Associations of teacher-rated social, emotional, and cognitive development in kindergarten to self-reported wellbeing, peer relations, and academic test scores in middle childhood

In two longitudinal studies, we examined to what extent teacher-rated social competence, emotional maturity, and language and cognitive development in kindergarten (measured with the Early Development Instrument, EDI; Janus & Offord, 2007) are associated with children's self-reported social relations with peers, emotional well-being (measured with the Middle Years Development Instrument, MDI; Schonert-Reichl et al., 2013), and numeracy and literacy (assessed with standardized achievement tests) in middle childhood. The studies were conducted using population-based data linkages (N > 7000) from Western Canada. Using multilevel regression analyses, we found that teacher-rated social competence in kindergarten most strongly predicted 4th graders' self-report of their connectedness to peers, and emotional maturity most strongly predicted emotional well-being. Teacher-rated cognitive and language development in kindergarten most strongly predicted 4th graders' standardized numeracy and literacy test results. We discuss our results with regard to previous findings in the literature, and address methodological and conceptual challenges in regard to examining children's early development across interdependent domains.