Citation

Pears KC, Fisher PA, Bruce J, Kim HK, Yoerger K. Child Dev. 2010; 81(5): 1550-1564.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01491.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this study, 85 maltreated foster children and 56 nonmaltreated community children (M age = 3–6 years) were assessed across kindergarten and first grade to examine the hypothesis that inhibitory control and caregiver involvement mediate associations between a history of maltreatment and foster placement and early school adjustment. Specifically, academic and social‐emotional competence were evaluated. The maltreated foster children performed more poorly in academic and social‐emotional competence. Inhibitory control fully mediated the association of maltreatment and foster placement with academic competence, whereas inhibitory control and caregiver involvement mediated their association with social‐emotional competence. The results suggest that inhibitory control and caregiver involvement might be promising targets for school readiness interventions for foster preschoolers.