4th Grade Children Research Articles

Personality and cognitive skills in network of friends, for multi-ethnic schools

In a multi-ethnic society, friendship among children might be expected to be overwhelmingly shaped by ethnicity and cultural heritage. Using an original panel data-set of classmate networks in multi-ethnic primary schools near Florence, Italy, (N=396 children in 2nd and 5th grade), we show instead that cognitive skills and personality traits matter as much as ethnicity in shaping friendships, thus playing the role of elective affinities. We test whether friends affect a child’s personality more than the other way round: to do this, we estimate peer effects. We only find non-significant effect of peers on math grades and a measure of intelligence (KBIT). For personality traits, peer effects are significant only for Extraversion. These findings are crucial for design of immigration policies: rather than emphasizing differences among ethnic groups, a farsighted policy could try to point these elective affinities among individuals.

Situation model building ability uniquely predicts first and second language reading comprehension

Abstract We examined the unique role of textbase memory and situation model building ability in first (L1) and second (L2) language reading comprehension. Participants were 76 monolingual and 102 bilingual children in 4th grade. A pathfinder network approach was used to assess textbase memory and situation model building ability, on top of other well-known cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension (working memory, nonverbal reasoning, decoding, vocabulary, and grammar). Reading comprehension was assessed by a standardized task unrelated to the textbase and situation model building task. The results showed that there was no difference between L1 and L2 readers in nonverbal reasoning, working memory, textbase memory and situation model building. L2 readers were more efficient decoders than L1 readers, but lagged behind on vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension. Situation model building ability was found to predict reading comprehension over and above the other cognitive and linguistic predictors to the same extent in both groups.

CHILDREN ATTITUDES TOWARD VARIOUS FORMS OF RESISTANCE TRAINING

Despite the belief that resistance training was dangerous or ineffective for children, the safety and effectiveness of such programs are now well documented. The goal of this study was to examine the attitudes of children toward different forms of resistance training in which they were involved. One hundred 3rd and 4th grade children served as participants (age 9.5 years). Before filling out a questionnaire, the students were involved in five different resistance exercises types: exercises with their own body weight, exercises with barbells 1 kg in weight each, exercises with elastic bands, exercises with a partner and exercises with a BOSU ball (under unstable conditions). The questionnaire with a Likert scale of 5 degrees with responses ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree) consisted of questions exploring attitudes and degree of motivation toward various modalities of resistance training and their use in physical education classes. All of the selected modalities were evaluated positively by the children. Over 50% of the children stated that they strongly like all of the selected resistance training modalities. Exercises on a BOSU ball were the children’s first choice (51%) followed by rubber bands (15%) while exercise with body weights were their last choice (9%). Within the limitations of the study, the data show that various modalities of resistance training exercises have the potential to increase physical activity and establish healthy physical activity patterns. The desire to experience new and different activities provided a significant role towards choice of modality of resistance training.

Comparing stuttering attitudes of preschool through 5th grade children and their parents in a predominately rural Appalachian sample

BackgroundTheories relating to young children’s social cognitive maturity and their prevailing social groups play important roles in the acquisition of attitudes. Previous research has shown that preschool and kindergarten children’s stuttering attitudes are characterized by stronger negative beliefs and self reactions than those of parents. By contrast, 12 year-old children’s stuttering attitudes have been shown to be similar to their parents’ attitudes. Other research indicates that parental stuttering attitudes are no different from attitudes of adults who are not parents. PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore children’s stuttering attitudes of preschool through 5th grade children and to compare them to their parents’ attitudes. MethodChildren and parents from a rural Appalachian elementary school and child/parent pairs from other areas in the region responded to child and adult versions of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering (POSHA–S/Child and POSHA–S). Seven grade levels were included: preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade. ResultsConfirming earlier research, younger children’s attitudes toward stuttering were considerably less positive than those of their parents. As children matured up to the fifth grade, however, their stuttering attitudes progressively were more positive. Parents’ stuttering attitudes were quite consistent across all seven grade levels. ConclusionsConsistent with theories of attitudinal development, between the ages of 4 and 11 years, children’s measured attitudes toward stuttering improved and gradually approximated the attitudes of their parents and the general public.

Failure to meet aerobic fitness standards among urban elementary students.

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship of aerobic fitness with the elementary school environment and student characteristics among 4th and 5th grade children attending urban public schools in St. Louis, MO, USA. This cross-sectional study was conducted during 2012–2015 and included 2381 children (mean age 10.5 y) who completed the FITNESSGRAM® 20-m Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run. Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) was defined according to FITNESSGRAM® aerobic capacity criteria. Other student-level variables included age, race, National School Lunch Program eligibility, BMI z-score, weight status, and daily pedometer steps. School environment variables included playground features and playground safety, physical education and recess practices, and school census tract data on vacant houses and median household income. Bivariate analyses with sex stratification were used to identify student-level and school-level predictors of failure to achieve the aerobic HFZ; predictors were then included in a multivariable logistic regression model. Failure to meet the aerobic HFZ was observed among 33% of boys and 57% of girls. School environment was not predictive, but higher age and fewer daily steps were: each additional year of age was associated with 41% higher odds of failing to meet the aerobic HFZ among boys and 100% higher odds among girls. Conversely, each additional 1000 daily steps was associated with 15% (boys) and 13% (girls) lower odds of failure. Obesity posed a 60% higher risk of failure to meet HFZ among girls. These results highlight the importance of childhood physical activity opportunities, especially for girls residing in low-resource areas.

The simultaneous assessment of and relations between children's sympathetic and parasympathetic psychophysiology and their reactive and proactive aggression.

The goal of the current study was to examine the link between children's psychophysiology and aggression when both constructs were assessed simultaneously in scenarios designed to provide the opportunity to aggress for either a reactive reason or a proactive reason. Both sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity (skin conductance) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia or RSA), as well as their interaction, were included as physiological measures. Participants were 35 5th-grade children who were placed in two virtual-peer scenarios; one scenario provided the opportunity to aggress in response to peer provocation (i.e., reactive aggression) and the other scenario provided the opportunity to aggress for instrumental gain (i.e., proactive aggression). Both skin conductance and RSA were assessed at the time that children were given the opportunity to aggress; this simultaneous assessment of psychophysiology and aggression allowed for an examination of in-the-moment relations between the two constructs. For the reactive scenario, RSA moderated the in-the-moment relation between skin conductance and aggression such that the association was positive at low RSA but negative at high RSA. For the proactive scenario, skin conductance negatively predicted aggression in-the-moment, and RSA positively predicted aggression in-the-moment, but their interaction was not a significant predictor of aggression. Theoretical implications for reactive and proactive aggression and underlying physiological processes are discussed.

Enamel defects and dental caries among children attending primary schools in Poznań, Poland.

Both positive and negative associations between developmental enamel defects (DED) and dental caries have been reported in the literature. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of DED of permanent dentition and its association with dental caries in schoolchildren living in Poznań (Wielkopolskie Voivodeship, Poland). A total of 2,522 6th grade children and 3,112 1st grade children were examined. Developmental enamel defects were described using the modified Developmental Defects of Enamel Index. Dental caries experience was assessed in accordance with the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT). The study revealed 475 children (9.6%) to have at least 1 enamel defect of permanent dentition. In 6th-graders, statistical analysis confirmed significant differences between DMFT, DT (decayed teeth) and FT (filled teeth) numbers of various DED groups with subjects affected by diffuse opacities having generally the lowest caries indices and subjects with enamel hypoplasia and/or demarcated opacities having the highest caries indices. In both age groups, dental caries prevalence was statistically significantly higher in subjects with hypoplasia and/or demarcated opacities as compared to subjects without DED or with diffuse opacities (p < 0.05). The prevalence of DED in the examined population was low and comparable to those reported in regions without fluoridated water. The study confirmed that children affected by diffuse enamel opacities were less susceptible to dental caries, while demarcated opacities and hypoplasia should be considered important dental caries risk factors.

The role of morphology in word naming in Spanish-speaking children

ABSTRACTThe role of morphology in word recognition during reading acquisition in transparent orthographies is a subject that has received little attention. The goal of this study is to examine the variables affecting the fluency and accuracy for morphologically complex word reading across grade levels in Spanish. We conducted two word-naming experiments in which morphological complexity and word frequency were factorially manipulated. Experiment 1 was a cross-sectional study with 2nd-, 4th- and 6th-grade children as participants. In Experiment 2, a longitudinal study, a sample of the children in 2nd and 4th grades in Experiment 1 were retested with the same stimuli 2 years later in order to explore the evolution of morphology and frequency effects. Analyses of reading latencies and accuracy in both experiments showed that grade and frequency affected both reading fluency and accuracy. Morphology only affected fluency, irrespective of grade. In accordance with previous literature in Italian, we conclude that when learning to read in transparent orthographies, morphology mostly benefits reading fluency since accurate pronunciation can be achieved through grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules.

Effectiveness of a cognitive behavioural therapy-based anxiety prevention programme at an elementary school in Japan: a quasi-experimental study

BackgroundThe efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for anxiety related problems in children is empirically supported. In addition, universal anxiety prevention programmes based on CBT have been demonstrated in recent years. The purpose of this study was to verify the effectiveness of a CBT based original programme ‘Journey of the Brave,’ aiming to prevent anxiety disorders and anxiety-related problems for Japanese children aged 10–12 years old.MethodsIntervention groups from two classes of 5th grade elementary students (n = 41) received ten 45-min programme sessions. The control group was drawn from one class of 5th grade children (n = 31) from a nearby school. All participants completed the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) at pre, post, and 3 months follow-up. Mixed-effects model for repeated measures analysis was conducted.ResultsThe mean anxiety score on the SCAS for the intervention group was significantly reduced at both post intervention and 3 months follow-up compared with the control group. The group differences on the SCAS from baseline to post-test were − 5.321 (95% CI − 10.12 to − 0.523, p = 0.030), and at the 3-month follow-up were − 7.104 (95% CI − 11.90 to − 2.306, p = 0.004).ConclusionsThe effectiveness of the anxiety prevention programme ‘Journey of the Brave’ was verified though this study using a quasi-experimental design on a small sample.Trial registration: UMIN000009021

Adult stakeholder perceptions of 4th grade participation in children’s forest environmental education programming

An environmental education (EE) consortium located in the pacific northwest United States coalesced an external evaluation team to research its K-5 EE programming. The purpose of this article is to describe one phase of this program evaluation process including the exploration of adult stakeholder perceptions of EE programming accessed by 4th grade children. The author highlights the goals of the consortium and the context for the program evaluation, and the relevant literature addressing adult perspectives on EE is reviewed. The study framing, method, and qualitative results are reported. Findings suggest that adult stakeholders perceived positive impacts from 4th grade participation in EE, though the programming was viewed as being most beneficial to children coming from economically disadvantaged families. Implications for EE practice and research are discussed.

Masked Speech Recognition and Reading Ability in School-Age Children: Is There a Relationship?

The relationship between reading (decoding) skills, phonological processing abilities, and masked speech recognition in typically developing children was explored. This experiment was designed to evaluate the relationship between phonological processing and decoding abilities and 2 aspects of masked speech recognition in typically developing children: (a) the ability to benefit from temporal and spectral modulations within a noise masker and (b) the masking exerted by a speech masker. Forty-two typically developing 3rd- and 4th-grade children with normal hearing, ranging in age from 8;10 to 10;6 years (mean age = 9;2 years, SD = 0.5 months), completed sentence recognition testing in 4 different maskers: steady-state noise, temporally modulated noise, spectrally modulated noise, and two-talker speech. Children also underwent assessment of phonological processing abilities and assessments of single-word decoding. As a comparison group, 15 adults with normal hearing also completed speech-in-noise testing. Speech recognition thresholds varied between approximately 3 and 7 dB across children, depending on the masker condition. Compared to adults, performance in the 2-talker masker was relatively consistent across children. Furthermore, decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio had a more precipitously deleterious effect on children's speech recognition in the 2-talker masker than was observed for adults. For children, individual differences in speech recognition threshold were not predicted by phonological awareness or decoding ability in any masker condition. No relationship was found between phonological awareness and/or decoding ability and a child's ability to benefit from spectral or temporal modulations. In addition, phonological awareness and/or decoding ability was not related to speech recognition in a 2-talker masker. Last, these data suggest that the between-listeners variability often observed in 2-talker maskers for adults may be smaller for children. The reasons for this child-adult difference need to be further explored. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5913547.

Building healthy communities: A comprehensive school health program to prevent obesity in elementary schools

Obesity among children is highly prevalent and can lead to risk factors for chronic disease in adulthood. Key organizations have called on schools to play a larger role by increasing children's physical activity and nutrition by adopting an overall culture of health. This study examined the impact of a socioecological theory driven school-wide nutrition and physical activity intervention on 5th graders' central adiposity and obesity level. In 2015–2016, in the Midwest region of U.S., four treatment and two control schools, including 628 (377 treatment) 5th grade children participated in an eight-month intervention. Children in the treatment schools participated in a comprehensive healthy school transformation program consisting of six components. Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR) and Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated and used as the measure of obesity. ANCOVA revealed a significant difference in WHtR among treatment and control groups at time two (T2) FMI(1,6148.14) = 4.43, p = .035, R2 = 0.64, R2Treament = 0.01, with no significant differences based on age, sex, and race. Additionally, the ANCOVA for BMI revealed a marginally significant lower BMI among the treatment than comparison group students FMI(1, 614) = 3.575, p = .059, R2 = 0.01 (Mdiff = −0.23, 95%CI upper boundary: −0.03). The healthy school intervention led to significant differences in obesity levels, regardless of age, sex, or race, across the 8-month program between 5th grade children in treatment and non-treatment schools. This supports the ability of schoolwide programs to significantly and positively impact student health and chronic disease prevention.

Chilean early childhood education: gender and years of attendance effects

The present study aims to estimate the effect of Chilean public early childhood education on the academic outcomes of 4th grade children on the Education Quality Measurement System (Simce, for its abbreviation in Spanish). The study seeks to understand if these effects vary according to the child's gender and by the number of years of participation in early childhood education. Through Propensity Score Matching, it is observed that attending public early childhood education positively affects 4th grade academic results in Mathematics and Language. The early childhood education effect was greater for boys than for girls, and for those who assisted Transition Level 1.

Active learning improves on-task behaviors in 4th grade children

While increased opportunities for physical activity (PA) are a critical, public health need for children, school-based interventions often place teachers in the position to choose between PA and time spent on academic lessons. Active learning is designed to overcome this by combining PA with academic material. Moreover, teachers are likely to be more responsive to change in academic-related outcomes than in PA. This study utilizes a large, cluster randomized control trial in which student attention, or time on task (TOT) and accelerometer-based PA is assessed in conjunction with active learning. Participants were 2716 children (46% male, 46% white) from 28 elementary schools in Central Texas that were assigned to either: 1) active learning (math n = 10; spelling n = 9); or 2) traditional, sedentary academic lessons (n = 9). PA was measured with accelerometers. TOT was measured through a momentary time sampling protocol. A series of three-level (student, classroom, school) regression models estimated the effect of the intervention. The intervention lead to significantly increased TOT. Moreover, the dose of PA (steps) during the intervention was positively associated with the increase in TOT. In contrast, a greater dose of PA was associated with reduced TOT for students in control schools. Race, gender, and SES did not moderate these effects. Planned PA - as a part of an active, academic lesson - positively impacted TOT. In contrast, a traditional, sedentary lesson was associated with lower TOT. This differential impact offers intriguing possibilities to better understand the relationship between PA and academic performance.

Reports of maternal socialization goals, emotion socialization behaviors, and child functioning in China and India.

A body of literature connects parental emotion socialization behaviors to child outcomes, though little research attention has been devoted to parents' culturally embedded socialization goals that influence their socialization behaviors in diverse samples. In the present study, we examined interrelations among maternal socialization goals, emotion socialization behaviors, and child functioning in families from 2 major Asian countries, China and India. A total of 305 6th and 7th grade children and their mothers across both countries participated. Mothers completed measures of their socialization goals, their responses to children's emotions, child behavior problems, and children completed a measure of emotion regulation (ER) at a single point in time. Factor analysis of the measure of parental responses to children's emotions yielded 2 factors (supportive and nonsupportive responses), with some items from the commonly used parent-report measure Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Bernzweig, 1990), while others reflected culturally salient socialization approaches in Asia (i.e., child training, explanation). Using these data-driven supportive and nonsupportive response composites, mediation models were tested for the full sample. Reports of mothers' supportive responses and child ER sequentially mediated the relation between maternal relational socialization goals and child internalizing problems. Reports of child emotion dysregulation mediated the relation between maternal nonsupportive responses and child externalizing problems. Findings of this study highlight the relevance of culturally salient parental socialization goals and socialization behaviors in understanding child functioning in diverse cultural groups. (PsycINFO Database Record

Stepping It Up: Walking Behaviors in Children Transitioning from 5th to 7th Grade.

The purpose of this study was to (1) describe children’s walking behaviors in 5th to 7th grade and change over time and (2) examine associations between walking behaviors and Walk Score®. Participants consisted of n = 586 students from the Transitions and Activity Changes in Kids (TRACK) Study. Children reported any walking behavior (e.g., exercise and transportation) over the past five days. Walk Score was calculated based on children’s home address. Descriptive statistics summarized walking behaviors by gender and time, and repeated measure mixed models examined the relationship between walking behaviors and Walk Score. Approximately 46.8% and 19.2% of 5th grade children reported walking for exercise and transportation, respectively, and these percentages declined through 7th grade. Girls reported higher levels of total walking behavior and walking for exercise than boys (p < 0.001). Girls with a higher Walk Score had 63% higher odds of reporting walking for transportation than girls with a lower Walk Score (OR = 1.63, 95% CI = 1.02, 2.62). Walking behaviors among children were infrequent with significant declines over time, and of the nine associations examined with Walk Score, only one was significant. Efforts should prioritize frequent walking behavior and community design to increase children’s physical activity.

Effects of Perceived Daily Stress and Sense of Humor on Quality of Life among School-Age Children

Purpose Quality of life is important to everyone including school-age children. Therefore this study was done to identify the effects perceived daily stress and sense of humor on quality of life for these children. Methods The study was a cross-sectional, descriptive study design with 371 participants from 5th and 6th grade children in 5 elementary schools. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis with SPSS/WIN 24.0 program. Results Factors influencing quality of life in school-age children were daily stress, sense of humor, satisfaction with daily life, academic performance and home atmosphere. These variables explained 63.0% of quality of life in school-age children. Conclusion Results showed that lower daily stress and higher sense of humor are associated with higher quality of life. Therefore, to improve quality of life in school-age children, healthcare providers should develop intervention programs considering these factors. Key words: ìœ ë¨¸; 삶의 질; í•™ë ¹ê¸°; ìŠ¤íŠ¸ë ˆìŠ¤ Key words: Humor; Quality of Life; School-Age; Stress

Preadolescents’ Daily Peer Victimization and Perceived Social Competence: Moderating Effects of Classroom Aggression

Few studies have assessed children’s daily peer experiences, and even fewer have considered their daily self-perceptions. This daily diary study examined relations between preadolescents’ daily reports of peer victimization and perceived social competence, along with moderating effects of classroom aggression. A racially diverse sample of 182 children in 5th grade (105 boys; M age = 10.64 years; 35% White, 31% Black, 17% Hispanic, 17% other or not reported) completed daily measures of peer victimization and perceived social competence, with most children completing measures on 8 school days. Teachers completed measures of aggression for each participating pupil. Four types of peer victimization (verbal victimization, social manipulation, social rebuff, and property attacks) predicted decreased daily perceived social competence. Daily social rebuff predicted decreased daily perceived social competence beyond the effects of the other types of victimization. Classroom aggression moderated the relation of verbal victimization with perceived social competence, such that this relation was significant in classrooms with lower aggression and nonsignificant in classrooms with higher aggression. Results indicate that preadolescents’ daily self-perceptions fluctuate with daily victimization by peers, particularly with social rebuff. Findings also suggest that the impact of verbal victimization on children’s self-views could be exacerbated in classrooms that better manage peer-to-peer aggression. Accordingly, targeted interventions appear critical for children who continue to experience peer victimization in schools with highly effective aggression prevention programs.

Orthographic Transparency Enhances Morphological Segmentation in Children Reading Hebrew Words.

Morphological processing of derived words develops simultaneously with reading acquisition. However, the reader’s engagement in morphological segmentation may depend on the language morphological richness and orthographic transparency, and the readers’ reading skills. The current study tested the common idea that morphological segmentation is enhanced in non-transparent orthographies to compensate for the absence of phonological information. Hebrew’s rich morphology and the dual version of the Hebrew script (with and without diacritic marks) provides an opportunity to study the interaction of orthographic transparency and morphological segmentation on the development of reading skills in a within-language design. Hebrew speaking 2nd (N = 27) and 5th (N = 29) grade children read aloud 96 noun words. Half of the words were simple mono-morphemic words and half were bi-morphemic derivations composed of a productive root and a morphemic pattern. In each list half of the words were presented in the transparent version of the script (with diacritic marks), and half in the non-transparent version (without diacritic marks). Our results show that in both groups, derived bi-morphemic words were identified more accurately than mono-morphemic words, but only for the transparent, pointed, script. For the un-pointed script the reverse was found, namely, that bi-morphemic words were read less accurately than mono-morphemic words, especially in second grade. Second grade children also read mono-morphemic words faster than bi-morphemic words. Finally, correlations with a standardized measure of morphological awareness were found only for second grade children, and only in bi-morphemic words. These results, showing greater morphological effects in second grade compared to fifth grade children suggest that for children raised in a language with a rich morphology, common and easily segmented morphemic units may be more beneficial for younger compared to older readers. Moreover, in contrast to the common hypothesis, our results show that morphemic segmentation does not compensate for the missing phonological information in a non-transparent orthography, but rather that morphological segmentation is most beneficial in the highly transparent script. These results are consistent with the idea that morphological and phonological segmentation processes occur simultaneously and do not constitute alternative pathways to visual word recognition.

Educación parvularia chilena: efectos por género y años de participación

The present study aims to estimate the effect of Chilean public early childhood education on the academic outcomes of 4th grade children on the Education Quality Measurement System (Simce, for its abbreviation in Spanish). The study seeks to understand if these effects vary according to the child’s gender and by the number of years of participation in early childhood education. Through Propensity Score Matching, it is observed that attending public early childhood education positively affects 4th grade academic results in Mathematics and Language. The early childhood education effect was greater for boys than for girls, and for those who assisted Transition Level 1.