Children's wellbeing and cortisol levels in home-based and center-based childcare

The central question in this study is whether individual variability in children's cortisol levels and wellbeing at childcare can be explained by indices of quality of care and child characteristics. Participants were 71 children from childcare homes and 45 children from childcare centers in the age range of 20–40 months. In both types of settings equivalent measures and procedures were used. In home-based childcare, children experienced higher caregiver sensitivity, lower noise levels, and showed higher wellbeing compared to children in childcare centers. Caregiver sensitivity in home-based childcare – but not in center care – was positively associated with children's wellbeing. Additionally, children displayed higher cortisol levels at childcare than at home, irrespective of type of care. In home-based childcare, lower caregiver sensitivity was associated with higher total production of salivary cortisol during the day. In center-based childcare, lower global quality of care was associated with a rise in cortisol between 11 AM and 3 PM during the day. Quality of care is an important factor in young children's wellbeing and HPA stress reactivity.     

Attachment in institutionalized children: A review and meta-analysis

In this article we review the literature on attachment patterns in institutionalized children and then perform a meta-analysis on data from 10 attachment studies involving 399 children in institutional settings. We computed the overall attachment distribution of secure, insecure, and disorganized rates and explored the effect of a set of moderating variables (i.e., country of institutionalization, attachment assessment procedure, age at entry, and age at assessment). To overcome bias related to the small number of studies, we conducted both classical and Bayesian meta-analysis and obtained comparable results. Distribution of children's attachment patterns was: 18% secure, 28% insecure, and 54% disorganized/cannot classify. Compared to their family-reared peers, children living in an institution were found to be at greater risk for insecure and disorganized attachment, with a similar medium effect size for both distributions (d = 0.77 and d = 0.76, respectively). The following moderating variables were associated with insecure attachment: representational assessment procedures (d = 0.63) and Eastern European countries of origin (d = 1.13). Moderators for disorganized attachment were: Eastern European countries of origin (d = 1.12), age at institution entry before the first birthday (d = 0.93), and age at assessment under three years of age (d = 0.91). Implications for child development and policies are discussed.     

Effectiveness of grade retention: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Research on the effectiveness of grade retention has a long history, yet, has seen an upsurge during the last decade. In this study, we review 84 recent, methodologically sound studies estimating effects of retention in grades K-12 on repeaters' and nonrepeaters' development, in a variety of countries across the world, disentangling grade and age comparison results. Based on vote counting analysis and three-level metaregression analysis we find grade retention to have an average zero effect, indicating that repeaters and non-repeaters seem to show a similar development, on average. At the same time, we find grade retention effects to differ according to some specific effect and study characteristics. More specifically, grade retention seems less effective in countries applying a mixture of grade retention and tracking to tackle student heterogeneity, and when repeaters are compared with non-repeaters of the same age. Conversely, grade retention seems more effective in countries using strategies such as ability grouping, setting, and streaming to deal with student heterogeneity. Positive effects also seem to arise when studying students' psychosocial functioning, when investigating short-run effects, when comparing repeaters with their younger non-retained grade-mates, and when evaluating effects via a regression discontinuity method.     

Children's overestimation of performance across age,task, and historical time: A meta-analysis

Children tend to overestimate their performance on a variety of tasks and activities. The present meta-analysis examines the specificity of this phenomenon across age, tasks, and more than five decades of historical time (1968–2021). Self-overestimation was operationalized as the ratio between children's prospective self-estimates of task performance and their actual (i.e., objectively measured) task performance. A total of 246 effect sizes from 43 published articles were analyzed (4277 participants; 49.6% girls; sample mean ages range from 4 to 12; 86.0% of studies conducted in North America or Europe). Children's self-overestimation was robust across tasks, with their estimates of performance being 1.3 times their actual performance. In addition, children's self-overestimation decreased with sample age and increased with the year of data collection.     

Children's attitudes towards disability: A review and analysis of the literature

A first step towards the design and implementation of a successful mainstreaming program requires a careful examination of two key issues. First, what are children's attitudes towards disability, and second, what are the critical elements involved in facilitating attitude change? This paper examines the current research literature on children's attitudes towards disability and programs aimed at attitude change. The review culminates in a synthesis of the key themes and issues involved and provides a foundation for further study.     

Interventions for academically underachieving students: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Despite decades of research on interventions for academically underachieving students, no clear answers have emerged. Synthesizing across existing intervention efforts can help in understanding not only the overall effectiveness for these interventions, but also the factors that may moderate such effectiveness. In the current study, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of interventions for academically underachieving students, exploring effects on achievement and psychosocial outcomes. Overall, findings from 53 studies revealed that interventions are moderately effective in improving achievement and psychosocial outcomes. Moderator analyses revealed that intervention effectiveness varied by grade level. Implications for research and practice are discussed, particularly the need for rigorous evaluations of well-designed interventions that consider the fit between students’ unique reasons for underachievement and the makeup of the intervention.     

Gender differences in learning styles: A narrative review and quantitative meta-analysis

This article reviews research on gender and learning styles of students, 18 and older, conducted after 1980. Curry's onion model (1983) is used to classify definitions of learning styles and to reconstruct the theoretical frameworks used. The extent to which learning style is considered stable or variable in different learning contexts determines its position in the model. Most studies used theoretical frameworks that belonged in the middle or outer layers of the model. This location indicates the strong influence of learning context on women's and men's learning styles. While there were differences between learning styles, research designs rarely included learning contexts.In addition to the narrative review, we performed a quantitative meta-analysis on two instruments (Kolb's Learning Style Inventory and Entwistle's Approaches to Studying Inventory) to determine the direction and magnitude of gender differences in various samples. A search for these two instruments resulted in 26 studies for which the necessary statistics were available. On Kolb's instrument, the results showed that men were more likely than women to prefer the abstract conceptualisation mode of learning. On Entwistle's ASI a difference was found on the affective components of approaches to studying.     

Children's conceptions of probability — A psychological and pedagogical review

This paper identifies a number of key questions concerning children's understanding of probability. A selection of psychological and pedagogical research studies is evaluated. Attention is drawn to the various definitions of probability assumed by their authors, indicating the relevance of these to an understanding and synthesis of the reported findings. The possibility of basing relevant classroom practice on subjective rather than theoretical concepts of probability is discussed.     

Adverse childhood experiences and associated health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundThe Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente developed the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale to identify negative experiences in childhood. The goal of this study is to systematically review outcomes associated with the ACEs in the CDC-Kaiser ACE scale to understand the diversity of outcomes associated with this scale.MethodsThe authors conducted a search of English language articles published through September 30, 2016 using OVID Medline®; Ovid Medline® Daily; Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-indexed citations; ERIC®; HAPI®; and SCOPUS®. Articles were selected by trained reviewers based on a priori inclusion criteria including: research, healthy sample, used the CDC-Kaiser ACE scale, and assessed some health outcome. Two reviewers used an abstraction form to independently collect data from each study. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratio associated with ACE scale scores were aggregated and compared.ResultsFrom 3167 unique titles, we identified 96 articles that assessed health outcomes associated with the ACEs in the CDC-Kaiser ACE scale. There were more studies focusing on psychosocial/behavioral outcomes than medical outcomes. The majority of the included studies were retrospective, observational, and relied on the same data set. Psychosocial/behavioral outcomes had higher odds ratio than medical outcomes with increasing ACE scale scores.ConclusionsExposure to multiple ACEs is associated with a wide variety of outcomes. This data suggests a benefit of screening for ACEs using this scale and highlights the need to find interventions to ameliorate their effects.     

Perinatal mental health and risk of child maltreatment: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundMental health problems in parents have been identified as a risk factor for child maltreatment. The perinatal period (from conception to 1 year) is a critical period but it is unclear whether perinatal mental health problems are also associated with increased risk.ObjectiveTo review evidence on perinatal mental health and risk of child maltreatment.MethodsSearches were conducted on six databases and 24 studies reported in 30 papers identified. Studies were conducted in seven countries, mainly the USA (n = 14). Sample sizes ranged from 48-14,893 and most examined mothers (n = 17). Studies were conducted in community (n = 17) or high-risk (n = 7) samples.ResultsThe majority of studies found a relationship between parental perinatal mental health problems and risk of child maltreatment, but inconsistent findings were observed between and within studies. The few studies that examined fathers (n = 6) all found a relationship between fathers’ mental health and risk of child maltreatment. Meta-analysis of 17 studies (n = 22,042) showed perinatal mental health problems increased risk of child maltreatment by OR 3.04 (95% CI 2.29–4.03). This relationship was moderated by type of sample, with larger effects for risk of child maltreatment in high-risk samples. The relationship was not moderated by type of mental illness, child maltreatment; methodological or measurement factors.ConclusionThe association between perinatal mental health and risk of child maltreatment is similar to that observed at other times during childhood. Methodological heterogeneity and inconsistent findings mean conclusions are tentative and need to be considered alongside other individual, family and social/cultural risk factors.     

Children's self-talk in naturalistic classroom settings in middle childhood: A systematic literature review

Children's self-talk, also known as inner speech, is an adaptive tool for regulating learning and managing the social demands of classrooms. This systematic literature review identified and analysed the existing research on children's self-talk in naturalistic classroom settings in middle childhood. Twenty-four empirical studies on naturalistic self-talk in classrooms met the inclusion criteria and were quality rated. The study methods were varied, and included reflective techniques (e.g., questionnaires, journals, and thought listing) and momentary techniques (e.g., experience sampling method, think alouds). The studies were mainly grounded in sociocultural theory or metacognition. Generally, studies found that self-talk functioned to help children to regulate task engagement and cope with social challenges. Self-talk was also highly malleable: it was moderated across studies by internal and external factors including age, gender, ability, creativity, anxiety, and interactions with teachers and classmates. Suggestions for theory, methodology, and practice are discussed.     

The process of review: A levels of processing approach

This experiment investigated the effects of reviewing notes at a deeper level of abstraction, by means of reorganization. No differences in immediate recognition performance were found for subjects who reorganized notes into an instructor-generated matrix versus subjects who reviewed in their typical manner. An interaction between method of review and type of delayed test was apparent. Reorganization during review resulted in relatively higher achievement on a free recall test while unstructured review produced higher achievement on a cued recall exam. This interaction was unpredicted by the theory of encoding specificity but was explained in regard to the theory of episode matching. Instructionally, reorganization was advocated as a review technique for most learning situations in which retrieval cues are not imposed.     

Beyond cold technology: A systematic review and meta-analysis on emotions in technology-based learning environments

Understanding emotions in technology-based learning environments (TBLEs) has become a paramount goal across different research communities, but to date, these have operated in relative isolation. Based on control-value theory (Pekrun, 2006), we reviewed 186 studies examining emotions in TBLEs that were published between 1965 and 2018. We extracted effect sizes quantifying relations between emotions (enjoyment, curiosity/interest, anxiety, anger/frustration, confusion, boredom) and their antecedents (control-value appraisals, prior knowledge, gender, TBLE characteristics) and outcomes (engagement, learning strategies, achievement). Mean effects largely supported hypotheses (e.g., positive relations between enjoyment and appraisals, achievement, and cognitive support) and remained relatively stable across moderators. These findings imply that levels of emotions differ across TBLEs, but that their functional relations with appraisals and learning are equivalent across environments. Implications for research and designing emotionally sound TBLEs are discussed.     

The physical activity levels of preschool-aged children: A systematic review

This systematic review presents research on the physical activity levels of preschool-aged children (aged 2–6 years). Thirty-nine primary studies (published 1986–2007) representing a total of 10,316 participants (5236 male and 5080 female), from seven countries are described and the physical activity behaviors of this population are considered in accordance with the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) physical activity guidelines for preschoolers. Upon review of the evidence, it is apparent that nearly half of preschool-aged children do not engage in sufficient physical activity. Current recommendations suggest a minimum of 60 min of physical activity per day; only 54% of participants throughout the studies achieved this. Furthermore, as with other age groups, boys participate in considerably more physical activity than girls. It is clear from this systematic review that nearly half of children studied are not meeting the recommended guidelines for physical activity. Therefore, effective interventions that promote and foster physical activity in children are necessary, especially in females. However, a more objective physical activity guideline for preschoolers is necessary; measurement of activity needs to become more unified to compare and track activity more effectively.     

The myth of contextual interference learning benefit in sports practice: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The contextual interference (CI) model hypothesizes random practice (high CI) leads to inferior acquisition, but superior retention and transfer capabilities compared to blocked practice (low CI). These phenomena are well established in laboratory settings. However, the transfer to applied settings, particularly in sports practice is still under discussion. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the possible generalisability of the CI phenomenon in sports-based contexts with regard to performance outcomes. Up to April 16th, 2022, five electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Taylor & Francis, and SciELO) were used to search for relevant studies investigating differences between blocked and random schedules at post-acquisition, retention, and/or transfer tests. Using the PICOS criteria, a total of 933 records were screened. Outcomes evaluating the acquisition, retention, and/or transfer performances in sports skills in healthy participants were included. The quality of the selected studies was scored using the PEDro scale. Thirty-seven studies were selected, of which twenty-seven were of good quality and the remaining ten were rated as fair quality. Out of 205 overall pooled outcomes, only 43 performance outcomes (21%) agreed with the CI phenomenon after the acquisition (18 out of 103), retention (19 out of 84), and/or transfer (6 out of 36) phases. No statistically significant overall difference between blocked and random practice was detected at post-acquisition (effect size (ES) = 0.1, p = 0.154), retention (ES = −0.159, p = 0.141) or transfer testing (ES = −0.243, p = 0.071). The subgroup analysis showed inferior acquisition and superior retention following random practice only in individuals aged 20–24 years (ES = 0.282, p = 0.030 during the acquisition, and ES = −0.405, p = 0.011 during retention), with no difference at transfer testing for this specific age group. No similar significant effects have been concurrently identified during both acquisition and retention phases in any of the remaining subgroups (e.g., examined based on experience level, sports, skills, and testing protocol categories). The present results suggest CI effects can only be confirmed under very limited conditions, which seriously challenges the extension of CI effects to the sport context in general. Problematic conclusions for children's learning are discussed, as well as future research strategies to better understand counterintuitive learning approaches.     

The beliefs of teachers and daycare staff regarding children of divorce: A Q methodological study

This Q methodological study explores beliefs of daycare staff and teachers regarding young children’s reactions related to divorce. The Q factor analysis resulted in two viewpoints. Participants on the viewpoint “Child problems” believe that children show various emotional and behavioral problems related to divorce, while those on the “Structure is working” viewpoint believe structure in daycare centers and parental cooperation help children to overcome divorce-related difficulties. Selective perception based on subjective experiences may have influenced these views. Practical implications are discussed. Q methodology and cognitive interviewing techniques seem efficient in exploring daycare staff beliefs.     

Webinars in higher education and professional training: A meta-analysis and systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Digital learning environments are increasingly popular in higher education and professional training. Teaching and learning via webinars, and web conferencing more broadly, represents one widely used approach. Webinars are defined as web-based seminars, in which participants and facilitators communicate live over the Internet across distant geographical locations using shared virtual platforms and interact ubiquitously and synchronously in real time via voice over IP technology and web camera equipment. In the past, studies have reported mixed evidence concerning the effectiveness of webinars in promoting student achievement. As a remedy, this systematic literature review and meta-analysis cumulates observed effect sizes from previously published randomized controlled trials and corrects artifactual variance induced by sampling error. The research questions were: How effective are webinars in promoting student achievement? And which characteristics moderate webinar effectiveness? The findings suggest that webinars were slightly more effective than control conditions (online asynchronous learning management systems and offline face-to-face classroom instruction), but the differences were trivial in size. Differences were moderated by webinar, participant, achievement, and publication characteristics. This meta-analysis is the first to systematically review and meta-analyze the best evidence available for evaluating the effectiveness of webinars and video conferences in promoting student knowledge and skills. The implications of the study's findings can inform school teachers, lecturers, trainers, technologists, and theorists interested in the computer-supported design, implementation, delivery, tutoring, and assessment of webinar-based learning environments.     

Does training matter? A meta-analysis and review of caregiver training studies

A review of studies published between 1980 and 2005 shows a significant positive effect of specialized training on the competency of caregivers in childcare (d = 0.45, S.E. = 0.10). Experimental results from the meta-analysis were significantly smaller for settings with no fixed curriculum content, delivery of the training at multiple sites and large-scale programs. Results were also smaller when tests were used that did not align closely with the content of the training. Furthermore, experimental results were smaller for the skills domain, compared to the knowledge and attitude domain. A subset of experiments with both caregiver and child data also showed a positive effect, supporting the causal link between caregiver training, caregiver competencies and child behavior in childcare, although this effect was not significant due to the small number of studies (d = 0.55, S.E. = 0.30). Based on these findings, we advocate the inclusion of instruction related to teacher–child interaction in the curriculum of vocational training for caregivers.