Empathy in children aged 10 to 12 years

The objectives of this research were: 1) to determine whether there were differences in empathy according to gender; 2) to analyze the relationships between empathy and social behaviour, self-concept, emotional stability, social interaction strategies, capacity to analyze emotions, intelligence, and creativity; and 3) to identify predicting variables of empathy. The sample consisted of 139 participants aged 10 to 12 years. ANOVA results showed gender differences in empathy, with significantly higher scores in females. Pearson coefficients suggest that participants with high empathy showed many positive social behaviours (prosocial, assertive, consideration, self-control, leadership), few negative social behaviors (passive, aggressive, antisocial, withdrawal) and many assertive strategies of social interaction; that they were named as prosocial classmates; and that they had high self-concept, high capacity to analyze negative emotions, high emotional stability and many behaviors and traits of creative personality. Multiple regression analyses permitted identification of the following predicting variables of empathy: high level of prosocial behaviour, low level of aggressive behaviour and high self-concept.     

Number processing and calculation in Brazilian children aged 7-12 years

Numerical cognition is based on two components - number processing and calculation. Its development is influenced by biological, cognitive, educational, and cultural factors. The objectives of the present study were to: i) assess number processing and calculation in Brazilian children aged 7-12 years from public schools using the Zareki-R (Battery of neuropsychological tests for number processing and calculation in children, Revised; von Aster & Dellatolas, 2006) in order to obtain normative data for Portuguese speakers; ii) identify how environment, age, and gender influences the development of these mathematical skills; iii) investigate the construct validity of the Zareki-R by the contrast with the Arithmetic subtest of WISC-III. The sample included 172 children, both genders, divided in two groups: urban (N = 119) and rural (N = 53) assessed by the Zareki-R. Rural children presented lower scores in one aspect of number processing; children aged 7-8 years demonstrated an inferior global score than older; boys presented a superior performance in both number processing and calculation. Construct validity of Zareki-R was demonstrated by high to moderate correlations with Arithmetic subtest of WISC-III. The Zareki-R therefore is a suitable instrument to assess the development of mathematical skills, which is influenced by factors such as environment, age, and gender.     

Sex differences in landmark learning by children aged 5 to 12 years

Previous research has shown that men and boys learn routes faster and with fewer errors than do women and girls. Research with adults suggests that men use Euclidean cues when learning a route, whereas women use landmark-based strategies. The strategies used by children have received little study. In Exp. 1, 50 boys and girls, ages 5 to 12 years, were shown a map that contained only landmarks (no streets or roads) and were asked to learn a route consisting of 23 of the landmarks. The children used a pointer to trace the route on the map to a criterion of two successive trials without errors. The performance of boys and girls did not differ significantly on this route-learning task on three measures (number of trials to reach criterion, total time to reach criterion, and total number of errors). In Exp. 2, 52 boys and girls, ages 5 to 12 years, were shown the same map as in Exp. 1 and were asked to learn a route consisting of 12 landmarks. The children traced the route by picking pictures of landmarks in the correct order from a stack of cards with pictures of landmarks on them. Girls made significantly fewer errors than boys on this route-learning task in Exp. 2, and a significantly larger number of girls than boys completed the task. None of the boys in the 5- to 6-yr.-old age group learned the route. When Euclidean cues were minimized in Exp. 2, boys made more errors and took as much time as girls to reach the criterion of two successive correct trials.     

Event-related EEG oscillations to semantically unrelated words in normal and learning disabled children

Learning disabilities (LD) are one of the most frequent problems for elementary school-aged children. In this paper, event-related EEG oscillations to semantically related and unrelated pairs of words were studied in a group of 18 children with LD not otherwise specified (LD-NOS) and in 16 children with normal academic achievement. We propose that EEG oscillations may be different in LD NOS children versus normal control children that may explain some of the deficits observed in the LD-NOS group. The EEGs were recorded using the 10/20 system. EEG segments were edited by visual inspection 1000ms before and after the stimulus, and only correct responses were considered in the analysis. Time-frequency (1-50Hz) topographic maps were obtained for the increases and decreases of power after the event with respect to the pre-stimulus average values. Significant differences between groups were observed in the behavioral responses. LD-NOS children show less number of correct responses and more omissions and false alarms than the control group. The event-induced EEG responses showed significant differences between groups. The control group showed greater power increases in the frequencies 1-6Hz than the LD-NOS group from 300 to 700ms. These differences were mainly observed in frontal regions, both to related and non-related words. This was interpreted as a deficit in attention, both to internal and external events, deficits in activation of working memory and deficits in encoding and memory retrieval in the LD-NOS children. Differences between groups were also observed in the suppression of alpha and beta rhythms in the occipital regions to related words in frequencies between 8 and 17Hz from 450 to 750ms. LD-NOS children showed shorter durations of the decreases in power than the control group. These results suggest also deficits in attention and memory retrieval. It may be concluded that LD-NOS children showed physiological differences from normal children that may explain their cognitive deficiencies.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for two samples of nonpatient children from Italy: 75 aged 5-7 years and 148 aged 8-11 years

This project provides information on how nonpatient children perform on the Rorschach test, administered and scored following Exner's guidelines (1995). Lis, Parolin, Zennaro, and Mazzeschi (2001) previously reported initial data for 70 nonpatient children living in Italy who were administered this instrument by graduate and postgraduate students in a 2-year research course at the Psychotherapy School of the University of Padua between July 1998 and February 2001. The current study is an extension of that work and includes information on an additional 153 participants gathered between November 2002 and December 2006. The total number of participants includes 223 individuals, 75 5-7-year-old children in the first level of elementary school, and 148 8-11-year-old children in the second level of elementary school. Exclusion criteria are described, and interrater reliability statistics at the response level for scoring segments are reported using percent agreement and iota. Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) findings are presented.     

Two measures of affect and emotion in Italian children aged 6 to 11 years

The authors investigated the relation between affective and cognitive processes in fantasy play and emotional understanding of 50 Italian children (25 boys and 25 girls) enrolled in regular elementary school in Northern Italy. Children were administered a standardized play task, the Affect in Play Scale, and answered questions about their understanding of emotions. Consistent, yet modest, relationships were found between dimensions of fantasy play and emotional understanding.     

Bilateral transfer in mentally retarded children of ages 7 to 17 years

The purpose of this study was to describe the effect of age on bilateral transfer of mildly mentally retarded girls (IQs of 70 to 90) after practice on a 45-rpm rotary pursuit task. Subjects were 96 girls from 7 to 17 yr. old. Each performed 14 trials on a rotary pursuit task (30-sec. trials, 10 sec. between trials), half performing the first seven trials with the nonpreferred hand, using the preferred hand on the next seven trials. The order was reversed for the remaining subjects. Nonsignificant differences between Trial 1 scores of the two groups indicated that the task was novel. Trial 1 scores of both groups were positively associated with age (r = 0.5). There was no transfer to preferred hand, with negative transfer occurring to the nonpreferred hand. It was concluded that, for the task used in this study, mentally retarded girls do not experience positive bilateral transfer as do normal, age-matched girls.     

Temperament and negative semantic priming in children 7 to 12 years old

The present research assessed whether children with high and low scores on temperament traits differed in their ability to inhibit irrelevant task information in a lexical decision task. Children from 7 to 12 years old were classified based on temperament dimensions measured using a version of the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire. The participants were instructed to either attend to (and remember) or to ignore a masked prime word followed by a central probe target on which they made a lexical decision. The results revealed several notable outcomes. First of all, recognition memory was better for attended than ignored words, providing further evidence that attention instructions influenced the processing of the primes.

Secondly, although no negative priming effect was obtained in the “ignore” condition, 43% of children showed this effect. Thirdly, children scoring high on Inhibitory Control and Impulsivity showed ignored negative priming, whereas children scoring high on Inhibitory Control and low on Impulsivity ignored facilitation. Data are discussed within the framework of negative priming as a complex phenomenon that involves the interaction of different factors such as age, type of task, and certain temperament traits.     

The comorbidity of ADHD in a community sample of children aged 6 through 16 years

Secondary analyses of the data from the Puerto Rico Child Psychiatry Epidemiologic Study were undertaken to provide information on the comorbidity patterns of ADHD. A high level of comorbidity was found among ADHD and other diagnostic categories, particularly the conduct/oppositional group. Comorbidity was associated with level of impairment and with service utilization.     

A cross-sectional comparison of routinized and compulsive-like behaviours in typical children aged from 2 to 11 years

Routinized and compulsive like behaviours (RCBs) have been described as important aspects of development seen universally in children, yet investigation is relatively scarce. One exception was the development of the Childhood Routines Inventory (CRI), which has prompted recent studies. The present study was a replication of the standardization for the CRI on a British sample and with an extended age range. It also explored possible associations with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The parents of 1,369 children (aged 2–11 years) completed the CRI, and an 8-item OCD scale for those 7 years and over. Socioeconomic status (SES) was measured by proxy post codes; 111 parents completed the questionnaire twice. The CRI had good internal consistency and test–retest reliability. There was a significant linear decline in RCBs with age; a minority of children continued to have high levels up to 11 years of age. Children designated at risk for OCD had higher CRI scores. Anxious behaviours reported by parents of children aged 7 years or over were associated with higher levels of RCBs. Factor analysis of the CRI identified three factors: “Repetitive”, “Just Right” and “Sensitivity”.     

The control of instrumental action following outcome devaluation in young children aged between 1 and 4 years

To determine the role of action-outcome learning in the control of young children's instrumental behavior, the authors trained 18- to 48-month-olds to manipulate visual icons on a touch-sensitive display to obtain different types of video clips as outcomes. Subsequently, one of the outcomes was devalued by repeated exposure, and children's propensity to perform the trained actions was tested in extinction. On test, children with a mean age greater than 2.5 years performed the action trained with the devalued outcome less than those trained with the still-valued outcome, thereby demonstrating that their actions were mediated by action-outcome learning. By contrast, the instrumental responses of younger children (mean age<2 years) were resistant to outcome devaluation and may have been elicited directly by the icons associated with each response, rather than mediated by a specific action-outcome expectation.     

7-10岁学龄儿童ADHD筛查研究

用SDQ（家长版）对上海10所小学二至四年级学生进行测查,以探求被试的ADHD症状表现,锁定ADHD高风险儿童。结果：（1）男生ADHD得分偏高（p<.01）,但女生在红橙两个级别内的百分数均高于男生;（2）9岁被试的ADHD得分分布最分散,占男生ADHD红色级别的比例最大,在女生ADHD得分中均值最大;（3）红橙两个级别为高风险级别。结论：（1）9岁是ADHD症状表现最严重的年龄;（2）女生具有更高的ADHD风险;（3）ADHD高风险被试晒出率：男生14.4%,女生17.4%。     

Laboratory strength measures of talented and less talented Greek children ages 9 to 10 years

The purpose was twofold: (1) to assess whether laboratory tests can distinguish talented groups and less talented groups of children identified by their total scores in a battery of field tests and (2) to evaluate whether scores in field and laboratory tests are correlated. 36 children (ages 9 to 10 years) were divided into groups of higher and lower total scores on standing long jump, medicine ball throw, and sprint. Both groups were tested for maximum isometric force, force produced at the initial 100 msec., reactive force index, drop jump height, squat jump height, and maximum pedaling rate. Analysis showed the talented group had significantly (p < or = .05) higher scores on maximum isometric force, force produced in the initial 100 msec., and drop jump height than less talented children. Moderate to high correlations were found among scores for field performance tests with maximum pedaling rate. In conclusion, the laboratory tests distinguished the talented and less talented children in maximal isometric force, the force produced at the initial 100 msec., the reactive force index, and the drop jump height.     

The late positive potential predicts emotion regulation strategy use in school‐aged children concurrently and two years later

The ability to use cognitive emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal may be a core component of emotional competence across development, but due to methodological challenges in measuring such strategies, they are rarely studied in young children. One neurophysiological measure, the late positive potential (LPP), has been examined in response to reappraisal as a potential neurosignature for emotion regulatory capacity in adults. The association between the LPP and emotion regulatory capacity in children is unknown. The present study examined whether the LPP during reappraisal could predict greater observed adaptive emotion regulation strategy use in school‐aged children over a two‐year period. Thirty‐two 5‐ to 7‐year‐olds participated in two identical lab visits spaced two years apart. EEG was continuously recorded during a computerized reappraisal task in which children viewed unpleasant images paired with either reappraisal or negative stories. Next they completed a disappointing and a frustrating task during which emotion regulation strategies were observed. As predicted, children who showed reappraisal‐induced reductions in the LPP at the first assessment used significantly more adaptive ER strategies concurrently and two years later. These findings provide observation‐based evidence that the LPP may be a viable neurosignature for emotion regulatory capacity in children.     

Prosocial and creative play: Effects of a programme on the verbal and nonverbal intelligence of children aged 10–11 years

The objective of this research was to design a prosocial and creative play programme, in order to assess its effects on intellectual development. The study used a pretest–intervention–posttest design with control group. The sample was made up of 86 participants aged 10–11 years from two schools in the Basque Country, northern Spain. From the complete sample, 54 participants were assigned at random to the experimental condition, while 32 were assigned to the control condition. With the aim of assessing the effect of the programme, before and after its implementation, in the pretest phase and the posttest phase, two assessment instruments were administered to measure the dependent variables, that is, verbal intelligence, nonverbal intelligence, and verbal associative thinking related to verbal creativity. Subsequently, the experimental participants took part in the psychological intervention programme, which consisted of a weekly 2‐hour play session throughout the academic year. The session was structured with a sequence of two or three recreational activities and their subsequent debates. The games included in the programme stimulate communication, cohesion, confidence, and the development of creativity; underlying all of them is the idea of acceptance, cooperation, and sharing, while playing and inventing together. The games constituting this programme have five structural characteristics: participation, communication, cooperation, fiction‐creation, and fun. Results of the analysis of variance suggest significant impact of the programme on verbal intelligence, on the ability to form concepts or define words, and on the capacity for verbal associative thinking. Also confirmed was a greater effect of the intervention on participants who showed low intelligence levels in the pretest, but no differences were found according to sex. The results indicate a positive effect of interventions that stimulate prosocial play and behaviour on intellectual factors.     

The effect of attentional instructions during modeling on gaze behavior and throwing accuracy in 7 to 10 year-old children

Research has shown the effectiveness of attentional instructions and observation on the performance and learning in children. However, there is little research on the effects of instruction that manipulates attentional focus during observation. The purpose of the study was to investigate performance following instructions that directed an individual to focus internally or externally during the viewing of a model. Eye tracking was also used to investigate the visual search strategy under different instructional groups. 24 children between the ages of 7 and 10 years were randomly divided into an internal (IFM) or external (EFM) modeling group. Children performed a 10-trial pre-test to measure throwing accuracy and quiet eye duration (QED). Following pre-test, children observed a model performing the correct overarm throw 10 times while eye movement was recorded. They then performed a 10-trial post-test. Results revealed that both groups improved accuracy from pre-test to post-test (p < .001) and increased QED from pre- to post-test (p < .001). It was also observed that EFM had greater accuracy and (p = .01) and longer QED (p < .001) than IFM during post-testing. Evidence was also observed for adherence to the attentional focus strategy as EFM and IFM looked more frequently at the specific cue provided (p < .001). Directing visual attention to the movement effects while observing a model significantly benefits motor performance and learning in children. Changing the focus of instruction to an external focus improved both throwing accuracy and increased QED.