9514992 Vondra This study examines the role of selected social relationships at home and school in forecasting early school competence among children at risk for problems and failure in school. The study will test the importance of the teacher-child relationship, peer relations, and linkages between home and school as mediators between experiences in the home and competence in school for children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families with varying degrees of social/parenting risk. The proposed investigation involves up to three waves of school-based data collection and concurrent observation and/or interview of a sample of 192 children and their urban, low-income families who were observed and assessed during infancy and early childhood. Data will include: (1) annual teacher ratings and school records for children in kindergarten through second grade, (2) annual phone interviews with a second parent figure, (3) home visits at 5-5.5 and 7-7.5 years, and (4) phone interviews with mothers in years when a home visit has not taken place. The cross-sectional and longitudinal data will be used to test hypotheses about: (1) the predictive importance of the teacher-child relationship, peer relations, and home-school links for classroom motivation and competence, (2) developmental and familial antecedents of these critical social relations, and (3) the specific role of child sociability and verbal competence, close relationships with parent figures, and child social status among siblings as protective factorq for early school success among children from higher-risk families. %%% This study examines the role of social relationships at home and at school in promoting early school success among children who are at risk for problems and failure in school. The relationships of importance in this study are those between the child and his or her mother, a second "parent figure," the child's teacher, and other children in the classr oom. Each will be tested as an important link between the child's experiences growing up in an urban, low-income family with some degree of social problems and his or her competence in the school setting. Data will be collected in schools, and the children and their families will be observed and interviewed in their homes. The same children were previously observed and assessed during infancy and early childhood. The data will be used to test the importance of the teacher-child relationship, peer relations, and home-school links for predicting classroom motivation and competence, and to identify protective factors for early school success among children from higher- risk families. ***
