Social competence, social support, and academic achievement in minority, low-income, urban elementary school children.

Despite living in disadvantaged urban communities experiencing social and economic hardships, many children emerge with positive outcomes. Social-emotional competence and social support were hypothesized to have strong influences on academic trajectories during the critical period of academic skill acquisition. Participants were 282 third-grade students from six elementary schools in a Northwestern urban community. Beyond the importance of prior levels of academic competence, considerable variance in end-of-year academic outcomes was predicted by initial levels of academic social-emotional competence and improvements in social-emotional competence and perceived teacher support over the course of the year. Noteworthy is that findings were strongest for African-American students, but methodological caveats regarding research with underachieving minority youth were discussed. The findings suggest that school psychologists and others designing interventions to improve achievement of disadvantaged students should address social-emotional competencies and classroom climate, especially teacher support of students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School and peer competence in early adolescence: A test of domain-specific self-perceived competence.

The validity for a domain-specific model of self-perceived peer and school competence was examined in a sample of young Black adolescents of lower socioeconomic status. Three methods were used to gauge peer and school competence: self-ratings, via the Perceived Social Competence Scale for Children; peer-ratings, based on nominations; and objective criteria, such as grade point average, achievement test scores, and number of reciprocated friendship choices. More generally defined measures of social competence (i.e., perceived general competence and the Social Competence Nomination Form) were included in some analyses for purposes of comparison. Correlations within and between competence domains were examined via both a multitrait-multimethod matrix and factor analysis. Findings supported the distinctness of perceived peer and school competence domains, providing support for a domain-specific model of self-concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Replication and extension of the Teacher Self-Control Rating Scale.

Relations among teacher ratings of self-control and adjustment were examined in this study and involved (a) a replication and extension of investigations of Humphrey's Teacher Self-Control Rating Scale (TSCRS) and (b) an analysis of the relation between teacher ratings of self-control and school adjustment across elementary school grades for urban and suburban children. Ratings were obtained from a stratified random sample of 407 urban and suburban children in first through fifth grades and from 108 classroom teachers. Findings include (a) replication and extension of previous TSCRS research findings and (b) consistent, significant patterns of relations between self-control and adjustment across elementary grades. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of social comparisons on the developing self-perceptions of learning disabled students.

Learning disabled (LD) children's self-perceptions were investigated using the Perceived Competence Scale for Children. This self-report instrument taps children's perceptions of their scholastic and athletic competence, social acceptance, and feelings of global self-worth. Participants in the study were 86 students in Grades 3–8 who attended a public school LD resource room. Results indicated that social comparison processes play an important role in the formation of LD students' perceived academic competence. LD students perceived themselves as becoming less academically competent across the grade span tested when they compared themselves with normally achieving students in their regular classes. When they compared their abilities with LD peers in their resource room, they maintained high perceptions of their own academic competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational dynamics of children's academic help-seeking and concealment.

Models of self-regulated learning and of children's coping both consider help-seeking an adaptive response to academic problems, yet students do not always seek help when it is needed, and help-seeking generally declines across early adolescence. A study of 765 children in elementary and middle school (Grades 3-6) during fall and spring of the same school year investigated whether motivational resources predicted help-seeking and whether losses in motivational supports across the middle school transition mirrored age declines. As predicted, 3 motivational self-perceptions were tightly correlated with coping in fall and spring; relatedness was the primary predictor of increases in help-seeking, whereas a sense of incompetence predicted increases in concealment. Teacher reports of motivational support also predicted changes in student coping and were mediated by children's self-perceptions. Analyses of reciprocal effects of students' help-seeking and concealment on changes in teacher support corroborated hypothesized cycles in which motivationally "rich" children, by constructively seeking help, become "richer," whereas motivationally "poor" children, by concealing their difficulties, become "poorer." Age differences in children's motivational resources across the transition to middle school paralleled age differences in help-seeking and concealment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of children's academic competence from their effortful control, relationships, and classroom participation.

The authors examined the relations among children's effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence with a sample of 7- to 12-year-old children (N = 264). Parents and children reported on children's effortful control, and teachers and children reported on children's school relationships and classroom participation. Children's grade point averages (GPAs) and absences were obtained from school-issued report cards. Significant positive correlations existed between effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence. Consistent with expectations, the teacher-child relationship, social competence, and classroom participation partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in GPA from the beginning to the end of the school year. The teacher-child relationship and classroom participation also partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in school absences across the year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive and negative emotionality: Trajectories across six years and relations with social competence.

The goals of the present study were to examine (1) the mean-level stability and differential stability of children's positive emotional intensity, negative emotional intensity, expressivity, and social competence from early elementary school-aged to early adolescence, and (2) the associations between the trajectories of children's emotionality and social functioning. Using four waves of longitudinal data (with assessments 2 years apart), parents and teachers of children (199 kindergarten through third grade children at the first assessment) rated children's emotion-related responding and social competence. For all constructs, there was evidence of mean-level decline with age and stability in individual differences in rank ordering. Based on age-centered growth-to-growth curve analyses, the results indicated that children who had a higher initial status on positive emotional intensity, negative emotional intensity, and expressivity had a steeper decline in their social skills across time. These findings provide insight into the stability and association of emotion-related constructs to social competence across the elementary and middle school years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Child Behavior Scale: A teacher-report measure of young children's aggressive, withdrawn, and prosocial behaviors.

Few instruments provide reliable, valid data on peer-behavioral indicators of risk and competence in young children. The authors developed a teacher-report measure of young children's behavior with peers at school—the Child Behavior Scale (CBS)—and evaluated its reliability and validity. Data were gathered on 2 cohorts (n?=?206 per cohort) of 5- to 6-year-old children; teachers rated children on Aggressive With Peers, Prosocial With Peers, Asocial With Peers, Excluded by Peers, Anxious–Fearful, and Hyperactive–Distractible subscales twice during the school year. Scores were internally consistent, distinct, and relatively stable over time. The validation paradigm produced a network of correlations that was, overall, consistent with the hypothesized conceptual structure of the CBS. These findings replicated across cohorts and provide sufficient evidence of the reliability and validity of the CBS to recommend its use for behavioral assessment with young children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer rejection and unpopularity: Associations with GPAs across the transition to middle school.

The unique effects of peer rejection and unpopularity on student GPAs across the transition from elementary school to middle school were investigated with a sample of 901 students followed longitudinally from 4th grade through 8th grade. Two types of longitudinal models, a cross-lagged panel model and a piecewise growth model, were used, with peer-nominated rejection and unpopularity and GPAs derived from school records. The cross-lagged panel model assessed the over-time directionality of the association between GPAs and peer status. It revealed that peer rejection preceded lower GPAs within 4th grade and across the transition from elementary to middle school, whereas lower GPAs predicted greater peer rejection from 4th to 5th grade. In contrast, unpopularity predicted higher GPAs across the transition from elementary to middle school. The piecewise growth model demonstrated that student GPAs declined in middle school and that peer rejection was associated with lower concurrent GPAs in both school settings, whereas unpopularity was associated with higher concurrent GPAs in middle school. Peer rejection and unpopularity in the last grade of elementary school were also predictive of GPA in the first grade of middle school above and beyond the effects of concurrent rejection and unpopularity. The results demonstrate how 2 forms of low peer status are associated with GPAs during this period of significant change in the social and academic lives of students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in efficacy beliefs in mathematics across the transition to middle school: Examining the effects of perceived teacher and parent goal emphases.

This study examined the effects of change in teacher goal emphases on students' efficacy beliefs in mathematics across the transition to middle school. The sample (N = 929) included primarily White (65%) and Black (27%) students, and approximately one third received free or reduced-fee lunch. Analyses grouped children by cross-classification of teachers (N = 53 elementary and N = 34 middle school teachers). On average, students' efficacy beliefs remained stable and relatively high across the transition. Compared with their elementary school teacher, children reported declines in both perceived teacher mastery and performance goal emphases in middle school. A cross-classified hierarchical linear model was used to estimate the effects of perceived teacher and parent goal emphases during 6th and 7th grades on changes in students' efficacy beliefs. An increase in self-efficacy beliefs from elementary to middle school was predicted by an increase in group-level perceptions of teachers' mastery goal emphasis, even after controlling for parents' goal emphases. These findings underscore the important role that both teachers' and parents' goal emphases play as children develop a sense of efficacy in mathematics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental Dynamics of Math Performance From Preschool to Grade 2.

This study investigated the developmental dynamics of mathematical performance during children's transition from preschool to Grade 2 and the cognitive antecedents of this development. 194 Finnish children were examined 6 times according to their math performance, twice during each year across a 3-year period. Cognitive antecedents, that is, counting ability, visual attention, metacognitive knowledge, and listening comprehension, were tested at the first measurement point. The results indicated that math performance showed high stability and increasing variance over time. Moreover, the growth of math competence was faster among those who entered preschool with an already high level of mathematical skills. The initial level of math performance, as well as its growth, was best predicted by counting ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment of perceived competence, motivational orientation, and anxiety in segregated and mainstreamed educable mentally retarded children.

Examined whether instruments designed to tap the self-system in normal IQ children could be used with retarded pupils. The Perceived Competence Scale for Children and scales assessing intrinsic vs extrinsic orientation in the classroom and school concerns were administered to 90 retarded children mainstreamed for socialization or academic purposes and to 36 retarded children who were taught in self-contained classrooms. All Ss were aged 9–12 yrs. For each measure, the 4- or 5-factor structure found for normal-IQ children was not obtained. However 2-factor solutions were revealed, leading to the identification of 6 constructs: General Competence, Popularity, Motivation for Hard Work, Autonomous Judgment, Concern About Evaluation, and Concern About Teacher Support. The failure to find differences between mainstreamed and self-contained Ss was related to the social comparison groups used. Mainstreamed Ss compared themselves with other mainstreamed retarded pupils, whereas self-contained Ss used other self-contained pupils as their comparison group. Findings highlight the need to revise instruments for use with the retarded and to obtain social comparison information. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ability self-concepts and subjective value in literacy: Joint trajectories from grades 1 through 12.

Because literacy skills are critical for most academic subject matters, researchers have become increasingly interested in understanding children's motivation in this domain as a way to increase academic success. In this study, we extend previous work by looking at the heterogeneity of children's motivational changes in literacy across Grades 1–12. We used a cross-sequential design based on 3 different cohorts of children (N = 655) coming from 10 public elementary schools. Data were collected over an 8-year period (1988–1996) starting when children were in 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades. Using multiple-process growth mixture modeling, we identified 7 groups of children showing distinct trajectories of change in literacy subjective task value and ability self-concept across school years. For all children, ability self-concept and subjective task value decreased between Grade 1 and Grade 12; however, this decline was more apparent for some youths than for others. Our findings suggest the importance of school-based interventions that aim to prevent decreases in student motivation for literacy over time and that focus on the early detection of children at risk for dramatic declines. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on "Premorbid competence in schizophrenia: What is being measured?"

Points out errors in the methods of analysis employed by E. Zigler and J. Levine (see record 1981-09313-001) in their study of premorbid competence in schizophrenia. By using separate within-group analyses, they concluded that the factor structure of the Zigler-Phillips Social Competence Scale was not invariant across groups that varied as a function of hospital type and patient gender. These errors are discussed, along with suggestions for more technically appropriate methods of simultaneous factor analysis in multiple samples. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The structure of children's interests and competence perceptions.

Two studies were conducted with samples of elementary school, middle school, and college students, who were given the Inventory of Children's Activities, which was designed to assess J. L. Holland's (1973, 1985a) RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional) types on interests and competence perceptions. The structure was examined at the scale and item levels using the randomization test of hypothesized order relations and principal-components analysis. Results indicated that (a) there were few differences in structure between interests and competence perceptions, (b) the structure of interests and competence perceptions varied across age, (c) the fit of the circular model was positively related to age, (d) elementary and middle school students evaluated their interests and competencies using different dimensions than did college students, and (e) there were scale score mean differences across gender and age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood competence and depression.

Examined whether children with both academic and social skill deficiencies have higher levels of peer-nominated and self-ratings of depression than their more competent peers and whether depression levels can distinguish academically skilled children from socially skilled ones. Objective measures of academic and social competence classified 169 3rd–6th grade children as competent (above the median on both measures), incompetent (below on both), academically skilled (above only on academic competence), or socially skilled (above only on social competence). Children completed the Perceived Competence Scale for Children, Children's Depression Inventory, and a peer nomination inventory of depression. Results demonstrate information about academic and social competence best predicted Ss' depression. Peer-nominated and self-rated depression were highest among incompetent Ss and lowest among competent Ss. Peer-nominated happiness was higher among the socially skilled than among the academically skilled. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paths across generations: academic competence and aggressive behaviors in young mothers and their children

This research compared the social and cognitive development of young mothers when they were children with the social and cognitive development of their offspring. Intergenerational development was investigated over a 17-year period for 57 women who had been studied longitudinally from childhood to adulthood and who became young mothers (R. B. Cairns & B. D. Cairns, 1994). The children of these women, in turn, were followed prospectively from 1 to 2 years old through the early school years. The academic competence of mothers when they were children was significantly linked to the academic competence of their children at school age. In contrast, the across-generation correlations between measures of aggressive behavior of the mothers when they were children and measures of aggressive behavior of their children in early school grades were modest and unreliable. Certain within-generation continuities were observed in both cognitive and aggressive development.     

Predicting outcome in schizophrenics and nonschizophrenics of both sexes: The Zigler-Phillips Social Competence Scale.

Studied the predictive utility of the Zigler-Phillips Social Competence Scale in relation to major aspects of outcome among 297 young, nonchronic schizophrenic (SCZ) and nonschizophrenic (NSCZ) patients (mean age 22.8 yrs) using Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). It was found that SCZs showed less prehospital social competence in comparison to NSCZs. Also, the Zigler-Phillips scale predicted overall outcome for SCZs and showed some, but less, efficacy in predicting outcome among various types of NSCZ patients. The predictive utility of the Social Competence Scale was similar for SCZ men and for SCZ women, and the scale predicted work functioning for 3 of 4 RDC diagnostic groups but failed to predict social functioning for any of the diagnostic groups. Overall findings suggest that both symptoms pathognomonic of schizophrenia and prior developmental level play major roles in posthospital adjustment. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of School-Based Kindergarten Transition Policies and Practices on Child Academic Outcomes.

This study examined the effect of school-based kindergarten transition policies and practices on child outcomes. The authors followed 17,212 children from 992 schools in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten sample (ECLS-K) across the kindergarten school year. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that the number of school-based transition practices in the fall of kindergarten was associated with more positive academic achievement scores at the end of kindergarten, even controlling for family socioeconomic status (SES) and other demographic factors. This effect was stronger for low- and middle-SES children than high-SES children. For low-SES children, 7 transition practices were associated with a .21 standard deviation increase in predicted achievement scores beyond 0 practices. The effect of transition practices was partially mediated by an intervening effect on parent-initiated involvement in school during the kindergarten year. The findings support education policies to target kindergarten transition efforts to increase parent involvement in low-SES families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conversational competence and peer response to mildly retarded children.

This study investigated the relationship between mildy retarded children's conversational competence and their acceptance by regular education students. Ninety-four elementary school students watched videotapes in which mildly retarded children displayed either skill or lack of skill at conversational management. Half of the students were told the retarded children's special education placement; half were not. Students responded more positively when the mildly retarded children displayed skill at managing conversations, projecting that they would be liked by others in their classrooms. When the mildly retarded children showed problems with conversational management, students projected that they would be rejected or isolated by peers. These findings support the position that language can play an important role in children's response to their handicapped peers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)