Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

centered approach. Cluster analyses revealed six categorizations of preschoolers, among
which the Prosocial-Resilient group, similar to the Interactive Competence and positive
interactive play (Coolahan et al., 2000) characterizations, held the most desirable social-
emotional and verbal outcomes (Mendez et al., 2002). These results, in particular,
highlighted relations between children‘s social-emotional and verbal abilities. Additional
categorizations characterized by higher verbal abilities were also characterized by high
adaptability, the willingness to approach social situations, and poor self-regulation
despite average teacher ratings (speculatively due to greater competence in completing
structured, adult-directed versus unstructured tasks). Categorizations marked by lower
verbal abilities, however, were generally characterized by elevated classroom activity
levels, poor self-regulation, and low adaptability. Among these, only the Dysregulated
group demonstrated a lack of competent play with peers (Mendez et al., 2002). These
findings indicate that verbal abilities, in particular, are related to social-emotional
competence and classroom behaviors favoring academic performance (e.g., average
activity levels).
Longitudinal research has identified social-emotional competence outcomes, and
particularly prosocial behaviors, that foretell later academic success within samples of
mixed socio-economic status (Caprara, Barbaranelli, Pastorelli, Bandura, & Zimbardo,
2000) and socio-economically disadvantaged children (Miles & Stipek, 2006). Results
from socio-economically disadvantaged samples revealed that teacher-rated prosocial
behavior in kindergarten was positively correlated with third-grade literacy skills, and
teacher-rated prosocial behavior in third grade was positively correlated with fifth-grade
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