Professional Documents
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There has been increasing recognition over the last decade of the importance of
early academic skills for later academic achievement (Mullis & Jenkins, 1990)
and school adaptation (Alexander, Entwisle, & Dauber, 1993). National studies of
children’s achievement levels in reading, vocabulary and mathematics have
revealed that significant numbers of U.S. children are not acquiring the academic
skills required to succeed in school. Moreover, cross-cultural research has docu-
Direct all correspondence to: Megan M. McClelland, Department of Psychology, Loyola University
Chicago, 6525 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626; Phone: (773) 508-3042; E-mail:
mmcclel@luc.edu
307
308 McClelland, Morrison, and Holmes
mented that children in this country lag behind children in other countries in
mathematics, reading and problem-solving (Applebee, Langer & Mullis, 1989;
Stevenson & Lee, 1990; Stevenson, Chen, & Lee, 1993). In addition, mounting
evidence suggests that important individual differences emerge quite early (e.g.,
Alexander, Entwisle, & Dauber, 1993; Plomin, 1995; Stevenson et al., 1993;
Stipek & Ryan, 1997). For example, Stevenson, Chen, & Lee (1993) found
differences between U.S. and Japanese children by the end of first grade.
In the search for possible causes for poor academic skills in American children,
a number of child, family, and sociocultural factors have been identified. Not
surprisingly, much of this research has focused on qualities of the home environ-
ment believed to stimulate cognitive growth and promote academic achievement.
Findings support what one would intuitively suspect, namely that children who
come from environments that stimulate cognitive growth, as reflected in measures
such as overall social class (Stipek & Ryan, 1997) and quality of the family
literacy environment (Griffin & Morrison, 1997), perform better academically.
Similarly, individual differences in child characteristics, such as IQ, are also
predictive of school performance (Plomin, 1995; Rowe, 1994). In contrast, less
attention has been paid to other child factors that may influence school achieve-
ment. In particular, there is growing evidence that social behavioral characteristics
of children contribute to adjustment to school and subsequent academic perfor-
mance (Alexander, Entwisle, & Dauber, 1993; Cooper & Farran, 1988, 1991;
Ladd, 1990). For example, teacher reports suggest that children come into school
with differing levels of social skills and that these skills are critical to early school
success (Foulks & Morrow, 1989). The present study explored more explicitly the
nature of poor social skills and their implications for later academic success.
performance in first grade and fourth grade. Children who were interested and
involved in classroom activities, and were able to focus and pay attention,
performed better academically. Similarly, Stott, Green, and Francis (1983), Green
and Francis (1988), and Swartz and Walker (1984) all found that early learning
skills, as measured by teacher ratings, were related to later academic achievement
two and four years later. More recently, Agostin and Bain (1997) demonstrated
that cooperation and self-control significantly predicted promotion and retention
of kindergarten children. Finally, a study using a national sample of kindergarten
teachers indicated that over one-third of teachers reported that at least half of
kindergartners entered school with specific problems such as trouble following
directions, working independently, and having adequate academic skills (Rimm-
Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, in press).
METHOD
Participants
Five-hundred and forty children participated in a study of early individual
differences conducted in Greensboro, NC (Christian, Morrison, & Bryant, 1998;
Morrison et al., in preparation). The sample was 51% White, 49% Black, 51%
male and 49% female. Children entered the study at the beginning of kindergarten
and ranged in age from 4 years, 10 months to 5 years, 11 months (M ⫽ 5 years,
5 months, SD ⫽ 4.22). Sample size from the fall of kindergarten to the spring of
second grade decreased from 540 to 295 due to attrition. This relatively high
attrition rate resulted from difficulties in maintaining the original sample when the
principal investigator (Dr. Frederick Morrison) moved from Greensboro, NC to
Chicago, IL, USA. A comparison of the two groups revealed that children in the
original sample were similar to those remaining in second grade on gender, but the
group who left the study had proportionally more Black children, lower maternal
education levels, and lower IQ levels (Griffin & Morrison, 1997).
In the present study, 82 kindergartners were selected from the larger longitu-
dinal sample of 540 children on the basis of poor work-related skills (as defined
by scores of four or less on the Cooper-Farran Behavioral Rating Scales; Cooper
& Farran, 1991) and were compared with the overall sample on a number of child,
family, and sociocultural factors. The subset of 82 children was used for the
analyses examining the characteristics of children with poor work-related skills,
and the relation of poor work-related skills to academic skills, while the overall
Children at Risk for Academic Problems 313
sample of children was used for other analyses looking at the predictability of
work-related skills to academic skills.
For the low work-related skills (low WRS) group, sample size decreased from
82 children at the fall of kindergarten to 33 children at the end of second grade
because of attrition. 2 analyses indicated that the attrition rate was significantly
higher for the low WRS group than for the remaining sample of children, 2 (1,
N ⫽ 540) ⫽ 8.29, p ⬍ .05, suggesting that fewer children in the low WRS group
remained in the sample at the end of second grade compared to children in the
overall sample. Comparison of the low WRS children who left the study with
those who remained in second grade indicated no significant differences between
those who stayed and those who left, except that children who left the study had
mothers who were younger in age (M ⫽ 28.70 years, SD ⫽ 5.56) than children
who stayed in the study (M ⫽ 36.20 years, SD ⫽ 9.72).
Materials
The Cooper-Farran Behavioral Rating Scales (CFBRS) The CFBRS (Coo-
per & Farran, 1991) is a teacher-rated scale consisting of 37 items rated on 7-point
Likert scales. The measure has been shown to have adequate reliability and
validity. Examination of this scale compared to other scales such as the Social
Skills Rating Scale (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990) showed evidence of con-
current validity, but the use of a 7-point scale in the CFBRS recommended its use
over the SSRS (which uses a 3-point scale) in order to capture more variability in
scores.
Cooper and Farran (1991) found that intra-rater reliability in the CFBRS ranged
from 0.49 to 0.80, and inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.31 to 0.68, with 59%
of the items reliable above 0.50. Inter-rater reliability for the two subscales
(work-related skills and interpersonal skills) showed a reliability of 0.78 for IPS
and 0.79 for WRS. In addition, content and construct validity were measured.
Content validity showed a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94 for the two subscales.
Construct validity was assessed using factor analysis and the two factors that
emerged accounted for 89% of the total variance. On the IPS subscale, Cron-
bach’s alpha ranged between 0.95 and 0.99. Items loading highly on the IPS
subscale included “physical interaction with peers,” “effect on other children,”
“statements to peers,” and “behavior when others are speaking.” On the WRS
subscale, Cronbach’s alpha ranged between 0.94 and 0.99. Items loading highly
on the WRS subscale included “independent work,” “compliance with work
instructions,” “memory for instructions,” and “completion of games and activi-
ties.”
Background Questionnaire A background questionnaire completed by par-
ents gathered information on a number of child, family and sociocultural variables
including ethnicity, gender, intellectual functioning, health, maternal and paternal
education level, family organization, home literacy environment, maternal and
paternal occupation, preschool experience, and school entrance age (see Table 1
for a list of variables examined).
The home literacy environment score is a composite score measured by the nine
314 McClelland, Morrison, and Holmes
Procedure
In the current study, data from the fall of kindergarten and the spring of second
grade were used. At each time point, children were tested in two sessions, each
lasting approximately 30 min, on the following tests: the short version of the
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale - Revised (Thorndike, Hagen, & Sattler, 1986);
the reading recognition, mathematics, and general information subscales of the
Peabody Individual Achievement Test - Revised (Markwardt, 1989); the Peabody
Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised (Dunn & Dunn, 1981); and an alphabet
recognition test (administered only in the fall and spring of kindergarten). Testing
and teacher ratings for the Cooper-Farran Behavioral Rating Scales were collected
two months after the beginning of school.
Participants were selected as members of the low WRS group on the basis of
their ratings on the Cooper-Farran Behavioral Ratings Scales. A low score was
defined as a skill rating of 4 or below (on a scale ranging from 1 to 7, where 1
signifies lowest performance and 7 signifies best performance), based on Cooper
and Speece’s finding (1988) that a score below 4 indexed an increasing degree of
problem behavior in children.
RESULTS
This study attempted to examine the predictability of work-related skills1 to
academic achievement at school entry and at the end of second grade, identify
characteristics of children with poor work-related skills, and investigate the
relationship of poor work-related skills and academic achievement at the begin-
ning of kindergarten and at the end of second grade.
from other research (Morrison et al., in preparation), seven variables have been
found to be particularly important in predicting early academic skills: two child
variables (IQ and school entrance age); two social variables (work-related skills
and amount of preschool experience); and three family and sociocultural variables
(ethnicity, parental education level, and home literacy environment). Building on
these findings, the current study used hierarchical regressions with the six pre-
dicting variables entered in the first step (IQ, school entrance age, amount of
preschool experience, ethnicity, parental education level, and home literacy en-
vironment) and work-related skills entered in the second step for each of the
academic variables measured: general information, receptive vocabulary, reading
recognition, mathematics, and alphabet (measured at kindergarten only).
At the beginning of kindergarten, work-related skills predicted modest but
unique variance in all academic outcomes beyond the influence of IQ, entrance
age, amount of preschool experience, parental education level, ethnicity, and
home literacy environment (see Table 2). Work-related skills accounted for
between one and six percent of the variance in all academic variables: one percent
of the variance in general information, mathematics, and vocabulary; two percent
of the variance in reading recognition; and six percent of the variance in alphabet.
In the spring of second grade, a conservative series of hierarchical regressions
were used to determine if work-related skills predicted second grade academic
outcomes after controlling for kindergarten academic skills as well as for the six
background variables. In this method, kindergarten academic score (reading,
vocabulary, general information, or math) was entered in the first step of the
regression equation; the six variables of IQ, entrance age, amount of preschool
experience, parental education level, ethnicity, and home literacy environment
were entered in the second step; and work-related skills was entered in the third
step of the regression equation. Results indicated that work-related skills contin-
ued to predict some academic skills even after controlling for kindergarten
academic skills and the influence of the other six predictor variables. Work-related
skills predicted unique variance in reading (two percent), and mathematics (one
percent), but not vocabulary or general information at the end of second grade (see
Table 3). Taken together, results from school entry to the end of second grade
revealed that work-related skills continued to predict reading and math skills.
The second goal of the study was to look at characteristics of children with poor
work-related skills. Children in the low WRS group (n ⫽ 82) were compared to
the larger sample of children (n ⫽ 540) on a number of background variables and
academic outcome measures. The descriptive statistics for work-related skills
showed that the overall sample had a mean rating of 5.07 on the WRS subscale
of the Cooper-Farran Behavioral Rating Scales (SD ⫽ 1.23), and the low WRS
group had a mean rating of 3.20 on work-related skills (SD ⫽ 0.71). The mean
rating for the overall sample supports earlier research from a number of samples
showing that the normative mean rating for WRS on the Cooper-Farran Behav-
Children at Risk for Academic Problems 317
Continued
318 McClelland, Morrison, and Holmes
Table 2. Continued
Step 2 Values
B SE B 
Alphabet
Variables entered in Step 1
Child IQ .251 .122 .123*
School entrance age .238 .370 .031
Amount of preschool experience .334 .088 .191***
Parental education level .895 .808 .068
Ethnicity 4.24 4.10 .068
Home literacy environment 1.99 .593 .232**
Variables entered in Step 2
Work-related skills 7.30 1.45 .270***
Note Valid n was 322 due to missing data. For General Information: R2 ⫽ .51 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .01 for Step
2 (ps ⬍ .05). For Mathematics: R2 ⫽ .45 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .01 for Step 2 (ps ⬍ .05). For Vocabulary: R2 ⫽
.57 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .01 for Step 2 (ps ⬍ .05). For Reading Recognition: R2 ⫽ .31 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .02 for
Step 2 (ps ⬍ .05). For Alphabet: R2 ⫽ .26 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .06 for Step 2 (ps ⬍ .05).
†
p ⬍ .10. *p ⬍ .05. **p ⬍ .01. ***p ⬍ .001.
ioral Rating Scales ranged from 4.70 (SD ⫽ 1.40) to 4.90 (SD ⫽ 1.30) (Cooper
& Farran, 1988).
The subsample of children who received low ratings on WRS was compared to
the entire sample by z-tests and 2 analyses. These analyses indicated that the low
WRS group differed from the total sample on many child, family and sociocul-
tural measures. Although a number of these differences were anticipated, there
were also some unexpected and surprising results.
Child Factors Eight of the 14 comparisons yielded significant differences
between the low WRS group and the overall sample (see Table 4). As expected,
children low on WRS were more likely to be younger (M ⫽ 62.94 months, SD ⫽
4.21 vs. M ⫽ 64.59 months, SD ⫽ 4.22); have a lower IQ (M ⫽ 86.34, SD ⫽
11.65, vs. M ⫽ 97.05, SD ⫽ 15.27); and have more social/emotional/behavior
problems reported by parents (6.67% vs. 1.40%), compared to the overall sample.
A surprising finding was the failure to find that the low WRS group differed
significantly from the total sample in the proportion of males and females, 2 (1,
N ⫽ 82) ⫽ 1.81, p ⬎ .05. The low WRS group was 58.54% male and 41.46%
female, while the overall sample was 51.50% male and 48.89% female.
A complex pattern of findings emerged for health and medical problems (see
Table 4). One unexpected finding was that children with poor work-related skills
were rated significantly lower than the larger sample on an overall health rating
by their parents (M ⫽ 4.27, SD ⫽ 0.75) on a 5-point scale (M ⫽ 4.44, SD ⫽
0.71). In addition, intriguing differences emerged in medical problems between
the overall sample and the low WRS group. Data from the background question-
naire completed by parents were available on a number of different types of
medical problems: Convulsions or Seizures, Head Injuries, Hearing Problems,
Children at Risk for Academic Problems 319
Continued
320 McClelland, Morrison, and Holmes
Table 3. Continued
Step 3 Values
B SE B 
Reading Recognition (continued)
Variables entered in Step 2
Child IQ .094 .066 .098
School entrance age ⫺.079 .189 ⫺.023
Amount of preschool experience .000 .043 .000
Parental education level 1.21 .389 .205**
Ethnicity ⫺3.40 2.09 ⫺.116
Home literacy environment .324 .309 .079
Variables entered in Step 3
Work-related skills 1.98 .717 .161**
Note Valid n was 233 due to missing data. For General Information: R2 ⫽ .53 for Step 1; ⌬R2⫽ .01 for Step
2 (ps ⬍ .05); ⌬R2 ⫽ .00 for Step 3 (p ⬎ .05). For Mathematics: R2 ⫽ .34 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .16 for Step 2; ⌬R2
⫽ .01 for Step 3 (ps ⬍ .05). For Vocabulary: R2 ⫽ .54 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .06 for Step 2 (ps ⬍ .05); ⌬R2 ⫽ .00
for Step 3 (p ⬎ .05). For Reading Recognition: R2 ⫽ .24 for Step 1; ⌬R2 ⫽ .16 for Step 2; ⌬R2 ⫽ .02 for Step
3 (ps ⬍ .05).
†
p ⬍ .10. *p ⬍ .05. **p ⬍ .01. ***p ⬍ .001.
sample of children (see Table 4). As predicted, compared to the overall sample,
children with poor work-related skills were more likely to come from homes with
single mothers or homes without both parents (71.43% vs. 41.10%); to come from
homes with a poorer literacy environment (M ⫽ 8.60, SD ⫽ 3.26 vs. M ⫽ 10.57,
SD ⫽ 3.62). Surprisingly, this group of children also had significantly fewer
siblings at home (M ⫽ 1.03, SD ⫽ 1.14 vs. M ⫽ 1.28, SD ⫽ 1.04).
Finally, differences in sociocultural factors were examined between the low
WRS group and children in the overall sample. Of the seven sociocultural
variables measured, four showed significant differences between the two groups
(see Table 4). As expected, children in the low WRS group had mothers who
322 McClelland, Morrison, and Holmes
the spring of second grade as for the fall of kindergarten. Compared to the overall
sample, children in the low WRS group performed significantly worse on all
academic outcomes (see Table 6): lower scores on reading recognition (M ⫽
35.15, SD ⫽ 14.57 vs. M ⫽ 47.14, SD ⫽ 14.79); lower scores on mathematics
(M ⫽ 27.64, SD ⫽ 11.51 vs. M ⫽ 37.94, SD ⫽ 13.03); lower scores on general
information (M ⫽ 31.33, SD ⫽ 16.15 vs. M ⫽ 40.35, SD ⫽ 15.97); and lower
scores on receptive vocabulary (M ⫽ 84.36, SD ⫽ 15.63 vs. M ⫽ 93.69, SD ⫽
14.88). Taken together, results from the beginning of kindergarten and the end of
second grade demonstrated that children with poor work-related skills began
school performing worse on academic measures and continued to lag three years
later compared to children in the overall sample.
DISCUSSION
The present study had three central goals: to examine the predictability of
work-related skills to academic outcomes at the beginning of kindergarten and at
the end of second grade; to identify characteristics of children with low work-
related skills; and to investigate the relationship between poor work-related skills
and academic achievement at school entry and at the end of second grade.
Findings unearthed a broad array of characteristics linked to children with poor
work-related skills and demonstrated the importance of work-related skills to
academic achievement at school entry and beyond.
work-related skills (Cooper & Farran, 1988; Cooper & Speece, 1988; Speece &
Cooper, 1990).
Moreover, work-related skills continued to be predictive of academic achieve-
ment at the end of second grade. Regression analyses demonstrated that work-
related skills remained stable in predicting children’s reading and mathematics
skills at the end of second grade, after the influence of kindergarten reading and
mathematics skills had been controlled as well as the six child, social, and family
and sociocultural variables. In contrast, work-related skills did not continue to
predict a child’s receptive vocabulary or general information skills at the end of
second grade. This may be because vocabulary and general information skills are
not specifically emphasized in early elementary school classrooms while more
instructional time is spent on reading and mathematics skills.
Although the actual variance accounted for by work-related skills at kinder-
garten and at the end of second grade is small, it is both educationally and
practically significant, especially given the conservative nature of the regressions
conducted at both time points (Ecols, West, Stanovich, & Zehr, 1996). Work-
related skills predicted all academic outcomes at the beginning of kindergarten
after partialing out the influence of powerful background variables such as child’s
IQ, entrance age, amount of preschool experience, ethnicity, parental education
level, and home literacy environment. Moreover, at the end of second grade, the
relationship between work-related skills and reading and mathematics skills
remained strong even after accounting for kindergarten reading and mathematics
scores and the six background variables. This demonstrates that work-related
skills predict academic skills at school entry and also predict the gains made in
math and reading skills between kindergarten and second grade after controlling
for fall kindergarten scores.
in the high risk sample the extent and nature of gender differences was not entirely
clear.
An intriguing set of findings was obtained regarding medical and health
variables. Children low on WRS were rated significantly lower by their parents on
ratings of overall health, and also had more hearing problems and somewhat more
language and speech problems compared to the overall sample. In addition,
children low in work-related skills had significantly more medical risk factors
present than did children in the larger sample. These results tentatively suggest
that having specific medical problems such as hearing and language problems
may be a risk factor for low work-related skills and a precursor to later learning
problems.
In fact, a number of studies have linked language problems and attentional
difficulties (Beitchman, Hood, Rochon, & Peterson, 1988; Beitchman et al., 1996;
Cantwell & Baker, 1987; Humphries, Koltun, Malone, & Roberts, 1994), while
other research (e.g.,Vaughn, Hogan, Kouzekanani & Shapiro, 1990) has revealed
a relation between attentional difficulties and both lower social skills and poorer
academic achievement. A meta-analysis (Horn & Packard, 1985) on the early
identification of learning problems found that the best predictors of later school
achievement were ratings on attention/distractibility, internalizing behavioral
problems, language variables, and overall cognitive functioning. Sensory mea-
sures including auditory-perceptual abilities were somewhat weaker predictors.
In addition, recent analyses based on the results of the current study found that
work-related skills mediated the relationship between a child’s language problems
and academic outcomes at the beginning of kindergarten. This supports the notion
that language problems may lead to poor work-related skills which then lead to
poor academic achievement early in school (McClelland, 1999). Overall, these
studies suggest that children low on work-related skills who have language
problems or possibly hearing problems, may be especially at risk for later learning
problems.
Children with poor work-related skills also demonstrated differences on a host
of family variables compared to children in the overall sample: poorer home
environments as measured by a lower home literacy environment, and more single
mother households. There were also significantly fewer siblings at home in the
low WRS group, which was surprising because they did not have significantly
fewer numbers of children overall in the family. The meaning of this pattern is not
entirely clear, however, one possibility is that it indexes more family disruption
and instability in the low WRS group.
Additional differences also emerged on sociocultural factors between the two
groups. As expected, children in the low WRS group were more likely to have
mothers and fathers who reported lower education levels. While no predictions
were made about occupational status and ethnicity, both were found to be relevant
factors. The low WRS group had more mothers reporting a lower occupational
status, and more children with poor work-related skills were Black. Notably, these
differences in ethnicity between the low WRS group and the overall sample were
found even after additional analyses controlled for parental education.
It is possible however, that teacher ethnicity may contribute to whether or not
326 McClelland, Morrison, and Holmes
children are viewed as having poor work-related skills since the ratings were done
by teachers. Recent research by Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, and Cox (in press)
suggests that minority children may be seen by non-minority teachers as having
more problems with some important skills needed for kindergarten, than when
minority children are rated by minority teachers. Since the ethnicity of teachers in
the present study was not recorded, it is not clear to what extent the differences
observed here are a function of teacher/child ethnicity differences.
NOTES
1. Although previous research has suggested that interpersonal skills are not related to academic
outcomes (e.g., Cooper & Farran, 1988), we ran a series of hierarchical regressions at
kindergarten and at the end of second grade to independently evaluate this claim. Results
indicated that interpersonal skills did not predict unique variance in any of the academic
outcomes at kindergarten (although there was a trend toward predicting 1% of the variance in
reading skills, B ⫽ 0.58, p ⫽ .06). At the end of second grade, interpersonal skills did not
predict general information, math or vocabulary skills, although it did predict 2% of the
variance in reading scores (B ⫽ 2.06, p ⫽ .01). Therefore, although the two scales are related,
they demonstrate distinct patterns of predictability, with work-related skills more strongly
predicting academic outcomes than interpersonal skills.
2. We are grateful to a suggestion by a reviewer who questioned whether the higher percentage
of Black children in the low WRS group was confounded with parent education level. We
conducted an ANCOVA to partial out parent education level when comparing the low WRS
group with the overall sample and still found significant differences between the groups.
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