Social Risk and Protective Child, Parenting, and Child Care Factors in Early Elementary School Years

Objective. African American children exposed to multiple social risk factors during early childhood often experience academic difficulties, so identification of protective factors is important. Design. Academic and school behavior trajectories from kindergarten through third grade were studied among 75 African American children who have been followed prospectively since infancy to test hypothesized protective factors: quality of home and child care environments during early childhood, child language and social skills at entry to kindergarten, and school characteristics. Results. Children exposed to multiple risks in early childhood showed lower levels of academic and social-emotional skills from kindergarten through third grade. Parenting mediated the association with risk. Children’s language skills, parenting, and child care quality serve as protective factors in acquisition of mathematics skills and reduction in problem behaviors during the first 4 years of primary school for African American children facing multiple risks. Attending a school with a higher proportion of children from low-income families might predict increasing numbers of problem behaviors over time. Conclusions. Exposure to social risk in early childhood negatively predicted academic achievement and adjustment during early elementary school for African American children, in part through associations between exposure to social risk and less responsive and stimulating parenting. Furthermore, the negative associations between risk and academic outcomes were substantially weaker when children had more responsive and sensitive parents or child care providers or entered school with stronger language skills.