IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i15p9583-d880004.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transactions between Problem Behaviors and Academic Performance in Early Childhood

Author

Listed:
  • Chin-Chih Chen

    (Department of Counseling and Special Education, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA)

  • Sheng-Lun Cheng

    (Department of Library Science and Technology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA)

  • Yaoying Xu

    (Department of Counseling and Special Education, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA)

  • Kathleen Rudasill

    (School of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA)

  • Reed Senter

    (Department of Counseling and Special Education, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA)

  • Fa Zhang

    (Department of Education, Open University of China, Beijing 100039, China)

  • Melissa Washington-Nortey

    (Department of Psychology, King’s College, London WC2R 2LS, UK)

  • Nikki Adams

    (Ph.D. Program in Special Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA)

Abstract

This study aimed to further the understanding of transactional relationships that exist between problem behaviors and academic performance in early childhood. Early academic and behavior difficulties increase the risk of school disengagement, academic failure, and dropout. Although children’s academic and behavioral difficulties have been shown to be intercorrelated, little research has focused on how the relationship reciprocates and progresses in early childhood. This study investigated how problem behaviors (i.e., externalizing and internalizing) influence and are influenced by academic performance (i.e., poor reading and math) from kindergarten to third grade. Participants included 18,135 students (51.22% boys) derived from a nationally representative sample in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2011 (ECLS-K: 2011). Teacher ratings of children’s internalizing (low self-esteem, anxiety, loneliness, or sadness) and externalizing (fighting, arguing, showing anger, impulsively acting, and disruptive behaviors) problem behaviors, as well as direct assessments of children’s academic performance (reading and math), were collected yearly. Cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) was employed to examine reciprocal relationships between problem behaviors and academic performance over time from kindergarten to third grade. The results supported the transactional relationships in early childhood, with higher externalizing as well as internalizing problem behaviors predicting lower academic performance and lower academic performance predicting higher externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. The implications for research, prevention, and early intervention regarding the progression of academic and behavioral problems are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Chin-Chih Chen & Sheng-Lun Cheng & Yaoying Xu & Kathleen Rudasill & Reed Senter & Fa Zhang & Melissa Washington-Nortey & Nikki Adams, 2022. "Transactions between Problem Behaviors and Academic Performance in Early Childhood," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-13, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9583-:d:880004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9583/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9583/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Juanjuan Sun & Mowei Liu & Xiaoyun Li & Yuena Zhou & Yan Li, 2023. "Effectiveness of Group Parent-Child Interaction Therapy on Problem Behaviors in Chinese Kindergartners," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9583-:d:880004. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.