Presenter(s): Ellyn Kennelly
Faculty Mentor(s): Jennifer Ablow & Jeff Measelle
Poster 142
Session: Social Sciences & Humanities
Child self-efficacy has been shown to predict better social and academic problem solving skills, both of which are foundational to school success. Additionally, attachment security has been linked to school achievement via its effect on socioemotional adjustment. Presently, few studies have addressed the interaction of self-efficacy and attachment early in life to determine whether they have a joint role in shaping readiness for school. We hypothesize that self-efficacy during infancy will predict school readiness outcomes at age 5. However, we also anticipate that this association will be moderated by infant attachment security. In particular, we expect that infants with disorganized attachment histories will fail to develop the self-efficacy capacities needed to begin school on an adaptive trajectory. Our high-risk sample comprises 74 low SES mother-infant dyads who were followed longitudinally from pregnancy through 60 months postnatally. When infants were 17-months-old they completed the Strange Situation Procedure as well as a task designed to probe early self-efficacy, which together we used to predict mother’s reports of their child’s social and academic competence at age 5, before entry to kindergarten. Our findings provide insight into the manner and degree to which attachment and self-efficacy interact to predict important real-world outcomes, such as social and academic competence at school entry.