Psychology Commons^™

Trajectories Of The Expression Of Negative Emotion From Kindergarten To First Grade: Associations With Academic Outcomes, Maciel M. Hernández, Nancy Eisenberg, Carlos Valiente, Marilyn S. Thompson, Tracy L. Spinrad, Kevin J. Grimm, Sarah K. Vanschyndel, Rebecca H. Berger, Kassondra M. Silva, Armando A. Pina, Jody Southworth, Diana E. Gal

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examined individual trajectories, across four time points, of children’s (N = 301) expression of negative emotion in classroom settings and whether these trajectories predicted their observed school engagement, teacher-reported academic skills, and passage comprehension assessed with a standardized measure in first grade. In latent growth curve analyses, negative expressivity declined from kindergarten to first grade, with significant individual differences in trajectories. Negative expressivity in kindergarten inversely predicted first-grade school engagement and teacher-reported academic skills, and the slope of negative expressivity from kindergarten to first grade inversely predicted school engagement (e.g., increasing negative expressivity was associated with lower school engagement). …