The transition from kindergarten to first grade has been described as a critical period for children's academic development. Furthermore, research indicates that peer status is connected with academic adjustment, yet the underlying processes remain unclear. By means of a two-year longitudinal study during kindergarten and first grade (N = 153), we…

For socioeconomically disadvantaged children, a positive experience in kindergarten may play a particularly important role in fostering the behavioral adjustment and learning engagement necessary for school success. Prior research has identified supportive student--teacher relationships and classroom emotional support as two features of the…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2020, organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.), that this year had to be transformed into a fully Virtual Conference as a result of the Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Modern…

Most studies regarding the role of teacher-child relationships for children's early school adjustment use only teacher ratings of relationship quality. The current study examines (a) the agreement between teacher and observer ratings, (b) whether similar patterns of relations with behavioral engagement are obtained across informants, and (c) which…

Experiential education is a child-centered educational framework that is popular in Flemish kindergartens. In this study, the impact of five experiential practices (autonomy support, stimulation, emotional support, time for choice activities, and interest-based activities) and the moderating influence of initial achievement (language and…

The transition to school may be particularly difficult for children with developmental disabilities and behavioral difficulties. Such children are likely to experience problems with self-regulation skills, which are critical to school adjustment. Additionally, inconsistent discipline practices and low parental involvement in children's schooling…

The aim of this study was to examine co-variation in the development of self-regulatory skills evident in pre-kindergarten and evaluate the implications of that variation for school adjustment in kindergarten and first grade. Measures of self-regulatory skill development included: direct assessments of EF (executive function) (e.g., Peg Tapping,…

Background: School-entry characteristics predict adult educational attainment, which forecasts dispositions toward disease prevention. Health and education risks can also be transmitted from one generation to the next. As such, school readiness forecasts a set of intertwined biopsychosocial trajectories that can influence the developmental…

Research suggests that many typically developing children in the United States experience problems during the transition from preschool to kindergarten. Despite the fact that early school experiences impact educational trajectories, few empirical studies investigate the effect of kindergarten preparation variables on child outcomes. The primary…

To aid in understanding preschoolers' self-regulation and refinement of measurement, we examined properties of a field-based assessment battery of preschooler's self-regulation, the Preschool Self-regulation Assessment (PSRA). The PSRA, which includes seven age-appropriate tasks that tap children's executive control, was administered to 313…

The goals of the current study were to examine whether children's social problem solving (SPS) skills are a mechanism through which temperament influences later academic achievement and whether sex moderates these associations. The participants included 1117 children enrolled in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of…

Over the past three decades, more than a quarter of a million children have become citizens of the United States through international adoption. Kindergarten teacher Jane Katch recently found herself with three such children in her class: Katya, born in Russia, Jasper, from Cambodia, and Caleb, from Romania. Each child had spent early years in an…

We examined kindergartners' (N = 160) reports of their conversations with parents about school, including whether parents ask about school, what parents ask about, what children tell them, and whether children want to tell their parents. We also investigated whether school adjustment and achievement were associated with either parent questions or…

Children's preparedness for school is an important predictor of their eventual academic attainment, health, and personal success well into adulthood. Although kindergarten knowledge of numbers and vocabulary represent robust indicators of children's readiness to learn at school entry, theory and research suggest that self-directed learning skills…

This article reports the development and evidence for validity and application of the Adjustment Scales for Early Transition in Schooling (ASETS). Based on primary analyses of data from the Head Start Impact Study, a nationally representative sample (N = 3077) of randomly selected children from low-income households is configured to inform…