FACTORS RELATED WITH SCHOOL READINESS

Lydia Wangke

SUMMARY

School readiness is defined as child's ability to achieve adequate levels of

emotional, physical, and cognitive development, so that they could succeed later in life.
Children's readiness for school should be done from early age, preparing them to face
the school’s learning process.

There are several factors that should be considered in assessing school readiness,
mainly divided into internal and external factors. Internal factors include genetic, age, sex,
low birth weight / prematurity, and physical health. Meanwhile, external factors are family
environmental factors that include parenting, maternal employment status, socio-
economic status, mother's education level and preschool attendance, all of which form
child’s school environment.

The purpose of this research is to better understand factors related with school readiness.
These factors include stunting, maternal employment status, maternal education,
socioeconomic status and participation in early childhood education.

This research was conducted using analytic observational method and cross sectional
design, on 4 elementary schools in Malalayang sub-district, sample selected by simple
random sampling, between July to November 2017.

Sampling was done by two steps of random sampling, in which gathered 100 subjects
aged 6 years old. All subjects met the inclusion criteria. The results were analyzed
univariate, bivariate and multivariate. Univariate analysis was reported in the form of
distributive tables, shown as mean and standard deviation (SD). Bivariate analysis was
done using Chi square. Multivariate analysis was done using logistic regression.
Significant value used in this study was p <0.05. Data results then processed with SPSS
for Windows version 23.
Bivariate analysis showed significant relationship between stunting, maternal education
level, socioeconomic status and preschool attendance in early childhood with school
readiness (p <0.0001), and no relationship between maternal status and school readiness
(p = 0.25). Stunting affects school readiness by OR 33.0 (95% CI: 7.0 – 164.7). Maternal
education status affects school readiness by OR 6.9 (95% CI: 2.6 – 18.3). Socioeconomic
status affects school readiness by OR 34.5 (95% CI: 4.1 – 285.9). Preschool attendance
affects school readiness by OR 9.3 (95% CI: 3.5 – 24.7).

From multivariate analysis using logistic regression to its relation with school readiness,
2 factors were found significant with school readiness, such as stunting (p<0.0001) and
preschool attendance (p = 0,001). In multivariate analysis, stunting and preschool
attendance altogether affects school readiness by OR 34.0 (95% CI: 7.0 – 164.7).

These results suggest that there is a relationship between stunting, maternal education,
socioeconomic status, and preschool attendance with school readiness, and no
relationship between maternal employment status and school readiness. In addition, this
result also states that stunting is the factor mostly related with school readiness. In
Pediatrics field, this study provides input concerning the importance of early detection of
stunting, its impact on school readiness, and to prevent stunting by early nutrition
nourishment initiation.