Observing Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Behavior: Structure, Foundations, and Prediction of Early School Success

Abstract

Social-emotional behavior of 352 3- and 4-year-olds attending private child-care and Head Start programs was observed using the Minnesota Preschool Affect Checklist, Revised (MPAC-R). Goals of the investigation included (a) using MPAC-R data to extract a shortened version, MPAC-R/S, comparing structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and stability of both versions; and, using the shortened measure, to examine (b) age, gender, and risk status differences in social-emotional behaviors; (c) contributions of emotion knowledge and executive function to social-emotional behaviors; and (d) contributions of social-emotional behaviors to early school adjustment and kindergarten academic success. Results show that reliability of MPAC-R/S was as good, or better, than the MPAC-R. MPAC-R/S structure, at both times of observation, included emotionally negative/aggressive, emotionally regulated/prosocial, and emotionally positive/productive behaviors; MPAC-R structure was similar but less replicable over time. Age, gender, and risk differences were found. Children's emotion knowledge contributed to later emotionally regulated/prosocial behavior. Finally, preschool emotionally negative/aggressive behaviors were associated with concurrent and kindergarten school success, and there was evidence of social-emotional behavior mediating relations between emotion knowledge or executive function, and school outcomes. The importance of portable, empirically supported observation measures of social-emotional behaviors is discussed along with possible applications, teacher utilization, and implementation barriers.

Effect of Self-Regulating Behaviour on Young Children’s Academic Success

“…The results indicate that children had a good understanding of what failing to act prosocially meant (Sy et al, 2003). A similar finding resulted from a study conducted by Denham, Bassett, Thayer, Mincic, Sirotkin & Zinsser (2012) used puppets to determine students' ability to identify the emotions of characters. They found that 80% of the students correctly identified the correct emotion that the puppets demonstrated.…”

The Development and Validation of the Behavior and Emotion Expression Observation System to Characterize Preschoolers’ Social and Emotional Interactions

“…Furthermore, it may be that direct observation actually captures different constructs of social and emotional competence compared to parent and teacher questionnaires that will not otherwise be assessed (Thomas et al, 2011). Last, direct observation may provide a unique benefit to the observer (e.g., teacher, school psychologist, other personnel) by promoting reflection and a unique perspective on the targeted child (Denham et al, 2012;Thomas et al, 2011).…”

“…Therefore, although other direct observation measures may exist, these tools all provide different types of information, and none provides the frequency of both social play behaviors and emotion expressions. For instance, the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (Downer, Booren, Lima, Luckner, & Pianta, 2010) was developed to rate the overall quality of preschool interactions, the Minnesota Preschool Affect Checklist (Denham et al, 2012;Herndon, Bailey, Shewark, Denham, & Bassett, 2013) indicates the dichotomous presence of target behaviors related to social-emotional functioning, and the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders incorporates observation of the frequency of social behavior (Walker & Severson, 1990. These first two systems do not provide information on the frequency of social play behaviors or emotion expressions, instead providing a judgment rating of various social-emotional interactions or skills.…”

“…Furthermore, many of the existing measures of children's social-emotional competence are inadequate or lack validity, and it is surprising that some do not meet criteria for usability because of their length and the need for training (for a review of social-emotional measures, see Bracken et al, 1998;Gokiert et al, 2014). Although these conventional measures are informative, they do not fully elucidate the types of interactions and emotion expressions preschool children actually engage in (Denham et al, 2012;Thomas et al, 2011).…”

“…Currently, assessment of the social behaviors and emotion expressions of preschool children is primarily limited to indirect measures (i.e., parent and teacher report) of related constructs, such as externalizing and internalizing symptoms, social skills, or emotion regulation (Bracken et al, 1998;Denham et al, 2012;Gokiert et al, 2014;Thomas, Shapiro, DuPaul, Lutz, & Kern, 2011). Furthermore, many of the existing measures of children's social-emotional competence are inadequate or lack validity, and it is surprising that some do not meet criteria for usability because of their length and the need for training (for a review of social-emotional measures, see Bracken et al, 1998;Gokiert et al, 2014).…”