more likely to lead to higher school achievement. Reynolds was able to determine that preschool does help to make psychological adjustment to school easier, not only by providing a cognitive advantage but also through parental involvement. His studies were the first to test different hypotheses of mechanisms of preschool effectiveness, and are more contemporary than previous studies. Mark Greenbergs studies were similar to that of Reynolds with the exception that Greenberg gathered his results from the first grade using risk factors to predict childrens psychological and academic outcomes. The study used a regression model to assess the following ecobehavioral risks: demographics, family psychosocial status, mothers depressive symptoms, and neighborhood quality. Family psychosocial context, and neighborhood quality predicted unique variance in a childs academic and social functioning. Family psychosocial context includes risk factors such as: negative life events, marital problems, the quality of social support, and the quality of the environment. Negative life events can be used to predict a childs aggression, social adaptation, and intellectual functioning. Children who have been exposed to marital conflict show a direct relation to poor psychological adjustment and poor cognitive performance. The physical environment of the home, play environment and physical safety, is an important predictor of success in adaptation, more so than community violence (Greenberg, 1999). Using participant perceptions and an objective rating of the neighborhood quality, Greenberg was able to determine that poverty and crime have been related to higher levels of stress, exposure to violence, and the childs psychological adjustment. One last factor to look at is that Greenberg took a notable consideration to gender in regard to school adjustment. His studies demonstrated that boys are more vulnerable than girls and that boys have more adjustmen...
