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Family-School Communication in Preschool and Kindergarten in the Context of a Relationship-Enhancing Intervention

The present study is a longitudinal examination of family-school communication in preschool and kindergarten. Preschool and kindergarten teachers and family workers of 75 children from families with low SES logged the frequency and characteristics of family-school communication, resulting in over 22,000 contacts. Data were collected during a period of implementation of an intervention designed to enhance relationships upon the transition to school. Family demographic information and information about family support for academics at home were assessed through parent interviews and children's behavior problems were measured through teacher questionnaires in preschool and kindergarten. Familyteacher communication decreased between preschool and kindergarten and there was a shift from shorter to longer types of communication between the two years. Communication differed as a function of program. Counter to expectation, few family factors and experiences predicted frequency of family-school communication, and more frequent communication in preschool was unrelated to more frequent communication in kindergarten. Findings have several implications for practice. Families experience a great decrease in communication between preschool and kindergarten and interventions designed to ease the transition to kindergarten need to either ameliorate the decrease or acknowledge its existence to prepare families. Otherwise, this contrast may be interpreted negatively. Given that our findings show no relation between a family's communication in preschool and kindergarten, it appears that it is not enough to support communication in preschool to ensure frequent communication in kindergarten.