Executive functioning predicts academic achievement in middle school: A four-year longitudinal study

Executive functioning (EF) is a strong predictor of children's and adolescents' academic performance. Although research indicates that EF can increase during childhood and adolescence, few studies have tracked the effect of EF on academic performance throughout the middle school grades. EF was measured at the end of Grades 6–9 through 21 teachers' and 22 teacher assistants' assessments of 322 adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds who attended an urban, chartered middle/high school. Assessment of EF was done through the completion of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). BRIEF global executive composite scores (GEC) predicted both current and future English/language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and Spanish annual grade point averages (GPAs). The effect of BRIEF GEC scores often overshadowed the effects of gender, poverty, and having an individual education plan; the other, non–BRIEF-related effects retained slightly more impact among teacher assistant–derived data than teacher-derived data. The strong relationships between BRIEF GEC scores and these GPAs also remained constant over these 4 years: There was little evidence that EF changed over the measured grades or that the relationship between EF and grades itself regularly changed. The findings indicate that EF scores during early middle grades can well predict academic performance in subsequent secondary-school grades. Although methodological constraints may have impeded the abilities of other factors (i.e., poverty) to be significantly related to GPAs, the effects of EF were strong and robust enough to prompt us to recommend its use to guide long-term, academic interventions.     

Basic psychological skills usage and competitive anxiety responses: perceived underlying mechanisms

This study examined the relationship between basic psychological skills usage (i.e., goal-setting, imagery, self-talk, and relaxation) and the intensity and directional dimensions of competitive anxiety. Semistructured interviews were used on a sample of 15 elite athletes (M age = 24.3 years, SD = 4.2) from a variety of team and individual sports. Findings revealed that the participants maintained the intensity of their anxiety response prior to competition and could deploy goal-setting, imagery, or self-talk to enable facilitative interpretations of anxiety-related symptoms to performance. Higher levels of self-confidence and an optimistic outlook toward forthcoming competition were also expressed. The underlying mechanisms perceived to be responsible for these effects included effort and motivation, attentional focus, and perceived control over the anxiety response.     

Linking academic performance to optimistic attributional style: attributions following positive events matter most

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Optimistic attributional style has been shown to be reliably associated with high well-being and low depression and (Hu et al., Journal of Social and...     

A qualitative investigation of the temporal patterning of the precompetitive anxiety response

The aim of this study was to examine retrospective perceptions and causal beliefs about temporal experiences of competitive anxiety and related symptoms in the lead up to competition. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 9 elite performers to examine the interaction of intensity, frequency and direction of symptoms associated with competitive anxiety before competition. Data analysis identified six causal networks that supported theoretical predictions suggesting that intensity of cognitive anxiety symptoms remained relatively stable in the lead up to competition, whereas somatic anxiety peaked sharply at the onset of performance. Frequency of anxiety symptoms increased as the competition approached and changes in interpretation of anxiety symptoms were also reported, with self-confidence identified as a moderating variable. The findings highlight the dynamic properties of the stress response and emphasize the need to consider the idiosyncratic nature of the level, frequency and interpretation of performers' precompetitive experiences.