Children’s classroom experiences in pre-K and their social-emotional development

Prior literature provides mixed evidence on the association between individual classroom experiences and social and behavioral skills and global classroom quality without accounting for the interrelated nature of these pre-K experiences for children’s social and behavioral development. The current study uses data compiled from two large, multi-state studies of pre-K student experiences ( n = 2,982 children) to address this gap by assessing patterns of children’s classroom experiences (i.e., time in activity settings, exposure to classroom content, teacher-child interactions) using Latent Profile Analysis and examining associations between these profiles and seven unique social and behavioral skills (i.e., assertiveness, peer social skills, task orientation, and frustration tolerance, conduct problems, internalizing behaviors, learning problems). This study also examines whether these associations differ based on the emotional and instructional quality of the classroom. Findings from this study suggest the emergence of five unique profiles of child experiences highlighting great variation between settings and contexts. No evidence was found of associations between these profiles and children’s growth in social and behavioral skills across the pre-K year or of variation in associations by measures of classroom quality. Overall, the findings of this study highlight the importance of considering the combination of activity settings, classroom content, and teacher-child interactions to most accurately understand pre-K classroom experiences. Additional implications and suggestions for future research are outlined.