Keywords

Parent perceptions, kindergarten, transition, children's complaints

Abstract

This study investigates possible reasons why parent's perceive that their kindergarten child complains about school. Using data in the parent questionnaires from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study ' Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, this research looks at a nationally representative sample of boys and girls and specifically targets those children whose parents indicated that they complained more than one time per week during the first two months of school. Looking at factors both from home, including socioeconomic status, maternal education levels and family structure, and from school, including length of the kindergarten day, transition practices received by the child and prior pre-school experience, Chi square tests were employed to examine the relationship between these factors and the amount of complaining. Basic findings support the premise that when good transition practices are employed by schools, parents perceive that their children complain less about going to kindergarten. The small effect sizes suggest, however, that the statistically significant relationships may be an artifact of sample size. Good transition practices, however, are key to effective transitions and if implementing these practices will help make this important transition smoother, educators should utilize this relatively easy strategy to help new students.. When there were good transitioning practices done by the kindergarten program, the child experienced greater success and complained significantly less about school regardless of all other factors.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Advisor

Hartle, Lynn

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Education

Department

Educational and Human Sciences

Degree Program

Early Childhood Development and Education

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003382

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003382

Language

English

Release Date

July 2011

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Included in

Education Commons

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