TY - JOUR
T1 - Consistent routines matter
T2 - Child routines mediated the association between interparental functioning and Chinese preschoolers’ school readiness
AU - Ren, Lixin
AU - Boise, Courtney
AU - Cheung, Rebecca Y.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Internationalization Grant Scheme (No. IGS212208) from the Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, and the Research Program Funds of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality (No. 2020-02-014-BZPK01).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)
PY - 2022/10/1
Y1 - 2022/10/1
N2 - School readiness is critical to children's academic and social-emotional success at school entry and over time. Using structural equation modeling, this study examined the mediating role of consistent child routines in the association between interparental functioning and school readiness among preschool-aged children in China. Participants included 349 preschoolers and both of their parents. Data were collected across two time points with 1.5 years apart. Consistency in child routines was found to mediate the association between maternal interparental functioning and child school readiness. Specifically, mother-perceived marital satisfaction was positively related to their contributions to coparenting, which further had a positive association with consistency in child routines, and this eventually predicted children's school readiness across multiple indicators. However, different patterns of findings emerged for paternal interparental functioning. Father-perceived marital satisfaction was directly linked to consistency in child routines without the mediation effect of paternal coparenting, which, in turn, predicted school readiness. Fathers’ contributions to coparenting also directly predicted children's social-emotional functioning. The findings have highlighted the importance of establishing and maintaining consistent routines for young children in order to promote school readiness across the preschool period.
AB - School readiness is critical to children's academic and social-emotional success at school entry and over time. Using structural equation modeling, this study examined the mediating role of consistent child routines in the association between interparental functioning and school readiness among preschool-aged children in China. Participants included 349 preschoolers and both of their parents. Data were collected across two time points with 1.5 years apart. Consistency in child routines was found to mediate the association between maternal interparental functioning and child school readiness. Specifically, mother-perceived marital satisfaction was positively related to their contributions to coparenting, which further had a positive association with consistency in child routines, and this eventually predicted children's school readiness across multiple indicators. However, different patterns of findings emerged for paternal interparental functioning. Father-perceived marital satisfaction was directly linked to consistency in child routines without the mediation effect of paternal coparenting, which, in turn, predicted school readiness. Fathers’ contributions to coparenting also directly predicted children's social-emotional functioning. The findings have highlighted the importance of establishing and maintaining consistent routines for young children in order to promote school readiness across the preschool period.
KW - Child routines
KW - Chinese preschoolers
KW - Coparenting
KW - Marital relationship
KW - School readiness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135295992&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.07.002
DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.07.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85135295992
SN - 0885-2006
VL - 61
SP - 145
EP - 157
JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
ER -