Promoting Children's Social-Emotional Skills in Preschool Can Enhance Academic and Behavioral Functioning in Kindergarten: Findings From Head Start REDI

Abstract

Research Findings: This study examined processes of change associated with the positive preschool and kindergarten outcomes of children who received the Head Start REDI (REsearch-based, Developmentally Informed) intervention compared to usual practice Head Start. Using data from a large-scale randomized controlled trial (N = 356 children, 42% African American or Latino, all from low-income families), this study tests the logic model that improving preschool social-emotional skills (e.g., emotion understanding, social problem solving, and positive social behavior) as well as language/emergent literacy skills will promote cross-domain academic and behavioral adjustment after children transition into kindergarten. Validating this logic model, the present study finds that intervention effects on 3 important kindergarten outcomes (e.g., reading achievement, learning engagement, and positive social behavior) were mediated by preschool gains in the proximal social-emotional and language/emergent literacy skills targeted by the REDI intervention. It is important to note that preschool gains in social-emotional skills made unique contributions to kindergarten outcomes in reading achievement and learning engagement, even after we accounted for concurrent preschool gains in vocabulary and emergent literacy skills. Practice or Policy: These findings highlight the importance of fostering at-risk children's social-emotional skills during preschool as a means of promoting school readiness.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant Nos. HD046064 and HD43763. We thank the REDI research and clinical staff members; our Head Start partners; and all of the parents, teachers, and children who made this study possible. Celene E. Domitrovich is an author of the Preschool PATHS curriculum; has a royalty agreement with Channing Bete, Inc.; and receives income from PATHS Training, LLC. All potential conflicts of interest have been reviewed and managed by the Individual Conflict of Interest Committee at Pennsylvania State University.

Notes

¹The version of this measure for teachers also included six items about relational aggression (Crick, Casas, & Mosher, 1997).

Note. Because almost all measures were composites of multiple other measures, they all were standardized with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. Thus, a negative score does not necessarily indicate that children got worse. It could mean that they did not improve as much as other children in the sample. Asterisks represent statistically significant mean differences between children in the REDI intervention and control conditions.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

²It is important to note, however, that these effect sizes represented the difference between children in Head Start REDI and Head Start as usual and, therefore, have no bearing on the magnitude of change that occurs from providing high-quality preschool programs to children living in poverty.