Science Career-Related Possible Selves of Adolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Study

This paper uses a possible selves theoretical framework to examine whether and how adolescent girls' images of themselves as future scientists change during their transition from high school to college. Forty-one female high school graduates from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, who had enrolled in an intensive math and science program while in high school, participated in interviews focused on their perceptions of factors that influenced their career plans over time. Participants suggested that career-related internships and intensive academic programs, especially those that yielded important mentoring relationships, were contexts in which they negotiated career-related possible selves and subsequent career plans.     

A Cross‐Cultural Study of Spatial Ability in Children

The hypothesis tested was that exposure to English educational experiences will increase the level of performance on spatial tests of children of Indian origin. Groups of 11‐year‐old boys were tested in the UK and in India on three tests of spatial ability. There were no significant differences in performance among boys born in the UK of UK or Indian origin. In general, performance of boys in India was lower but was worst among recent immigrants in the UK. A number of factors may have contributed to this result, but the finding suggests that it is the problems associated with recent immigration rather than any innate deficit that leads to poor test performance.     

Longitudinal Assessment of Autonomy and Relatedness in Adolescent-Family Interactions as Predictors of Adolescent Ego Development and Self-Esteem

This study examined links between processes of establishing autonomy and relatedness in adolescent-family interactions and adolescents' psychosocial development. Adolescents in 2-parent families and their parents were observed in a revealed-differences interaction task when adolescents were 14, and adolescents' ego development and self-esteem were assessed at both 14 and 16. Developmental indices were strongly related to autonomy and relatedness displayed by both parents and adolescents. Significant variance was explained even after accounting for the number and quality of speeches of each family member as rated by a different, well-validated family coding system. Increases in adolescents' ego development and self-esteem over time were predicted by fathers' behaviors challenging adolescents' autonomy and relatedness, but only when these occurred in the context of fathers' overall display of autonomous-relatedness with the adolescent. The importance of the mutually negotiated process of adolescents' exploration from the secure base of parental relationships is discussed.     

篮球运动空间定位能力的表象训练效果研究

通过三项实验证明,表象训练可明显提高空间定位能力和运动技术水平:在暂时终止实际训练的消退时期,表象训练对防止已获得的空间定位和技术技能消退的作用尤为突出。大量引证了国内、外心理和生理的基础研究资料,对表象训练效果作了充分的理论分析。同时,还对表象训练空间定位能力影响的特性进行了描述和讨论。     

少数民族贫困地区大龄女童辍学问题追踪研究

近几年,少数民族贫困地区女童教育研究转向了对大龄女童(10～12岁)辍学问题及辍学的多因素综合治理方面.少数民族大龄女童辍学率高,主要原因是她们已经成为家里的劳动力或后备劳动力,通过她们的劳动或外出打工来支撑贫困的家庭及继续弟妹的学业.农村实行"两免一补"政策后,这一问题有了一定的缓解,但不能从根本上解决.为此,建议通过设立民族教育发展专项基金或发展特区的政策,从根本上解决民族教育的这一难点问题.     

A Cross-Linguistic,Longitudinal Study of the Foundations of Decoding and Reading Comprehension Ability

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated the moderating role of orthographic consistency on the development of reading comprehension in four language groups (English, n = 179; Spanish, n = 188; Czech, n = 135; Slovak, n = 194) from kindergarten to Grade 2. In all languages, early variations in phoneme awareness/letter knowledge, rapid automatised naming, and emerging decoding skills, but not oral language, predicted variations in decoding skills at the end of Grade 1; these in turn predicted reading comprehension in Grade 2. For the three consistent orthographies (Spanish, Slovak, and Czech), kindergarten language skills were another significant predictor of Grade 2 reading comprehension. This effect was absent in the English sample, where variations in decoding skills were a more powerful predictor. These results provide the first longitudinal evidence for effects of orthographic consistency on the development of reading comprehension and provide support for the simple view of reading.     

Child and Adolescent Predictors of Personality in Early Adulthood

This study investigated development of the Big Five personality traits from early childhood into adulthood. An initial group of 137 Swedish children were assessed eight times between ages 2 and 29 years. Initial decreases in extraversion leveled off in early adulthood; agreeableness and conscientiousness increased from ages 2 to 29; neuroticism initially increased, leveled off in later childhood and adolescence, and decreased throughout early adulthood; while openness to experience showed an initial increase, then decreased and leveled off in early adulthood. Individual developmental trajectories varied significantly, particularly in relation to gender. Personality traits became increasingly stable, and the fact that childhood scores predicted scores in adulthood indicated that personalities are fairly stable across this portion of the life span.     

Identity Narratives: Stories from the Lives of Urban Adolescent Females

In this article, I present narratives told to me by female students of color who attended high school in an urban setting. Collected as part of an interpretive study in which I interviewed students during their senior year of high school and the first two years after graduation, these narratives focus on two themes: identity as oppositional and as contingent or shifting. I use these narratives to describe how youth simultaneously participated in and resisted school. I show that youth's shifting sets of identities shaped their participation in school, their definitions of success and the visions they held for the future. This article suggests that schools provide safe spaces for adults and young women to form mentoring relationships, that we reorganize schools so that school personnel have contact with fewer students, and finally, that we be careful not to write off students once they have children or because of poor academic records. The narratives belie simple explanations of success or failure for females of color living in poverty. Rather, they suggest the importance of listening to youth as we reformulate education policy and practice.     

Loneliness in Middle Childhood: Concurrent and Longitudinal Predictors

The role of behavioral, sociometric, and attributional indices of social functioning in the development of peer-related loneliness was investigated in a short-term longitudinal study. Data were collected across a 1-year time span on 3 occasions from 128 third- through sixth-graders. Results were consistent with an additive model of loneliness. Withdrawn social behavior, lower peer acceptance, few or no friendships, and an internal-stable attributional style predicted higher levels of concurrent and future loneliness. Children who declined in peer acceptance, lost friends, and gained in internal-stable attributions showed gains in loneliness. Subgroup analyses indicated that children with no friends reported more loneliness than children with 1 or more friends; low-status friendless children reported more loneliness than low-status children with one or more friends; and low-status friendless children reported more loneliness than average- and high-status friendless children. Taken together, the findings suggest that loneliness in middle childhood is a stable phenomenon located in a complex web of interrelated aspects of social functioning.     

Cognitive Design Principles and the Successful Performer: A Study on Spatial Ability

An important trend in educational measurement is the use of principles of cognitive psychology to design achievement and ability test items. Many studies show that manipulating the stimulus features of items influences the processes, strategies, and knowledge structures that are involved in solution. However, little is known about how cognitive design influences individual differences. That is, does applying cognitive design principles change the background skills and abilities that are associated with successful performance? This study compared the correlates of two spatial ability tests that used the same item type but different test design principles (cognitive design versus psychometric design). The results indicated differences in factorial complexity in the two tests; specifically, the impact of verbal abilities was substantially reduced by applying the cognitive design principles.     

A Longitudinal Study in Mathematics Attitude

Abstract

Educators have expressed concern about the relationship of mathematics attitude and mathematics achievement. The present investigation examined the relationships between mathematics attitude and mathematics achievement over a 6-year period from the late elementary to the late secondary school level. The subjects were 607 students from an above average socio-economic suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. They were tested in the spring of 1960 with a mathematics attitude instrument and were retested in the spring of 1966. Measures of achievement in mathematics were available at both grade levels. Using a .05 level of significance the results showed a significant positive correlation between the elementary attitude scores and the secondary attitude scores. In addition significant positive correlations existed between all measures of attitude and achievement.     

Measuring and Validating Cognitive Modifiability as an Ability: A Study in the Spatial Domain

Measuring cognitive modifiability from the responsiveness of an individual's performance to intervention has long been viewed (e.g., Dearborne, 1921) as an alternative to traditional (static) ability measurement. Currently, dynamic testing, in which cues or instruction are presented with ability test items, is a popular method for assessing cognitive modifiability. Despite the long-standing interest, however, little data exists to support the validity of cognitive modifiability measures in any ability domain. Several special methodological difficulties have limited validity studies, including psychometric problems in measuring modifiability (i.e., as change), lack of appropriate validation criteria, and difficulty in linking modifiability to cognitive theory. In this article, relatively new developments for solving the validation problems are applied to measuring and validating spatial modifiability. Criterion-related validity for predicting learning in an applied knowledge domain, as well as construct validity, is supported.     

A Longitudinal Study of Family Socioeconomic Status (SES) Variables as Predictors of Socio-Emotional Resilience Among Mentored Youth

In this study, we explored socioeconomic status (SES) and family structure as predictors of resiliencies among at-risk youth before and after participating in schools-based mentoring programs. Twenty-four youths (13 girls) aged 13–18 (M = 16.21, SD = 1.76) participated. Youths completed pre- and post-test Developmental Assets Profile questionnaires, which assessed internal (e.g. social competence) and external (e.g. support) assets. Partial correlations (age, number of siblings controlled) indicated gains in internal and external assets were associated with lower family SES. These associations were predominantly due to links between maternal occupational status and child outcomes. Maternal education was not a unique predictor of risk among youth, suggesting that more proximal factors may impact the efficacy of youth mentoring.     

Predictors of Spelling Ability in Children With Down Syndrome

This study examined whether there are processing differences between children with Down syndrome (DS; n = 22; 7 years 8 months to 13 years 10 months) and typically developing children (TD; n = 22; 6 years 6 months to 10 years 10 months), matched for receptive vocabulary. The TD children performed better on tests of nonverbal intelligence (matrices), phonological awareness (sound deletion), and phonological short-term memory (digit span), as well as spelling accuracy (30 single words). Separate regression analyses revealed that nonverbal intelligence and phonological awareness were the best predictors of spelling accuracy for TD children, whereas receptive vocabulary and phonological short-term memory were the best predictors for children with DS. An examination of spelling errors suggested that although children with DS do use some phonological awareness during spelling, deficits in short-term memory appear to limit success. The implications of these results for intervention studies are briefly discussed.     

Emotional Over- and Undereating in Children: A Longitudinal Analysis of Child and Contextual Predictors

Eating more or eating less in response to negative emotions, called emotional over- and undereating, is common in children, but research on the etiology of these behaviors is in its infancy. Drawing on a large, representative community sample of Norwegian children followed up on a biennial basis from 6 to 10 years of age (analysis sample: n = 802), child and contextual predictors (i.e., child temperament, depression symptoms, serious life events, family functioning, parental sensitivity and structuring) of change in emotional over- and undereating were examined. Results revealed that low (temperamental) soothability and less parental structuring at age 6 predicted increased emotional overeating at age 10 and that lower family functioning at age 6 predicted more emotional undereating during the same period.     

Sports participation and academic performance: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

It has been argued that high school sports participation increases motivation and teaches teamwork and self-discipline. While several studies have shown that students who participate in athletic activities perform better in school than those who do not, it is not clear whether this association is a result of positive academic spillovers, or due to the influence of unobservables. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and a variety of statistical techniques designed to distinguish between these hypotheses, we examine the effect of sports participation on several measures of academic performance. Our results provide only limited evidence that sports participation leads to enhanced academic performance.     

4～7岁儿童空间认知和推理能力的测试研究

4~7岁儿童对空间图形的正确认识总体上处于较好水平.对图形和空间认知成绩的快速提高期出现在5岁半~5岁11个月(学龄前),对点数、推理能力的认知成绩的快速提高期出现在7岁~7岁5个月(初入学).与自然因素、基因遗传相比,人与环境间的互动作用,是儿童发展的主要的和根本的原因.我们既不能忽视自然成熟的因素,又须重视教育的重要影响.