Learning to read and spell in Persian: A cross-sectional study from Grades 1 to 4.

We investigated the reading and spelling development of 140 Persian children attending Grades 1–4 in Iran. Persian has very consistent letter–sound correspondences, but it varies in transparency because 3 of its 6 vowel phonemes are not marked with letters. Persian also varies in spelling consistency because 6 phonemes have more than one orthographic representation. We tested whether lexicality effects—an advantage of words over nonwords—would be affected be reading transparency and spelling consistency. We found that children became more efficient readers and spellers across grades, with the greatest growth occurring between Grades 1 and 2. For reading, lexicality effects were present with transparent words starting in Grade 2, but lexicality effects with opaque words were not yet present in Grade 4. As expected, the size of transparency effects for reading decreased across grades. For spelling, however, there was no lexicality effect for either consistent or inconsistent words. Moreover, consistency effects were large and did not decrease systematically across grades. Most interesting from a developmental perspective was the finding that both reading transparency and spelling polygraphy affected reading as well as spelling in Grades 1 and 2, but the word characteristics had differential effects as a function of literacy task in Grades 3 and 4. This pattern highlights the vulnerability of children's representations and processes during the early phases of acquisition as well as the rapidity with which representations and processes become specialized as a function of the literacy task at hand. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer Academic Reputation in Elementary School: Associations With Changes in Self-Concept and Academic Skills.

The developmental significance of children's academic reputation among peers was examined in a longitudinal study of 400 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5. In the fall of Year 1, teachers rated children's academic skills and behavior, and peers provided nominations describing classmates' academic skills, social acceptance versus rejection, and aggressive behavior. In the fall and spring of Year 1, children provided reports of their academic self-concept, social self-concept, and global self-worth. In the fall of Year 2, teachers rated children's academic skills. Results indicated that 4 items assessing peer academic reputation formed an internally consistent scale that was correlated moderately and distinctively with teacher-rated academic skills. Peer academic reputation and teacher-rated academic skills each contributed independently to the prediction of fall-to-spring changes in children's academic self-concept. Peer academic reputation and academic self-concept contributed uniquely to the prediction of changes in teacher-rated academic effort and skills over a 1-year period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naturally acquired learned helplessness: The relationship of school failure to achievement behavior, attributions, and self-concept.

Monitored personality and behavioral consequences of learned helplessness in children who had experienced extensive failure in school. Controlling for sex, race, age, and IQ, 3 groups of 20 9–12 yr old males (failing, average, and remedial) performed an experimental task and responded to questionnaires on self-concept and attributions for success and failure. To compare the predictive quality of learned helplessness theory with that of value expectancy theories, Ss were assigned to 1 of 2 reinforcement conditions (prediction of academic success and this prediction plus monetary reward) on a maze task. As predicted by value expectancy theories, failing Ss were significantly more persistent in the monetary reward condition than in the prediction of academic success condition. In agreement with learned helplessness theory, low self-concept was predicted independently and significantly by school failure, internal attributions for failure, and external attributions for success. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in achievement: A test of alternate theories.

200 students in Grades 8–10 were given the following attitudinal measures regarding both math and English: self-concept of ability, subjective task value, perceived task difficulty, and continuing motivation. In a follow-up, Ss" math course enrollment decisions were assessed each year through high school. 142 of the Ss also were exposed to 2 sets of trials: a number sequence set and an anagram set. Outcome was manipulated across trials (success, failure, success). For each series, Ss provided estimates of their ability, their expectations for continued success, and causal attributions. Their response time, persistence, and accuracy were recorded. Finally, teacher estimates of learned helplessness were obtained in Year 1 of the study for all Ss. Subjective task value emerged as the strongest mediator of sex differences in achievement-related behaviors and plans. There was little support for learned-helplessness models of sex differences in achievement. There was some evidence of sex differences in ability attributions, but these differences occurred only among low-expectancy Ss. Verbal and behavioral indexes of achievement beliefs were often inconsistent. Implications for general attribution theory and for sex-difference theory are discussed. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A school-randomized clinical trial of an integrated social–emotional learning and literacy intervention: Impacts after 1 school year.

Objective: To report experimental impacts of a universal, integrated school-based intervention in social–emotional learning and literacy development on change over 1 school year in 3rd-grade children's social–emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. Method: This study employed a school-randomized, experimental design and included 942 3rd-grade children (49% boys; 45.6% Hispanic/Latino, 41.1% Black/African American, 4.7% non-Hispanic White, and 8.6% other racial/ethnic groups, including Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American) in 18 New York City public elementary schools. Data on children's social–cognitive processes (e.g., hostile attribution biases), behavioral symptomatology (e.g., conduct problems), and literacy skills and academic achievement (e.g., reading achievement) were collected in the fall and spring of 1 school year. Results: There were main effects of the 4Rs Program after 1 year on only 2 of the 13 outcomes examined. These include children's self-reports of hostile attributional biases (Cohen's d = 0.20) and depression (d = 0.24). As expected based on program and developmental theory, there were impacts of the intervention for those children identified by teachers at baseline with the highest levels of aggression (d = 0.32–0.59) on 4 other outcomes: children's self-reports of aggressive fantasies, teacher reports of academic skills, reading achievement scaled scores, and children's attendance. Conclusions: This report of effects of the 4Rs intervention on individual children across domains of functioning after 1 school year represents an important first step in establishing a better understanding of what is achievable by a schoolwide intervention such as the 4Rs in its earliest stages of unfolding. The first-year impacts, combined with our knowledge of sustained and expanded effects after a second year, provide evidence that this intervention may be initiating positive developmental cascades both in the general population of students and among those at highest behavioral risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of parental motivational practices in children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement.

Tested the role of parental motivational practices in children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement in a longitudinal study of children at ages 9 and 10 yrs. Two types of motivational practices were assessed: mothers' encouragement of children's task endogeny and provision of task-extrinsic consequences. Structural equations path models for general-verbal and math academic areas supported the 2 predictions that children's academic intrinsic motivation is positively related to encouragement of task endogeny and negatively related to provision of task-extrinsic consequences. Academic intrinsic motivation at age 9 yrs predicted motivation and achievement at age 10 yrs. Moreover, through motivation at 9 yrs, the motivational practices indirectly affected motivation at 10 yrs and achievement. Findings provide ecological validity for the role of parental motivational practices in children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task values and ability beliefs as predictors of high school literacy choices: A developmental analysis.

This study examines how competence beliefs and task values predict high school achievement choices related to literacy. Students' task beliefs (self-concept of ability, intrinsic value, and importance) about reading in the 4th grade and English in the 10th grade were tracked over time. Task beliefs, school performance, and gender were used to predict students' (a) time per week spent reading for pleasure in 10th grade, (b) number of language arts courses per year of high school, and (c) reading relatedness of 12th-grade career aspirations. Results indicated that ability beliefs positively predicted all 3 outcomes, importance predicted career aspirations and course choices, and intrinsic value predicted leisure time reading and high school courses. Gender differences were also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivating autistic children.

A major problem encountered in the field of autism is the children's characteristic lack of motivation. This problem is especially apparent when autistic children attempt to complete learning tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of correct vs incorrect task completion on children's motivation to respond to such tasks. Ss were 3 autistic children aged 6 yrs 1 mo, 11 yrs 11 mo, and 12 yrs 3 mo. Results demonstrate that when Ss worked on tasks at which they were typically incorrect, their motivation for those tasks decreased to extremely low levels. However, designing treatment procedures to prompt Ss to keep responding until they completed the tasks correctly served to increase Ss' motivation to respond to those tasks. The implications of these findings are that (a) autistic children's learning handicaps (which typically lead to low levels of correct responding) may result in few or inconsistent rewards for attempting to respond at all, thus decreasing the children's motivation; and (b) treatment procedures designed to keep the children responding until they complete a task correctly may result in coincidental reinforcement for perseverance, increasing the children's motivation to respond to those tasks. Results are discussed in relation to the literature on learned helplessness. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's achievement attributions and self-reinforcement: Effects of self-concept and competitive reward structure.

Studied how self-concept as a dispositional trait influences children's achievement attributions and reinforcing behaviors in the social context of a competing or a noncompeting other. 112 5th-grade boys and girls classified as high or low in self-concept (Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale) worked in pairs at an achievement-related task in which one succeeded and one failed. Results show that high self-concept children attributed success outcomes more to their high ability and engaged in more positive self-reinforcement following success than did low self-concept children. The affective significance of achievement outcomes was accentuated in competitive settings for high but not low self-concept children. The results are discussed in terms of an attribution model of behavior. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Change in children's competence beliefs and subjective task values across the elementary school years: A 3-year study.

The authors assessed change over 3 years in elementary school children's competence beliefs and subjective task value in the domains of math, reading, instrumental music, and sports. The longitudinal sample consisted of approximately 615 mostly White, lower middle to middle-class children. Stability correlations indicated moderate to strong stability in children's beliefs, especially older children's competence beliefs. The relation of children's ratings of their competence in each domain to estimates of their competence in those domains provided by both parents and teachers increased over the early elementary grades. Children's competence beliefs and ratings of the usefulness and importance of each activity decreased over time. Children's interest in reading and instrumental music decreased, but their interest in sports and math did not. Gender differences in children's competence beliefs and subjective task values did not change over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivational Orientations in the Classroom: Age Differences and Academic Correlates.

Age differences in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the relationships of each to academic outcomes were examined in an ethnically diverse sample of 797 3rd-grade through 8th-grade children. Using independent measures, the authors found intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to be only moderately correlated, suggesting that they may be largely orthogonal dimensions of motivation in school. Consistent with previous research, intrinsic motivation showed a significant linear decrease from 3rd grade through 8th grade and proved positively correlated with children's grades and standardized test scores at all grade levels. Extrinsic motivation showed few differences across grade levels and proved negatively correlated with academic outcomes. Surprisingly few differences based on children's sex or ethnicity were found. Causes and consequences of the disturbingly low levels of motivation for older, relative to younger, children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation as predictors of reading literacy: A longitudinal study.

The purpose in this study was to examine the longitudinal relationships of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with reading literacy development. In particular, the authors (a) investigated reading amount as mediator between motivation and reading literacy and (b) probed for bidirectional relationships between reading motivation and reading literacy, controlling for previous reading literacy. A total of 740 students participated in a longitudinal assessment starting in Grade 3, with further points of measurement in Grades 4 and 6. Structural equation models with latent variables showed that the relationship between intrinsic reading motivation and later reading literacy was mediated by reading amount but not when previous reading literacy was included in the model. A bidirectional relationship was found between extrinsic reading motivation and reading literacy: Grade 3 reading literacy negatively predicted extrinsic reading motivation in Grade 4, which in turn negatively predicted reading literacy in Grade 6. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family influences on school achievement in low-income, African American children.

The authors examined the achievement-related beliefs and behaviors of parents of economically disadvantaged African American youth, and the relations among parental factors and children's academic self-concept and achievement. Forty-one children and their primary caregivers were interviewed. Parents reported on their academic-related beliefs and behaviors. Children completed measures of academic self-concept and 2 standardized achievement tests: 1 during the summer and 1 at the end of the following school year. Significant and positive relations were found between parental belief and behavior measures within the domains of reading and math; however, parental beliefs were more strongly linked with child outcomes than were parents' achievement-oriented behaviors. The relation between parental beliefs and child outcomes was not mediated by children's academic self-concept. Results are discussed in light of models of family influences on achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When Teachers' and Parents' Values Differ: Teachers' Ratings of Academic Competence in Children From Low-Income Families.

The authors examined predictors of teachers' ratings of academic competence of 105 kindergarten children from low-income families. Teachers rated target children's expected competence in literacy and math and completed questions about their perceptions of congruence-dissonance between themselves and the child's parents regarding education-related values. Independent examiners assessed children's literacy and math skills. Teachers' instructional styles were observed and rated along dimensions of curriculum-centered and student-centered practices. Controlling for children's skills and socioeconomic status, teachers rated children as less competent when they perceived value differences with parents. These patterns were stronger for teachers who exhibited curriculum-centered, rather than student-centered, practices. The findings suggest a mechanism by which some children from low-income families enter a path of diminished expectations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of mothers' control in children's mastery orientation: A time frame analysis.

Important to understanding the process by which parents' control shapes children's motivation is identifying the time frame in which it does so. To this end, mothers and their 4-year-old children were observed interacting for 15 min while working on a challenging task twice over 6 months. Mothers' control and children's mastery orientation were coded in 1-min intervals at both times. Analyses over the 6 months indicated that mothers' heightened control foreshadowed children's dampened mastery because mothers' control was stable over time. Analyses over the 15-min interactions revealed that the more controlling mothers were one minute, the less mastery oriented children were the next minute, adjusting for their earlier mastery. Moreover, when mothers began these interactions highly controlling, children's mastery was particularly likely to decrease over the 15 min. Taken together, the results suggest the effect of mothers' control on children's mastery is immediate and maintained through mothers' continued controlling practices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-concept and peer status among gifted program youth.

The authors examined the relation between self-concept and peer status among 465 high-ability youth (Grades 5–11) attending a university summer enrichment program. The differential relation of 4 facets of self-concept (social, academic, athletic, and physical appearance) was investigated in both an academic and a nonacademic peer group setting. Results indicate that (a) self-concept, particularly social self-concept, is moderately predictive of peer status; (b) there appear to be developmental and gender differences in the role that self-concept plays in peer status; and (c) most findings are consistent across both peer group settings. This study supports the theoretical link between self-concept and peer status in high-ability youth and suggests directions for further research on the role of specific facets of self-concept in children with peer status difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preschool home literacy practices and children's literacy development: A longitudinal analysis.

In this 3-year longitudinal study, the authors tested and extended M. Sénéchal and J. Le Fevre's (2002) model of the relationships between preschool home literacy practices and children's literacy and language development. Parent-child reading (Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire plus a children's Title Recognition Test) and parental teaching of letters, words, and name writing were assessed 6 months prior to children's school entry. The 143 children (55% male participants; mean age = 5.36 years, SD = 0.29) attended Gold Coast, Australia government preschools. Parent-child reading and literacy teaching were only weakly correlated (r = .18) and were related to different outcomes consistent with the original model. Age, gender, memory, and nonverbal ability were controlled. Parental teaching was independently related to R. W. Woodcock's (1997) preschool Letter-Word Identification scores (R2change = 4.58%, p = .008). This relationship then mediated the relationships between parental teaching and Grades 1 and 2 letter-word identification, single-word reading and spelling rates, and phonological awareness (rhyme detection and phonological deletion). Parent-child reading was independently related to Grade 1 vocabulary (R2change = 5.6%, p = .005). Thus, both home practices are relevant but to different aspects of literacy and language development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What motivates children's behavior and emotion? Joint effects of perceived control and autonomy in the academic domain.

Examined the contribution of perceived control and autonomy to 264 children's (aged 8–20 yrs) self-reported behavior and emotion in the classroom. Multiple regression analyses revealed unique effects of autonomy over and above the strong effects of perceived control. In addition, both sets of perceptions (and their interaction) were found to distinguish children who were active but emotionally disaffected from those who were active and emotionally positive. Specific predictions were also tested regarding the effects of (1) control attributions to 5 causes and (2) 4 reasons for task involvement that differed in degree of autonomy on children's active (vs passive) behavior and 4 kinds of emotions: boredom, distress, anger, and positive emotions. Implications of the findings for theories of children's motivation are discussed, as well as for diagnostic strategies to identify children at risk for motivational problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Appearance-reality distinction: Children's understanding of the physical and affective domains.

The relation between children's performance on physical and affective appearance–reality (AR) tasks was investigated with a within-Ss design. Children participated in a standard color physical task (a color cutout behind a filter) and an affective measure that used stories and pictures depicting characters who were judging their emotions. The performance of 147 4–8 yr olds was examined under conditions of varying task similarity. As expected, older children performed better than younger children on both tasks. More important, children's physical and affective AR performance differed significantly only when the affective task required a greater use of inference than the physical task. Results are discussed in terms of the general representational ability underlying AR performance across domains and the ecological validity of these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social class and academic guidance: A social-psychological analysis.

Canadian research has consistently shown that, compared with high social class students, a lower proportion of low social class students have high educational expectations. This difference persists even when the level of mental ability between the 2 groups is the same. To answer the question of why so many low social class students do not have high educational expectations, a sample of 1,329 Grade 8 students were administered Form A of Scale 2 of the Culture Fair Intelligence Test and a measure of academic self-confidence. Results show that academic self-concept played a critical role in the way students developed their educational expectations. Part I found that high social class students had a higher academic self-concept than low social class students, even though both groups had a similar level of mental ability. Using a subsample of low social class students with high mental ability, Part 2 found that such students' perception of guidance information was based more on their academic self-concept than on their mental ability. Their academic self-concept thus operated as a frame of reference for interpreting academic advice. Results thus extend previous research by showing that students' academic self-concept does not necessarily match the level of their mental ability, one consequence being that many low social class students develop low educational expectations even though they have high mental ability. Furthermore, even when academic guidance is offered, many of these students, on the basis of their low academic self-concept, interpret the advice as advocating low educational expectations for them. (French summary) (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)