Relations of Children's Effortful Control and Teacher-Child Relationship Quality to School Attitudes in a Low-Income Sample     

Silva KM  Spinrad TL  Eisenberg N  Sulik MJ  Valiente C  Huerta S  Edwards A  Eggum ND  Kupfer AS  Lonigan CJ  Phillips BM  Wilson SB  Clancy-Menchetti J  Landry SH  Swank PR  Assel MA  Taylor HB;School Readiness Consortium 《Early education and development》2011,22(3):434-460

RESEARCH FINDINGS: The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of children's effortful control and quality of relationships with teachers to school attitudes longitudinally in an ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged sample. Data were collected as part of a larger intervention project during mid-fall, winter, and late spring (ns = 823, 722, and 758, respectively) for 2 cohorts of 3- to 5-year-olds (collected during 2 different school years). Children's effortful control was assessed in the fall with parents' and teachers' reports and 2 behavioral measures. Teacher-child relationship quality was assessed mid-year with teachers' reports of closeness and conflict. Attitudes toward school were assessed in late spring using teachers' and students' reports of school avoidance and liking. Effortful control, in general, was positively correlated with teacher-child closeness and school liking and negatively correlated with conflict and school avoidance. Using structural equation modeling and controlling for sex and ethnicity, we found that effortful control was positively related to teacher-child relationship quality, which in turn was positively related to school attitudes. Furthermore, the relation of effortful control to school attitudes was mediated by teacher-child relationship quality. PRACTICE OR POLICY: Results provide evidence for the importance of relational processes that take place within the classroom context and have implications for teachers and clinicians working to increase school success in ethnic minority and low-income children.  相似文献   

Visual-Motor Integration,Executive Functions,and Academic Achievement: Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations in Late Elementary School     

Michael J. Sulik  Stephanie L. Haft  Jelena Obradović 《Early education and development》2018,29(7):956-970

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Using data from a short-term longitudinal study of 343 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students, we investigated visual-motor integration (VMI) skills as a predictor of direct assessments of executive functions (EFs) and academic achievement. This is the first study to investigate relations among these three constructs in late elementary school. VMI predicted change in EFs from fall to spring. EFs and VMI were independently associated with math and English/language arts standardized test scores. When controlling for earlier achievement test scores, EFs—but not VMI—remained a significant predictor of later academic achievement. Results indicate that VMI may help support the continued development of EFs in late elementary school, but EFs appear to be comparatively more important as a direct predictor of continued academic development during this age period. Practice or Policy: VMI is a complex ability that combines fine motor coordination (an aspect of school readiness) and visual-spatial reasoning skills. VMI has been identified as an influential predictor of early academic development, but it has been neglected in middle childhood studies. Our results suggest that VMI remains important through the end of elementary school for the continued development of children’s EFs and therefore merits more attention from researchers and educators.  相似文献   

Early Parenting and the Development of Externalizing Behavior Problems: Longitudinal Mediation Through Children's Executive Function          下载免费PDF全文

Michael J. Sulik  Clancy Blair  Roger Mills‐Koonce  Daniel Berry  Mark Greenberg  The Family Life Project Investigators 《Child development》2015,86(5):1588-1603

Path analysis was used to investigate the longitudinal associations among parenting and children's executive function and externalizing behavior problems from 36 to 90 months of age in the Family Life Project (N = 1,115), a study of child development in the context of rural poverty. While controlling for stability in the constructs, semistructured observations of parenting prospectively predicted performance on a battery of executive function tasks and primary caregivers' reports of externalizing behavior. Furthermore, the association between early parenting and later externalizing behavior was longitudinally mediated by executive function, providing support for a process model in which sensitive parenting promotes children's self‐regulation, which in turn reduces children's externalizing behavior.  相似文献