A longitudinal examination of daily amounts of screen time and technoference in infants aged 2–11 months and associations with maternal sociodemographic factors

This study aimed to examine longitudinal developmental patterns in the daily amounts of screen time and technoference in infants aged 2, 4, 7, and 11 months and to examine associations with maternal sociodemographic factors across all age groups.The results showed that the amount of screen time varied between 6 and 17 min a day, while interruptions in mother-infant interactions due to maternal use of digital technology occurred between 5 and 6 times a day. There was a significant increase in infant screen time from 2 to 4 months, from 4–7 months, and from 7–11 months, and in technoference from 2 to 4 months and from 4–7 months. Maternal age and household income were not associated with infant screen time, but maternal educational level was negatively associated with infant screen time throughout the first year. No associations were found between technoference and maternal age, maternal educational level, or household income.Future research focusing on infant screen time and technoference should aim at including samples that reflect the general population, include measures of screen time and technoference that do not rely on parental report, and include measures of the effects of early infant screen time and technoference on later development.     

Mental health protective factors among flourishing Canadian women university student-athletes

Mental health is an important resource for student-athletes. Flourishing (Keyes, 2002) may be a useful concept for examining aspects of mental health. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate mental health protective factors among flourishing Canadian university student-athletes over the course of their sport season. Initially, 36 Canadian student-athletes completed the Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (Keyes, 2009) and Sport Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (Foster & Chow, 2019). Based on the results from the questionnaires, six women athletes who were identified as flourishing at global and sport levels then participated in the study. Data were generated through individual pre- and post-season semi-structured interviews, and in-season weekly written diaries. Analysis followed guidelines outlined by Smith et al. (2009) for interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results are presented over three stages of the seasons (pre-, in-, and post-season). In the pre-season, participants invested in their flourishing by making positive connections and planning their schedule. In-season, participants discussed facing challenges and tried to maintain flourishing by managing their commitments, communicating with coaches, and looking for positives. In the post-season, the participants attempted to re-invest in their flourishing by reflecting on their season and taking a break from sport. It appeared that the athletes were able to identify potential challenges to their flourishing in sport and use global resources to buffer the impact. These results reveal strategies that may help promote and protect mental health among student-athletes.     

Bidirectional Associations between Parenting Practices and Conduct Problems in Boys from Childhood to Adolescence: The Moderating Effect of Age and African-American Ethnicity

This study examined the bidirectional relationship between parent and teacher reported conduct problems in youth and parenting practices using a longitudinal sample of boys assessed from 6 to 16 years of age. Analyses tested whether these bidirectional associations changed across development and whether the nature of these associations varied across African-American and Caucasian families. Overall, the results supported a bidirectional relationship between conduct problems and all parenting practices examined from childhood to adolescence. The influence of conduct problems on changes in parenting behaviors was as strong as the influence of parenting behaviors on changes in conduct problems across development. Changes in the bidirectional relationship across development were found in some, but not all, models. While corporal punishment was more strongly related to changes in teacher-reported conduct problems for African-American boys compared to Caucasian boys, more similarities than differences were found between the ethnic groups in terms of the bidirectional associations examined.     

The development and effectiveness of memory strategies in kindergarten and elementary school: Findings from the Würzburg and Göttingen longitudinal memory studies

This article reports findings of the Würzburg and Göttingen Longitudinal Memory Studies, which focused on children's verbal memory development. The studies started with 102 (German) kindergarten children in Würzburg and 86 second-graders in Göttingen who were tested on various memory measures, including sort-recall, memory capacity, metamemory, and verbal IQ. Assessments were repeated nine times, with adjacent measurement points separated by 6-month time intervals. The main goals of the studies concerned the assessment of utilization deficiencies during the course of strategy development, the analysis of factors influencing the effectiveness of strategy use, and the occurrence of multiple strategy use. Findings confirmed the outcome of previous longitudinal studies in that semantic organization strategies were not always accompanied by superior recall, but utilization deficiency problems were comparably rare. Strategy effectiveness was shown as being affected mainly by memory capacity and by children's tendency to engage in multiple strategy use. However, children did not start to apply multiple strategies effectively until the end of Grade 2.     

Freeze-Frame: a new infant inhibition task and its relation to frontal cortex tasks during infancy and early childhood

The current study investigated a new, easily administered, visual inhibition task for infants termed the Freeze-Frame task. In the new task, 9-month-olds were encouraged to inhibit looks to peripheral distractors. This was done by briefly freezing a central animated stimulus when infants looked to the distractors. Half of the trials presented an engaging central stimulus, and the other half presented a repetitive central stimulus. Three measures of inhibitory function were derived from the task and compared with performance on a set of frontal cortex tasks administered at 9 and 24 months of age. As expected, infants' ability to learn to selectively inhibit looks to the distractors at 9 months predicted performance at 24 months. However, performance differences in the two Freeze-Frame trial types early in the experiment also turned out to be an important predictor. The results are discussed in terms of the validity of the Freeze-Frame task as an early measure of different components of inhibitory function.     

小学生学习动机的培养:五年追踪研究

采用聚合交叉研究设计,利用"学思维"活动课程,对某小学1～3年级学生的学习动机进行了4年的干预培养,停止培养一年后,再次收集了数据,分析了变化趋势、即时效果及其长时效应。结果表明:(1)随着年龄的增大,儿童的表层动机和成就动机呈下降趋势;深层动机呈先上升后下降的趋势;(2)男生的表层动机和成就动机都高于女生;(3)年级越高,表层动机、深层动机和成就动机越低;(4)培养一年后,实验组学生的深层动机显著高于控制组,且长时效应显著。     

Working memory and individual differences in mathematics achievement: A longitudinal study from first grade to second grade

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between working memory and individual differences in mathematics. Working memory measures, comprising the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the central executive, were administered at the start of first grade. Mathematics achievement was assessed 4 months later (at the middle of first grade) and 1 year later (at the start of second grade). Working memory was significantly related to mathematics achievement in both grades, showing that working memory clearly predicts later mathematics achievement. The central executive was a unique predictor of both first- and second-grade mathematics achievement. There were age-related differences with regard to the contribution of the slave systems to mathematics performance; the visuospatial sketchpad was a unique predictor of first-grade, but not second-grade, mathematics achievement, whereas the phonological loop emerged as a unique predictor of second-grade, but not first-grade, mathematics achievement.     

A Longitudinal Perspective on Differentiation of Self,Interpersonal and Psychological Well-Being in Young Adulthood

The over-time relationship between differentiation of self and interpersonal and psychological well-being was examined in a sample of young adults in order to test the hypothesis that greater differentiation of self—that is, lower emotional reactivity, better capacity to take an “I” position in relationships, less emotional cutoff, and lower fusion with others—predicted greater interpersonal and psychological health. Results of hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that greater Time 1 differentiation of self predicted lower Time 2 psychological and interpersonal distress after controlling for Time 1 distress levels. Further, canonical correlation analyses revealed several significant patterned associations between aspects of differentiation of self and specific interpersonal problems. Implications for family interventions are discussed.     

Executive function and weight status in children: A one-year longitudinal perspective

There is considerable evidence for an association between obesity and impaired executive function (EF) in adolescents and adults. However, little research has examined EF in overweight or obese children. Furthermore, data on EF in underweight individuals is lacking. In addition, there is no consensus on the directionality of the relationship between Body Mass Index (BMI) and EF, and longitudinal studies are rare. Thus, the present study examined whether children differ in their performance on a battery of EF tasks depending on their weight status (underweight, normal-weight, overweight), and investigated the longitudinal cross-lagged associations between EF and BMI. Hot EF (delay of gratification, affective decision-making), cool EF (attention shifting, inhibition, working memory [WM] updating), and BMI were assessed in 1,657 German elementary-school children at two time points, approximately one year apart. Overweight children exhibited slightly poorer attention shifting, WM updating, and affective decision-making abilities as compared to normal-weight children. Unexpectedly, they did not show any deficits in inhibition or delay of gratification. EF levels of underweight children did not differ significantly from those of normal-weight children. Furthermore, poor attention shifting and enhanced affective decision-making predicted a slightly higher BMI one year later, and a higher BMI also predicted poorer attention shifting and WM updating one year later. The latter association between BMI and subsequent EF scores, however, diminished when controlling for socioeconomic status. Results indicate that hot and cool EF plays a role in the weight development of children, and might be a promising factor to address in preventive interventions.     

学校氛围与青少年学校适应：一项追踪研究

通过对709名青少年进行追踪研究,分别以青少年自我报告与教师评价的方式测查了学校氛围与学校适应,主要探讨学校氛围与青少年学校适应的长期预测关系,以及性别在二者间的调节效应.结果表明:(1)青少年第一年感知到的学校氛围能预测其第二年、第三年的适应问题和适应能力,第二年感知到的学校氛围能预测其第三年的适应能力和学业成绩;(2)青少年感知到的自主机会对其学校适应有负面作用;(3)教师支持和同学支持对青少年学校适应具有积极作用,但同学支持的作用会随着在校时间的增加而发生逆转,即第一年的同学支持负向预测第二年的学习问题和第三年的学业成绩,正向预测第三年的适应能力,而第二年的同学支持则对第三年的适应能力和学业成绩均有负向预测作用;(4)女生的学校适应普遍好于男生,性别对学校氛围与青少年学校适应之间的关系具有部分调节作用.