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Social-emotional development in preschoolers often functions as a gateway into more advanced social and academic behaviors; social-emotional experiences during the preschool years may enhance or diminish a child’s later adjustment and academic outcome. With the current focus on promoting pre-academic skills in preschool programs, the importance of social-emotional development has been left behind. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requires initial and follow-up screening of academic readiness skills for the Head Start programs. At the same time, much of the research that relates social-emotional development to academic outcome was completed 20 to 30 years ago. This study examined the relation between academic skills and social-emotional development in the beginning and end of one school year. Approximately 150 children ages 3 to 5 years old were assessed in six Head Start centers in different cities in rural Texas. Each student participated in an academic screening within the first 45 days of school and again at the end of the school year. A parent and teacher also completed a rating scale on each student’s social and emotional skills at the beginning of school. The purpose of this study was to contribute to a better understanding of the impact social-emotional development has on the academic progress for preschool-aged children. The overall goal of this study was to determine the extent to which socialemotional development can predict school readiness in Head Start children. The central hypothesis of this study was that social-emotional development can facilitate or impede children’s academic progress. This project was a prospective, repeated measures, singlesample design. The Head Start children who participated in this study were assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Gain scores were used to measure the growth in academic skills over one school year and compared to initial social-emotional skill level. Results suggest a relationship between adaptive skills and academic gains in one year is evident in Head Start children, which indicates the importance of continuing to provide services and funding for services that go beyond the basic academic tasks. This study found that social-emotional development influences many vital attributes in a child’s growth, including academic success.

This study examined the roles of emotion regulation, negative emotional reactivity, callous-unemotional traits, and socioemotional competence (i.e., identity, self-esteem, communication skills, work orientation, empathy) in overt aggression in a sample of detained juvenile offenders. Clusters were formed based on type and level of overt aggression exhibited: reactive, proactive/reactive, and low aggression. The proactive/reactive distinction failed to provide differential relationships with dependent variables when compared to an overall level of overt aggression. Results indicate that adolescents high in overall overt aggression exhibit higher levels of callousunemotional traits and negative reactivity, as well as lower levels of selfconcept and self-esteem when compared to those low in overt aggression. Additionally, youth with high levels of both overt aggression and callous-unemotional traits displayed significantly lower levels of empathy. No significant findings for overt aggression and emotion regulation emerged. Implications for interventions with adolescent offenders as well as future research directions are discussed.

The current study examined the link between early language ability and literacy and behavioral outcomes in children prenatally exposed to cocaine. Prenatal exposure to cocaine places children at risk for language delays and early language problems are linked to both literacy and behavior problems in elementary school (Bandstra, 2002; Beitchman et al., 2001; Cantwell & Baker, 1977). Participants included 141 primarily African-American children from low SES backgrounds who were enrolled in a birth through three intervention program. Children were followed through first and second grade to evaluate the impact early language ability had on literacy and behavior in elementary school. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for gender, treatment group, cognitive ability, and behavior at age three, receptive language at age three was a significant predictor of picture vocabulary in elementary school (F(4, 125)=6.76, p<.01, beta= .42, p<.01). Receptive language was also a significant predictor of Parent-reported prosocial behavior (F(7, 72) beta= 2.24, p<.05, beta =-.03 , p<.05). Contrary to previous findings, early language did not significantly predict parent reported problem behavior in elementary school in this high risk sample. Future studies should explore risk and resiliency in this sample, along with increasing sample size to allow for more advanced statistical analyses. Findings support the importance of early language experiences on both later literacy and behavioral outcomes for children.

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Postpartum depression can be defined as a major depressive disorder which usually occurs during the postpartum period within one month or more after giving birth. Literature shows that 35 to 47 per cent of South African women have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Studies stated that the challenges in the South African context regarding the postpartum period includes detachment from care and lack of a support system. Emotions are typically present in the context of relationships, in this case a mother and child relationship. However, research on early childhood has emphasised that the impact of the first five years of a child’s life on his/her social and emotional development is crucial, since children must learn to communicate with emotional language. The role of the mother in a young child’s emotional development is crucial, as the mother models certain behaviour to be imitated by the infant. A phenomenological and multiple case studies research design were followed throughout this qualitative research study. As the aim of the study was to provide information and guidelines for mothers who suffer from postpartum depression, the sample selection focused on participants (mothers) who had experienced postpartum depression and who, in retrospect, could give information about their experience and their perceptions of the effect this syndrome had on the emotional development of their children. Three mothers who were diagnosed with postpartum depression were the participants of this study. In order to get rich in-depth data, they were each interviewed and had to compile a narrative describing their experience with postpartum depression and the effect it had on their child’s emotional development. The three case studies provided a unique insight into the effect of postpartum depression on a young child’s emotional development according to the mother’s experience of postpartum depression. The empirical part of the study revealed that postpartum depression has a severe effect on a child’s emotional regulation and that support was an integral part in overcoming depression. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Early Childhood Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Thesis advisor: Mary E. Walsh / Poverty negatively impacts health, emotional wellbeing, and educational outcomes for children and creates an opportunity gap between children living in poverty and their wealthier peers (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). To close the opportunity gap, schools are encouraged to adopt a systemic approach that addresses both academic and non-academic barriers to learning (Adelman 2018). Integrated Student Support (ISS) models have emerged as one of the most effective systemic school-based interventions (Moore et al., 2018). ISS interventions use various strategies to address the continuum of student needs. Tiered intervention frameworks are one strategy geared towards categorizing risk levels and services by their respective levels of intensity. Tiered interventions commonly focus on academic and social-emotional domains. However, their social-emotional focus is often limited to behavior and their categorization of students is deficit-focused (Freeman et al., 2017). City Connects, one ISS intervention implemented in high-poverty urban districts, uses a tiered intervention framework that encompasses the whole child and incorporates strengths as well as risks. City Connects assigns a tier to strength/risk levels evidenced by students at the beginning of each school year. While City Connects has demonstrated robust positive effects on student outcomes, little is known about annual tier level. In the current study, repeated measures latent class analysis (RMLCA) identified patterns of tier change over five years during which students attended City Connects elementary schools in one district. Multinomial regression and chi-square analyses investigated the relationship of social-emotional strengths, needs, and services to the Tier Change Profiles. Overall, more than half of students changed tier between time points. The most commonly exhibited tier change was increasing/decreasing tier by one. RMLCA findings indicated that students facing lower risk at baseline, exhibited low risk over time, while students facing the highest risk exhibited the greatest volatility in risk over time. Students who had more social-emotional strengths than needs were more likely to exhibit Tier Change Profiles of low risk over time but having more social-emotional needs than strengths was not predictive of Tier Change Profile. Among other findings, outcomes suggest that acknowledging and bolstering strengths play a significantly positive role in developmental trajectories. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Kindergarten school readiness and the phenomenon of students entering kindergarten without the necessary personal and social skills they need to be successful in kindergarten was explored in this qualitative study. How this phenomenon impacts the school setting, including administrative support systems and classroom instructional practices implemented by kindergarten teachers, was explored. Elementary principals and kindergarten teachers who experienced this phenomenon were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Official documents relating to the phenomenon being studied were collected and analyzed to provide for triangulation of the data. Findings of this study provide insights into current classroom practices that are currently being implemented to solve the problem of students' personal and social skill deficits. Findings will assist division level leaders, elementary principals and kindergarten teachers to guide and shape classroom practices designed for enhancing and improving students' personal and social skills. Findings report what current resources are being used by kindergarten teachers to provide personal and social skill instruction and how teachers' instructional practices in this domain are being guided and directed by administrators. Division level leaders and school level leaders are provided with information about instructional practices for improving kindergarten students' personal and social skills. Findings of the study show how elementary principals' and kindergarten teachers' beliefs about kindergarten students' personal and social skill development are aligned to the Virginia Department of Education's Foundation Blocks for Early Learning for certain skills and how they are not aligned for other skills. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations between preschool children'sschool readiness, young children's social emotional development, and teacher-studentrelationships. Of interest, was whether social-emotional competence and teacher-studentrelationships made unique contributions to young children school readiness. Participantswere 58 three and four year old children (31 boys and 27 girls) who attended 3 inner-citypreschool programs. Thirty-five percent of the sample was African American, with theremainder being Caucasian, Asian, or Hispanic. Social-emotional and teacher-studentrelationship measures collected during the year were associated with school readiness atyear's end. Children's emotional competence was assessed using child interviews.Social competence and teacher-student relationships were measured using teachersurveys.After controlling for age, bivariate correlation revealed that emotional competence and social competence were positively related to one another. Emotional competence and close teacher-student relationships were related to school readiness. Regression analyses showed the emotional competence added to the prediction of school readiness after controlling for age. Children more ready for school, were more emotionally competent. Children having close relationships with preschool teachers were also more emotionally competent.