Adolescents' perceptions of school neighbourhood built environment for walking and cycling to school

Walking is a more common transport mode to school than cycling among adolescents in many countries worldwide. Adolescents' and their parents' have different perceptions of walking versus cycling to school. This study compared adolescents' perceptions of school neighbourhood built environment characteristics for walking versus cycling to school. Adolescents familiar with their school neighbourhoods (n=411; age: 15.0 ± 1.2 years; male: 31.3%) from six secondary schools in Dunedin, New Zealand completed an online survey about their travel to school and perceptions of their school neighbourhood environments for walking and cycling to school. Overall, 32.8% of adolescents walked to school, and only 1.2% cycled. More adolescents reported sufficient footpaths than cycle paths (77.9% vs 42.3%) in their school neighbourhoods. Compared to walking, adolescents reported that their school neighbourhood environments provided less support for cycling to school, including fewer crossings/signals for cyclists versus pedestrians (52.8% vs 69.3%), fewer street lights (cycling vs walking; 57.9% vs 70.3%) and fewer destinations within easy cycling versus walking distance from their school (65.5% vs 50.4%) (all p<0.05). Active transport users perceived lower traffic volume, higher traffic speed, and fewer hilly streets along the walking and cycling routes to school than motorised and mixed transport users (all p<0.05). Future active transport interventions in school neighbourhoods need to be tailored to address walking- and/or cycling-specific barriers, including built environment and traffic safety in a local context.     

Migration Factors in West African Immigrant Parents’ Perceptions of Their Children's Neighborhood Safety

Immigrants make up large proportions of many low‐income neighborhoods, but have been largely ignored in the neighborhood safety literature. We examined perceived safety's association with migration using a six‐item, child‐specific measure of parents’ perceptions of school‐aged (5–12 years of age) children's safety in a sample of 93 West African immigrant parents in New York City. Aims of the study were (a) to identify pre‐migration correlates (e.g., trauma in home countries), (b) to identify migration‐related correlates (e.g., immigration status, time spent separated from children during migration), and (c) to identify pre‐migration and migration correlates that accounted for variance after controlling for non‐migration‐related correlates (e.g., neighborhood crime, parents’ psychological distress). In a linear regression model, children's safety was associated with borough of residence, greater English ability, less emotional distress, less parenting difficulty, and a history of child separation. Parents’ and children's gender, parents’ immigration status, and the number of contacts in the U.S. pre‐migration and pre‐migration trauma were not associated with children's safety. That child separation was positively associated with safety perceptions suggests that the processes that facilitate parent–child separation might be reconceptualized as strengths for transnational families. Integrating migration‐related factors into the discussion of neighborhood safety for immigrant populations allows for more nuanced views of immigrant families’ well‐being in host countries.     

Longitudinal Pathways to Educational Attainment and Health of Immigrant Youth in Young Adulthood: A Comparative Analysis

Journal of Child and Family Studies - This study examined longitudinally sequential pathways between parental socioeconomic status and immigrant children’s school performance and depressive...     

Parental behaviour and children's creation of imaginary companions: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examined whether parenting quality, parental behaviours and children's temperament at 6 months of age predicted children's creations of imaginary companions (ICs) at 44 months of age. At six months, parenting quality and parental behaviours were measured using the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment, and the frequency of mental-state references made during mother–infant interactions was recorded. Temperament was assessed using the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Parents then completed questionnaires assessing whether their children had ICs at 44 months of age. The results revealed that only the approach characteristic of temperament marginally predicted children's IC status. Results of the parental measures showed that parents of children with ICs were more likely to attribute mental states to their child and to refrain from intruding in their child's behaviours than parents of children without ICs. The results indicated that parental behaviours are important for children's creation of ICs.     

Validation du Questionnaire sur l’implication parentale dans le suivi scolaire (QIPSS) chez des parents d’élèves du primaire en contexte défavorisé et pluriethnique

IntroductionThe effect of parental school involvement on children's academic success has a long-standing basis in research. However, few validated measures of parental involvement exist.ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the validity of the Questionnaire sur l’implication parentale dans le suivi scolaire (QIPSS), an instrument developed from a synthesis of existing parental involvement models in the literature.MethodThe validation sample included 711 parents of elementary students who mostly present an immigrant background. This sample was collected in five schools located in disadvantaged areas. This study includes two time points collected over 2 consecutive school years.ResultsThe QIPSS has good construct validity and satisfactory predictive validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses allowed us to generate a model of parental involvement comprising five dimensions, some of which predicting students’ academic performance a year later.ConclusionFindings are discussed in light of previous parental involvement studies. The QIPSS is proved to be a good tool to account for parental involvement in a research context. Nonetheless, children's outcomes other than academic success should be taken into account in future studies.     

Parental Health and Children’s Functioning in Immigrant Families: Family Roles and Perceived Treatment at School

Although parents’ health condition is generally thought to be related to their involvement in their children’s functioning, the possible dynamics behind the scenes in school contexts with immigrant children has received little attention. This study examined the association between parents’ health condition and their children’s academic and behavioral functioning, as well as the mediation effects of parents’ school engagement and children’s perceived treatment at school among 607 immigrant families with 10- to 12-year-old children. Using structural equation modeling, the results indicated that parents’ poor health condition was associated with children’s increased behavioral problems. Parents’ school engagement fully mediated the association between parental health condition and children’s academic achievement and partially mediated the association between parental health condition and children’s behavior problems. Notably, higher levels of parents’ school engagement were associated with increased behavior problems, demonstrating a unique feature in these immigrant children’s developmental functioning. Higher levels of perceived harsh treatment by peers at school due to children’s immigrant identity were associated with these children’s greater risks of behavior problems. The results suggested what may lie behind the scenes in these children’s behavioral problems is that many of these children who act out and are brought to the school office for disciplinary issues may suffer from perceived discrimination and bad treatment by their peers. The findings provide important implications for researchers, healthcare practitioners, and educators seeking to understand this subpopulation and to design and implement family support and prevention programs for young adolescents from immigrant backgrounds.     

Contextual analysis of home environment factors influencing the acquisition of early reading skills in Zambian families

This study examined the effect of home environment factors in the acquisition of early reading skills (orthographic awareness and decoding competence). To assess these factors, a sample of seventy-two (72) first grade learners (females?=?55%; age range?=?7–8 years) and their maternal parents (age range 26–61 years old) from low SES in Zambia's capital city, Lusaka were recruited. Parents, in response to a home literacy questionnaire, reported on their attitudes towards reading, literacy teaching in the home, the home literacy environment, presence of reading materials for adults and children, parental education, occupation, family size and family possessions. Two measures of reading skill were administered at school. Correlations revealed that parental education, occupation and the size of the family were not significantly associated with the reading measures. Family possessions, parental reading attitudes, literacy activities, and reading materials significantly predicted orthographic awareness. In predicting decoding competence, only family possessions, parental reading attitudes and literacy activities were predictive. Regardless of the context, children experience literacy in varied forms and quantities.     

Parental Influence on Children during Educational Television Viewing in Immigrant Families

It has been suggested by researchers that educational television programmes may support the language and literacy development for children, especially those in immigrant families. In an immigrant family, many family characteristics appear to be related to educational television programme viewing of children at home, for example, parental acculturation (the process of adapting to the new culture) and parental mediation (supervision and guidance) of television viewing. In the present work, the parental influence on children during educational television viewing was studied quantitatively, based on a sample (n = 171) of immigrant families with children aged 3–6 years collected across the U.S. The results have revealed that significant differences existed between Asian and Hispanic groups in coviewing mediation and in their children's educational television viewing. Furthermore, language in parental acculturation significantly predicted instructive and restrictive parental mediation, and parental occupation significantly predicted language in parental acculturation. This study initiates the attention to the topic of educational television viewing in immigrant families, which warrants further investigations in the future as the Asian and Hispanic immigrant population increases rapidly in the U.S. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In- and out-of-school peer groups of immigrant youths

Multiethnic societies typically aim to have immigrant and native youths mix and be friends, preferably in all contexts in which they spend time. Schools and neighbourhoods are the two settings where youths spend the most time with peers during adolescence. The present study explored the in- and out-of-school peer groups of 174 immigrant junior high school pupils (Mean age = 14.39) who attended an integrated school but lived in a segregated neighbourhood. A person-oriented approach was used and cluster analyses were conducted both within and across the two settings. The results show that youths mostly have the same kind of friendship formations in both settings, regardless of the ethnic composition of each setting. In terms of adaptation, the results consistently show that for boys, having only immigrant friends is related to problematic adaptation in both settings. No relationship between peer formations and adaptation was found for girls. The study highlights the importance of considering gender and viewing youths as embedded in systems of multiple settings, in order to achieve true integration.     

Longitudinal causal impacts of preschool teacher training on Ghanaian children’s school readiness: Evidence for persistence and fade‐out

Preschool programs have expanded rapidly in low‐ and middle‐income countries, but there are widespread concerns about whether they are of sufficient quality to promote children's learning and development. We conducted a large school‐randomized control trial (‘Quality Preschool for Ghana’ – QP4G) of a one‐year teacher training and coaching program, with and without parental‐awareness meetings, designed to improve preschool quality and child development. We followed 3,435 children in 240 schools in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, a country with universal pre‐primary education. A previous study reported positive impacts of teacher training (but not teacher training plus parental‐awareness meetings) at the end of the implementation year on some dimensions of classroom quality, teacher well‐being, and children's school readiness (Wolf et al., [2019] Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 12, 10–37). The present study analyzed a new round of data collected 1 year after the end of implementation to assess (a) the extent of persistence in impacts on child development and (b) whether such impacts vary by select child, household, and school characteristics. We found impacts of the teacher training intervention on children's overall school readiness were sustained (d = 0.13), but were only marginally statistically significant. When broken down by domain, impacts on social–emotional skills specifically persisted. Persistent negative effects of teacher training plus parental‐awareness meetings varied by the literacy status of the male parent such that negative impacts were concentrated in children in households with non‐literate male heads.     

Academic resilience of immigrant youth in Greek schools: Personal and family resources

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined, first, whether and how immigrant youth’s personal and family resources account for individual differences in their academic achievement, and second, whether social risks and immigrant status further contribute to academic achievement after controlling for these resources. The sample consisted of 300 middle school adolescents, 73 students from Albania and 227 Greeks (mean age 13.9 years), enrolled in Greek urban middle schools. Three risks (immigrant status, family social adversity and negative life events), two personal resources (locus of control and self-efficacy beliefs) and four family resources (parental school involvement, family support, father and mother education) for academic achievement were included. Each of these personal and family resources, separately, predicted higher academic achievement, equally for immigrant and nonimmigrant youth. Family social adversity, but not negative life events, continued to predict academic achievement, over and above personal and family resources. Finally, immigrant status continued to predict academic achievement over and above resources and other social risks. The results highlight the important link between the family context and youth’s personal agency, on the one hand, and doing well in school, on the other. However, they also reveal that social and immigrant status, two societal-level, social position variables that may also involve experiences that are outside the control of the family and youth, present further risks to youth’s academic achievement.     

Predictors of school engagement among same-sex and heterosexual adoptive parents of Kindergarteners

Little research has explored parental engagement in schools in the context of adoptive parent families or same-sex parent families. The current cross-sectional study explored predictors of parents' self-reported school involvement, relationships with teachers, and school satisfaction, in a sample of 103 female same-sex, male same-sex, and heterosexual adoptive parent couples (196 parents) of kindergarten-age children. Parents who reported more contact by teachers about positive or neutral topics (e.g., their child's good grades) reported more involvement and greater satisfaction with schools, regardless of family type. Parents who reported more contact by teachers about negative topics (e.g., their child's behavior problems) reported better relationships with teachers but lower school satisfaction, regardless of family type. Regarding the broader school context, across all family types, parents who felt more accepted by other parents reported more involvement and better parent–teacher relationships; socializing with other parents was related to greater involvement. Regarding the adoption-specific variables, parents who perceived their children's schools as more culturally sensitive were more involved and satisfied with the school, regardless of family type. Perceived cultural sensitivity mattered more for heterosexual adoptive parents' relationships with their teachers than it did for same-sex adoptive parents. Finally, heterosexual adoptive parents who perceived high levels of adoption stigma in their children's schools were less involved than those who perceived low levels of stigma, whereas same-sex adoptive parents who perceived high levels of stigma were more involved than those who perceived low levels of stigma. Our findings have implications for school professionals, such as school psychologists, who work with diverse families.     

Predicting children's media use in the USA: Differences in cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis

The purpose of this paper is to examine the predictors of children's media use in the USA, comparing cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses. Data come from Waves 1 and 2 of the Child Development Supplement (CDS‐I; CDS‐II), a nationally representative sample of American children aged 0–12 in 1997 and 5–18 in 2002. Twenty‐four hour time use diaries are used to assess children's time spent with media (television, video games, computers, and reading). Predictors examined include socio‐demographics, neighbourhood quality, family factors, and other media use. Ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regressions were performed by three age groups (preschoolers, early school age, and preadolescence). The findings suggest that neighbourhood quality, parental limits and family conflict are significant predictors of children's media use within time or over time, but the significance depends on the type of media and child's developmental stage. In addition, children's television viewing and reading habits are formed early in life and reinforced over time. This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence for the effect of early contextual factors on the life course of children's media use from a developmental perspective.     

Disentangling the Relations Between Different Components of Family Socioeconomic Status and Chinese Preschoolers’ School Readiness

Family socioeconomic status (SES) has been frequently linked to children’s early development. Treating SES as an aggregated variable has many issues, as different components of SES may relate to child outcomes through divergent mechanisms. The purpose of the study was to examine whether parents’ engagement in home learning activities and children’s participation in extracurricular activities (EAs) would function as pathways through which individual SES components related to children’s school readiness. A total of 588 families with preschool‐aged children were recruited from Guangdong province in China. Children’s receptive vocabulary, Chinese reading, and early math skills were individually assessed at three time points, and children’s social skills were rated by parents. Parents reported their engagement in home learning activities with children and their children’s participation in EAs. The results showed that all three components of family SES were related to multiple aspects of children’s school readiness, but through different pathways. Parental income was related to children’s school readiness through EA participation only; parental education and occupational status were associated with school readiness via both parental engagement and child EA participation. The findings suggest that considering SES components separately will produce a more nuanced understanding of the divergent pathways through which family SES may relate to children’s school readiness. Chinese government may provide parent education programs focused on cognitive stimulation for low‐SES families to promote children’s school readiness. Furthermore, the government needs to ensure children’s equal access to EAs to prevent increasing the developmental gap among children from discrepant socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Home environment and cognitive development of black infants in impoverished South African families

This study examined the interrelationships between home environment, mental and psychomotor development, growth, and educational and occupational indices of socioeconomic status among an urban sample of 305 African infants aged 2 to 30 months. The infants were assessed on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and the Home Screening Questionnaire, and their heights and weights were recorded. Information regarding the family's socioeconomic status was obtained during interviews with caretakers. No significant relationships were found between parental education and occupation and infant cognitive development, but quality of the home environment was positively correlated with these indices of parental socioeconomic status. On the other hand, home environment scores were found to be significantly related to mental development, independent of parental education and occupation. There was considerable variation in home environments in the sample, which was drawn from generally impoverished urban communities. These findings from an African cultural group support the generalizability of the importance of the quality of the home environment for infant development.     

Personality, values and belief in a just world

This study investigated the relationship between general belief in a just world (BJW) and different values (conformity, security, self-direction) as well as personality traits (Five-Factor-Model of personality) among 104 college students and 108 professionals. Previous findings have shown that BJW is positively related to the value domains conformity and security as well as to extraversion and negatively to neuroticism and openness. In this study, a negative correlation between BJW and openness to new experience was found. Furthermore BJW correlated positively with security and conformity. A cluster analysis on BJW and the value domains revealed three types: value-conscious (high in all values and low in BJW), dependent-just (high in BJW, security and conformity, low in self-direction) and self-directed (only high in self-direction). Value-conscious and dependent-just participants showed higher scores on conscientiousness, whereas self-directed participants scored higher in openness. Further research should take into account the individual function of BJW and values for personality functioning.     

Getting ready: Results of a randomized trial of a relationship‐focused intervention on the parent–infant relationship in rural early head start

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a relational intervention (the Getting Ready intervention) on parenting behaviors supporting the parent–infant relationship for families enrolled in Early Head Start home‐based programming. Two‐hundred thirty‐four parents and their children participated in the randomized study, with 42% of parents reporting education of less than a high‐school diploma. Brief, semistructured parent–child interaction tasks were videotaped every 4 months over a16‐month intervention period. Observational codes of parent–infant relationship behaviors included quality of three parental behaviors: warmth and sensitivity, support for learning, and encouragement of autonomy; two appropriateness indicators: support for learning and guidance/directives; and one amount indicator: constructive behaviors. Parents who participated in the Getting Ready intervention demonstrated higher quality interactions with their children that included enhanced quality of warmth and sensitivity, and support for their children's autonomy than did parents in the control group. They also were more likely to use appropriate directives with their children and more likely to demonstrate appropriate supports for their young children's learning. Results indicate an added value of the Getting Ready intervention for Early Head Start home‐based programming for families of infants and toddlers.     

Distinguishing between self-control and perceived control over the environment to understand disadvantaged neighbourhood health and lifestyle outcomes

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to test whether and how self-control and perceived control play a role in health outcomes and lifestyle differences between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Design: Cross-sectional survey data including demographics was collected from 3758 participants. Main outcome measures: With the survey, self-control, perceived control, health status and lifestyle variables were assessed.

Results: Participants in disadvantaged neighbourhoods reported poorer general health, as well as unhealthier lifestyles compared to participants in non-disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Self-control was likewise positively associated with health and lifestyle variables. However, self-control did not differ between participants from different neighbourhoods. Perceived control over the environment mediated between type of neighbourhood and health, with participants from a disadvantaged neighbourhood reporting a lower sense of perceived control, which in turn was associated with poorer self-reported general health and less healthy lifestyle choices.

Conclusion: This reveals that perceived control over one’s life and the environment is more important than self-control when explaining health differences between neighbourhoods.     

Parental Reactions to Their Child's Psychological Evaluation Findings Conference

ABSTRACT

While school psychological practice continues to be dominated by assessment activities, the post-assessment conference with the evaluated child's parents has been neglected by researchers. This study sought to determine the possible relationships between parental recall of findings with background variables and collected parent/psychologist's post-assessment conference ratings of persuasiveness and satisfaction. How accurately parents recall evaluation findings was not found to be significantly related to child or parental background variables (e.g., socioeconomic status), further supporting the value of post-assessment conferences for a diverse parent population. However, a link between parental recall of findings and parent/ psychologist's conference ratings was not established. Given the importance of post-assessment conferences, future studies investigating these complex parent and psychologist meetings are clearly needed.     

Increasing the Parent—Child Communication Through Counselor—Parent Conferences

This study was designed to measure what effect the establishment of a parent-counselor relationship prior to the child's entrance into junior high school would have upon the child's adjustment to school and parent-child communication. Subjects were students and parents from Lealman Junior High School in St. Petersburg, Florida. Parents of the experimental group had a one-hour individual conference with the school counselor prior to the child's entrance into junior high school. Experimental and control groups were followed over a three-year period. The experimental group showed significantly greater (p < .001) parental contact with the school, significantly better student attendance (p < .001), and significantly higher grade point averages (p < .001) than the control group. This was accompanied by a lower dropout rate (p < .05) and fewer disciplinary referrals (p < .001). An overall more effective use of school counselors and other school personnel resulted.