Brief Report: Measurement of Young Children’s Engagement and Problem Behavior in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

Young children's engagement in academic and social activities within early childhood settings contributes to academic achievement as well as appropriate social and emotional development (Hojnoski & Missall, 2010; Williford, Vick Whittaker, Vitiello, & Downer, 2013). Engagement, defined as the degree to which children are attentive and interactive in a consistent manner with academic or social activities (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004), is associated with critical developmental constructs (e.g., development of appropriate emotional regulation) that are vital for academic achievement and later life success (Hojnoski & Missall, 2010; Williford et al., 2013). Lack of engagement in early childhood is associated with poor academic performance and development of chronic problem behaviors (Hojnoski & Missall, 2010). Chronic problem behaviors in early childhood have been associated with the development of negative relationships with teachers and peers, which further increases the risk of young children developing behavioral, social, and academic challenges (Hughes & Kwok, 2006). Engagement and Problem Behavior in Early Childhood Settings Engagement in a variety of classroom activities within early childhood settings requires children to demonstrate different behaviors and offers diverse opportunities to practice and develop skills (Booren,

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Relation Between Engagement and Achievement in Early Childhood Research

“…Achievement was consistently measured using direct assessment, whereas engagement was directly observed in fewer than half of studies. Direct observation, rather than rating scales, is recommended for accurately measuring children’s engagement (Prykanowski et al, 2018). Interestingly, the relation between engagement and achievement did not vary as a function of the way engagement was measured (e.g., direct observation vs. rating scale).…”

“…Understanding the relation between engagement and achievement in early childhood can be valuable for developing more precise and accurate measures of each construct. The most accurate (total duration) and efficient (momentary time sampling procedures) estimates of children’s engagement utilize direct observation (Prykanowski et al, 2018), whereas measures of achievement often use direct standardized assessment scoring and procedures compared to age- or gender-based normative samples (cf. Buzhardt et al, 2010; Walker et al, 2008).…”

Off-task behavior in kindergarten: Relations to executive function and academic achievement.

“…Additionally, it is also important to consider how there might be unobserved variables that contribute to children’s off-task behavior that the current study did not capture. For example, we did not include variables assessing the difficulty of the instructional task, or how much time was spent in games or play/free-time, which past studies have demonstrated relations to attention, engagement and off-task behavior (Prykanowski, Martinez, Reichow, Conroy, & Huang, 2018; Timmons et al, 2015). Lastly, off-task behavior might also be very different in kindergarten classrooms where the structure of instruction and behavior expectations are typically more relaxed than with later grades, thus future work should replicate this study with first and second graders to see whether this pattern of findings holds.…”

Pojavnost problema u ponašanju djece u ustanovama ranog i predškolskog odgoja i obrazovanja

“…Early and preschool children are usually unable to verbalise the difficulties that they face on their own, which then tends to manifest into inappropriate behaviour that is recognised by those close to them. Researchers describe these behaviours using different terms, including challenging behaviours (Dunlap et al, 2006;Emerson & Einfeld, 2011), behavioural problems (Mikas, 2007;Prykanowski, Martinez, Reichow, Conroy, & Huang, 2018), as well as social-emotional problems (Brown et al, 2012). These behaviours interfere with or are at risk of interfering with optimal learning or participation in a child's social interactions with other children and adults (Smith & Fox, 2003).…”