title: Children's school readiness: implications for eliminating future disparities in health and education.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  School-entry characteristics predict adult educational attainment, which forecasts dispositions toward disease prevention. Health and education risks can also be transmitted from one generation to the next. As such, school readiness forecasts a set of intertwined biopsychosocial trajectories that can influence the developmental antecedents to health and disease prevalence in society.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To predict children's health behaviors and academic adjustment at the end of fourth grade from their kindergarten entry math, vocabulary, and attention skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use a subsample of 614 girls and 541 boys from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (Canada). Children were individually assessed for cognitive skills and teachers rated their classroom attention skills at 65 months. Outcome measures include health behaviors, psychosocial, and academic outcomes at 122 months. Multiple regression analyses were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Receptive vocabulary in kindergarten exclusively predicted fourth-grade dietary habits. Unstandardized coefficients predicted decreases in sweet snack intake (β = -.009, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -.011 to -.006) and dairy product intake (β = .009, 95% CI = .005 to .013). Conversely, higher kindergarten math skills predicted increases in activities requiring physical effort (β = .030, 95% CI = .011 to .056). Although vocabulary and attention skills were found important, kindergarten math skills were stronger and more consistent predictors of later academic outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From a population-health perspective, the skills children bring to the kindergarten classroom might reduce a host of lifestyle risks from childhood through adulthood. Early promotion of such skills also offers possibilities for ultimately reducing later disparities in health and education.
authors: 1Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors: Linda S
authors: LS
authors: Pagani
authors: Caroline
authors: C
authors: Fitzpatrick
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D004522:Educational Status; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting / Q000379:methods; D015438:Health Behavior; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D011792:Quebec; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012574:Schools; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: achievement; cognitive skills; kindergarten; school readiness; well-being