Identifying Latent Classes in School Readiness and Testing its' Relationship to School Adaption and Psychological Well-being

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify latent classes in school readiness which were measured by both parents and teachers, and to test the relationship with school adaption, academic abilities, problematic behaviors, self-esteem, and happiness. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), MANOVA, and one-way ANOVA were conducted using the data of 1,154 1st to 3rd grade elementary school students, and the data was collected between the 7th year (2014) to the 10th year (2017) from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Study. The results of study were as follows. First, four school readiness groups were identified: the consistent low group, parent perceived high group, the teacher perceived high group, the consistent high group. Second, the consistent high group and the teacher perceived high group showed relatively better academic abilities and school adaption than the consistent low group. Furthermore, the consistent high group showed higher academic abilities, self-esteem, and happiness, but lower problematic behaviors than the consistent low group. The findings of this study could be utilized as preliminary data for understanding school readiness to promote successful school adaption and psychological well-being of children.