Home-initiated family-school communication in preschool and kindergarten

This study focused on the frequency, characteristics, and determinants of home-initiated family-school communication in preschool and kindergarten. Three goals directed the study: (1) to describe the frequency and characteristics of home-initiated communication over the course of the transition to kindergarten; (2) to determine whether certain program characteristics and family factors influence the frequency of home-initiated communication during preschool and kindergarten; and (3) to examine the relation between the frequency of home-initiated contacts and teacher and family perceptions of children's social skills and behavior during preschool.; The sample consisted of 75 child participants selected into preschool programs because they were likely to be "at-risk" for school failure. Children were enrolled in the study in preschool and followed through the kindergarten year. Three sources of data were used for analyses: (a) family-school communication logs recorded by preschool and kindergarten teachers, (b) interviews of the families conducted by family workers, and (c) teacher rated measures of student outcome variables in preschool.; Characteristics and frequencies of home-initiated contacts in preschool and kindergarten are described. In addition, a series of 2 x 2 (program x grade) Repeated Measures Analyses of Variance were computed to compare characteristics of home-initiated and school-initiated contacts across preschool program and grade levels. Home-initiated contacts significantly decreased as children transitioned from preschool to kindergarten. Although home-initiated contacts were far less frequent than school-initiated contacts, results showed frequency patterns and characteristics of home-initiated and school-initiated communication to be similar. Binomial tests of proportions suggested that the ways in which families initiate communication about certain topics vary according to grade level.; Three four-step hierarchical regression analyses were run to investigate whether program and family factors predict the frequency of home-initiated communication in preschool and kindergarten. In preschool, program type and parent perceptions of school support predicted the frequency in which families contacted schools. Neither kindergarten program characteristics nor kindergarten family factors and processes predicted the frequency of home-initiated contacts in kindergarten. Further, the presence of household routine and rules during preschool significantly predicted the frequency of home-initiated contacts in kindergarten.; Lastly, correlational analyses revealed a link between frequency of home-initiated communication and teacher-rated child social competence in preschool. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the mechanisms linked to increases in home-initiated communication in early childhood education.