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STABILITY IN ROUTINES DURING THE PRESCHOOL PERIOD AND ASSOCIATIONS WITH CHILD WELL-BEING
- Saliha B. Selman (United States of America)
Abstract
Background and Aims
A large body of research has documented the importance of routines for children’s development. However, few studies have considered the role of developmental timing of routines. The present study examined the extent to which stability in routines across the preschool period is linked to children’s cognitive and socioemotional skills.
Methods
We used Year 3 and Year 5 data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2353; female = 48%). Child routines were measured through maternal reports of routines, including household chores, play, mealtime, and bedtime. Using a mean-split approach, children were categorized into “low” or “high” routines at each time point, which resulted in four groups based on timing and amount of routines: stable-high, increase, decrease, or stable-low. At Year 5, children completed a vocabulary test and parents reported on children’s attentional, externalizing, internalizing problems, and social skills.
Results
After controlling for a set of confounding variables, children in the stable-high group had significantly lower attentional and externalizing problems than the other three groups (βs range from .13 to .22, p < .05), as well as higher social skills (βs range from -.12 to -.21, p < .05).
Conclusions
These findings replicate previous work documenting associations between routines and child functioning and highlight the potential importance of stability in routines across early childhood. Children who had consistently high routines demonstrated better socioemotional skills compared to those with varying levels of routines and children with low routines across the preschool period.