Category: Social and Motivational Outcomes

Categories
Achievement Kindergarten Social and Motivational Outcomes

A cross-cultural comparison the link between executive function and academic outcomes in early childhood

Executive function (EF) refers to a set of self-regulatory skills to consciously guide thoughts, actions, and emotions towards achieving goals. EF includes the cognitive aspect (“cool” EF) and the affective aspect (“hot” EF). Cool EF involves working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility, while hot EF involves decision making based on emotions. In a recent study, Chen and Yeung compared how hot EF and cool EF link to academic skills across various ethnic groups of preschoolers in Singapore: Chinese, Malays, and Indians. Cool EF was represented by working memory (WM) and hot EF by delay of gratification (DoG) in the study.

Two wave data were collected from a Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study in 2018/19 and two years later (2021). The study sample consisted of 2,527 children (70.7% Chinese, 19.9% Malays, 12.4% Indians) aged 36-83 months (M=58.9) during the first wave. Each child completed the WM and DoG tasks, and the child’s self-control was reported by primary caregiver (95.4% mothers) in first wave. Standardized math and reading tests scores were collected in the second wave. The findings are shown below.

  • Chinese children developed delay of gratification around age 4, approximately 2 years earlier than their Malay and Indian counterparts and outperformed them in working memory. However, no difference was found in self-control among the three ethnicities in any age group.
  • Chinese children outperformed age-matched Malay and Indian children in reading and math scores.
  • Across ethnic groups, DoG positively associated with WM, which further predicted higher achievement scores in reading and math two years later. WM was a mediator which explained the effect of DoG on test scores.
  • Self-control mediated the effect of DoG on later reading (β=.010) and math skills (β =0.009) was only found significant for Chinese children with very small effect sizes, as the Chinese sample was much larger than the other two groups.

The findings of this study provide further understanding of culture variability and consistency in development of hot and cool EF skills, and their association with later academic outcomes in an Asian context. Further research is needed to investigate which factors might explain the early development gap and academic outcomes across subcultures in Singapore.

 

Source: Chen, L., & Yeung, W.-J. J. (2023). Self-regulation and academic achievement among Singaporean young children: A cross-cultural comparison in a multicultural Asian society. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 01650254231170442. https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254231170442… Read the rest

Categories
Maths and Science Learning Primary School Education Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

The negative impact of math anxiety on math performance is stronger among girls than boys

Math anxiety is commonly known as negatively associated with math performance among students. Per the Cognitive-Attentional theory, a high anxiety level impedes recall and the working memory capacity, subsequently leading to lower performance. Using a large sample, Yu and colleagues conducted a study to examine whether the math anxiety-achievement link depends on gender. They hypothesized that the difference may be explained by emotional susceptibility which is the ability to experience and be influenced by emotions. Females are more sensitive to negative emotions, while males are more composed and less vulnerable. Moreover, neuroimaging indicates different emotional processing modes between genders.

The study involved 28,129 grade 4 and grade 8 students from 489 primary schools and 238 secondary schools in Qingdao, China. The researchers measured the students’ math anxiety using an abbreviated Math Anxiety Rating Scale and math performance using a researcher compiled multiple set of tests in May 2018. The results showed that:

  • Compared to girls, boys reported slightly higher mean math anxiety scores for both grades. There was no significant gender difference in math scores.
  • Girls exhibited a stronger negative association between math anxiety and math performance. In other words, female students who reported higher levels of math anxiety tended to have lower math scores than their male counterparts.
  • The negative math anxiety-achievement link was stronger in grade 8 than in grade 4. The link increase with age could be related to the increased difficulty of the math curriculum.

The study found that the impact of math anxiety on math performance was stronger in girls than in boys and stronger in eighth graders than in fourth graders. Though there was no direct proof that the gender difference might be explained by emotional susceptibility, based on the large sample and consistent results, authors suggested that teachers could be more attentive towards girls who experience negative emotions related to math and refrain from using gender stereotypes. As the link intensifies with age, it’s crucial to take preventive measure when students are young.

 

Source: Yu, X., Zhou, H., Sheng, P., Ren, B., Wang, Y., Wang, H., & Zhou, X. (2023). Math anxiety is more closely associated with math performance in female students than in male students. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04349-y… Read the rest

Categories
Primary School Education Programme Evaluation Social and Motivational Outcomes

Impacts of a SEL program on primary students in China

A recent quasi-experimental study was conducted by Shi and Cheung to evaluate the effect of an author developed and scripted a social emotional learning program, which based on the Collaborative Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework, on Chinese primary students. Participants were 366 students (boys = 197) from 8 fifth grade classrooms in one primary school in Northern China (4 intervention, 4 control). Outcome measures included five competencies for social emotional skills, namely, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scales was used to identify strength and difficulties of children’s behavior, emotions, and relationships. All scales assessed through self-reported questionnaire.

Students in treatment group attended 12 40-min lessons in fall semester of 2021. After controlling baseline scores and students’ characteristics, results of MANCOVA showed:

  • Compared to students in control group, students in treatment group scored significantly higher in self-awareness (ES=+0.37), relationship skills (ES =+0.25), and responsible decision making (ES = +0.25).
  • There were no significant differences in terms of self-management (ES = +0.17) and social awareness (ES = +0.17).
  • Students in treatment group had significant fewer conduct problems (ES= -0.24).
  • In terms of moderation effects, students with lower initial self-awareness were benefit more in improving self-awareness.
  • No significant differences of effects were found between gender and between social economic status.

Although the intervention period was short, the study provided evidence for the applicability of a SEL curriculum based on CASEL framework in Chinese context. Moreover, a school based SEL could be a promising approach to improve social emotional skills and reducing conduct problems, that it was developed and implemented taking into account of Chinese culture.

 

Source: Shi, J., & Cheung, A. C. K. (2022). The impacts of a social emotional learning program on elementary school students in China: A quasi-experimental study. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-022-00707-9… Read the rest

Categories
Achievement Primary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Self-regulated learning and reading comprehension

Strategies that teach self-regulated learning in the context of other academic domains have been found to support academic achievement. In response to these findings, Nuñez and colleagues conducted an experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of the paired reading and writing activities for “Yellow’s Trials and Tribulations,” a story from The Rainbow Program. The intervention consisted of guiding students to work through activities about characters who must use self-regulated learning strategies to progress through the story and meet their goals.

Study participants were children in grades 3 and 4 in state-funded and charter schools in Spain. Eighteen classes were assigned to the treatment (N=403), and 16 were assigned to a business-as-usual control condition (N=355). Treatment teachers attended four 3-hour professional development sessions focused on embedding self-regulated learning strategies in reading comprehension instruction. Researchers randomly audited lessons to evaluate the implementation fidelity and found that teachers implemented the intervention according to the established protocol with 87% accuracy. Treatment students participated in 12 weeks of 1-hour intervention lessons.

The study found the treatment group outperformed the control group on measures of self-regulated learning (ES=+0.77) and reading comprehension (ES=+1.21). Findings provide strong evidence for embedding the explicit teaching of metacognitive strategies within content instruction to improve learner autonomy and academic achievement.

 

Source: Núñez, J. C., Tuero, E., Fernández, E., Añón, F. J., Manalo, E., & Rosário, P. (2022). Effect of an intervention in self-regulation strategies on academic achievement in elementary school: A study of the mediating effect of self-regulatory activity. Revista de Psicodidáctica (English Ed.), 27(1), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psicoe.2021.09.001… Read the rest

Categories
Achievement Primary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Effects of friendships on academic performance and emotion

Friendships play an important role in shaping children’s developmental outcomes. For instance, research has shown that children who have friends and those have no friend differ in various aspects, such as peer group status and academic performance. Chen, along with collaborators, conducted a one-year longitudinal study using an action-partner interdependence model (APIM) to explore the role of friendship in the development of academic achievement and depression for same-domain as well as cross-domain effects, i.e., the associations between academic performance and depression in one member of a friendship dyad and later the academic performance and level of depression of the partner member.

Academic achievement and depression are considered as two domains, thus, an association between antecedent academic results and later academic achievement indicates same-domain effect, while cross-domain refers to an association between academic achievement and depression. The effect within the same individual from Time 1 (T1) to Time 2 (T2) is described as actor effect, and the effect between dyads (two children) is partner effect.

The sample used was 1122 grade 4 and grade 5 students (494 boys) with 561 same sex dyads identified as stable friendships from 61 classes in 5 public elementary schools in Southeast China based on children’s best friends nomination in a two-wave data collection. Students’ academic achievement was an index formed by mean exam scores of Chinese, mathematics, and English adjusted with teacher-rated scores of learning problem. Students’ depression was assessed using the self-reported Childhood Depression Inventory. After controlling for gender, grade, and interdependence between friend dyad members (i.e., all possible same-domain and cross-domain effects of both actor and partners are included in the same analysis model), the results were as follows:

  • A cross-domain actor negative effect of depression on academic performance was found (β =-0.10), i.e., the higher T1 depression the lower T2 academic achievement within same child. However, the reverse effect was not found.
  • A same-domain partner positive effect was found for academic performance (β = +0.14) but not for depression (β =-0.01).
  • A cross-domain partner negative effect was found for T1 academic performance on T2 depression (β =-0.10). In other words, students with an academically better friend had a low level of depression a year later. But a partner effect of T1 depression on T2 academic performance was not found.

The findings suggested that children who had academically competent friends were likely to benefit from the relationship during the development stage for strengthening their academic performance and for reducing their feelings of depression.

 

Source: Chen, X., Zhou, J., Liu, J., Li, D., & Liu, S. (2022). Academic performance and depression in Chinese children: Same-domain and cross-domain effects in friendships. Child Development, 00, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13864… Read the rest

Categories
Educational Administration and Leadership Kindergarten Social and Motivational Outcomes

Language skills may help children to make more friends

Early peer experiences have impacts on children’s academic and social developmental trajectories, and successful peer experiences are important in kindergarten because it sets the foundation for future peer interactions and friendships. Though numerous factors can affect peer experiences, language skills and expressions may influence a child’s ability to initiate, engage, and sustain social activities with their peers.  As it is likely that language skills influence children’s classroom-based friendships, a recent study by Chow and his colleagues explored the difference between children at risk for special language impairment (SLI) and their typical peers regarding friendship centrality and reciprocity in kindergarten classrooms using social network analysis.

Data from a sample 419 children (53% boys, average age = 6.8 years) from 21 kindergarten classrooms in four elementary schools in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States were collected. Children at risk for SLI (n=190) were identified using scores of the screening tools of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-5). Peer nomination technique was employed to locate the friendship network in that each child was asked to name three best friends in their classroom. The friendship network centrality was a measure of children’s social position in the classroom, and it was an index generated from number of friends nominated and number of received nominations taking into account classroom size. High centrality scores suggest that a student is more central to the social network. Reciprocity was a dichotomous variable: reciprocity = 1 if a student received at least one reciprocal nomination; reciprocity = 0 if no reciprocal friendship.

The results of Multilevel modelling indicated that:

  • Of the 419 children, 15.2% did not make any best friend nomination, and 16.9% received no nomination. Of the 190 children at risk, 43.0% had reciprocal friendships while for children not at risk, 57.5% had reciprocal friendships.
  • CELF-5 language scores were associated with centrality, and students at risk for SLI had lower centrality than children not at risk.
  • Among students at risk for SLI, boys had significantly lower centrality compared to girls.
  • Though SLI scores were significantly associated with reciprocity, students at risk for SLI were found to have 49% lower chance of having a reciprocal friendship compared to children not at risk.

Although some important variables were not included in the analysis model at both classroom context and individual levels (e.g., verbal intelligence, social skills, English language proficiency), the current study still provides some preliminary evidence of the association between language skills and peer friendship, and girls were significantly more central than boys among children at risk for SLI. 

 

Source: Chow, J. C., Broda, M. D., Granger, K. L., Deering, B. T., & Dunn, K. T. (2021). Language skills and friendships in kindergarten classrooms: A social network analysis. School Psychology, 37(6), 488–500.  https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000451… Read the rest