Abstract
Transitioning from kindergartens to elementary schools marks a critical period for young children and children’s school readiness is a strong predictor of their future educational attainment. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between family socioeconomic status (SES) and Chinese preschoolers’ cognitive and non-cognitive school readiness outcomes and to further explore the moderating role of parental involvement in these relations. A total of 311 five-six years old kindergarteners and their parents living in Shanghai, China participated in the study. Parents reported demographic information and their involvement in children’s education. Children’s school readiness was rated by their teachers based on daily observations. Findings of this study indicated that family SES was positively associated with children’s cognitive school readiness (i.e., communication and general knowledge and language and cognition) but not significantly related to non-cognitive school readiness (i.e., social competence and emotional maturity). Parental involvement moderated the relations between family SES and children’s cognitive and non-cognitive school readiness. In the context of low home-based parental involvement and home-school conferencing, family SES was related to children’s cognitive school readiness, while in the context of high home-based parental involvement and home-school conferencing, family SES was not associated with children’s cognitive readiness. Unexpectedly, family SES was negatively related to children’s social-emotional readiness outcomes when parents displayed high levels of home-based parental involvement. Implications for practice and suggestions for further research were also discussed.