This study investigated children's interest-based activities in the home during the preschool years and their subsequent academic self-regulation behaviors in school. Children's home activities were tracked for 1 year prior to kindergarten entry. Based on their profiles of activities, children (109) were assigned to one of four interest groups:…

The current study is one of the first to investigate children's perceptions of quality in teacher-child relationships using a narrative measure. It is also one of the first studies to investigate how the child's report is associated with the teacher's report and with an observer's report of quality in teacher-child interactions. Participants…

Previous studies have demonstrated that various psychosocial risks are associated with poor cognitive functioning in children, and these risks frequently cluster together. In the current longitudinal study, we tested a model in which it was hypothesized that cumulative psychosocial adversity of mothers would have deleterious effects on children's…

The present investigation explored (1) fathers' contributions to children's theory of mind (ToM) development, (2) the similarity between maternal and paternal mind-mindedness (MM) in relation to children's ToM, and (3) the relative predictive strength of two concurrently administered measures of MM (an online and an interview assessment) in…

Research Findings: Several recent studies carried out in the United States and abroad (i.e., Asia and Europe) have demonstrated that the ability of young children to regulate their behavior (including inhibitory control, working memory, attentional control) significantly predicts their academic achievement. The current study examined the…

This study investigated different forms of pretend and physical play as predictors of preschool children's "affective social competence" (ASC). Data were collected from 122 preschool children (57 boys, 65 girls; 86 European American, 9 African American, 17 Hispanic, and 10 other ethnicity) over a 2-year period. Children participated in…

The authors used data from a large, national sample to examine the interaction of various literacy measures among young children with disabilities. Using structural equation modeling, they examined the relationships among measures of phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Child and family factors, including sex,…

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey--Birth cohort ("N" = 6,450), the present study hypothesized that 48-month-old children of divorced mothers would score lower on emerging literacy than the children of formerly cohabiting mothers, compared with the children of mothers in stable marriage. The children of mothers who…

Given existing gendered stereotypic assumptions regarding shyness and children's school competencies, this study explored relations among socioemotional competencies, self-perceptions, and receptive vocabulary in shy children. Ninety-one Canadian children (52 girls, 39 boys; 5-8 years) were classified as shy (n = 26) based on teachers' behavioural…

This study investigated the extent to which learning readiness, prior-to-school experiences, and child and family characteristics influence children's literacy and numeracy achievement across the first year of primary school. A sample of 104 kindergarten children was recruited from 16 classrooms and followed from the beginning to the end of their…

Premises about the effects of early engagement on achievement were investigated with 383 children who were followed from ages 5.5 to 13.5. Change and continuity in behavioral (cooperative-resistant classroom participation) and emotional (school liking-avoidance) engagement were assessed during Grades 1-3 and were examined within variable- and…