Preschool-to-Kindergarten Transition: Promoting Resilient Prosocial Behavior in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Background and Purpose: Prosocial skills development (i.e., cooperation, responsibility, self-assertion, and self-control) is one of the major developmental tasks for preschool children. However, starting in kindergarten and through the early school years, teachers emphasize cognitive development and may spend less time fostering social development. Research shows prosocial skills enable children to interact effectively with others and contribute to avoiding future negative outcomes. In general, intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure has been linked to prosocial skill deficits for both preschool and school-age children. However, not all IPV-exposed children display such problems and exhibit resilient behavior despite early adverse life experiences. This study examined the extent to which protective factors promoted resilience in the development of prosocial skills for IPV-exposed children. 

Methods: Using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being , prosocial skills latent class trajectories were estimated using cohort sequential latent growth mixture modeling for a sample of 1,766 children who were between 0–5 years at Time 1. Four waves of data over 5 years were used. This analytical methodology allowed estimation of diverse developmental patterns of prosocial skills between those 3 to 10 years old, measured using the Social Skills Rating System. Caregiver-reported IPV (Conflict Tactics Scale) was measured during three time periods: infancy (birth–2 years), preschool/play age (3–4 years) and school age (5–10 years). Protective factors included individual-level (attended preschool), relationship-level (caregiver warmth, cognitive responsiveness, mental well-being) and neighborhood-level (perceived neighborhood safety). Control variables included child gender and race/ethnicity, income below poverty level, substantiated maltreatment case, and caregiver education. All variables were entered into a multinomial logistic regression model to predict class membership of the prosocial skills trajectories.

Results: Two resilient groups (high stable; low but increasing overtime) and two non-resilient groups (low stable; high but decreasing overtime) were identified. Children who were IPV-exposed during preschool had higher odds of being in the low stable group compared to the high stable group. Children who were male, non-white, or who had a caregiver with at least a high-school degree or income above poverty-level had lower odds of being in the low stable group compared to the high stable group. Caregiver cognitive responsiveness, warmth, and living in a safe neighborhood emerged as significant protective factors associated with higher stable prosocial skills compared to the low stable group.

Conclusions and Implications: In line with Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological framework, the diverse developmental patterns of prosocial skills suggest that children’s behaviors are constantly influenced by multiple surrounding levels of risk and protective factors. The results indicate that protective factors such as sensitive and stimulating parenting (cognitive responsiveness/warmth) and the perception of living in a safe neighborhood may have the potential to change the course of development despite early maltreatment experiences and promote resilience in these children. For IPV-exposed children, such protective factors may be particularly important in promoting resilience when considering the sensitive developmental period of the preschool-to-kindergarten transition.