Longitudinal pathways of engagement, social interaction skills, hyperactivity and conduct problems in preschool children.

The study investigates how positive functions (protective factors), such as engagement and social interaction skills, and risk aspects, such as hyperactivity and behavioural problems, in kindergarten children promote and inhibit children's mental health. The aim of the study is twofold: It seeks to identify homogeneous (same) groups of children that have similar developmental trajectories in mental health over three different measurement points. In addition, the study seeks to investigate how children move between these points in time in terms of both risk and protective factors.

The results show that children who are social and engaged, but without behavioural problems, generally do well over time. Those who are less social and have problems such as hyperactivity continue to struggle. Children with a mix of protective and risk functions have varying results. The study shows that early intervention should focus both on increasing children's social skills and on dealing with behavioural problems.

The data material was collected over a period of three years and includes 197 Swedish kindergarten children (110 boys and 87 girls). The data material was collected through questionnaires completed by the kindergarten teachers.

Gustafsson, B. M., Gustafsson, P. A., Granlund, M., Proczkowska, M. & Almqvist, L. (2021). "Longitudinal pathways of engagement, social interaction skills, hyperactivity and conduct problems in preschool children". Scandinavian journal of psychology, 62(2):170-184.