Elsevier

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Volume 36, 3rd Quarter 2016, Pages 462-474
Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Family risk profiles and school readiness: A person-centered approach☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.01.017Get rights and content

Highlights

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    Family risk factors were examined using cumulative risk and latent class models.

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    Analyses indicated children were described by three distinct combinations of risks.

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    Risk profile membership predicted differences in school readiness at age four.

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    The accumulation of risk factors predicted poorer school readiness at age four.

Abstract

With cumulative risk and latent class risk profile models, this study explored how multiple family risk factors experienced during the first three years of life predicted children’s school readiness at age four, within a geographically and economically diverse U.S. sample. Using data from the National Institute on Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, family risk experiences were best captured by three distinct profiles: (a) low risk (78%), (b) low resourced: single-parent, minority (12%), and (c) low resourced: parental harshness, depressed (10%). Findings indicated that early risk experiences could be described in terms of family risk profiles characterized by both sociodemographic and family processes. Cumulative risk model results suggested that a greater number of risks across infancy, toddlerhood, and early preschool years significantly predicted poorer school readiness outcomes in the prekindergarten year (i.e., lower self-regulation, early math, early literacy, and more behavior problems). Latent class risk profile results provided a similar, yet more nuanced, understanding of the relation between multiple risk and subsequent child outcomes. Specifically, children characterized by the low risk profile exhibited stronger school readiness than children characterized by the low resourced: single, minority profile who in turn exhibited stronger school readiness than those characterized by the low resourced: parental harshness, depressed profile. Results support a dual-approach to modeling family risks through both cumulative and profile analyses, and can inform efforts to integrate services to better identify the co-occurring needs of families with young children most likely to struggle with early school readiness skills.

Section snippets

Family risks and school readiness skills

Understanding variability in school readiness skills is important because the early childhood years signify a major developmental and social transition for young children (Denham, Warren-Khot, Bassett, Wyatt, & Perna, 2012). The current study focuses on three distinct aspects of school readiness skills during prekindergarten known to have long-term importance for social and academic functioning: early math and literacy achievement, self-regulation, and behavioral adjustment (Duncan et al., 2007

Approaches to examining family risk and school readiness

Children’s development is embedded within a dynamic and holistic process (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006, Lerner, 2006). A key challenge for risk researchers is to develop analytic models that can accommodate multiple, co-occurring risks on development (Parra, DuBois, & Sher, 2006). Researchers typically take one of two different approaches to capture these complex relations—cumulative approaches and person-centered approaches.

The most common approach is the cumulative model, which has

The present study

Using both cumulative risk and LCA approaches, we examined associations among children’s experiences of multiple family risks during the first three years of life and their subsequent school readiness during the four-year-old year, among a sample of families living both above and below the poverty line. Whereas quite a bit of work has established significant relations between cumulative family risks and skills important for school readiness (e.g., Lengua et al., 2007), to date less is known

Participants and procedure

Families were recruited into the longitudinal NICHD SECCYD in 1991 from 24 hospitals in 10 recruitment sites across the U.S. (N = 1364; 52% male). When children were one month old, 22% of families were living at the poverty level, and 23% of families were living near poverty (i.e., between 100% and 200% of the poverty level). Additionally, although maternal education was fairly high (i.e., about 69% of mothers reported at least some college) a substantial portion of the mothers reported

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations

Table 1 contains descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations among study variables. The variability among risk-factor indicators appeared sufficient for the detection of distinct family risk profiles. For example, although the average family income-to-needs for the sample as a whole was three times the federal poverty line (M = 3.27), 25% of families reported an average income-to-needs ratio < 1.5. Mothers reported moderate levels depressive symptoms, and 35% of the overall sample reported

Discussion

This study explored how multiple family risk factors experienced during the first three years of life predicted children’s school readiness at age four, within a geographically and economically diverse U.S. sample. Cumulative risk model results revealed that an accumulation of risks was significantly related to lower early achievement, lower self-regulation, and higher behavior problems. Those risk experiences were best captured by three distinct profiles: (a) low risk; (b) low resourced:

Conclusion

Children exposed to relatively low risk in the first years of life exhibited significantly greater school readiness at 54 months than those whose early environments were characterized by both a greater number of multiple, co-occurring risks (i.e., variable-centered approach), as well as qualitatively different risk profiles (i.e., person-centered approach). Differences in the patterns of specific risk profiles further differentiated school readiness outcomes, providing complementary information

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    ☆

    This article is based on a dissertation submitted by Megan Pratt to Oregon State University under the direction of Megan McClelland and Shannon Lipscomb. We thank Alan Acock for his helpful comments on previous versions of the manuscript.

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