Factors of social adjustment to school: child’s personality, family and pre‐school

The role of child’s characteristics (gender, cognitive ability, mother‐perceived personality traits), family environment (maternal education, self‐reported parenting practices) and pre‐school experience (at least three years vs. no experience) in social adjustment to school, reflected through teacher reports on social competence and internalising and externalising behaviours, was investigated with six‐year‐olds (N = 366). Three blocks of factors, i.e. child, family and pre‐school, explained up to 19% of variance in social adjustment with child’s characteristics accounting for the major part. Family variables contributed significant, though small, portions of variance to social competence and internalising behaviour over and above the child factors. Pre‐school experience was additionally predictive of lower incidence of internalising behaviour and more frequent externalising behaviour.