Affiliation:
1. The University of California, Berkeley Berkeley California
2. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill North Carolina
3. University of California at San Francisco San Francisco California
4. Stanford University Stanford California
Abstract
AbstractThis longitudinal study investigated how kindergartners’ position in the classroom social hierarchy and cortisol response relate to their change in school engagement across the first year of kindergarten (N = 332, M = 5.3 years, 51% boys, 41% White, 18% Black). We used naturalistic classroom observations of social hierarchy positions, laboratory‐based challenges to elicit salivary cortisol response, and teacher, parent, and child reports of emotional engagement with school. Robust, clustered regression models revealed that in the fall, lower cortisol response (but not social hierarchy position) was associated with greater school engagement. However, by spring, significant interactions emerged. Highly reactive, subordinate children showed increases in school engagement from fall to spring of the kindergarten year, whereas highly reactive, dominant children showed decreases in school engagement. This is some of the first evidence that higher cortisol response marks biological sensitivity to early peer‐based social contexts.
Funder
Jacobs Foundation
National Institute of Mental Health
Subject
Behavioral Neuroscience,Developmental Biology,Developmental Neuroscience,Developmental and Educational Psychology