| Each year in the United States, of the nearly four million children who enter kindergarten, approximately 10 percent will experience academic and behavior problems, and approximately 5 percent will repeat kindergarten. Grade retention is a predictor for later school dropout status with all of its associated problems in terms of higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and crime. Since 70 percent of later school dropouts can be identified by third grade, the need for early intervention for at-risk children should be a high priority for researchers and educators.; This research study used a pre-experimental design, and identified a group of nine risk factors for academic and behavior problems for kindergartners from a large sample of children in 1998. Utilizing secondary data via self-administered surveys as its method, this study focused on a sub-sample from a random sample of children (ages five and six) that is representative of the U.S. population in terms of social economic status, race, and gender, from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Class 1998–99. Of the nine risk factors for academic and behavioral problems for kindergartners, two were demographic variables (gender and race/ethnicity), four were family-related variables (SES, single parent families, parental depression, and parental attitudes toward child rearing), and three were school-related variables (teacher views on school readiness, type of school, and type of class).; The results of this study indicate that kindergartners are especially at-risk for academic and behavioral problems if they are males, minorities, from low-income single-parent families, and/or have parents who are depressed and/or low in warmth and high in aggravation toward their children. Additionally, kindergartners are further at risk for academic and behavioral problems in kindergarten if they have teachers with extremely high expectations, if they attend public (vs. private) schools, and/or if they attend full-day (vs. half-day) kindergarten. Policy implications are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. |
