Promoting children’s socioemotional development in contexts of early educational intervention and care: A review of the impact of federally-funded research initiatives on young children’s school readiness: Policy brief prepared for the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and the Administration for Children and Families Office of Planning Research and Evaluation (OPRE)

Recent findings in applied developmental science highlight ways that children’s socioemotional development may play an important foundational role for later chances of school success. Children’s social skills and emotional and behavioral adjustment have been identified as particularly important sources of support for low-income children facing higher risk of school failure. The following report reviews selected models and methods in applied developmental science that focus on young children’s socioemotional development. It then reviews recent findings from a large number of randomized trials as well as nonexperimental studies and places those findings in the context of applied developmental science. Lessons learned regarding ways to strengthen children’s school readiness will be discussed.