Elementary School Entry: Stress, Competence and Adjustment in First Grade Students

This study aimed to compare children from the 1st year of Elementary Education (EE) with or without stress symptoms regarding indicators of adjustment and competence related to academic, social, and behavioral domains, separately for boys and girls. The participants were 85 boys and 72 girls. Twentyfi ve teachers participated as informants. The children answered the Childhood Stress Scale, the School Hassles Inventory and the academic test Provinha Brasil. The teachers evaluated the social skills and externalizing, and internalizing behavior problems of the children using the Social Skills Rating System. There was no gender difference in self-reported stress symptoms. Girls outperformed boys in the academic achievement test. The teachers rated the girls as more socially skilled and the boys with more externalizing behavior problems. In the comparison of the children with or without stress symptoms, boys with stress were disadvantaged in all variables. Among girls, a similar pattern was found for six out of the 10 variables studied. The results suggest that children that are more competent deal more easily with the transitional requirements of the fi rst year in EE. These children fi nd the adaptive tasks less stressful, which appears to make them less susceptible to the adverse effects of stress.