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A longitudinal study of children’s social behaviors and their causal relationship to reading growth

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Abstract

This paper aims at investigating the causal effects of social behaviors on subsequent reading growth in elementary school, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten (ECLS-K) data. The sample was 8,869 subjects who provided longitudinal measures of reading IRT scores from kindergarten (1998–1999) to fifth grades (2003–2004) in the United States. To examine the causal relationship, propensity score methods were used to match higher and lower groups in four social behavior domains such as Approaches to learning, Interpersonal skills, Internalizing problem behavior and Externalizing problem behavior. Results showed that the matched sample achieved sufficient pretreatment balance between the two groups. To examine the effects of social behaviors on the reading growth, multilevel growth model (MGM) was employed. Comparisons of the matched samples showed that children in the high groups of pro-social behavior or in the low groups of problem behavior at kindergarten entrance started with higher reading skills and developed reading achievement faster than those who were not. This study suggests that children’s early social behavior is crucial in reading development. Practical implication and direction of future research are also discussed.

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Notes

  1. The definition of low-level social behavior group varies depending on the type of social behaviors. For approaches to learning and interpersonal skills, low group consists of those who have lower score on the corresponding scale. On the other hand, for externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors, low group means the children with higher scores on those scales.

  2. The nine proficiency levels consisted of four items each. Those levels are assumed to follow a Guttman scale; for example, a child who passes a particular skill level (defined as any three of four items in the level correct) is expected to have mastered all the lower levels. An additional item was then constructed for each of the levels. A child was given “1” on these items if he or she got any three out of four correct on each set of four items that marked the proficiency levels; otherwise, the score was 0. The creation of these “super items” and the subsequent estimation of their IRT parameters converted the proficiency levels to the reading scale scores. This parameter estimation allows one to estimate a continuous measure of the child’s probability of being proficient at each of the levels using the child’s IRT ability estimate score and the parameters for each of the “super items” (National Center for Education Statistics 2002).

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Acknowledgments

Dr. Kim’s work on this paper was supported by Hongik University’s faculty research grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea University, College of Education Main Building Rm 313, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 136-701, South Korea

    Hyo Jin Lim

  2. Department of Education, Hongik University, 72-1 Sangsu-dong, Mapo-Gu, Seoul, 121-791, South Korea

    Junyeop Kim

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  1. Hyo Jin Lim
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Correspondence to Hyo Jin Lim.

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Lim, H.J., Kim, J. A longitudinal study of children’s social behaviors and their causal relationship to reading growth. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 12, 197–213 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-010-9124-y

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