Fundamental movement skill performance of preschool children in relation to family context

Evidence suggests the development of fundamental movement skill (FMS) is a key factor in promoting long-term physical activity. Low levels of activity among preschool children and the relationship between physical activity and the development of fundamental movement skills underline the need to determine the factors associated with children's development of such skills. As parents play an important role in the socialization process, the aim of this study was to examine correlates of family and neighbourhood characteristics as well as parental behaviour and beliefs on FMS performance in 4- to 6-year-old preschool children. Relationships between preschool children's FMS performance and family contextual variables were examined within a sample of 846 preschool children. Results identified positive associations of FMS performance with parental education, father's physical activity, transport to school by bicycle, and the high value placed by parents high on sport-specific aspects of children's physical activity. Variables negatively associated with preschool children's FMS performance included father-child interaction in TV-viewing and reading books, the high importance placed by parents on winning and performance in children's physical activity. Furthermore, the ambiguity of associations between FMS performance and parental beliefs underlined its complexity.     

The predictive validity of the Phelps Kindergarten Readiness Scale

This study assesses the predictive validity of the Phelps Kindergarten Readiness Scale (PKRS) for later academic achievement and explores the utility of a domain‐specific measure of kindergarten readiness. Kindergarten readiness scores were significantly correlated with both math and language arts achievement as measured by New York State fourth‐grade assessments for 148 students in a suburban, northeastern public school. In addition, each of the PKRS domains (Verbal, Perceptual, and Auditory) was correlated with later academic achievement. Two simultaneously calculated regression analyses showed that language arts skills were best predicted by the Verbal and Auditory domains of the PKRS and that math achievement was more complexly determined by all three readiness domains. Structural equation modeling using AMOS‐4 showed that the latent construct readiness, as measured by the PKRS domain scores, was positively and significantly related to the latent construct academic achievement. Finally, this relationship held when age, gender, and behavioral indices at the time of kindergarten screening were used as moderator variables. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 509–516, 2004.     

Personality Traits Are Associated With Cortical Development Across Adolescence: A Longitudinal Structural MRI Study

How personality traits relate to structural brain changes in development is an important but understudied question. In this study, cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA), estimated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), were investigated in 99 participants aged 8–19 years. Follow‐up MRI data were collected after on average 2.6 years for 74 individuals. The Big Five personality traits were related to longitudinal regional CT or SA development, but limited cross‐sectional relations were observed. Conscientiousness, emotional stability, and imagination were associated with more age‐expected cortical thinning over time. The results suggest that the substantial individual variability observed in personality traits may partly be explained by cortical maturation across adolescence, implying a developmental origin for personality–brain relations observed in adults.     

Using transdisciplinary research to examine talent identification and development in sport

Abstract

Effective sport talent identification and development (TID) programmes are integral to a nation’s success in international sport. Using a transdisciplinary approach that involved sport practitioners and researchers with diverse theoretical perspectives, we investigated TID factors in four Australian sports (Australian rules football, cricket, kayaking and tennis). A transdisciplinary approach allowed us to isolate and explore a range of factors critical to successful sport TID. This methodological article explores how this project moved TID research beyond its paradigmatic, quantitative, sport science lens and advanced knowledge and practice in TID from both theoretical and applied perspectives. The use of a transdisciplinary approach in future TID research is recommended.     

Vampires and Witches Go to School: Contemporary Young Adult Fiction,Gender, and the Gothic

In the twenty-first century, the Gothic has experienced a cultural resurgence in literature, film, and television for young adult audiences. Young adult readers, poised between childhood and adulthood, have proven especially receptive to the Gothic’s themes of liminality, monstrosity, transgression, romance, and sexuality (James, 2009, p. 116). As part of the Gothic’s incorporation into a broad range of texts for young people, the school story—a conventionally realist genre—has begun to include supernatural gothic characters including vampires, witches, angels, and zombies, and has once again become a popular genre for young readers. In the past decade, in particular, a large number of Gothic young adult series with female protagonists set in boarding schools have been published (These include Shadow Falls (2011–2013) by C.C. Hunter, Covenant (2011–2013) by Jennifer L. Armentrout, House of Night (2007–2014) by P.C. Cast, Mythos Academy (2011–2014) by Jennifer Estep, The Dragonian (2013–2015) by Adrienne Woods, The Morganville Vampires (2006–2014) by Rachel Caine, Blue Bloods (2006–2013) by Melissa de la Cruz, and Fallen (2009–2012) by Lauren Kate). In this article, we will consider the first books in three such supernatural Gothic series that feature vampires and witches: Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy (2007), Claudia Gray’s vampire romance Evernight (2008) and Rachel Hawkins’ Hex Hall (2010). These books are significant for the ways in which the traditional school story is adapted and transformed by the Gothic to define models of contemporary girlhood. Although Diane Long Hoeveler suggests that “the ‘body’ that emerges from female gothic textuality is a highly gendered one” (1998, p. 18), what we see in these texts is how the school story setting enables Gothic female protagonists who are unique, disruptive, and potentially transformative, despite the limitations enforced by the heterosexual romance plot. We argue that these novels, while conservative in some respects, rework the school story genre in that they foreground the sexual and romantic desires of girl protagonists regardless of the threat they constitute to the institution and the safety of others.     

IDENTIFYING AND CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Though National Association of School Psychologists standards acknowledge the urgent need for leadership skills among school psychologists and loosely define a leadership agenda, a cogent model for the training and practice of this skill set has not yet been explicated. The formulation of a preliminary conceptual framework is a particularly pressing agenda for school psychology practitioners and academicians who, in response to the call for increased accountability in general and special education, must shift curricula from a traditional diagnostic/consultative/intervention framework to include topics related to organizational effectiveness. The objective of this article is to identify key behaviors, skills, dispositions, and contextual variables that will facilitate successful leadership among practicing school psychologists and then to propose considerations for specialist‐level training in school psychology.