Research Findings: In this study, a combination of variable-oriented and person-oriented statistical analyses was used to examine the links between three temperament factors (negative affectivity, surgency/extraversion, effortful control) evaluated before entry into kindergarten and the cognitive and socioemotional dimensions of school readiness…

Working memory is an important component of executive functioning, an area of difficulty for many autistic children. However, executive functioning and working memory are highly malleable throughout childhood, and various student-level and environmental factors play important roles in their development. This study used the Early Childhood…

There is now wide consensus that the quality of family relationships is involved in the development of child executive functioning (EF), a set of cognitive skills that bear critical importance for social and academic adjustment at school. This body of research has, however, focused almost exclusively on dyadic parent-child interactions and failed…

Dual language immersion programs are increasing in popularity. Yet little is known about what motivates parents to enroll their children in dual language immersion. The theory of planned behavior posits that behavior is based on attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The current study was an exploratory evaluation of the…

As special education inclusion policies become more widespread, classroom compositions are changing in ways that affect all students. The present study fills a critical gap in the literature by documenting the extent to which having a classmate with an emotional disturbance (ED) is linked to kindergarteners' absences. Because having a classmate…

Substantial evidence has established that individual differences in executive function (EF) in early childhood are uniquely predictive of children's academic readiness at school entry. The current study tested whether growth trajectories of EF across the early childhood period could be used to identify a subset of children who were at pronounced…

This study examined the extent to which clinical and demographic characteristics predicted outcome for children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants included 152 students with autism spectrum disorder in 53 kindergarten-through-second-grade autism support classrooms in a large urban public school district. Associations between child…

The present study, employing the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey, aims to compare and explore possible differences to the levels of burnout reported by the two main professional groups working in the early childhood education and care sector in Greece, that is kindergarten teachers and childcare workers. The correlation between the…

Research predicting academic achievement from early academic, attention, and socioemotional skills has largely focused on elementary school outcomes and rarely included peer assessments of social competence. We examined associations between these early child characteristics and academic outcomes into young adulthood using the Fast Track normative…

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), demographic and parental predictors of parental self-efficacy were identified among parents with children transitioning to kindergarten. In addition, the mediating role that parental involvement in the home and/or school context may play in the…

Despite the recent growth in multiracial children among American children, we know very little about their well-being. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class (N?=?17,706), we evaluated the likelihood of living in poverty and near poverty for multiracial and monoracial children. Most multiracial groups have poverty or near…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with many different levels of language and social impairment, differences in levels of cognitive impairment, varying levels of aberrant behavior, and discrepancies in the presence or amount of restrictive and repetitive behavior. The heterogeneity found within the ASD population is coupled with…

Identifying early precursors of body mass index (BMI) and sports participation represents an important concern from a public health perspective and can inform the development of preventive interventions. This article examines whether kindergarten child self-regulation, as measured by classroom engagement and behavioral regulation, predicts healthy…

Over the past decade, several state and federal policies have directed schools to mainstream English Language Learner (ELL) students into English-only instruction classrooms. While there is mixed evidence on the effects of these immersion policies on the ELL students, research examining potential peer effects on their non-ELL classmates is…

This study examined teacher education background and developmentally based teaching practices as predictors of student achievement in kindergarten. Participants were approximately 17,000 kindergarteners and 3,000 teachers from a national longitudinal study. Using multilevel regression and hierarchical linear models, this study found that only…