No abstract

Evidence from two studies conducted with kindergarten samples (N = 200, M age = 5.58 years; N = 199, M age = 5.47 years) supported a series of interrelated hypotheses derived from a child x environment model of early school adjustment. The findings obtained were consistent with the following inferences: (1) Entry factors, such as children's cognitive maturity and family backgrounds, directly as well as indirectly influence children's behavior, participation, and achievement in kindergarten; (2) as children enter school, their initial behavioral orientations influence the types of relationships they form with peers and teachers; (3) stressful aspects of children's peer and teacher relationships in the school environment adversely impact classroom participation and achievement; and (4) classroom participation is an important prerequisite for achievement during kindergarten. Collectively, these findings illustrate the need to revise prevailing theories of school adjustment, and the research agendas that evolve from these perspectives, so as to incorporate interpersonal risk factors that operate within the school environment.

A diathesis-stress model was proposed in which the joint forces of individual vulnerability (anxious solitude) and interpersonal adversity (peer exclusion) predict depressive symptoms in children over time. Children's (N = 388; 50% female) social behavior, peer exclusion, and emotional adjustment were assessed at kindergarten entry and every spring thereafter through 4th grade, primarily by teacher report. Results indicated that anxious solitude and peer exclusion co-occur in children soon after kindergarten entry and that anxious solitary children who are excluded early on, in comparison with their nonexcluded anxious solitary counterparts, display greater stability in their subsequent display of anxious solitude. As hypothesized, the joint influence of anxious solitude and exclusion predicted the most elevated depressive symptom trajectories.

Relations between kindergartners' (N = 199; M age = 5 years 6 months) behavioral orientations and features of their Ist-grade teacher-child relationships (i.e., conflict, closeness, dependency) were examined longitudinally. Early behavioral orientations predicted teacher-child relationship quality in that (a) unique associations emerged between children's early antisocial behavior and features of their Ist-grade teacher-child relationships (i.e., negative relation with closeness, positive relation with conflict and dependency) and between asocial behavior and teacher-child dependency, and (b) prosocial behavior was correlated with but not uniquely related to any feature of children's Ist-grade teacher-child relationships. In addition, specific features of the teacher-child relationship (e.g., conflict) predicted changes in children's behavioral adjustment (e.g., decreasing prosocial behavior).

Longitudinal data from a study of kindergarten through 5th graders were used to estimate a structural model in which chronic peer exclusion and chronic peer abuse were hypothesized to mediate the link between children's early peer rejection, later classroom engagement, and achievement. Peer exclusion and abuse were expected to predict changes in 2 forms of school engagement (classroom participation and school avoidance), and changes in both forms of engagement were expected to predict changes in achievement. The model fit the data well and lent support to the premise that distinct forms of peer maltreatment and classroom engagement mediate the link between early peer rejection and changes in children's achievement. Early peer rejection was associated with declining classroom participation and increasing school avoidance, but different forms of chronic peer maltreatment mediated these relations. Whereas chronic peer exclusion principally mediated the link between peer rejection and classroom participation, chronic peer abuse primarily mediated the link between rejection and school avoidance. Children's reduced classroom participation, more than gains in school avoidance, anteceded decrements in children's achievement.