Syndromes of social maladaptation among elementary school boys and girls

The cross-sex comparability of child social maladaptation is assessed within populations of elementary school children. The randomly aggregated normative sample for the revised Bristol Social Adjustment Guides (BSAG) was partitioned into subsamples of 1,305 boys and 1,222 girls ranging in age from 5 to 15 years. The children were observed by 900 classroom teachers and rated on the BSAG's six core syndromes and two associated groupings of problem behavior. For each sex, scores on the various behavioral groupings were normalized and submitted to principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation of retained dimensions. A general two-factor model emerged, with one factor resembling a dimension of general overreaction and the other a dimension of general underreaction. Cross-sex equivalence of factor structures was confirmed via Kaiser's analytic factor relations process. The BSAG's core syndromes and nonsyndromic groupings were found to sustain similar functions across the sexes, although differential trends were noted in the prevalence of specific behavioral syndromes.     

Experiences of violence and deficits in academic achievement among urban primary school children in Jamaica

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine the relationship between children's experiences of three different types of violence and academic achievement among primary school children in Kingston, Jamaica.MethodsA cross-sectional study of 1300 children in grade 5 [mean (S.D.) age: 11 (0.5) years] from 29 government primary schools in urban areas of Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica, was conducted. Academic achievement (mathematics, reading, and spelling) was assessed using the Wide Range Achievement Test. Children's experiences of three types of violence – exposure to aggression among peers at school, physical punishment at school, and exposure to community violence – were assessed by self-report using an interviewer administered questionnaire.ResultsFifty-eight percent of the children experienced moderate or high levels of all three types of violence. Boys had poorer academic achievement and experienced higher levels of aggression among peers and physical punishment at school than girls. Children's experiences of the three types of violence were independently associated with all three indices of academic achievement. There was a dose–response relationship between children's experiences of violence and academic achievement with children experiencing higher levels of violence having the poorest academic achievement and children experiencing moderate levels having poorer achievement than those experiencing little or none.ConclusionsExposure to three different types of violence was independently associated with poor school achievement among children attending government, urban schools in Jamaica. Programs are needed in schools to reduce the levels of aggression among students and the use of physical punishment by teachers and to provide support for children exposed to community violence.Practice implicationsChildren in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean experience significant amounts of violence in their homes, communities, and schools. In this study, we demonstrate a dose–response relationship between primary school children's experiences of three different types of violence and their academic achievement. The study points to the need for validated violence prevention programs to be introduced in Jamaican primary schools. Such programs need to train teachers in appropriate classroom management and discipline strategies and to promote children's social and emotional competence and prevent aggression.     

Controlling parenting and physical aggression during elementary school

The goal of the present study was to examine whether controlling parenting contributes to the problem of physical aggression. Developmental trajectories of children's physical aggression were modeled from yearly teachers' ratings, from ages 6 to 12. Multinomial logistic regressions (N = 1,508) served to identify risk factors that distinguish children who display different levels of physical aggression throughout grade school. Results revealed that being a boy and having a reactive temperament were important child predictors. Parental separation and an early onset of motherhood were also significant risk factors. Finally, mothers' controlling parenting increased the odds of following the highest trajectory of physical aggression, above and beyond the previous risk factors.     

Public school aggression among children with varying day-care experience

59 children with varying amounts and types of day-care experience were followed over their first 2 or 3 years of public schooling. Schoolteachers rated aggressiveness of several types and in several situations by these children, and also supplied information about managing the children, about children's use of strategies to avoid conflict, and about several associated skills and behaviors. Multivariate analyses indicated that children who had attended a cognitively oriented day-care program beginning in infancy were more aggressive than all other groups of children who had attended day care. Aggression among these children, however, declined over time, the children were not considered difficult to manage, and they were well liked by teachers. It was speculated that the increased aggressiveness among children attending cognitively oriented day care may have been caused by several problems of adaptation to the school setting.     

The relationship of academic and social cognition to behaviour in bullying situations among Greek primary school children

This research explored links between cognition (both social and academic) and children's behaviour in a bullying situation (participant roles). Participants were 186 fourth to sixth grade boys and girls from four primary schools in central Greece. Six categories of social cognition (self-efficacy for assertion, self-efficacy for aggression, expectations that aggression will lead to rewards, expectations that aggression will lead to victim suffering, the value placed on rewards and the value placed on suffering in the victim) and two categories of academic cognition (self-efficacy for learning and performance and the self-regulatory strategies used while solving problems) were investigated in connection to six participant roles (bully, victim, assistant, reinforcer, defender and outsider). Results suggest that there are differential associations between cognitions and the roles that children take in bullying situations, according to gender. Academic self-efficacy combined with certain social cognitions predicted both victimisation and bullying behaviour. Self-regulatory strategies combined with social cognitions similar to victim's and bully's predicted both assistant and reinforcer behaviour, while none of the cognition measures predicted defender or outsider behaviour. Implications for interventions against bullying are briefly discussed.     

Cheating among elementary school children: A machine learning approach

Academic cheating is common, but little is known about its early emergence. It was examined among Chinese second to sixth graders (N = 2094; 53% boys, collected between 2018 and 2019) using a machine learning approach. Overall, 25.74% reported having cheated, which was predicted by the best machine learning algorithm (Random Forest) at a mean accuracy of 81.43%. Cheating was most strongly predicted by children's beliefs about the acceptability of cheating and the observed prevalence and frequency of peer cheating at school. These findings provide important insights about the early development of academic cheating, and how to promote academic integrity and limit cheating before it becomes entrenched. The present research demonstrates that machine learning can be effectively used to analyze developmental data.     

Syntactic skills in sentence reading comprehension among Chinese elementary school children

The present study examined the role of syntactic skills for reading comprehension in Chinese. Two hundred and seventy-two Chinese children were tested on their phonological processing, orthographic, morphological, syntactic, and literacy skills at Grades 1 and 2. Hierarchical multiple regression results showed that syntactic skills, in terms of word order, connective usage, and knowledge of morphosyntactic structure (measured by an oral cloze task) in Grade 1, significantly predicted sentence reading comprehension in Grade 2 after controlling for the children’s age, IQ, and word level reading-related cognitive skills in Grade 1, and word reading in Grade 2. As in alphabetic languages, syntactic skills are essential for reading comprehension in Chinese. The unique roles of individual syntactic skills for understanding sentences in Chinese are discussed.     

Relationships among burnout, social support, and negative mood regulation expectancies of elementary school teachers in Korea

The purposes of this study are as follows: (1) to determine whether burnout among elementary school teachers in Korea differs on selected demographic variables, (2) to investigate the relationship between burnout and negative mood regulation expectancies, as an internal variable, and social support, as an external variable, and (3) to examine the relative effects of these two variables on burnout. As regards burnout differences according to grades under their charge, upper-grade teachers reported experiencing a greater degree of burnout than lower-grade teachers. In particular, a significant difference was found in depersonalization. With respect to the relationships among burnout, social support, and negative mood regulation expectancies, perceived social support in general was associated with a lowered degree of burnout, while negative mood regulation expectancies correlated negatively with burnout. Furthermore, negative mood regulation expectancies, as an internal variable, affected burnout more than social support, as an external variable. This finding suggests that burnout can be alleviated by controlling negative mood regulation expectancies, and therefore, intervention efforts, such as counseling, continuing education, or training programs designed to enhance teachers’ negative mood regulation expectancies, could benefit teachers in reducing their burnout.     

Stability of biases in self-evaluation and relations to well-being among elementary school children

This paper aims to investigate to what extent a bias in self-evaluation is an enduring characteristic among children, and whether there is a relationship between the trajectory of children's self-evaluation bias over a five-year period and their psychosocial adjustment. 462 children (200 boys) in Grade 3 (mean age = 8.6 years old) or Grade 4 (mean age = 9.7 years old) at the outset of the study participated following their parents’ written consent. The group-based approach using a multinomial modeling strategy allowed identifying five groups based on changes in the children's self-evaluation bias over the five-year period. Children in the stable and highly positive bias group stood out as having markedly more positive scores on all indices of psychosocial adjustment, and also outperformed the other children in achievement in language arts and math.     

Math-gender stereotypes in elementary school children

A total of 247 American children between 6 and 10 years of age (126 girls and 121 boys) completed Implicit Association Tests and explicit self-report measures assessing the association of (a) me with male (gender identity), (b) male with math (math-gender stereotype), and (c) me with math (math self-concept). Two findings emerged. First, as early as second grade, the children demonstrated the American cultural stereotype that math is for boys on both implicit and explicit measures. Second, elementary school boys identified with math more strongly than did girls on both implicit and self-report measures. The findings suggest that the math-gender stereotype is acquired early and influences emerging math self-concepts prior to ages at which there are actual differences in math achievement.     

Off-task behavior in elementary school children

This paper reports results from a large-scale observational study investigating attention allocation during instructional activities in elementary school students (kindergarten through fourth-grade). In Study 1, 22 classrooms participated while a more diverse sample of 30 classrooms participated in Study 2. This work investigated temporal patterns in children's attention allocation by collecting observational data on children's on- and off-task behaviors at three different time points (i.e., beginning, middle, and end of the school year) [Study 1]. We also investigated whether patterns of attention allocation changed as a function of student characteristics (gender, grade-level, SES), teachers' instructional design choices (instructional format and duration of an instructional activity), and school type (private, parochial, public charter schools) [Studies 1 & 2]. Children's patterns of attention allocation fluctuated over the course of the school year. Female students were found to be more on-task compared to male students. On-task behavior tended to decline as the instructional duration increased. The lowest rates of on-task behavior were observed while children were engaged in whole-group instructional formats. An effect of school type was found with higher proportions of on-task behavior observed in parochial schools. However, the effect of grade-level was equivocal across studies. These findings can begin to form a foundation for the development of research-based guidelines for instructional design aimed to support engagement among students in elementary classrooms.     

Cooperative-competitive social orientation and school achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American children

Researchers have suggested that the relatively poor academic performance of Mexican-American compared to Anglo-American children may result from cultural differences in cooperative-competitive social orientation. To test the relative contribution of cooperative-competitive social orientation as a personality predictor of school achievement, the cooperativeness-competitiveness, field independence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement of 45 Anglo-American and 125 Mexican-American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children were assessed. The results indicate (1) competitiveness is positively related to school achievement among the Anglo-American children but not the Mexican-American children; (2) among the Anglo-American children competitiveness is a better predictor of school achievement than field independence, locus of control, and self-esteem; (3) the personality variables are moderately but not independently related to school achievement within both cultural groups; and (4) the between-culture variance in the personality variables does not account for the between-culture variance in school achievement. Implications of the present results for understanding within- and between-group differences in school achievement are discussed.     

Similarities in the social competencies of learning disabled and low achieving elementary school children.

This study sought to examine distinctions in social competencies between children with learning disabilities (LD) and other children who also experience academic difficulties. Eighty-five children with LD (54 male, 31 female) in Grades 3 through 6 from a large urban school district were compared to a group of low achieving (LA) peers matched on achievement as well as sex, race, and grade. The samples were 42% black, 39% Hispanic, and 19% Anglo. Both groups completed two self-concept questionnaires, a loneliness scale, and a measure of their social relationships outside of school. In addition, their classmates completed a peer rating scale and their teachers completed two ratings of the child's social skills. The results indicated that children with LD and LA children were comparable on most measures, although children with LD reported themselves as being less lonely than LA children. In addition, regular-class children rated children with LD as more likable than LA children. The results highlight similarities in the social competencies of children with LD and LA children and suggest that special education classes may offer some social advantages to children with mild handicaps.