Millennium Cohort Study

Socio-emotional behaviours in early childhood, including self-regulation, emotional problems, and peer problems, have been shown to individually influence academic achievement in primary and secondary school. Environmental and demographic factors have also been shown to influence a child's academic development. The current study extends previous work to consider - concurrently, using structural equation modelling - a broader array of antecedents and measures of social-emotional development to understand their relative effects on academic outcomes. Parent-report data on a nationally representative sample of children (n = 17,035) at ages 3 and 5 years, and academic assessment at age 7, were drawn from the Millennium Cohort Study for longitudinal modelling. Results indicate the individual and collective contribution of socio-emotional, environmental, and demographic antecedents, expanding the current literature on predictors of child academic achievement in primary school. The results suggest that malleable factors in early childhood are important predictors of later academic success, and thus may be viable targets for intervention.