Healthy and Ready to Learn: Prevalence and Correlates of School Readiness among United States Preschoolers

• Published in: Academic pediatrics 2021-07, Vol.21 (5), p.818-829
• Main Authors: Ghandour, Reem M., Hirai, Ashley H., Moore, Kristin A., Robinson, Lara R., Kaminski, Jennifer W., Murphy, Kelly, Lu, Michael C., Kogan, Michael D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child; child development; Child Health; Child, Preschool; Cross-Sectional Studies; Humans; National Survey of Children's Health; Prevalence; Residence Characteristics; school readiness; Schools; United States
• ISSN: 1876-2859; 1876-2867
• DOI: 10.1016/j.acap.2021.02.019

To assess the national and state prevalence of being “Healthy and Ready to Learn” (HRL) and associated sociodemographic, health, family and neighborhood factors. Cross-sectional analysis of the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health, a nationally representative parent-reported survey administered by web and paper June 2016 to February 2017. Four domains were constructed from 18 items through confirmatory factor analyses: “Early Learning Skills”, “Social-Emotional Development”, “Self-Regulation”, and “Physical Well-being and Motor Development.” Each item and domain were scored according to age-specific standards as “On-Track”, “Needs Support”, and “At Risk” with overall HRL defined as “On-Track” in all domains for 7565 randomly selected children ages 3 to 5 years. In 2016, 42.2% of children ages 3 to 5 years were considered HRL with the proportion considered “On-Track” ranging from 58.4% for Early Learning Skills to 85.5% for Physical Well-being and Motor Development”; approximately 80% of children were considered “On-Track” in Social-Emotional Development and Self-Regulation, respectively. Sociodemographic differences were mostly non-significant in multivariable analyses. Health, family, and neighborhood factors (ie, special health care needs status/type, parental mental health, reading, singing and storytelling, screen time, adverse childhood experiences, and neighborhood amenities) were associated with HRL. HRL prevalence ranged from 25.5% (NV) to 58.7% (NY), but only 4 states were significantly different from the U.S. overall. Based on this pilot measure, only about 4 in 10 US children ages 3 to 5 years may be considered “Healthy and Ready to Learn.” Improvement opportunities exist for multiple, modifiable factors to affect young children's readiness to start school.