Predicting Children's Social and School Adjustment Following the Transition from Preschool to Kindergarten

LADD, GARY W., and PRICE, JOSEPH M. Predicting Children's Social and School Adjustment Following the Transition from Preschool to Kindergarten. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 1168-1189. Research on early school transitions is important because the reputations children establish at the outset of grade school may follow them through many years of formal schooling. The purpose of this study was to explore the transition from preschool to kindergarten and to identify factors that predict children's social and school adjustment in new school environments. A sample of 58 children was identified prior to their entrance into kindergarten, and parent and school data were collected at 3 times of measurement: late preschool, early kindergarten, and late kindergarten. Children's prior behavior and the kindergarten peer context were among the factors found to predict posttransition social adjustment. Children who were cooperative players in preschool were seen as more sociable by kindergarten teachers, and children who pursued more extensive positive contacts with preschool classmates tended to become well liked by their kindergarten classmates. In contrast, children who spent more time in aggressive behaviors and who had a broader pattern of negative peer contacts in preschool were more likely to be rejected by peers and to be seen as hostileaggressive by teachers in kindergarten. Both experiential antecedents and concomitant features of the transition context emerged as predictors of school adjustment. Time spent in interactions with younger peers in preschool was negatively related to positive school attitudes throughout kindergarten, and the duration of children's preschool attendance and range of experiences with peers in other community contexts was negatively related to anxious behavior in the classroom and absences from school. Children who retained a larger proportion of their nonschool friendships during the transition had more favorable attitudes at the beginning of kindergarten, and those who attended class with a larger proportion of familiar peers tended to view school more positively and were less anxious at the outset of the school year.