WITHDRAWN: The Dynamic Interplay of Externalizing Behaviors and Academic Functioning from Elementary through High School: An Analysis of Cascade Effects

Introduction

Academic functioning is often examined in relation to children’s externalizing behaviors, as these areas of functioning are interrelated and predict several educational, economic, and health outcomes such as dropping out of high school, substance abuse, psychiatric problems, criminality, and unemployment. To date, few studies have examined the processes by which problems in one domain of functioning lead to problems in the other, known as a “cascade effect,” accounting for multiple aspects of children’s achievement and adolescent social and maturational factors.

Methods

We analyzed data from 1,048 children participants in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development study at grades 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9 using longitudinal structural equation modeling. Mother’s reported their children’s externalizing behaviors using the Child Behavior Checklist and we assessed school achievement via teacher assigned grades and cognitive achievement on the Woodcock Johnson Achievement Test-Revised for passage comprehension and applied mathematics. Adolescent social and maturational factors included the timing of the middle school transition, clinician assessed age of pubertal onset, and observations of structured dyads to assess parenting quality.

Results

Results reveal 1) cascade effects such that externalizing behaviors in grades 3, 5, and 6 directly and indirectly influences school achievement in grades 5, 6, and 9; 2) cascade effects between school and cognitive achievement are significant across all assessment points, but the relative magnitudes of these effects change as students enter high school; and 3) the magnitude of cascade effects between externalizing behaviors and school achievement far exceed those between externalizing behaviors and cognitive achievement; and 4) demographic characteristics and social and maturational processes of the transition to secondary school and parenting account for variation in these functions but do not alter the processes by which these functions interact.

Conclusions

Findings confirm the meaningful role of behavior problems in elementary school to later academic success, and they highlight the importance of understanding early adolescent’s academic difficulties as both a consequence and risk factor for delinquent and aggressive behaviors. Implications of these findings suggest that identification and intervention for externalizing behaviors in elementary school may attenuate the increasing risk posed for achievement in secondary school, and it may also prevent subsequent behavior problems brought on by low school achievement. Evidence-based programs for socio-emotional and academic development that target the unique developmental needs of early adolescents, as well as efforts to support parents and teachers in coping with and managing children’s externalizing behaviors, represent promising strategies for intervention.