Relationship of three field-dependence measures to the reading and math achievement of Anglo American and Mexican American children.

Previous studies relating field dependence to the superior academic achievement of Anglo-American children relative to Mexican-American children have relied exclusively on single-method approaches of measuring this cognitive style. The present study attempted to make a more comprehensive test of the relationship between field dependence and achievement by comparing members of both cultural groups on 3 commonly used measures of field dependence in order to determine the consistency of cross-cultural differences, intercorrelations, and predictive validity of these measures for Anglo-American and Mexican-American schoolchildren. 40 Mexican-American and 40 Anglo-American 1st–4th graders served as Ss and were administered the WISC Block Design subtest, the Children's Embedded Figures Test, and the portable rod-and-frame test. Results generally fail to support the assumptions that (a) Mexican-American children are more field dependent than Anglo-American children, (b) intercorrelations between the 3 field-dependence tests should be significant and comparable for members of both cultural groups, and (c) field dependence is of substantial importance to the school achievement of Anglo-American and Mexican-American children. The educational implications of the findings are discussed. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competition and school achievement among Anglo-American and Mexican-American children.

Tested the hypothesis that the less competitive orientation of Mexican-American children is related to their lower school achievement. 230 Anglo-American and Mexican-American children attending kindergarten, Grades 1–2, 4, and 6 of a semirural low-income school were administered individual measures of competition, individualism, field independence, and school achievement (California Achievement Tests, Cooperative Primary Tests, and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills). Results indicate significant effects of culture, sex, and age, but competition and individualism were not significantly correlated with each other and were not consistently related to field independence and school achievement. Results support the general conclusion that the less competitive social orientation of Mexican-American children as measured by experimental games is not necessarily a disadvantage with regard to school achievement. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflict resolution among field-independent and field-dependent Anglo-American and Mexican-American children and their mothers.

32 Anglo-American and Mexican-American boys and girls selected for their extreme field independence or dependence (Man-in-the Frame box, adapted from the rod-and-frame test) interacted with their mothers in 3 role plays designed to provoke conflict over issues of maternal authority and children's independence. The mother–child interactions were recorded, transcribed, and content analyzed. Anglo-American children more often than Mexican-American children entered and persisted in direct conflict with their mothers as indicated by a number of variables such as disagreement and justification of their own will. There was some tendency for Mexican-American mothers to ask fewer questions and to assert their own will more than Anglo-American mothers. Field independence among boys, but field dependence among girls, was associated with more assertive behaviors. Mothers of field-independent children used a somewhat more elaborate verbal code. The study supports hypothesized cultural differences in mother–child interaction patterns, but fails to support the presumed socialization antecedents of field dependence and the cross-sex generality of its correlates. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preferences toward Mexican-American and Anglo-American psychotherapists.

94 Mexican-American and 93 Anglo-American community college students listened to 1 of 2 matched therapy audiotapes. Using the same dialogue, in one tape the therapist spoke fluent English with a slight Spanish accent; in the other tape he spoke fluent English with a standard American accent. The therapist was identified as being either a Mexican-American or Anglo-American professional or nonprofessional. Both ethnic groups attributed more skill, understanding, trustworthiness, and attractiveness to the Anglo-American professional and the Mexican-American nonprofessional. The Mexican-American professional was seen by both groups less favorably than was the Mexican-American nonprofessional. Mexican-Americans showed a more favorable attitude toward the usefulness of therapy than did Anglo-Americans. Implications for the delivery of psychological services to Mexican-Americans and other minorities are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why attend school? Chinese immigrant and European American preschoolers' views and outcomes.

The developing views of the purposes of school learning (PSLs) and related achievement among immigrant Chinese preschoolers and their European American (EA) age-mates were examined. Both culture and socioeconomic status (SES) were considered simultaneously, an often neglected research approach to studying Asian children. One hundred and fifty 4-year-olds—50 each of middle-class Chinese (CHM), low-income Chinese (CHL), and EA children—completed 2 story beginnings about school and were also tested for their language and math achievement. Results showed that 4-year-olds held sophisticated PSLs, ranging from intellectual to social and affect benefits. Large cultural and SES differences also emerged. CHM children mentioned more adult expectation and seriousness of learning than EA children who expressed more positive affect for self and compliance with adults. CHL children mentioned fewest PSLs. Achievement scores for oral expression of both immigrant groups were significantly lower than those of EA children despite similar reading and math achievement. Controlling for culture and SES, the authors found that children's articulated intellectual, but not other purposes, uniquely predicted their achievement in all tested domains. Cultural and SES influences on immigrant children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Joint use of adaptive behavior and IQ to predict achievement.

Determined the influence of IQ, adaptive behavior, SES, and race-ethnicity on reading and math achievement, using multiple linear regression analyses. Ss consisted of 345 children stratified on racial-ethnic characteristics (Anglo, Black, Mexican-American), SES (middle and low), gender, and age (CAs 7–14 yrs). Data were obtained from Ss' scores on the WISC-R, Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children, and California Achievement Tests. The variance accounted for by the full model, consisting of the 4 previously mentioned variables, was highly significant for reading (.45) and math (.35). The amount of variance associated with race-ethnicity and SES was nonsignificant. It is concluded that adaptive behavior does not significantly predict achievement beyond that predicted by IQ. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School readiness and later achievement: Replication and extension using a nationwide Canadian survey.

In this article we replicate and extend findings from Duncan et al. (2007). The 1st study used Canada-wide data on 1,521 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) to examine the influence of kindergarten literacy and math skills, mother-reported attention, and mother-reported socioemotional behaviors on 3rd-grade math and reading outcomes. Similar to Duncan et al., (a) math skills were the strongest predictor of later achievement, (b) literacy and attention skills predicted later achievement, and (c) socioemotional behaviors did not significantly predict later school achievement. As part of extending the findings, we incorporated a multiple imputation approach to handle missing predictor variable data. Results paralleled those from the original study in that kindergarten math skills and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised scores continued to predict later achievement. However, we also found that kindergarten socioemotional behaviors, specifically hyperactivity/impulsivity, prosocial behavior, and anxiety/depression, were significant predictors of 3rd-grade math and reading. In the 2nd study, we used data from the NLSCY and the Montreal Longitudinal-Experimental Preschool Study (MLEPS), which was included in Duncan et al., to extend previous findings by examining the influence of kindergarten achievement, attention, and socioemotional behaviors on 3rd-grade socioemotional outcomes. Both NLSCY and MLEPS findings indicated that kindergarten math significantly predicted socioemotional behaviors. There were also a number of significant relationships between early and later socioemotional behaviors. Findings support the importance of socioemotional behaviors both as predictors of later school success and as indicators of school success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation between popularity and achievement: A longitudinal test of the lateral transmission of value hypothesis.

Studied longitudinal data from 138 White, 44 Mexican-American, and 26 Black elementary school children involved in a school desegregation program to examine the relationship between normative social influence processes and academic achievement and to test theoretical models of how school desegregation produces benefit. Ss were measured once prior to and twice after desegregation of their schools. For all groups, analyses using structural equation techniques showed that, contrary to the lateral transmission of values hypothesis, which views social influence processes as shaping academic achievement, causal influence did not flow from social acceptance to academic achievement; rather achievement appeared to affect subsequent social acceptance. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The longitudinal relations of teacher expectations to achievement in the early school years.

There is relatively little research on the role of teacher expectations in the early school years or the importance of teacher expectations as a predictor of future academic achievement. The current study investigated these issues in the reading and mathematic domains for young children. Data from nearly 1,000 children and families at 1st, 3rd, and 5th grades were included. Child sex and social skills emerged as consistent predictors of teacher expectations of reading and, to a lesser extent, math ability. In predicting actual future academic achievement, results showed that teacher expectations were differentially related to achievement in reading and math. There was no evidence that teacher expectations accumulate but some evidence that they remain durable over time for math achievement. In addition, teacher expectations were more strongly related to later achievement for groups of children who might be considered to be at risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher accuracy in decoding nonverbal indicants of comprehension and noncomprehension in Anglo- and Mexican-American children.

Examined the degree to which Anglo- and Mexican-American 1st-grade teachers can accurately decode nonverbal indicants of comprehension and noncomprehension in young children. 16 teachers from each group viewed silent videotapes (visual cues only) of 3 groups of 1st graders—Anglo-American, proficient bilingual, and limited English-speaking Mexican-American—while the children listened to an easy or difficult lesson on animal habitats. There were 24 boys and 24 girls, and 16 Ss in each linguistic grouping. The Ss estimated the students' level of understanding on the basis of their nonverbal responses. Degree of accuracy was assessed by comparing Ss' ratings of comprehension with the children's actual posttest comprehension scores. No differences in decoding accuracy between S groups were found. Ss perceived boys as understanding more than girls, particularly in the Anglo-American and limited English-speaking groups. Training raters improved overall decoding accuracy. Slight cultural differences were found in children's nonverbal behavior, but it did not appear that the behavior was misinterpreted by either group of Ss. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of adaptive assertiveness in Mexican and United States children.

Used a novel behavioral task, the assertiveness pull scale, and unobtrusive measures (e.g., number of questions asked of E) to assess the development of assertiveness of 154 boys and girls of 3 age groups (5-6, 7-9 and 10-12 yrs) in 4 populations. Urban middle-class Anglo-American children were significantly more assertive than semirural poor Anglo-American and Mexican-American children, who did not differ from each other but who were both significantly more assertive than rural poor Mexican children. Assertiveness increased with age for all groups, but at a slower rate among rural Mexican than among US children. No significant effects due to sex were observed. Results parallel population and age findings of previous studies of competitiveness. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison in the classroom: The relationship between academic achievement and self-concept.

One hypothesis derived from social comparison theory is that the relationship between academic achievement and self-concept can best be understood in terms of the child's achievement standing compared with that of classmates. This hypothesis was tested on 159 6–12 yr old academic underachievers in 17 self-contained classrooms. Ss were administered the Metropolitan Achievement Test and the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale. When relative within-classroom achievement standing was not considered, reading achievement was not significantly related to self-concept, although mathematics achievement was. When relative within-classroom achievement standing was considered, both reading and math achievement were found to be significantly related to self-concept. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' and fathers' support for child autonomy and early school achievement.

Data were analyzed from 641 children and their families in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to test the hypotheses that in the early school years, mothers' and fathers' sensitive support for autonomy in observed parent-child interactions would each make unique predictions to children's reading and math achievement at Grade 3 (controlling for demographic variables), children's reading and math abilities at 54 months, and children's level of effortful control at 54 months and that these associations would be mediated by the level of and changes over time in children's observed self-reliance in the classroom from Grades 1 through 3. The authors found that mothers' and fathers' support for autonomy were significantly and uniquely associated with children's Grade 3 reading and math achievement with the above controls, but only for boys. For boys, the effect of mothers' support for child autonomy was mediated by higher self-reliance at Grade 1 and of fathers' support for child autonomy by greater increases in self-reliance from Grades 1 through 3. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent-school involvement and school performance: Mediated pathways among socioeconomically comparable African American and Euro-American families.

Children's academic and social competencies were examined as mediators to explain the often positive relation between parent-school involvement and achievement. Ethnic variations in the relation between parent-school involvement and early achievement and the mediated pathways were examined. Because much of the comparative research confounds ethnicity with socioeconomic status, the relations were examined among socioeconomically comparable samples of African American and Euro-American kindergarten children and their mothers. For reading achievement, academic skills mediated the relation between involvement and achievement for African Americans and Euro-Americans. For math achievement, the underlying process differed across ethnic groups. For African Americans, academic skills mediated the relation between school involvement and math performance. For Euro-Americans, social competence mediated the impact of home involvement on school achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The WISC-R and internal evidence of test bias with minority groups.

Judgment of test bias can be made on the basis of a number of criteria. This study examines the evidence on the cultural bias of the WISC-R for Anglo-American, Black, and Mexican-American children. The performance of 1,050 children aged 5–11 yrs on the internal criteria of reliability and a number of order-of-item-difficulty measures was assessed. Minority group Ss responded to the test in the same general way as did Anglo-American Ss, and there was no clear pattern to the items on the test that were more difficult for minority Ss. Thus, the WISC-R appears to be nonbiased for minority group children. Explanations other than specific item content should be sought for the observed discrepancy between majority group and minority group IQ test performance. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School readiness and later achievement.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 44(1) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2007-19851-023). The DOI for the supplemental materials was printed incorrectly. The correct DOI is as follows: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1428.supp.] Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mexican-American cultural commitment, preference for counselor ethnicity, and willingness to use counseling.

Mexican-American college students who expressed a strong commitment to the Mexican-American culture (28 Ss), strong commitment to the Anglo-American culture (18 Ss), strong commitment to both cultures (38 Ss), or weak commitment to both cultures (14 Ss) rated their preference for an ethnically similar counselor and completed a willingness to use professional counseling survey. Results show that preference for counselor ethnicity and willingness to self-disclose in counseling were related to cultural commitment. Ss with a strong commitment to the Mexican-American culture expressed the greatest preference for an ethnically similar counselor and the least willingness to self-disclose. The 51 females expressed a greater willingness to use professional counseling services than did males. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood depression, locus of control, and school achievement

Childhood depression and locus of control (as assessed by a 20-item peer nomination inventory and the Children's Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, respectively) were studied as they relate to each other and to measures of school achievement and intellectual functioning. Ss were 452 male and 492 female 4th and 5th grade public school children. Measures of achievement included standardized reading and math scores and teacher ratings of work/study habits and school achievement. The Draw-A-Person Test was used as an index of intellectual functioning. Locus of control and depression were positively related. All measures of achievement were negatively related to both external locus of control and depression. The negative relationship also held for IQ, although it was not as strong. The joint association of depression and locus of control with achievement and IQ was evidenced by a significant correlation between canonical variates representing these 2 sets of variables. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of social distance on teaching strategies of Anglo-American and Mexican-American mothers.

Examined the variable of social distance between teacher and learner by observing the pattern of interaction between mothers and their own preschool sons, boys from a similar background, and boys from a different ethnic and social class background. Ss were 30 3-yr-old Mexican-American and 30 3-yr-old Anglo-American boys. Anglo-American and Mexican-American mothers from middle and lower classes were videotaped as they taught a cognitive and a motor task to each of 3 children. The Parent Interaction Code was employed to analyze the teaching loop behavior. Programatic and instructional variables were different but stable for each ethnic group across social distance; patterns of feedback and child response shifted significantly across social distance. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral correlates of achievements: A look at high and low achievers.

Examined the relationship of classroom behavior to academic achievement among high and low achieving elementary school children. Classroom behavior of 312 3rd and 4th graders was observed during math and verbal skills instruction and coded in discrete categories using J. A. Cobb's (see record 1972-21857-001) method. Scores from each category were correlated with math and verbal achievement scores for both high and low achievers. Regression equations predicting achievement in each setting were cross-validated in the other setting. Different behaviors were significantly correlated with achievement in each group, and multiple regressions predicting achievement for one group could not be cross-validated in the other group. Results demonstrate that the patterns of behavior stably related to achievement across academic settings may be dissimilar among groups of children in the same setting with different levels of achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)