Children's transitions to school: Relationships between preschool attendance, cortisol patterns, and effortful control

Journal article

A successful start to school is well known to have lasting consequences for children’s educational attainment, health, and psychosocial development (e.g. Duncan et al., 2007). As such, children’s transition into school is a topic of interest to researchers from many different traditions, and a wide range of theories exist concerning what a successful start looks like and what roles are played by biological, psychological, social, and educational processes (Snow, 2006). Unfortunately, professional silos have obscured our understanding of the common predictors of a successful start to school by producing fragmented and sometimes contradictory evidence. As a result, research is needed to unify and extend disparate existing theories if a cohesive body of knowledge is to be achieved regarding what a successful start to school looks like and how this can be facilitated for a greater number of children. In turn, this knowledge has the potential to prompt better evidence-based decision-making by policymakers, educational psychologists, interventionists, teachers, and parents.

Authors: Hall, J; Lindorff, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Educational and Developmental Psychologist
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-18
• Publication date: 2017-08-08
• Acceptance date: 2017-04-12
• DOI: 10.1017/edp.2017.3
• EISSN: 2059-0784
• ISSN: 2059-0776
• Keywords: school transition; effortful-control; preschool; diurnal cortisol slope