Cumulative Risk, The Home Environment, And Interactive Book Reading Between Mother And Child As Predictors Of School Readiness

There is evidence in the literature that early school readiness predicts later school performance (Duncan et al., 2007; La Paro and Pianta, 2000). There is less research, however, on the impact of risk factors on a child\u27s school readiness, and protective factors that may lessen the negative effects of various risk factors. This study explored predictors of school readiness, including cumulative socio-demographic risk, the home environment, and interactive book reading behaviors. Participants included 104 young mothers and their children. The mother and child dyads were assessed at three time points. Cumulative socio-demographic risk was measured in the lab when the children were 18 months old. The home environment and interactive book reading were collected at the mothers\u27 homes when the children were 24 months old. The outcome measure of school readiness was collected at the mothers\u27 homes when the children were 36 months old. It was expected that cumulative socio-demographic risk, the home environment and interactive reading behaviors would each predict school readiness. It was also hypothesized that the home environment would moderate the relationship between cumulative risk and school readiness. Finally, it was expected that interactive reading behaviors would mediate the relationship between cumulative risk and school readiness. Multiple regression and hierarchical linear regressions were used to conduct statistical analyses. Cumulative socio-demographic risk, the home environment, and interactive book reading behaviors were not significant predictors of school readiness, after controlling for child\u27s temperament, gender, and maternal receptive vocabulary. The home environment did not moderate the relationship between cumulative socio-demographic risk and school readiness. Finally, interactive book reading behaviors did not mediate the relationship between cumulative socio-demographic risk and school readiness

The Influence Of Household Chaos And The Home Language Environment On Preschool-Age Children’s School Readiness

School readiness, including both cognitive and social-emotional development, is an important indicator of a child’s preparedness for school entry, and a meaningful predictor of future academic success (Duncan et al., 2007). The home environment plays a critical role in the development of children’s school readiness, especially for children facing social inequalities. Within the home environment, household chaos and home language have been found to impact school readiness. The current study expanded on previous research on household chaos by collecting multiple measures of household chaos, including a naturalistic observation across several days. The current study also naturalistically investigated the home language environment to explore how these constructs impact numerous aspects of school readiness. A sample of 55 African-American mother-child dyads, primarily identifying as low-income, participated when children were between 3 ½ and 4 ½ years old. Mothers completed self-report measures of household chaos, children’s social-emotional protective factors, and family rituals. Children completed measures of the following: pre-academic knowledge, receptive vocabulary, executive functioning, and emotion knowledge. Children also wore an iPod with the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR; Mehl, Pennebaker, Crow, Dabbs, & Price, 2001) “app” installed, which collected random naturalistic audio observations of the home environment. These audio files were coded for household chaos by trained research assistants, and were transcribed to analyze language (talkativeness and emotion words) with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Francis, & Booth, 2001) system. Household chaos was also measured with research assistants’ observations at the home visit and with an objective measure of household overcrowding. The current study demonstrated the feasiblity of measuring household chaos with the EAR “app” and explored the relationship of this measure to other measures of household chaos; overall, there was limited support for significant associations among these measures. Contrary to expectations, the current study did not find much support for the relatedness of household chaos with indicators of school readiness, although there were a few significant associations that held while accounting for covariates. House chaos measured via the EAR was negatively associated with children’s receptive vocabulary. Household overcrowding was negatively associated with pre-academic skills. Contrary to the hypothesis, research assistants’ report of neighborhood noise was positively associated with children’s executive functioning. There were also very few associations between characteristics of the home language environment and indicators of school readiness that held while accounting for covariates. Caregivers’ use of negative emotion words was negatively associated with children’s receptive vocabulary. Caregivers’ use of total emotion words and positive emotion words were positively associated with executive functioning. This study included an extensive examination of household chaos and the home language environment, and investigated their association with a broad range of school readiness measures. These findings provide some support for the importance of assessing household chaos, particularly household overcrowding, when addressing education disparities before school entry for families facing social inequities