Precursors of competence among children

University Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Both current research and theory suggest that in the context of poverty martial and family factors are important for understanding the development of child competence or disorder, protective processes, and vulnerability to the stressful life condition associated with poverty. Infancy may be a time of particular vulnerability to disruptions in family relationships. There is little information about the effort of poverty in rural communities for both African American and Caucasian children. This project addresses a pressing issue of national importance in its focus on the emergence of child competencies and family/community conditions that undergird later school readiness. More specifically it examines the development of language, pre-literacy, and social competencies that provide a foundation for learning in school settings, as well as the extent to which families and communities engage in effective strategies to prepare children for school in rural and largely low-income communities where resources and access to resources may be very different than for families in urban areas. Despite very clear indications that readiness for school is strongly supported by competence in the domains of pre-literacy, language, and social skills, very little research has focused on the factors that lead to these outcomes in preschool for rural children from different SES and ethnic groups. Because over half of poor children live in non-urban settings, this focus on pre- readiness skills can help address our understanding of the earliest factors leading to early school failure for the very large proportion of rural and poor children who come to school without these competencies. Pre-readiness skills will be assessed in this longitudinal study of 1400 rural children in three counties in Pennsylvania and three counties in North Carolina. Children will be followed from birth to three years of age. The components of prereadiness are: (1) language skills, (2) pre-literacy; (3) social competencies that provide a foundation for acquiring information in school settings (4) family support for the development of pre-readiness competencies, and (5) support for readiness in the larger community. The focus on these five components is consistent with a definition of school readiness that recognizes child competencies as well as the opportunities and experiences that contribute to development of those competencies. We will be interested in the developmental pathways for acquiring the competencies critical to success in school through a multilevel, longitudinal analysis of these early precursors of readiness across in rural children living in poor communities.