Differential socioemotional and educational profiles in early childhood and primary education students in a lockdown situation

TL;DR

This study compares how lockdowns affected the social, emotional, and academic profiles of young children and primary students during the pandemic.

Contribution

The study identifies distinct socioemotional and educational profiles for Early Childhood and Primary Education students during lockdowns.

Findings

Family-school relationship was the most significant variable for school performance in both education stages.

Emotional impact was more significant for Early Childhood students, while social impact was key for Primary Education students.

Leisure activities at home only influenced Primary Education students' performance.

Abstract

Recent lockdown situations have highlighted social relationship deprivation of schoolchildren and the need to develop the teaching-learning process in informal contexts. The aim of this study was to analyze differential socioemotional and educational profiles in Early Childhood and Primary Education students using variables relating to academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Correlational, descriptive, and inferential statistical analyses were performed that yielded differential explanatory models depending on the stage of education. The results reveal statistically significant differences in all the variables except for family-school relationship. In the linear regression models, the most statistically significant variable for school performance in both stages was family-school relationship. However, differences were found between both profiles: emotional impact for Early Childhood Education students and social impact for Primary Education students. Lastly, leisure activities at home were included as an explanatory variable only in the Primary Education regression model. The final conclusions highlight the need to attend to the evolutionary characteristics of students in each stage to improve school performance in similar lockdown situations.