Abstract
Background
Traditional measures of school readiness are labour-intensive and do not assess family support.
Aims
The current study used the newly developed Brief Early Skills and Support Index (BESSI: Hughes, Daly, Foley, White and Devine 2015) to examine 6-month longitudinal stability and change in teachers’ ratings of young children's school readiness and investigate the role of family support as a predictor of school readiness.
Sample
Five hundred and seventy-eight children (270 boys; 74.2% White British) were included at Time 1 aged 2.58–5.84 years (Mage = 3.98 years, SD = 0.66).
Method
Teachers and nursery workers completed BESSI questionnaires for each participant on two occasions separated by 6 months.
Results
The four latent factors of the BESSI (i.e., Behavioural Adjustment, Language and Cognition, Daily Living Skills and Family Support) exhibited longitudinal measurement invariance and individual differences in ratings on each factor showed strong stability over time. BESSI ratings were also sensitive to improvements over time. Auto-regressive models showed that family support and family income (as measured by eligibility for pupil premium support) at Time 1 each uniquely predicted child outcomes at Time 2.
Conclusions
These findings highlight the importance of family contexts for children's school readiness.
Traditional measures of school readiness are labour-intensive and do not assess family support.
Aims
The current study used the newly developed Brief Early Skills and Support Index (BESSI: Hughes, Daly, Foley, White and Devine 2015) to examine 6-month longitudinal stability and change in teachers’ ratings of young children's school readiness and investigate the role of family support as a predictor of school readiness.
Sample
Five hundred and seventy-eight children (270 boys; 74.2% White British) were included at Time 1 aged 2.58–5.84 years (Mage = 3.98 years, SD = 0.66).
Method
Teachers and nursery workers completed BESSI questionnaires for each participant on two occasions separated by 6 months.
Results
The four latent factors of the BESSI (i.e., Behavioural Adjustment, Language and Cognition, Daily Living Skills and Family Support) exhibited longitudinal measurement invariance and individual differences in ratings on each factor showed strong stability over time. BESSI ratings were also sensitive to improvements over time. Auto-regressive models showed that family support and family income (as measured by eligibility for pupil premium support) at Time 1 each uniquely predicted child outcomes at Time 2.
Conclusions
These findings highlight the importance of family contexts for children's school readiness.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 284-299 |
| Journal | British Journal of Educational Psychology |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 17 Sept 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2018 |