Teacher depressive symptoms and children's school readiness in Ghana |
| |
| Authors: | Morgan Peele Sharon Wolf Jere R. Behrman J. Lawrence Aber |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;2. Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;3. The Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA;4. Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, New York City, New York, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | This study investigated associations between kindergarten teachers' (N = 208) depressive symptoms and students' (Ghanaian nationals, N = 1490, Mage = 5.8) school-readiness skills (early literacy, early numeracy, social–emotional skills, and executive function) across 208 schools in Ghana over one school year. Teachers' depressive symptoms in the fall negatively predicted students' overall school-readiness skills in the spring, controlling for school-readiness skills in the fall. These results were primarily driven by social–emotional skills (r = .1–.3). There was evidence of heterogeneity by students' fall skill levels; teacher depressive symptoms predicted more negative spring overall school readiness for children who had higher fall school-readiness skills. Findings underscore the importance of teachers' mental health in early childhood education globally, with implications for policy and practice. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
