Preschool executive functions, single-parent status, and school quality predict diverging trajectories of classroom inattention in elementary school

Dev Psychopathol. 2015 Aug;27(3):681-93. doi: 10.1017/S0954579414000947. Epub 2014 Sep 9.

Abstract

A sample of 356 children recruited from Head Start (58% European American, 25% African American, and 17% Hispanic; 54% girls; M age = 4.59 years) were followed longitudinally from prekindergarten through fifth grade. Latent profile analyses of teacher-rated inattention from kindergarten through third grade identified four developmental trajectories: stable low (53% of the sample), stable high (11.3%), rising over time (16.4%), and declining over time (19.3%). Children with stable low inattention had the best academic outcomes in fifth grade, and children exhibiting stable high inattention had the worst, with the others in between. Self-regulation difficulties in preschool (poor executive function skills and elevated opposition-aggression) differentiated children with rising versus stable low inattention. Elementary schools characterized by higher achievement differentiated children with declining versus stable high inattention. Boys and children from single-parent families were more likely to remain high or rise in inattention, whereas girls and children from dual-parent families were more likely to remain low or decline in inattention.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Achievement*
  • Aggression / psychology*
  • Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / classification*
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Executive Function / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Schools / standards*
  • Sex Factors
  • Single-Parent Family / psychology*
  • Social Class
  • United States