https://doi.org/10.24839/2325-7342.JN28.3.168
The Relationship Between Early Life Adversity and Academic Competence in Early Childhood Alyssa B. Green and Laura Hennefield* Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
ABSTRACT. It is well-documented that early life adversity negatively
affects children academically and that these impacts magnify as the number of negative life events (NLEs) they experience increases. However, it is unclear whether the types of NLEs children are exposed to differentially relate to their levels of academic competence, a component of educational functioning. The present study addressed this question by assessing the relationships between different types of early life adversity and academic competence in 4- to 6-year-olds (N = 111) using secondary data analyses of parent reports in which respondents indicated children’s levels of academic competence and exposure to NLEs. The results showed that family turmoil (b = –2.31, 95% CI [–4.05, –0.57], p = .01, f2 = .07), poverty (b = –2.92, 95% CI [–4.31, –1.53], p < .001, f 2 = .16), and violence (b = –3.43, 95% CI [–5.14, –1.73], p < .001, f 2 = .15) negatively predicted academic competence, whereas family separation and death/illness did not relate to academic competence. Additionally, poverty negatively predicted academic competence above and beyond family turmoil and violence (b = –2.36, 95% CI [–0.49, 0.72], p = .03, f2 = .04). These findings demonstrate that some, but not all, types of NLEs negatively predict preschoolers’ academic competence, illustrating the differential relationship between different types of early life adversity and academic performance. Moreover, these findings reveal the deleterious impacts of certain types of NLEs on children’s academics prior to beginning formal education, suggesting the importance of early intervention targeting family turmoil, poverty, and violence from a young age.
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Keywords: early adversity, academic competence, childhood, school, preschool
A
cademic competence refers to the communicative, social, cognitive, and content-related skills, behaviors, and attitudes that empower children to be adept learners in the school classroom (DiPerna & Elliott, 1999). A student’s level of academic competence is closely related to their propensity for academic achievement, academic aspirations, and overall quality of school functioning (Widlund et al., 2018). Research indicated that middle- and high-school students with poor academic outcomes (i.e., poor reading and mathematics ability, homework completion, and grades) *Faculty mentor
are more likely to be convicted of a crime, become pregnant during adolescence, and abuse alcohol or drugs (Kasen et al., 1998). Low-achieving students are also at a heightened risk to drop out of school, resulting in an increased probability of suffering from chronic disease, unemployment, and poverty in adulthood (Kasen et al., 1998; Vaughn et al., 2014). Thus, academic competence is an important area for researchers to study, as it is linked with a variety of educational, psychological, economic, and health outcomes. Children’s academic performance and content-related
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