CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Most of the youngsters walking eagerly into kindergartens across America this fall expect school to be fun. Mom or Dad probably told them it would be.
But about one in five will have an early reaction to school "that's not entirely positive" - and that reaction is likely to persist through the year, affecting how much they participate and therefore often how much they achieve, says Gary Ladd, director of the Pathways Project, a long-term University of Illinois study that's followed almost 400 children since their entry into kindergarten.
Parents should monitor how kids are feeling about school in those early weeks and months, focusing beyond academics, advises Ladd, a UI professor of educational psychology. "Are they coming home and saying 'it's not fun, it's more work than I thought, I can't find a friend,' or any other aspect of the school environment that seems to be troubling to them? Because my view would be, at least from our findings, that once those attitudes form, they tend to remain fairly stable over the school year."
The findings, published in the journal Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, came from interviews with 200 Pathways subjects, as well as with classmates, teachers and parents. The researchers took into account factors often associated with school success, such as socioeconomic status and parents' education, and showed that a child's initial reaction to school still carried significant weight. "We're saying that even after we include those types of predictors, how much kids say they like school after they get there still tells you a lot about how much they're going to participate," said Eric Buhs, a UI doctoral student and Pathways Project researcher.
The Merrill-Palmer article was written by Ladd, Buhs and Michael Seid, research psychologist, at the Children's Hospital and Health Center, San Diego. The Pathways Project is supported chiefly through funding from the National Institutes of Health.
For those who don't like school, it may be that their "expectations are being violated," Ladd suggested. "In our culture, we give kids the expectation that they're going to like school, that this is something to look forward to. And in many cases, pre-school education is such that kids have learned that it is enjoyable. But when they get to kindergarten, they find it's a different kind of environment. There are a lot more kids there, and more challenges, including higher academic expectations."
For parents, one implication of the research might be that they give some thought to how they prepare their child for the transition to grade school, and what they tell them to expect, Ladd said.
Ladd and Buhs also suggest visiting the classroom at the first signs of concern, paying particular attention to how their child interacts with peers. "When they start school, most kids don't go home and talk about how much they love math," Ladd said. "They're talking about whether they have any friends there, and whether there are kids who will work or play or share with them."
Journal
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly