Early environmental support and elementary school adjustment as predictorsof school adjustment in middle adolescence

Longitudinal data from a high-risk sample (N = 173, male n = 93,female: n = 80) were used to examine socioemotional antecedents of school adjustment i n adolescence. Parental problem-solving support in early childhood and earl y adolescence and measures of peer competence, externalizing behavior and e motional health/self-esteem in early middle childhood were examined both in dependently and in relation to academic achievement in early middle childho od as predictors of high school adjustment, For this sample, early and late r parental problem-solving support alone accounted for 13% of the variance in high school adjustment. Early and later parental problem-solving support and measures of peer competence, externalizing behavior and emotional heal th/self-esteem in early middle childhood accounted for 32% of the total var iance in high school adjustment with or without early academic achievement taken into account. In regression analyses controlling for socioeconomic st atus and prior achievement, middle childhood socioemotional variables signi ficantly predicted high school adjustment. Modest differences in results fo r boys and girls were obtained.