Efeitos da permanência na Educação Infantil sobre indicadores de desempenho, habilidades sociais, comportamento e estresse

Effects of early childhood education attendance on achievement, social skills, behaviour, and stress

Marta Regina Gonçalves CORREIA-ZANINI 1 0000-0003-4776-8917
Edna Maria MARTURANO 2 0000-0002-1545-0093
Anne Marie Germaine Victorine FONTAINE 3 0000-0001-9232-8692

1 Centro Universitário das Faculdades Associadas de Ensino, Curso de Psicologia, Departamento de Psicologia. R. Matheus Benelli, 1122, Jd. Recreio dos Bandeirantes, 14171-115, Sertãozinho, SP, Brasil. Correspondência para/Correspondence to: M.R.G. CORREIA- -ZANINI. E-mail: psico_marta [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] br>.

2 Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Neurociências e Ciências do Comportamento. Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brasil.

3 Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Programa Doutoral em Psicologia. Porto, Portugal. 

Article based on the doctoral dissertation of M.R.G. CORREIA-ZANINI, entitled “Um estudo prospectivo sobre o percurso escolar de crianças nos primeiros anos do Ensino Fundamental”. Universidade de São Paulo, 2013. Support: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (process nº 5975-11-5), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (process nº 2014/01478-4) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (process nº 304464/2011-2) 

Acknowledge: The authors thank the psychologists Jéssica Cristine de Castro, Daniele Ferraz Simões Teixeira, and Cynthia Cassoni for their cooperation during data collection.

Abstract
There is evidence that Early Childhood Education positively contributes to optimal performance in Elementary School, but there are few studies about its influence on socio-behavioral variables. This study aimed to explore the association between duration of Early Childhood Education attendance (one or two years) and developmental outcomes in the 3rd grade. A total of 151 students from public schools participated in the study and their academic performance, social skills, externalizing behavior and stress symptoms were assessed. Data analysis comprised group comparison and regression with control of socioeconomic background. The results showed that children who had attended Early Childhood Education for one more year showed better achievement and less stress symptoms. Duration of Early Childhood Education attendance was a significant positive predictor for achievement and a negative one for stress in the 3rd grade. We discuss the quality of Early Childhood Education and its influence on the variables assessed and point to the need for a systematic replication study to assess the generalization of the results.

Resumo
Há evidência de contribuição positiva da Educação Infantil para o desempenho no Ensino Fundamental, mas sobre variáveis sociocomportamentais, os estudos são escassos. Objetivou-se explorar a associação entre tempo de permanência na Educação Infantil (um ou dois anos) e desfechos desenvolvimentais no 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Participaram 151 alunos de escolas públicas, avaliados quanto a: desempenho acadêmico, habilidades sociais, comportamento externalizante
e sintomas de estresse. A análise dos dados compreendeu comparação de grupos e regressão com controle do nível socioeconômico. Nos resultados, crianças com um ano a mais de permanência na Educação Infantil apresentaram melhor desempenho e menos sintomas de estresse. O tempo na Educação Infantil foi preditor significativo positivo para o desempenho e negativo para o estresse no 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Discute-se a qualidade da Educação Infantil oferecida e sua influência sobre as variáveis avaliadas, e ressalta-se a necessidade de replicação sistemática do estudo para averiguar a generalização dos resultados.

The impact of school attendance on the lives and development of students is hardly overestimated. Children go to school at an increasingly precocious age. With the universalization of access to Early Childhood Education (ECE), starting at the age of four, the Brazilian children will spend at least one quarter of their awake time at school in contact with educators and peers of the same age, and this occurs during accelerated psychobiological development.

In Brazil, ECE is the first stage of Basic Education, being offered by public or private kindergartens and pre-schools for children from zero to five years of age. According to article 29 from the Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional (Brasil, 1996, 2013), its purpose is the integral development of small children, considering their physical, psychological, intellectual and social aspects, complementing family and community engagement.

There is evidence that ECE contributes to favorable outcomes in adulthood (Sassi, 2011). International studies indicate a positive effect of ECE on academic performance indicators in elementary education (Burger, 2010; Taggart, Sylva, Melhuish, Sammons, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2011). In Brazil, Trivellato-Ferreira and Marturano (2008) found that ECE attendance was associated with better performance at the end of the first grade. Similarly, in a study conducted by Pereira, Marturano, Gardinal-Pizato, and Fontaine (2011), children assessed in the second grade who had had access to ECE obtained better scores in three indicators of school performance: teacher’s judgment, a collective test, and an individual standardized test.
The effects could not be attributed to differences in variables for economic or educational background of family among the groups, since these variables were controlled. In a longitudinal study, Gardinal-Pizato, Marturano, and Fontaine (2012) controlled the effect of the socioeconomic background and found that access to ECE was associated with a  better school performance from the 3rd to the 5th grade. Recently, Felício, Terra, and Zoghbi (2012) found effects of ECE on the literacy scores of students in the 2nd grade. Provinha Brasil was administered in Sertãozinho (SP) together with a socioeconomic questionnaire. The results showed that the literacy scores of students who had attended ECE, aged 3 to 5 years, were about 6% higher than those who had started elementary school at the age of 6 or older.

The effects of ECE on the socioemotional domain are not as clear as in the academic domain. In a survey at English schools described by Taggart et al. (2011), preschool attendance favored sociobehavioral development in the early years of elementary education, and this effect could be observed up to the age of 11 in children who had attended medium and high quality preschool. On the other hand, Keys et al. (2013) did not find any relationship between the quality of preschool and the socioemotional outcomes of children when these were assessed in the 1st grade. Trivellato-Ferreira and Marturano (2008) found that students in the first grade who had had at least six months of early childhood education, when compared to students who had not had access to this level of education, were considered by the teacher as the most loved by their classmates.
The group with no previous experience in ECE had more stress symptoms and perceived school events as more disturbing. More recently, in a follow-up
study with children from 3rd to 5th grade, Gardinal-
-Pizato, Marturano and Fontaine (2014) found a
positive effect of ECE on the students’ social skills,
which were assessed by the teacher, but only for
girls. ECE contributed to attenuating (internalizing)
emotional problems but did not affect outcomes of
(externalizing) behavior problems.
The universalization of access to early
childhood education starting at the age of 4, which
is part of Brazil’s national public policy, raises the
question of the effects of longer time of exposure
to ECE, that is, the early admission to the formal
educational system. There is some evidence of
cognitive benefits and controversy regarding
socioemotional effects.
In an internationally comprehensive review
(Burger, 2010), evidence of increased cognitive
development associated with early admission to
preschool was not conclusive. In the survey at
English schools reported by Taggart et al. (2011),
every month of pre-school experience after the
age of 2 was associated with better intellectual
development, greater independence, concentration
and sociability when beginning elementary school.
In this study, the positive effect occurred in medium
or high quality schools, but not in low quality
schools, and school/cognitive outcomes were
more evident than social behavioral development.
Morrissey (2010) also found benefits for cognitive
development in North American children, associated
with early admission to ECE, as of the age of 3
years, but did not identify socioemotional effects.
However, in the study of Coley, Votruba-Drzal,
Miller, and Koury (2013), children who had started
pre-school earlier showed more externalizing
behavior in the first year of elementary school.
Brazilian researchers also found mixed
results. Felício et al. (2012), focusing on school
performance of 2nd graders, identified a small
advantage in the academic outcomes of students
who had attended early childhood education.
Marturano and Gardinal-Pizato (2015) did not
find any differences regarding academic abilities,
social skills or behavior problems of 3rd graders
who attended ECE for one or two years. Pereira
et al. (2011) found that 3rd graders who had
attended ECE for two years did not have more
social skills, but received more reciprocal choices
in a sociometric test when compared with peers
who attended ECE for one year. Other studies did
not detect differences related to the time spent in
ECE, either in the cognitive (Gardinal-Pizato et al.,
2012) or socioemotional domain (Gardinal-Pizato
et al., 2014).
Research on the effects of duration of ECE
attendance has methodological challenges. One of
them is related to the possible differences among
families of children who started ECE earlier or
later: children from higher socioeconomic families
tend to start school earlier (Felício et al., 2012;
Gardinal-Pizato et al., 2012), which introduces
a confounding factor between the effects of
Socioeconomic Background (SEB) and duration of
ECE attendance. Another challenge, also related
to the socioeconomic factor, is the influence of
the diverse student population in school, which
can determine differences among students from
schools located in more or less privileged areas
(Aikens & Barbarin, 2008; Marturano & Gardinal-
-Pizato, 2015).

Taking these challenges into account, the
present study focused on the effects of duration
of ECE attendance on children’s academic and
socioemotional outcomes in elementary school.
With the purpose of contributing to the discussion
of the above-mentioned controversial aspects, the
aim of the study was to investigate the association
between duration of ECE attendance and behavior
outcomes in 3rd graders concerning the academic
and socioemotional domains. The interest in
focusing on 3rd graders derives from research
results suggesting that students at this school level
overcome the transition between early childhood
education and elementary education (Correia-Zanini
& Marturano, 2016). The outcomes considered were
academic performance, social skills, externalizing
behavior problems, and stress symptoms. Early
childhood education was assessed considering
attendance (one or two years). The effects of the
three influential factors on the development of the
child were as follows: SEB (Burger, 2010), location
of the elementary school as an indicator of the
socioeconomic background of the student (Aikens
& Barbarin, 2008), and gender (Grimm, Steele,
Mashburn, Burchinal, & Pianta, 2010; Reynolds,
Sander, & Irvin, 2010).

Method
Participants
A total of 151 children, 79 boys and 72 girls,
aged 8 years and 1 month to 9 years and 4 months
(mean 8.7 years), who attended the 3rd grade of
elementary school in municipal public schools in
a city in the state of São Paulo participated in the
study. Nineteen of them had attended ECE for one
year and 132 for two years. Their teachers were
also interviewed (n = 33).

Location
The research was part of a longitudinal
follow-up study that collected data from the
students during 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. The
collection occurred in seven of the 15 municipal
elementary schools of Sertãozinho, state of
São Paulo, with approximately 111 thousand
inhabitants. The selection of schools was carried
out together with the education department of
the municipality, aiming to represent different
areas, one school in the downtown area, two
near the downtown area and four in more distant
neighborhoods, totaling 25 classes.
At the time of data collection, the history
of municipal investment in ECE was higher than
the national average (R$1,761 between 2005
and 2006, compared to the national average of
R$1,196, according to Felício et al. (2012). All
elementary schools obtained a higher score in the
Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica
(IDEB, Basic Education Development Index) than
the national and state averages.
Instruments and measurements
In order to assess academic performance,
the Provinha Brasil, version 2009, developed by
the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas
Educacionais Anísio Teixeira (2009), was
administered with the purpose of diagnosing the
literacy level of children enrolled in the 2nd grade.
The respondents were the students themselves and
application was collective. The instrument contains
one example of the question that shows students
how to answer the test and 24 multiple-choice
questions to assess performance. Performance
assessment questions are arranged in increasing
order of skill requirements, from the most basic
to the most advanced. One point is assigned for
each correct answer. For this research, the test was
expanded to include adequate questions to assess
the 3rd graders, as stated by Correia-Zanini (2013).
The Social Skills Rating System (SSRS-BR),
teacher’s version (Bandeira, Del Prette, Z.A.P.,
Del Prette, & Magalhães, 2009) was used to
assess social skills and behavior problems, whose
structure allows the measuring of social skills,
behavior problems and academic competence of
students aged 6 to 12. For social skills and behavior
problems, the teacher had to indicate how often the
student shows certain skills and behavior: never
(0 point), sometimes (1 point) or always (2 points).

Analysis procedure
The Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) program, version 19, was used to analyze the
data. Initially, two groups were formed based on
the duration of ECE attendance: G1 was composed
of 19 children who had attended ECE for one year
and G2 was composed of 132 children who had
attended ECE for two years. The chi-square test was
used to verify if the groups were equal regarding the
variables gender, age, school location and SEB. No
differences were found in the gender variables
(χ2 = 0.909/gL = 1; p = 0.340), age (χ2 = 1.480/gL = 1;
p = 0.224) and school location (χ2 = 3.776/gL = 2;
p = 0.151). As for SEB, G2 presented a more favorable
distribution than G1 (χ2 = 11.399/gL = 2; p = 0.003).
Once the groups were formed, the values
of kurtosis and symmetry were verified for each
variable. All values found were lower than seven
and three, respectively, which, according to Kline
(Marôco, 2011) can be submitted to parametric
statistical analyses. Thus, for comparison between
groups, Student’s t test was used, considering
significant values those with p ≤ 0.05. To assess the
magnitude of differences, effect was considered
small when d ≤ 0.2; medium when d ranged from
0.2 to 0.5; high when d was between 0.50 and 1;
very high when d > 1 (Marôco, 2011).
To predict academic performance, social
skills, behavior problems, and stress symptoms,
multiple linear regression analysis was conducted
on the data of 107 children with available SEB
information. This sample aliquot did not differ
from the total sample concerning gender (56 boys
and 51 girls), age (mean 8.9 years) and duration
of ECE attendance (11 for one year, 98 for two
years). Thirty-six children studied in schools in the
downtown area or near the downtown area and
71 in suburb schools.
Hierarchical multiple regression analysis
was used. The socio-demographic predictors were
included in the first block – gender and SEB; the
duration of ECE attendance was included in the
second block and the location of the elementary
school in the third. The categorical variables gender,
duration of ECE attendance and location of the
elementary school were transformed into dummy
variables. For gender, the coding was 0 for boys
and 1 for girls; one year of ECE attendance was
assigned 0 and two years, 1. As for the location of
the school, 0 corresponded to not being located in
the suburb and 1 corresponded to being located
in the suburb.
Durbin Watson statistics was used to verify
the independence of residues, with acceptable
values between 1.6 and 2.4 (Marôco, 2011).
Collinearity was detected using Variance Inflation
Factor (VIF) and no variables suggested assumption
violation.

Results
The results of the group comparison with all
participants, G1 and G2, are shown in Table 1. The
mean academic performance of the 3rd graders was
higher for those who attended ECE for two years
than the students who attended ECE for one year,
whom presented more stress symptoms on average.
The effect size was high for both differences. No
significant differences were observed in the other
variables.
The results of the multiple linear regression
analysis for predicting academic performance and
social skills are shown in Table 2. In the predictive
model of academic performance, the variables
comprising the first block account for the variation
of 16% obtained in the 3rd grade, of which gender
and SEB are significant, the latter with a higher
regression coefficient (β = 0.318). When adding the
ECE to the model (block 2), the explanatory power
increased by 0.04, explaining the variation of 20%,
and the three predictive variables were significant,
but SEB still presented the highest regression
coefficient, followed by gender and ECE. The third
model, which included the location of the school,
explained the variation of 21%. In this model, the
variable with the highest regression coefficient was
gender, followed by the SEB and ECE attendance.
School location was not a significant predictor of
academic performance.
For the prediction of social skills, the first
model explains the variation of 9%, with gender being the only variable with a significant coefficient.
An increase of 3% was found in the second model
in comparison with the first one; gender remained a
significant predictor and duration of ECE attendance
was marginally significant (p = 0.078). With the
introduction of the variable school location in the
third block, there was no increase in the percentage
of variation of the social skill results explained by
the model; being a girl remained the best predictor
of social skills in the 3rd grade.
Table 3 shows the prediction models for
externalizing behavior problems and stress symptoms. The only significant predictor for
externalizing behavior problems was gender. The
model with the demographic variables explains the
variation of 14% with a 1% increase in the second
and third blocks, thus the final model explained the
variation of 16% of the results, associated with the
male gender.
For stress symptoms, according to Table 3,
the first block (gender and SEB) was not significant.
By adding duration of ECE attendance, this variable
presented a significant and negative regression
coefficient, but the model was marginally significant
(p = 0.076). In the third block, with the inclusion of
the school location, the model becomes significant,
explaining the variation of 11% of the symptoms.
School location is the best predictor, showing
a positive coefficient, followed by duration
of ECE attendance, which showed a negative
coefficient 

Discussion
This study was motivated by the following
question: would longer ECE attendance be a
predictor of better school adaptation in elementary
school based on academic and socioemotional
indicators? The aim of this study was to verify if
duration of early childhood education attendance
would be associated with indicators of academic
performance, social skills, externalizing behavior
problems and stress symptoms in the 3rd grade.
Therefore, two methodological strategies were
used. The first compared groups of children who
had attended ECE for one or two years; the second
used regression models controlling the variables
whose effects could be confounded with ECE
effects, since they were associated with different
developmental outcomes in elementary school.
In the group comparisons, two positive
results were found: children with an additional year
in ECE showed better performance and less
stress symptoms in the 3rd grade. No difference
was detected for social skills and externalizing
behavior problems.
The first positive result, indicating better
academic performance for children who attended
ECE longer, corroborates previous studies conducted
in Brazil (Felício et al., 2012; Marturano & Gardinal-
-Pizato, 2015) and in England (Taggart et al., 2011).
The results seem to be robust since the effect size
was large and the association was maintained
in the regression analysis, which included three
potentially confounding variables – gender, SEB,
and school location.
Considering that this relation has not
always been found (Burger, 2010; Gardinal-Pizato
et al., 2012; Pereira et al., 2011), the results may
be associated with the quality of the preschool,
as Burger (2010) and Taggart et al. (2011) have
pointed out. Although there is no objective
data on the quality of ECE in the municipality,
information on ECE investment, which is above
the national average (Felício et al., 2012), and
IDEB of the elementary schools, higher than the
state average, indicate a well-structured municipal
education network. Burger (2010), in his review on
the effects of pre-school education on cognitive
development, which is primarily assessed by school
results, concludes that high-quality early childhood
experiences may play a more crucial role than the
age of admission into ECE, intensity or duration of
the program.
The second positive result indicated that
children who attended ECE for two years presented,
on average, less stress symptoms in the third grade
when compared with their peers who attended
ECE for one year. Analogously to what was found
concerning academic performance, the results
regarding the effect of ECE attendance on stress
symptoms in the 3rd grade were also robust. The
effect size when comparing the groups was large
and the regression analysis indicated a significant
effect of ECE in the presence of the variables gender,
SBE and location of the elementary school.
This is an unprecedented result, as this
relation has not been discussed in the literature.
In a single previous study, Trivellato-Ferreira and
Marturano (2008) investigated the effect of ECE
attendance, noting the protective effect of ECE on
the level of stress symptoms in the 1st grade using
the Child Stress Scale. In that study, ECE attendance
was also associated with lower perception of
school-related stressful situations, a result that
reaffirms the protective effect of ECE.
Here, a distinction between the two studies
should be drawn concerning the differences
between the first and third grade. On the one hand,
because transition to first grade is considered a
potentially stress-inducing event (Marturano, 2008),
first graders may present more stress symptoms
than students in more advanced grades, as found
by Lipp, Arantes, Buriti, & Witzig (2002). On the
other hand, in the third grade, according to recent
research, children show signs of overcoming
the challenges of elementary school transition,
presenting the lowest levels of stress since school
admission (Correia-Zanini & Marturano, 2016). In
view of these findings, it is noteworthy that longer
ECE attendance is still protective against stress in
the third grade. Replication studies are required to
verify the degree of generalization of these results.
The regression models, which included
predictors of gender and SBE as well as school
location, were adequate, albeit with modest
predictive power of developmental outcomes.
Predictor configuration was generally consistent
with the literature.
For academic performance, assessed by
Provinha Brasil, the final model explained 21% of
individual differences. In addition to duration of
ECE attendance, gender and SEB are included in
the model, indicating that girls and children from
a higher socioeconomic background showed better
school performance. Two previous longitudinal
studies indicated similar results at the beginning of
elementary education, but gender differences were
diluted in the more advanced grades, while the
effect of SEB increased (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008;
Grimm et al., 2010).

school (Reynolds et al., 2010) and boys more
externalizing behavior (Silver, Measelle, Armostrong,
& Essex, 2010), gender was the only predictor of
social skills and externalizing problems in the 3rd
grade, explaining the variation of 9% and 16%
in the respective results. For social skills, a positive
association with the duration of ECE attendance
was observed as a trend, whose entry into the
regression model increased the explanatory power
by 2%.
Stress symptoms in 3rd graders were the
only outcome explained by the school variables,
excluding the socio-demographic indicators of the
child. By explaining the variation of 11% in the
stress level, the duration of ECE attendance behaved
as a protective factor, while the location of the
elementary school in the suburb was a risk factor
for stress in the 3rd grade. It should also be noted
that the school location was not associated with any
other outcome. These results emphasize, on the one
hand, stress as a situational process, dependent on
context and, on the other hand, the vulnerability of
children to school-related stressors, requiring that
the school be a major focus of research about the
factors that influence child stress during elementary
school years.
The limitations of study should be pointed
out. One of them was the reduced number of
children who had attended ECE for one year. This
condition may have contributed to a reduced
sensitivity of the statistical tests, especially when
comparing the groups. The measure used as
estimate of the school population SEB in elementary
school may also be cited as a limitation, since
the geographical location of the schools in the
municipality is a rough indicator, which may not
adequately reflect the condition that was intended
to be evaluated. It should be noted, however, that
these two limitations do not invalidate the results,
as they weaken the effects that could have been
detected with greater accuracy if they had been
corrected.
When investigating whether longer ECE
attendance would be predictive of better school
adjustment of the child in elementary school, the
research suggested positive responses, as longer
attendance was associated with better performance
in a national reading assessment and lower level
of stress reported by the child. In addition, the
association between longer ECE attendance and
poorer behavioral outcomes, found in previous
studies, at the beginning of elementary school
was not replicated (Coley et al., 2013). The results
related to stress symptomatology are an original
contribution, suggesting not only a protective effect
associated with earlier admission to ECE, but also
the need to take the elementary school context into
account when considering the children’s emotional
health.

Contributors
All authors contributed in the research that
originated the article. M.R.G. CORREIA-ZANINI conducted
the analysis of the data, wrote the method and results and
revised the first version. E.M. MARTURANO contributed
to the idealization of the article, bibliographical survey,
wrote the introduction and discussion of the results.
A.M.G.V. FONTAINE interpreted the results and revised
the final version.

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Converging with the results of previous
research, which pointed out that girls present more
social skills during the first years of elementary
In the present study, the scales for externalizing
behavior problems and social behavior were used
and item composition was defined by confirmatory
factor analysis on the original research sample
(Correia-Zanini, 2013). The internal consistency
indexes were satisfactory: Social Skills (α = 0.85),
Externalizing (α = 0.901) and Internalizing (α = 0.786)
Behavior Problem.
The Child Stress Scale (CSS) (Lipp & Lucarelli,
2008) was also used, which aims to identify the
frequency that children from 6 to 14 years old
experience stress symptoms and in which stage they
are (no stress, alert stage, resistance stage, stage
close to exhaustion or exhaustion). It is composed of
35 items on a 0-4-point Likert-type scale, grouped
into four factors: physical reactions, psychological
reactions, psychological reactions with a depressive
component, and psychophysiological reactions. Its
application can be collective or individual. For each
item the child should paint the quadrants of a circle
indicating how often a particular symptom occurs
(it never happens – no quadrant; it happens a
little – one quadrant; it happens sometimes – two
quadrants; it almost always happens – three
quadrants; it always happens – four quadrants).
Based on the score of the items, the symptoms
are classified into one of five stages. For this study
the total gross value was used. The scale with
the original sample obtained α = 0.90, and with
this sample α = 0.89 was obtained, which was
considered satisfactory.
For the SEB survey of the family, the
Critério Brasil (Associação Brasileira de Empresas
de Pesquisa, 2010) was used. It is composed of
11 items, of which nine assess the number of
durable goods of the family, one assesses the level
of education of the head of the family, and one
assesses the number of monthly workers in the
household, which were stratified into quintiles: A
(highest SEB), B, C, D and E.
The duration of ECE attendance was
measured in terms of annual cycles completed
by the child in preschool. The child could have
completed only phase 2 (one year) or phase 1 and
phase 2 (two years).
The location of the elementary school, as an
indicator of the SEB of its students, was indicated
in two broad categories. The first one included
the schools in the downtown area and near the
downtown area of the city and the second one
included the schools located in the suburbs.
Procedures
This research is part of a project approved by
the Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa at Faculdade de
Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (Process
nº 528/2010 - 2010.1.1794.59.2). It complies
with the guidelines of Resolution nº 196/96 of
Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa (CONEP,
National Commission of Ethics en Researche) and
Resolution nº 016/2000 of the Conselho Federal de
Psicologia (Federal Board of Psychology). The adultparticipants
signed an Informed Consent Form (ICF);
and the guardian of the child-participant signed an
ICF and the child gave his/her verbal consent.
Information on the duration of ECE
attendance was obtained by consulting the record
of enrollment on the website of the Companhia
de Processamento de Dados do Estado de São
Paulo (PRODESP, Data Processing Company of the
State of São Paulo), with the assistance of a school
secretary. This information was confirmed in an
interview with one of the guardians of 107 children
(the mother in 91% of cases) at the beginning of
the research. During the interview, the Critério Brasil
was administered.
Data collection with the children and the
teachers took place between September and
December 2012. The data were collected during
class time at spaces assigned by the schools. The
children answered the instruments individually, the
same ones that had been administered during the
larger project, including the CSS. Provinha Brasil
was administered collectively by Correia-Zanini with
the help of an assistant. The teachers were asked
to fill out the SSRS forms. They were provided with
an email and telephone in case of doubts, and a
deadline was agreed for the return of the forms.

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Received: March 22, 2016
Final version: December 14, 2016
Approved: February 15, 2017