The ability to distinguish between comprehension and memory: Failing to succeed.

The authors investigated 1st graders' ability to select the appropriate strategy for constructing a building from memory versus constructing a building while listening to instructions that included an unfamiliar word. In 2 experiments, children's strategy selections (a) preceded any construction attempts, (b) followed failed construction attempts, or (c) followed verbal feedback about construction failures. Long-term strategy maintenance also was assessed. First graders who selected strategies after concrete failure experiences were more likely to select appropriate strategies than children whose strategy selections preceded construction attempts. Failure experiences may help children recognize task goals, assess their inability to achieve these goals, and identify the source of this inability. However, concrete failure experiences did not result in long-term strategy maintenance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observed maternal strategies and children's health locus of control in low-income Mexican Americans.

This study examined the relationship among mothers' health locus of control (HLOC) beliefs, their socialization strategies, and their children's HLOC beliefs in 80 low-income Mexican American families. Maternal socialization strategies were assessed from videotaped interactions of mothers and children engaged in a structured task. Factor analysis of the coded strategies yielded 4 factors: Tell Answer, Teaching, Clarify, and Reinforce. Findings indicated that maternal-health-internally scores negatively predicted mothers' use of the Tell Answer strategies and positively predicted their use of Teaching strategies. Mothers who believed that Powerful Others (e.g., health professionals) controlled their health were more likely to use the Tell Answer strategy. In contrast, mothers who believed that health was due to chance were less likely to use Teaching. Maternal use of Teaching strategies predicted children's internal HLOC, whereas maternal Tell Answer strategies predicted children's external HLOC. Findings suggest that mothers' HLOC beliefs influence the socialization strategies they use and that these strategies are associated with children's HLOC beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of a strategy-based intervention on the comprehension and strategy use of struggling adolescent readers.

This study examines the impact of the Learning Strategies Curriculum (LSC), an adolescent reading intervention program, on 6th- and 9th-grade students' reading comprehension and strategy use. Using a randomized treatment–control group design, the study compared student outcomes for these constructs for 365 students who received daily instruction in 6 LSC strategies and 290 students who did not receive intervention instruction. After 1 school year, 6th-grade students who received intervention instruction significantly outperformed students in the control group on a standardized measure of reading comprehension and reported using problem-solving strategies in reading to a greater extent than students in the control group. There were no significant differences between 9th grade intervention and control groups in reading comprehension or strategy use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mother-child interaction and participation in a longitudinal intervention program.

Studied the effects of the child's participation in longitudinal intervention on the structured mother-child teaching interaction. Comparisons were between 21 Black 40-66 mo old experimental children who were participants in intensive language and cognitive development stimulation from approximately 6 mo of age and their mothers, and 18 control children who were simply periodically tested and their mothers. Significant between-group differences in the children's behavior, task scores, and patterning of interaction were found and, when both mother and child received task instructions, in maternal behavior. Findings provide evidence of feedback effects from the experimental group children to their mothers. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning mathematics from procedural instruction: Externally imposed goals influence what is learned.

Do externally imposed achievement goals influence what children learn from procedural instruction? Third- and 4th-grade children's goals were manipulated toward either learning or performance. All children were then taught a procedure for solving mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., a?+?b?+?c?=?a?+?_). Children who were given learning goals were initially more likely to gain conceptual knowledge from the procedural lesson than were children who were given performance goals. After a 2-week period, however, children who were given performance goals exhibited the same conceptual gains as children who were given learning goals. Both initially and after the 2-week period, children who were given either goal were more likely to extend their knowledge beyond the taught procedure than were children who were not given goals. External sources such as teachers and parents may have the potential to foster children's learning by shaping children's goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personalized mailed feedback for college drinking prevention: A randomized clinical trial.

The current study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a mailed feedback and tips intervention as a universal prevention strategy for college drinking. Participants (N = 1,488) were randomly assigned to feedback or assessment-only control conditions. Results indicated that the mailed feedback intervention had a preventive effect on drinking rates overall, with participants in the feedback condition consuming less alcohol at follow-up in comparison with controls. In addition, abstainers in the feedback condition were twice as likely to remain abstinent from alcohol at follow-up in comparison with control participants (odds ratio = 2.02), and feedback participants were significantly more likely to refrain from heavy episodic drinking (odds ratio = 1.43). Neither gender nor severity of baseline drinking moderated the efficacy of the intervention in these analyses, but more conservative analyses utilizing last-observation carryforward suggested women and abstainers benefited more from this prevention approach. Protective behaviors mediated intervention efficacy, with participants who received the intervention being more likely to use strategies such as setting limits and alternating alcohol with nonalcoholic beverages. Implications of these findings for universal prevention of college drinking are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accelerating language development through picture book reading: A systematic extension to Mexican day care.

Previous research demonstrates linguistic advances in middle-class 2-yr-olds in the US resulting from training parents to read with their children following a particular style. This style, called dialogic reading, encourages children to talk about picture books and gives them models and feedback for progressively more sophisticated language use. This research extends these procedures to a day-care setting using 20 Mexican 2-yr-olds from low-income backgrounds. Children in the intervention group were read to individually by a teacher using dialogic reading techniques. The control group children were given individual arts and crafts instruction by the same teacher. Effects of the intervention were assessed through standardized language tests and by comparing the children's spontaneous language while they shared a picture book with an adult who was unaware of their group assignment. Differences favoring the intervention group were found on all standardized language posttests and on some measures of language production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in first-grade mathematics strategy use: Social and metacognitive influences.

Social and metacognitive contributors to gender differences in 1st grader's mathematics strategy use were explored. Fifty-eight children solved addition and subtraction problems individually and in groups of 3 in October, January, and May. The children's strategy use was assessed individually, as well as their metacognitive knowledge for mathematics strategies and their rationales for the use of different mathematics strategies. The children also solved addition and subtraction problems in groups. Gender differences were found: Girls were more likely to count on fingers or use counters (overt strategies); boys were more likely to use retrieval (from memory) to solve addition and subtraction problems. All children were less likely to use overt strategies and more likely to use covert strategies and retrieval in the group session. Metacognition was a significant predictor of strategy use. Social rationales for strategy use emerged at the end of the year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategy acquisition and transfer among American and German children: Environmental influences on metacognitive development.

This study explored the differential effects of strategy training on German and American elementary-school children and assessed the role of parents in the development of their children's strategic behavior and metacognition. 184 German and 161 American children were pretested on memory and metamemory tasks. Children were then assigned to either an organizational strategy training condition or a control condition. All children were tested on the maintenance and far-transfer of the strategy and task-related metamemory 1 week following training. Parents completed questionnaires about strategy instruction in the home. Strategy maintenance and metacognition were reassessed 6 months following training. German children were more strategic than American children. Instructed children performed better than control children. German parents reported more instruction of strategies in the home. These data suggest that formal education is responsible for aspects of cognitive development that have sometimes been viewed as a function of age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitating children's proportional reasoning: A model of reasoning processes and effects of intervention on strategy change.

In this study, 140 fourth graders were asked to solve proportion problems about juice-mixing situations both before and after an intervention that used a manipulative model or other materials in 3 experiments. Using a manipulative model based on children's prior knowledge about crowdedness and equal distribution was effective in letting children discover a unit strategy, which was useful for solving proportion problems. The model was more effective for those who had an appropriate representation but could not correctly compare juice concentrations than it was for those who didn't have the representation. On the basis of this study, different approaches appear to be necessary to facilitate children's proportional reasoning, depending on the reasoning process (representation or comparison) with which children are having difficulty. Interventions on the basis of the process model and learning that builds on intuitive knowledge are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examination of preventive interventions for families with depression: evidence of change

Thirty-seven families who had a child between the ages of 8 and 15 (mean age = 12.0 years) and had at least one parent, who had experienced a recent episode of affective disorder were assigned randomly to one of two psychoeducational interventions. The interventions (clinician-facilitated or lecture-group discussion) were designed to prevent childhood depression and related problems through decreasing the impact of related risk factors and encouraging resiliency-promoting behaviors and attitudes. They were similar in content but differed in the level of the children's involvement and the degree to which the families' individual life experiences were linked to the educational material. Assessments included standard diagnostic and social functioning instruments and interviews designed specifically for this project to assess behavior and attitude change. Each parent and child was individually assessed by separate assessors who were blind to information about the other family members. Parent participants in both groups reported being satisfied with the intervention. Clinician group participants reported a significantly larger number of overall changes, as well as higher levels of change regarding communications about the illness with their children and increased understanding by the children of their illness. Significantly more children in the clinician group also reported they gained a better understanding of parental affective illness as a result of their participation in the project.     

Effectiveness of comprehensive professional development for teachers of at-risk preschoolers.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 101(3) of Journal of Educational Psychology (see record 2009-11043-017). In the article, a disclosure statement was incorrectly omitted due to an error during the production process from the author note of the final article. The following statement should have appeared in the author note: The University of Texas Health Science Center—Houston owns intellectual property for the online professional development program and the progress monitoring program and receives remuneration as do Paul Swank and Susan Landry as two of the authors of those programs.] This study compared effectiveness of “business as usual” to that of 4 professional development (PD) programs that targeted teachers of at-risk preschool children. A 2 × 2 design was used to cross mentoring and progress monitoring conditions among the 4 PD programs. Specifically, some teachers received both in-classroom mentoring and detailed, instructionally linked feedback concerning children's progress in language and literacy. Some teachers received no mentoring but did receive the detailed, instructionally linked feedback concerning children's progress. Some teachers received in-classroom mentoring but only limited feedback on children's progress, which was not linked to curricular activities. Finally, some teachers received no mentoring and only limited feedback concerning children's progress. All 4 PD conditions included the same year-long, facilitated online course that emphasized language and literacy instruction, practice of learned material in one's classroom, and participation in online message boards with fellow teachers. Across 4 states, 158 schools (N = 262 classrooms) were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 PD conditions or business as usual. The condition that included online coursework combined with mentoring and detailed, instructionally linked feedback yielded the greatest improvements in teaching behavior and children's school readiness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning to map: Strategy discovery and strategy change in young children.

A series of microgenetic experiments was conducted to examine the role of experience on 2.5- to 5-year-old children's discovery of spatial mapping strategies. With experience, 3- to 4-year-olds discovered a strategy for mapping corresponding locations that shared both featural and spatial similarities. When featural and spatial correspondences were placed in conflict, requiring children to negotiate both object-centered and location-centered mapping possibilities, 4- to 5-year-olds proved capable of discovering a novel mapping strategy, abandoning an ineffective strategy, and generalizing the acquired strategy across analogous tasks. Upon examining the mechanisms underlying developmental differences in strategy discovery and strategy change, the author observed that 3 key components contributed to the children's spatial mapping skills: encoding locations within each space, noticing a potential analogy between spaces, and detecting precise mapping correspondences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences and the development of perceived control

Research on individual differences demonstrates that children's perceived control exerts a strong effect on their academic achievement and that, in turn, children's actual school performance influences their sense of control. At the same time, developmental research shows systematic age-graded changes in the processes that children use to regulate and interpret control experiences. Drawing on both these perspectives, the current study examines (1) age differences in the operation of beliefs-performance cycles and (2) the effects of these cycles on the development of children's perceived control and classroom engagement from the third to the seventh grade. Longitudinal data on about 1,600 children were collected six times (every fall and spring) over 3 consecutive school years, including children's reports of their perceived control and individual interactions with teachers; teachers' reports of each student's engagement in class; and, for a subset of students, grades and achievement tests. Analyses of individual differences and individual growth curves (estimated using hierarchical linear modeling procedures) were consistent, not only with a cyclic model of context, self, action, and outcomes, but also with predictors of individual development over 5 years from grade 3 to grade 7. Children who experienced teachers as warm and contingent were more likely to develop optimal profiles of control; these beliefs supported more active engagement in the classroom, resulting in better academic performance; success in turn predicted the maintenance of optimistic beliefs about the effectiveness of effort. In contrast, children who experienced teachers as unsupportive were more likely to develop beliefs that emphasized external causes; these profiles of control predicted escalating classroom disaffection and lower scholastic achievement; in turn, these poor performances led children to increasingly doubt their own capacities and to believe even more strongly in the power of luck and unknown causes. Systematic age differences in analyses suggested that the aspects of control around which these cycles are organized change with development. The beliefs that regulated engagement shifted from effort to ability and from beliefs about the causes of school performance (strategy beliefs) to beliefs about the self's capacities. The feedback loop from individual performance to subsequent perceived control also became more pronounced and more focused on ability. These relatively linear developmental changes may have contributed to an abrupt decline in children's classroom engagement as they negotiated the transition to middle school and experienced losses in teacher support. Implications are discussed for future study of individual differences and development, especially the role of changing school contexts, mechanisms of influence, and developmentally appropriate interventions to optimize children's perceived control and engagement.     

Autonomy as competence in 2-year-olds: Maternal correlates of child defiance, compliance, and self-assertion.

95 mothers and their 2-yr-old children participated in a study of maternal control strategies and child autonomy as measured by children's defiant, compliant, and self-assertive behavior. Mothers and children were observed in a laboratory compliance task and at home at dinnertime. Compliance and self-assertion were associated with mothers' use of less powerful methods of control. Defiance loaded on a different factor than either compliance or self-assertion and was associated with more power-assertive control strategies. In situations in which the child had said "no" to the mother, maternal negative control was more likely than any other control strategy to elicit defiance in both settings. The strategy of combining control with guidance was the most likely to elicit compliance and the least likely to elicit defiance in both settings. These associations are discussed in terms of reciprocity and power sharing in relationships and their congruence with D. Baumrind's (1973) pattern of authoritative parenting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of parent behavior-management training on child depressive symptoms.

The present study tested the impact of a parent behavior-management intervention on child depressive and internalizing symptoms. One hundred eighty-one children were randomly assigned to receive a videotape modeling parenting intervention, the Incredible Years, or to a wait-list control group. Children who received the intervention were more likely to have lower mother-rated mood and internalizing symptoms at post-treatment, compared with children in a wait-list control group. The effect sizes observed in the present intervention fell in the small-to-medium range for the sample as a whole, and some evidence supported the authors' hypothesis that effects would be strongest for children with baseline internalizing symptoms in the clinical range. Subsequent analyses also revealed that perceived changes in parenting effectiveness mediated the effect of treatment on children's post-treatment internalizing symptoms. The finding was consistent with study hypotheses and social learning explanations of child internalizing symptoms that guided selection of putative mechanisms. Implications for counseling psychologists and for designing interventions and prevention strategies for children with internalizing symptoms are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of positive and negative feedback and degree of discrepancy on responses to test results.

169 undergraduates received falsified psychological test results that were discrepant in either positive or negative directions with their own reports on self-referring attitudes. They were then given the opportunity to change their self-reports and/or derogate the accuracy of the test interpreter. Ss who received negative feedback were more likely to derogate the interpreter, whereas Ss who received positive feedback were more likely to change their self-reports in the direction of the interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's emotional experience: Relations among expression, self-report, and understanding.

Assessed the influence of social evaluation on children's emotional experience and understanding. 66 younger and older children (M ages?=?7.12 and 12.06 yrs) were videotaped as they played a game, during which they received mild positive or negative feedback from another child of the same age and gender. Children's emotion report and understanding of their emotional responses were obtained in a postgame interview. Feedback valence influenced children's emotion expression, self-report, and their understanding of emotion. Girls displayed more positive and negative emotion than boys in response to social feedback and were also more accurate in reporting their initial facial expression. Although younger and older children did not differ in mean level of understanding of emotion, only older children used the most sophisticated types of explanations for their emotions. Overall, emotion expression, self-report, and understanding were more closely related after positive than negative feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of the outcomes of social strategies: Do the ends justify being mean?

Two studies were conducted to examine the strategy outcome perceptions of popular, average, neglected, and rejected 3rd- and 5th-graders. In Study 1, children (n?=?127) described the likely outcomes of 6 types of strategies (e.g., physical aggression, commands, compromise) in open-ended, hypothetical situation interviews. In Study 2 (n?=?339), a questionnaire was used to assess children's outcome expectations and their evaluations of selected strategies. Findings indicate that children's outcome expectations and strategy evaluations vary as a function of peer status, age, and gender. Results from both studies are discussed in terms of an hypothesized relation between children's strategy outcome perceptions and their behavior in the peer group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Filial therapy with nonoffending parents of children who have been sexually abused.

Examined the effectiveness of a 10 wk filial therapy training model as a method of intervention for nonoffending parents (24–56 yrs old) and their children (4–10 yrs old) who have experienced sexual abuse. Ss were assigned to either an experimental or control group and were given pretraining sessions and assessments. The parents in the experimental group then conducted weekly 30 min special play sessions with their children, as recommended by Landreth (1991). One session was videotaped. The parents received constructive feedback and support from the facilitator and group members during meetings. A posttest battery of instruments was administered to parents and children following the training sessions. Analyses of covariance revealed that the nonoffending parents in the experimental group significantly increased their level of empathy in their interactions with their children, significantly increased their attitude of acceptance toward their children, and significantly reduced their level of stress. Measures of the children's behavior, anxiety, emotional adjustment, and self-concept indicated positive trends. The authors maintain that this study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention for nonoffending parents and their children who have experienced sexual abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)