| Sharon Judge
University of Tennessee
Resilient and vulnerable at-risk children: What makes the difference?
FINAL REPORT:
This study utilized data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 to examine the role of risk and protective mechanisms involved in vulnerability and resilience as they relate to the development of school-based competence. This study examined competence in relation to risk and protective factors utilizing both a variable-focused dimensional approach and a person-focused categorical approach. Competence for early school success was defined in terms of a pattern of effective performance on three major age-developmental tasks: (a) reading skills and knowledge, (b) mathematics skills and knowledge, and (c) approaches to learning (task persistence, independence, eager to learn). A number of measures were evaluated as predictors of outcome category: gender, age at entry to kindergarten, and number of risk factors. In addition to these measures, four major protective factors, physical well-being and motor development, educational expectations and primary pre-kindergarten care, home literacy environment, and social skills and behavior, were investigated as possible influences on competence. Results indicated that better fine motor, gross motor, and interpersonal skills and internalizing behaviors were associated with good outcomes across competence domains, even among children from at-risk backgrounds. Resilient children (higher risk, higher competence) had much in common with their competent peers with no risk factors, including average or better fine and gross motor skills, parental educational expectations, home literacy environment, and social skills and behavior. Results suggest that center-based child care and literacy rich home environments are tied to competence as well as resilience among at-risk children.
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