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Teachers' initial level of interactional quality at the beginning of a school year (baseline) was examined as a potential moderating factor in the relation between change in interactional quality and change in children's school readiness skills throughout an academic year. Participants were 269 preschool teachers and 1179 children from low-income backgrounds. Teacher-child interactions and children's school readiness skills were measured in the fall and spring of the preschool year. Overall, improvements in the quality of teacher-child interactions across the year were not significantly related to children's skill development. Three important findings emerged; two main effects and one interaction effect. Gains in teachers' instructional support across the year were related to children's literacy and inhibitory control development. Additionally, the relation between gains in teachers' emotional support and gains in children's inhibitory control was moderated by teachers' initial level of emotional support at the beginning of the year. These findings provide limited evidence for the need to consider teachers' initial level of quality and how much they change across the year in understanding the relation between quality of teacher-child interactions and children's skill development., (Copyright © 2019 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A person-oriented approach examined the extent to which patterns of school readiness across social and cognitive domains in 944 typically-developing 54-month-old children forecast academic achievement, social-emotional development, risk taking, and executive functioning at age 15. Prior work identified six distinct profiles of school readiness at 54 months that predicted group differences in achievement in first grade, as well as achievement and social-emotional outcomes in fifth grade. After controlling for demographics, early language skills, and home and school factors, the 54-month readiness profiles demonstrated different performance on risk-taking and executive function behaviors assessed at age 15. Children with attention problems at 54 months were most likely to believe that peers were engaging in risky behaviors and to have smoked more than 2 cigarettes by age 15. Children with low working memory and low to average social skills at 54 months were outperformed by their peers on working memory and executive function tasks at age 15. Results are discussed in terms of continuity in forms of developmental function.

Existing research suggests that children who experience poverty and hospitalization in early childhood are at risk of developing behavior problems. We examined whether the association between early childhood hospitalization and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors were moderated by family poverty status and child sex. Participants included 224 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. There was no direct association between hospitalization and problematic behaviors. Poverty status during early childhood, but not child sex, significantly moderated the association between hospitalization and externalizing problems. Findings support the need for community programs that promote an integrative approach to healthcare for families experiencing poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the period of 54-months (i.e., 4.5 years) through age 15, the current study explored the longitudinal influence of early childhood relational adversity (i.e., low-quality mother-child relationship) on adolescents' academic achievement and the moderating role of high-quality teacher-child interactions. Participants included 1077 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Academic success outcomes were obtained from official high school transcripts (i.e., grade point average at ninth grade) and direct assessments of adolescents' cognitive abilities at age 15 (i.e., language, literacy, and mathematics). High-quality teacher-child interactions throughout elementary school (i.e., first grade, third grade, and fifth grade) were measured at the classroom level and assessed using an observational tool of emotional climate and classroom management. Analyses of data revealed a significant three-way interaction. High-quality teacher-child interactions throughout elementary school moderated the relation between early childhood relational adversity and adolescent math development for children from middle and upper-class families, but not for children from lower-class families. Furthermore, child gender was found to moderate the relation between high-quality teacher-child interactions and adolescent language development. Specifically, high-quality teacher-child interactions were positively associated with adolescent female language development but negatively associated with male language development. Implications for the findings, future research, academic programs, and interventions are discussed. Highlights: Longitudinally examined teacher-child interactions as a buffer for adverse academic outcomes due to early childhood relational adversity. The moderating effect of quality teacher-child interactions differed for children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Child gender moderated the relation between high-quality teacher-child interactions and adolescent language development. Academic trajectories are malleable and highlight the importance of contextual supports on developmental outcomes. Social and cultural groups' gender ideology variations could influence teacher role expectations and interaction quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the effect of children's positive relationships and interactions with their teachers and the development of executive function (EF) skills in first grade. A primary objective was to examine externalizing behaviour problems (EBPs) as a potential moderator of the link between teacher–child relationships and interactions and EF skills. Participants for the study included 1,364 first‐grade children (48.3% female, M age = 7.02 years, 80.4% White) drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. There was limited evidence suggesting the EBP moderates the relation between teacher–child relationship quality and EF skill development in first grade. Specifically, simple slope trends indicated that teacher–child closeness was positively related to gains in sustained attention for typically developing children but negatively related to sustained attention for children exhibiting borderline to clinical levels of EBPs. Implications of the findings are discussed. Highlights: We examined externalizing behaviour problems as a potential moderator between teacher–child relationships, teacher–child interactions, and EF skills.Counterintuitively, teacher‐reported closeness is negatively related to EF gains for children with externalizing behaviour problems.Teachers may have a positive relationship with an externalizing child but need more support and resources to establish expectations for the child's EF skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]