Observing Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Behavior: Structure, Foundations, and Prediction of Early School Success

ABSTRACT

Social-emotional behavior of 352 3- and 4-year-olds attending private childcare and Head Start programs was observed using the Minnesota Preschool Affect Checklist, Revised (MPAC-R). Goals of the investigation included (a) using MPAC-R data to extract a shortened version, MPAC-R/S, comparing structure, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and stability of both versions; and, using the shortened measure, to examine (b) age, gender, and risk status differences in social-emotional behaviors; (c) contributions of emotion knowledge and executive function to social-emotional behaviors; and (d) contributions of social-emotional behaviors to early school adjustment and kindergarten academic success. Results show that reliability of MPAC-R/S was as good, or better, than the MPAC-R. MPAC-R/S structure, at both times of observation, included emotionally negative/aggressive, emotionally regulated/prosocial, and emotionally positive/productive behaviors; MPAC-R structure was similar but less replicable over time. Age, gender, and risk differences were found. Children's emotion knowledge contributed to later emotionally regulated/prosocial behavior. Finally, preschool emotionally negative/aggressive behaviors were associated with concurrent and kindergarten school success, and there was evidence of social-emotional behavior mediating relations between emotion knowledge or executive function, and school outcomes. The importance of portable, empirically supported observation measures of social-emotional behaviors is discussed along with possible applications, teacher utilization, and implementation barriers.

Keywords:

• academic readiness
• emotional competence
• emotions
• preschoolers
• school adjustment
• social behavior

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The present study was funded by NICHD grant #R01HD51514, called the Assessment of Social-Emotional Skills for School Readiness (ASESSR). The authors are grateful to the many children, families, and teachers who participated in this study, and the directors of the facilities who so cooperatively worked with them. They also thank Afra Ahmad, Charlotte Anderson, Chavaughn Brown, Kelly Graling, Chazity Johnson, Bess Lam, Carol Morris, So Ri Mun, Alyssa Perna, Erin Way, Todd Wyatt, and Jessy Zadrazil for their unstinting assistance in study organization and data collection.