Abstract

        How important is junior kindergarten to teen high-risk and virtuous behaviours, community involvements and sense of well-being and quality of the home? How do girls differ from boys in these respects? What qualities of the child, parents, family and neighbourhood in the pre-teen years are associated with junior kindergarten participation?

        These are some of the basic questions that may be answered by examination of the tables, charts and analytical results in this study. Chapter 1 displays in chart form the percentages of children who attended junior kindergarten, some 53% of girls and 54% of boys.

        Chapter 2 charts the percentage of all children in Canada who attended and did not attend junior kindergarten, by region and subgroup. For example, 47% of the junior kindergarten non-attendees admitted to being intoxicated at least monthly in their teen years, compared with 48% of the attendees - not much difference in this case.

        Exposure to junior kindergarten is expected to be a positive factor and to be associated with a wide range of other positive factors, and to influence positively the teen's behaviour, attitudes and home situation. While this tends to be the case, many exceptions may be noted in the tables, as well as differences between girls and boys.

        In the models teen behaviours and home situations are assumed to be related to several childhood characteristics including the junior kindergarten factor. The other childhood factors are the child's age and worship frequency, the main parent's age, sex, marital status, educational attainment, and evangelical/non-evangelical affiliation, and region of residence.

        There are few teen behaviours that are influenced by junior kindergarten after controlling for the other factors in the model. There are no statistically significant relationships with the big concerns of parents, such as consumption of illicit drugs, smoking, intoxication, sexual intercourse or attempted suicide.

        One example applies to girls aged 14 to 17: girls who attended junior kindergarten have fewer close friends who had used marijuana. Girls with an evangelical main parent in 1995 and who worshipped more frequently also had fewer close friends who had used marijuana, along with teens in Ontario and British Columbia compared with Quebec. In another analysis, kindergarten depressed the likelihood of having close friends who drank alcohol.

        For boys the junior kindergarten factor is unimportant though the number of close friends who had used marijuana was lower, the older their main parent, if their main parent was evangelical, and if the main parent was married or cohabiting rather than separated or divorced.

        There is one significant relationship with a teen well-being variable, being happy with one's life. This positive relationship is as expected and appears with positive relationships with the main parent's education and with child worship frequency in the estimates for girls. Education and worship are also statistically significant for boys.

        The main parent's education, worship frequency of the child and the parent's evangelical faith affiliation are three variables of far greater significance on the future life of the child than exposure to junior kindergarten.