al., 2009). Furthermore, high levels of classroom behavioral management and organization were positively associated with the development of children’s self-regulation in pre-K (Hamre, Hatfield, Pianta, & Jamil, 2014) and children’s behavioral self-control in kindergarten (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2009). Empirical research shows that early self-regulatory skills are associated with better social skills (Calkins, Gill, Johnson, & Smith, 1999; Diener & Kim, 2004; Fabes et al., 1999; Spinrad et al., 2007) and fewer behavior problems (Eisenberg et al., 2009; Hill, Degnan, Calkins, & Keane, 2006; Spinrad et al., 2007).

In this study we take a domain-specific approach on socialization (Grusec & Davidov, 2010) by focusing specifically on the emotional and organizational aspects of the classroom environment, as they both have been linked to children’s social and behavioral skills. However, it has also been hypothesized that children who experience challenging and engaging instructions may show fewer behavior problems (Downer et al., 2010). Therefore, we also examined possible cross-domain links between the quality of instructional support in a classroom and children’s social skills and behavior problems.

Despite the relevance of higher quality ECE for child development, follow-up studies of large-scale pre-K programs suggest that the positive associations with higher quality ECE may become smaller over time (Duncan & Magnuson, 2013; Lipsey et al., 2013; Magnuson, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2007; Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001) or even disappear completely (Puma et al., 2012). This is rather discouraging, given that developed countries, including the United States, invest much effort and resources to improve center-based preschool experiences and to enhance children’s school success. Yet it is likely that higher quality ECE experiences during the pre-K year do not safeguard children from subsequent low quality elementary school experiences. For example, Head Start children on average attend lower quality elementary schools, and this is especially true for ethnic minority Head Start children (Currie and Thomas, 2000, Lee and Loeb, 1995). When children transition from higher quality pre-K classrooms to lower quality kindergarten classrooms, it is plausible that their initial increases in social skills and reduction in behavior problems are not sustained. As a study of children living in the poorest neighborhoods of Chicago indicated, the quality of children’s elementary schools served as a key mediator in the positive relations between pre-K program participation and indicators of adult well-being, such as occupational prestige and low depressive symptoms (Reynolds & Ou, 2011).

The necessity of continuous higher quality early care and education to sustain the further development of social and behavioral skills is in line with the skill begets skill hypothesis (Cunha et al., 2006, Heckman, 2006). This framework posits that skills developed earlier in life serve as a basis for the development of more advanced skills (i.e., self-productivity of skills). Relatedly, these skills developed as a result of early investments, raise the productivity of later investments (i.e., complementarity of skills). The synergistic effect of both the self-productivity of skills and the complementarity of skills are positioned to be the multiplier mechanism through which skill begets skill or abilities begets abilities. In terms of the current study, the successful acquisition of social and behavioral skills in the pre-K year thus should facilitate the possibility of subsequent growth of these skills (self-productivity). At the same time, the context of the kindergarten classroom also has to be conducive to children’s social–emotional development for children to keep improving their social skills and reducing their behavior problems (complementarity). Moreover, it is reasonable to expect that children who had higher quality pre-K experiences can transition more smoothly into elementary school if they experience similarly high levels of classroom quality in kindergarten.

Empirical studies have provided some evidence on the importance of continuity in regards to ECE quality. For example, children were found to demonstrate higher levels of academic skills when they experienced two or more years of higher quality ECE rather than only one (Côté et al., 2013; Li, Farkas, Duncan, Burchinal, & Vandell, 2013). However the importance of ECE continuity in terms of children’s social skills and behavior problems remains under-investigated. One cluster-randomized controlled trial found that exposure to a school readiness project in Head Start programs was related to positive social development in kindergarten only among children attending high-quality schools (Zhai, Raver, & Jones, 2012). In contrast, another experimental study on a prosocial and literacy curriculum in Head Start programs found that the effect sizes for children’s social competence and attention problems in kindergarten were larger for children attending low-performing schools (i.e., no continuity of higher quality care) compared to children attending high-performing schools in kindergarten (Bierman et al., 2014). A given, speculative, explanation for this counterintuitive result is that the intervention children encountered more at-risk peers, and therefore, teachers rated them as better adjusted relative to their at-risk classmates. However, this does not reconcile why Zhai et al. (2012) found stronger effects when children attended high-quality schools after the intervention. The current study, thus, contributes to the discussion on the importance of the continuity of high-quality ECE as children transition from pre-K to kindergarten.

Besides the scarcity and inconsistency of evidence on the relation between combined pre-K and kindergarten experiences and children’s social–emotional outcomes, there is another important reason to study children’s social and behavioral development during the transition to elementary school. In a typical educational setting in the United States, the pre-K to elementary school transition is accompanied by many changes in children’s social relationships and their day-to-day routines (Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000). Children tend to move to more formal settings, and attend classrooms with new peers and often one teacher instead of two. They also have to navigate a new social world in which they are the youngest children in the school and which requires more autonomous functioning. In addition, children experience an increased academic focus and higher teacher expectations for their behavioral skills (e.g., resolving interpersonal conflicts with words and sitting attentively for longer periods of time) with less available support from teachers (Ladd, 2005). These substantial changes lead to the reorganization of children’s social and behavioral skills. As a result, the transition to kindergarten is described as a sensitive period during which the child is more susceptible to new environmental experiences and influences (Rimm-Kaufman & Pianta, 2000), especially when children change physical locations. Experiencing an emotionally supportive and well-organized classroom in the pre-K year is important to prepare children for these transition-related challenges. Likewise, having a higher quality environment in kindergarten may be equally necessary to maintain and extend the previously acquired social and behavioral skills to a new setting.

Consequences of the continuity of higher quality ECE during the transition from pre-K to kindergarten may be particularly salient for children facing challenging home and neighborhood environments (Votruba-Drzal, Coley, Maldonado-Carren, Li-Grining, & Chase-Lansdale, 2010). Currently, over 25% of children in the United States live in a family with an income below the poverty line (income/needs ratios below 1) and nearly 48% of children live in near-poor families (income/needs ratios below 2; National Center for Children in Poverty, 2012). Children living in poverty are more likely to perform poorly on a host of emotional, social, and cognitive outcomes and eventually attain less education and have less prestigious jobs in adulthood (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). Moreover, poverty appears to be a more powerful predictor of children’s development than single parenthood, maternal education, and other demographic characteristics (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997).

Families in rural communities in the United States are more likely to live in poverty than their urban counterparts (O’Hare, 2009). In addition, rural communities often deal with social problems such as low educational levels, fewer social support services, and fewer opportunities for upward mobility (Lichter and Johnson, 2007, Tickamyer and Duncan, 1990). Families from poor, rural areas commonly experience irregular employment, such as shift work, part-time, or seasonal work, and parents often have several jobs in order to meet the needs of their family (O’Hare, 2009). Moreover, poor children in rural areas are less likely to have access to quality services that may facilitate their development. In addition, due to geographical isolation and small kin-based communities, the link between family functioning and child development is greater in rural areas than in urban areas, where children are more likely to have access to outside-of-family resources and contexts (Vernon-Feagans, Cox, & The Family Life Project Key Investigators, 2013). The current study used data from the Family Life Project (FLP), a large longitudinal study of ethnically diverse families living in rural areas in the United States. The FLP sample allows us to illuminate the relations between quality of ECE during the transition to elementary school and children’s social skills and behavior problems in a group of children living in poor rural communities. As such, we hope that the results of this study can be directly generalized to these children who may need the most help from advancing policy and practice.

To date, research suggests that there may be non-trivial links between the quality of ECE experienced in pre-K and kindergarten years and children’s social skills and behavior problems. An important question that has been insufficiently addressed is whether these links are stronger when children experience two consecutive years of higher quality ECE as they transition from pre-K to elementary school (i.e., the final pre-K year and kindergarten year) compared to only one year or no years of higher quality ECE experience during this timeframe. In the current study we investigate the associations between the classroom quality that children experienced in pre-K and kindergarten years and children’s social skills and behavior problems both at the end of kindergarten and the end of first grade.

Consistent with a domain-specific approach to children’s socialization (Grusec & Davidov, 2010), classroom quality was measured as the level of emotional support and classroom organization children experienced in the last year of the pre-K period and in kindergarten. From a theoretical perspective, both high levels of structure and emotional support are required for children’s positive social development (Baumrind, 1989, Grusec and Davidov, 2010) and this proposition has been supported by evidence from parenting literature (Cox & Paley, 2003). As such, we combined the Emotional Support and Classroom Organization domains of the CLASS into one scale to fully represent the quality of environment that children need to develop solid social and behavioral skills in school. Additionally, high levels of correlation between the emotional support and classroom organization domain that are often reported in the literature (Hamre et al., 2014; Hatfield, Hestenes, Kintner-Duffy, & O’Brien, 2013) and that was true in our data as well, would likely lead to concerns about multi-collinearity if those domains were examined separately rather than in combination. Moreover, Hamre et al. (2014) found that several dimensions of the emotional support and classroom organization domain had to be combined into one factor after removing a common responsive teaching factor.

In this study we hypothesized that children who experienced emotionally supportive and organized classrooms during both pre-K and kindergarten years would demonstrate greater social skills and fewer problems, compared to children who experienced emotionally supportive and organized classrooms only in pre-K or only in kindergarten or had no such experiences at all during this timeframe. In addition, we accounted for possible cross-domain links by examining the quality of instructional support during these two years as a potential predictor of children’s social skills and behavior problems, as children who experience challenging and engaging instructions may show fewer behavior problems (Downer et al., 2010).

Section snippets

Study design and participants

Data were drawn from the Family Life Project (FLP), a large multi-site longitudinal study (N = 1292) of ethnically diverse families living in rural areas in the United States. Participating families were recruited over a spin of one year (from September 2003 through September 2004) from two geographical areas with high poverty rates, Eastern North Carolina (NC) and Central Pennsylvania (PA). The FLP adopted a developmental epidemiological design with complex sampling procedures to recruit a

Preliminary analysis

Descriptive statistics of all study variables for the total sample and by ECE quality groups are presented in Table 1. Zero-order correlations among covariates and indicator variables for child outcomes are presented in Table 2. Log transformations were performed on both the SDQ Conduct Problems subscale and TOCA-R Aggressive-Oppositional subscale at both pre-K and kindergarten to adjust for the positively skewed distributions (values > 1).

Missing data for the covariates ranged between 0% and

Discussion

Providing children with a higher quality center-based preschool experience is an important topic for policy and practice. The United States and other developed countries are investing large sums of money to provide high-quality pre-K experiences to children living in poor areas to improve their chances in later life. This might be particularly important for children living in poor rural areas, since their families often deal with specific social problems, such as fewer opportunities for upward

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    Support for this research was provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (PO1-HD-39667), with co-funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Support for the first authors’ contribution to this study was provided by Utrecht University.

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    The Family Life Project (FLP) Key Investigators include Lynne Vernon-Feagans, The University of North Carolina; Mark Greenberg, The Pennsylvania State University; Martha Cox, The University of North Carolina; Clancy Blair, New York University; Margaret Burchinal, The University of North Carolina; Michael Willoughby, The University of North Carolina; Patricia Garrett-Peters, The University of North Carolina; Roger Mills-Koonce, The University of North Carolina; and Maureen Ittig, The Pennsylvania State University.

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