Examining Protective and At-Risk Factors on Children’s Social and Emotional Development and School Readiness

Abstract

Early childhood is critical for a child’s healthy development. Such development can affect children throughout the lifespan. In particular, social emotional development has been used as a predictor for school readiness, delinquency, career outcomes and earnings, and overall quality of life (Denham et al., 2009). This study examined the relationships of protective factors and at-risk factors on 3,988 children between the ages of two to six years on children’s social emotional development and if these variables are also predictive of a child’s social emotional development. Additionally, this study assessed if children’s social emotional development is predictive of children's literacy and math school readiness. This study intended to investigate a strength-based model by examining moderating effects of poverty on a child’s social emotional development in determining methods for assisting children living in poverty. Pearson’s R correlations and stepwise linear regression models were run. Results indicated that protective factors have statistically significant relationships and predict higher social emotional development scores and at-risk factors have statistically significant relationships and predict lower social emotional development scores. Lastly, implications, limitations, and future directions for research are also discussed.Keywords: social emotional development, school readiness, protective factors, at-risk factors