Children's Grade Level Research Articles

Schoolchildren's motivation for viewing Chinese opera animation according to opera genre.

The emergence of Chinese opera animation allows a wider audience, especially a younger audience, to access and embrace the art of opera heritage. This study used a two-way mixed-design ANOVA to explore the effect of Chinese opera animation on schoolchildren's viewing motivation; the independent variables were the children's grade level and the opera genre of the animation. Grade level was divided into three groups: lower, middle, and upper (grades 2, 4, and 6, respectively). Opera genre consisted of Peking, Yue, and Henan opera. The dependent variable, viewing motivation, comprised six dimensions: entertainment and relaxation, learning knowledge, escapist pastime, aesthetic appreciation, empathic identification, and socializing and sharing. After statistically analyzing the evaluations of 457 participants, the results showed the following: (1) Peking and Yue opera animation had a better entertainment and relaxation effect on the lower and middle groups. Henan opera had a better escapist pastime effect on the upper group but less effect on the lower group. (2) In terms of learning knowledge, empathic identification, aesthetic appreciation, and overall performance, Yue and Henan opera animations were more effective for enhancing viewing motivation compared with Peking opera animation. (3) The middle and lower groups showed higher viewing motivation than the upper group in the learning knowledge, empathic identification, and socializing and sharing dimensions. Overall, grades 2 and 4 were appropriate stages for schoolchildren to engage with opera animation. Our findings can provide a reference for promoting cultural heritage sustainability and support follow-up research on integrating opera animation into children's education.

Vocabulary and reading comprehension: what are the links in 7- to 10 year-old children?

The aims of the present study are: (1) to examine the contribution that vocabulary makes to reading comprehension in the Simple View of Reading model in French-speaking children aged from 7 to 10 years based on the use of an index of efficiency (i.e., speed-accuracy index); and (2) to investigate the extent to which the contribution of vocabulary to reading comprehension might change according to children's school grade level. Measures of vocabulary depth, word reading (i.e., three levels of word representations, namely orthography, phonology, semantics), listening, and reading comprehension were collected using computer-based assessments in children from Grades 2 to 5 (N= 237). We examined the contribution of vocabulary in two contrasted groups: a younger group consisting of children from Grades 2-3 and an older group with children from Grades 4-5. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that vocabulary is a factor separate from word reading, listening and reading comprehension. Moreover, the results from a structural equation modeling analysis showed that word reading and listening comprehension fully mediated the relation between vocabulary and reading comprehension. Consequently, vocabulary had an indirect effect via word reading on reading comprehension in both groups. Finally, word reading had a greater effect on reading comprehension than listening comprehension in both groups. The results suggest that word reading plays a central role in reading comprehension and is underpinned by the influence of vocabulary. We discuss the results in the light of the lexical quality hypotheses taken together with reading comprehension.

Parental support for young learners’ online learning of English in a Chinese primary school

Online language learning is challenging to young learners who often need high levels of support from teachers and parents due to their limited skills in self-regulated learning. While technology integration in education is on the rise, there continues to be a lack of research into how young learners can be better supported in online language learning. This qualitative study examines how parents support young learners' online learning of English during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on interviews with 30 parents of students in Grades 1–5 at a Chinese primary school. The study reveals a range of supportive practices: monitoring of learning emerged as the top priority for parents, followed by affective, academic and technology support. Most of these parental support strategies were mediated primarily by the children's grade level and/or parents' socioeconomic background. Parents also sought teachers' help and played bridging roles to enable teacher-student interaction, particularly when they were unable to provide direct help themselves. Based on these findings, we proposed a tripartite model of parental support for young learners' online learning of English to include interactions between parents, young learners, and teachers, which may inform research and practice of young learners' online language learning.

What is the causal effect of income gains on youth obesity? Leveraging the economic boom created by the Marcellus Shale development.

Low family income is frequently assumed to be a primary social determinant of youth obesity in the U.S. But while the observed correlation between family income and youth obesity is consistently negative, the true causal relationship is unclear. I take advantage of a natural experiment - the boom economy created by development of the Marcellus Shale geological formation for natural gas extraction - to study whether income gains affect youth obesity rates among Pennsylvania students. To test this relationship, I compile data from geological, administrative, Census and other governmental sources and estimate cross-sectional OLS regression models, longitudinal fixed effects models, and two-stage instrumental variable models within a difference-in-differences framework. Falsification tests indicate that children's location relative to the Marcellus Shale's geological boundaries is a valid instrument for income gains. Yet plausibly exogenous income gains do not alter youth obesity rates, regardless of the community's initial level of poverty or affluence and regardless of the child's grade level. Thus, the observed disparities in youth obesity by area income in Pennsylvania do not result from simple differences in disposable income and the relative cost of "healthy" versus "unhealthy" goods and services.

Caregiver worry and injury hazards in the daily lives of Ugandan children

:Background:Over 95% of unintentional injury-related childhood deaths globally occur in low- and middle-income countries, such as Uganda. Risks for injury in settings like rural Uganda are vastly understudied despite differing patterns of child injury risk. The present study investigated the prevalence and type of hazards in children’s environments in rural Uganda, as well as the relationship between hazard exposure and parent attitudes and perceptions regarding unintentional injury.Methods:Our sample included 152 primary caregivers in Eastern Rural Uganda who had children in either 1st or 6th grade. All parents/guardians completed caregiver surveys following verbal instructions. Surveys assessed demographic information, child hazard exposure, and parent beliefs regarding child injury. Results:Almost all parents (98.5%) reported daily exposure for their children to at least one of the hazards assessed. Caregiver's perceived likelihood of child injury was positively related to hazard exposure (r = .21, p less than .05). This relationship remained significant when controlling for family demographics, child grade level, and child injury history (F (7, 126) = 2.25, p less than .05).Conclusions:Our results suggest that Ugandan parents are aware of the risks of children’s exposure to hazards, but may lack the tools to address it. Development of injury prevention interventions focusing on behavioral change techniques may help reduce childhood injury and injury-related deaths in Uganda.

Understanding emotion awareness and emotion vocabulary in early primary school Vietnamese children: Quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Although being fundamental for both clinical and educational work with children, there is currently no in-depth research on examining children's emotion awareness and vocabulary in Vietnam. The goal of this exploratory study is to determine the effect of children's gender, grade level, and socioeconomic background on their emotion awareness and vocabulary, and the semantic and grammatical diversity of Vietnamese children's emotional vocabulary. The sample included 264 Vietnamese children (M = 7.80, SD = .97, 43.18% boys) as well as their mothers. Quantitative findings suggested that children in Grade 3 more frequently quoted surprise- and anger-related vocabulary than did those in lower grades. Children's socioeconomic background had a significant effect on both emotion awareness and vocabulary whereas gender did not. Qualitative analysis revealed diverse grammatical types to describe emotions, except idioms, as well as the presence of body-related emotion vocabulary within children's records. Finally, a high prevalence of emotion words such as "happy" and "sad" was subject to further cross-cultural review.

Who Eats School Breakfast? Parent Perceptions of School Breakfast in a State With Very Low Participation.

Having breakfast is correlated with health and academic benefits; yet, many children do not consume breakfast, and participation in the federal School Breakfast Program remains low. The purpose of this study was to examine parent perceptions of school breakfast and identify relationships between those who consume breakfast at school and those who do not. A random sample of 100 schools, representing 29 school districts, across the state of Utah was selected to participate in the survey. Administrators were asked to distribute an online survey link to the parents of their school. Parents answered questions about their oldest kindergarten through 12th grade child. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed. A total of 488 parents completed the survey. In a multilevel model, child grade level, participation in free and reduced-price lunch, and perceive benefits to school breakfast were significantly related to eating breakfast at school. Some major themes from the qualitative analysis included no need for school breakfast, perception of regional values, and logistical issues. Parent perception of school meals is related to participation. This study identifies several areas of perception that could be address through parent education to increase school breakfast participation.

Parental involvement in municipal schools in Chile: Why do parents choose to get involved?

Utilizing Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's (1995, 2005) theoretical framework on parental involvement, this study examined a cross-sectional sample of 516 parents of children in the first and fourth grade in municipal schools in Chile. The research sought to examine the association between parental motivational beliefs, parental perceptions of invitations for involvement, and parental perceived life context, and parental at-home and at-school involvement when controlling for child, parent, and household characteristics. Results from this study indicate that child invitations for involvement, parental sense of self-efficacy, income, and child's grade level are significantly associated with parental at home and at school involvement. Time and energy was also significantly associated with parental at school involvement. Understanding the importance of parental involvement as a protective factor in children's mental health, the article concludes with reflections on the findings for school-based mental health interventions. Specifically, the conclusions explore how to integrate family involvement initiatives and increase parental involvement, taking into account parental motivations for involvement in an international setting.

Children's Motives for Admitting to Prosocial Behavior.

There has been extensive research on children's moral evaluation of lying in prosocial situations. Current knowledge regarding the concept of lying has been derived from studies showing that cultural differences exist, whereby non-Western children tend to rate lie telling more positively than Western children do. These findings suggest that there are different views about whether children should publicize their prosocial behaviors and that children have universal motives when they admit to engaging in prosocial behavior. A gender difference has also been found in relation to prosocial behavior. However, previous studies did not investigate in detail children's motives for admission or non-admission to prosocial behavior, and if there is a gender difference. Therefore, this study examined the diversity in and development of motives for admitting or not admitting to engaging in prosocial behavior, with the aim of clarifying these behaviors as a function of children's grade level in school, and how such motives differ with age and gender. Questionnaires from 1345 elementary and junior high school students in Japan were analyzed. Results showed that children's communication tendency with regard to prosocial behavior reports peaked in the fourth grade of elementary school and gradually decreased thereafter. From the third grade of elementary school onwards, children reported that they refrained from admitting prosocial behaviors. Younger children more likely cited honesty as a crucial motive for admitting to prosocial behaviors. Girls were more likely to endorse honesty as a motive than boys were. Moreover, among younger children, girls feared others' negative evaluation and wanted to comply with modesty norms when not admitting. Further research is needed to examine the developmental process for motives behind prosocial behaviors.

The Informational Text Structure Survey (ITS2): An exploration of primary grade teachers’ sensitivity to text structure in young children's informational texts

ABSTRACTThere has been no research reported about if or how well primary grade teachers can identify information text structures in children's authentic informational texts. The ability to do so accurately and reliably is a prerequisite for teachers to be able to teach students how to recognize and use text structures to assist them in comprehending informational texts. The authors report the development of the Informational Text Structure Survey (ITS2). Prior to training, primary grade teachers demonstrated low accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional expository text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts. Results after training with the ITS2 instrument showed significant improvements in the teachers’ accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional informational text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts after training with the ITS2 instrument.

Social Network Profiles of Children in Early Elementary School Classrooms

This study characterized the social network roles and peer relationship features of early elementary school-age children from kindergarten to 2nd grade. Children were asked to identify who they liked and did not like to play with and peer groups who played together from their classroom. Consistent with the literature, we found similar patterns for outward friendship nominations and friendship reciprocity by group centrality status. However, the authors found more complex associations between children's gender, grade level, and centrality status on the number of received nominations, rejections, and total number of connections. These results shed light on the multifaceted nature of children's peer relationships at school.

A cross‐sectional study of fluency and reading comprehension in Spanish primary school children

The importance of prosodic elements is recognised in most definitions of fluency. Although speed and accuracy have been typically considered the constituents of reading fluency, prosody is emerging as an additional component. The relevance of prosody in comprehension is increasingly recognised in the latest studies. The purpose of this research is to examine the contribution of prosodic reading to comprehension beyond automaticity in word reading, taking into account children's grade level. One hundred and twenty‐two Spanish children (74 second and 48 fourth graders) were tested in prosodic reading, automaticity in word reading (nonword reading and reading rate) and comprehension abilities. Results show that the contribution of automaticity in word reading is relevant in both grades; however, it is more significant in Grade 2. The prosodic components of reading seem to be related differently to comprehension across grades, intonation being the highest predictor of comprehension in Grade 4. Implications for educational practice are discussed.

School travel modes: factors influencing parental choice in Abu Dhabi

During the 2010/2011 school year, 1,145 questionnaires were completed by parents of children attending schools. The percentage of the children actively travelling to school is almost negligible. The highest percentages of children were regularly driven to school by car or school bus. Major traffic conditions, environmental factors, distance to school, road infrastructure, walking or biking in groups, schools' efforts to educate children about active travel and preferences of parents in accompanying children to school were perceived as significantly important. The absence of an active travel culture in the community was seen as a significant factor. Parent's gender, child's gender, child's grade level, number of cars owned by the family, nationality and number of children were significantly associated with parents' decisions to allow active travel to school. Results show that Abu Dhabi needs to implement aggressive strategies to promote active commuting to school.

어머니의 구강보건관리행태가 초등학교 아동의 치아우식에 미치는 영향

Objectives : By analyzing the affects of the mother's oral care to the caries experiences of the elementary school children, To looking for the way to prevent dental caries in the primary school, to provide baseline data to perform the associated oral health education. Methods : Between the 3,676 children's dental check-up data and the 2,934 survey of parents from 9 elementary schools in the the Gyeonggi Province, the exactly matching data of 2,358 pairs, children versus mothers, were analyzed during the period, 2009 May 4 to July 20, By using the PASW 18(SPSS-PC 18), Frequency analysis of the collected data, and cross-analysis, ANOVA, Bonferroni post-analysis was performed. Results : The findings of the study were as follows. 1. In children, the ratio(DMF rate)of the dental caries experience in permanent teeth, appeared higher for men than women. Divided by grade level, the ratio of caries experience in the permanent teeth(DMF rate) generally appear higher in older than young. Thus between the child's gender and grade level by the ratio of caries experience in the permanent teeth(DMF rate) showed the statistically significant differences (p<0.05). 2. Between the socioeconomic characteristics of mothers and the children's level of dental caries experiences, not showed the statistically significant difference.(p>0.05). 3. The significant difference showed between the dental caries levels of the children and the mother's oral health care behavior - a toothbrush replacement period, mother's broken teeth, mothers guidances of the brushing after snacks for children(p<0.05). Conclusions : The mother's oral health attitudes and behaviors can affect to their children's oral care habits. Therefore The mother themselves should have the right proper habit of oral health care, so that in oral health care mothers should be the model for their children. Institutionally more systematic and detailed oral health educational program in conjunction with the family is needed.

Child Social Preference Scale日本語版の作成

This study developed a Japanese version of the Child Social Preference Scale, which measures children's social withdrawal. In addition, we examined developmental changes of children's withdrawal and the relationships between withdrawal and problematic behaviors. The participants were 7 012 mothers of preschool, elementary school, and middle school children. A factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution of shyness and social disinterest, which is consistent with previous studies. Shyness decreased as children's grade level increased. Social disinterest changed in a quadratic manner. The shyness score was lowest in the lower grades of elementary school. Shyness was related to more emotional symptoms, more peer relationship problems, and less prosocial behavior. Social disinterest was related to peer relationship problems. The importance of the distinction between shyness and social disinterest is discussed.

Making a Difference in Rural Family Asthma Care

Background: 87 of every 1000 children under 17 years have current asthma (ie, symptoms in past 12 months). Few intervention programs are tailored for rural populations. Purpose: To evaluate a family asthma management educational intervention, tailored for rural residents, on family asthma management (child self-management, parent management, inhaler skill, access to care) and children's health outcomes (absenteeism, ED visits, hospitalizations, quality of life). Methodology: An experimental design with randomization into treatment (asthma self-management) or attention-control (general health promotion) schools 183 children (108 boys, 75 girls) with a mean age of 878; a largely minority sample (47% Mexican American, 30% White, 22% African American) enrolled in the 12-month study. Findings: Repeated measures ANOVA showed the treatment group children had significantly greater improvements in asthma self-management (p=02), inhaler skill (p<001), asthma severity (p=002), and their parents had significantly greater improvements in asthma management (p=02) and access to care (p=01), than did the control group. Quality of life scores (p<001) improved and absenteeism decreased by 24% (p=001) for all children. ED visits decreased for the treatment group and increased for the control group and hospitalizations were reduced significantly for both groups. Logistical regression showed that access to care, SES, and ethnicity (White) accounted for 19% of the variance in ED visits; and child's grade level, self-management, access to care, and ethnicity (White) accounted for 24% of the variance in hospitalizations. Summary Concluding Statement: The use of a treatment intervention that incorporated population-focused scenarios (eg, rural situations, child situations) was shown to significantly impact the efforts of rural families, an underserved population, who were working to manage children's asthma – a significant health disparity of childhood.

The rate of handedness conversion and related factors in left-handed children

The rate of handedness conversion was 2.7% to 11.8% in prior studies based on the total population including innately right-handed people. However, the conversion rate of innately left-handed people has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to investigate the percentage of handedness conversion in children who are innately left-handed. The data in the present study showed that 59.3% (121/211) of left-handed children had been forced to convert to right-handedness. Current handedness was also reported by 114 of the 121 informants, and the rates of right-, left-, and mixed-handedness were 56.1% (64/114), 26.3% (30/114), and 17.5% (20/114) respectively. More than half had successfully changed from left to right. Some variables, especially the educational level of the parents and the child's grade level, were related to this conversion intention. The children whose parents had less education were more likely to be forced to change handedness. Additionally, the rate of handedness conversion in younger children was lower than in older children. However, even for the children whose parents had higher education, or for the children who were younger, there was a high percentage (45.7% and 41.8% respectively) who had changed their handedness. Therefore, preventing the possible side effects for children who have undergone hand conversion should be emphasised in the future.

Do Children Who Read More Books Know “What is Good Writing” Better than Children Who Read Less? A Comparison between Grade Levels and SES Groups

We investigated how SES, grade level, and book reading experiences are related to children's writing self-efficacy as well as to their knowledge of “good writing” and “writing difficulties.” The sample included 199 middle- high (HSES) and low (LSES) SES children (63 second graders, 67 fourth graders, and 69 sixth graders). Gender and SES (low and high) were approximately equally represented. Children were recruited from two elementary schools, one in a low SES neighborhood and the other in a middle-high SES neighborhood. Writing knowledge was elicited by two open-ended questions and self-efficacy by a 10-item questionnaire. Children's book reading experiences were measured using the Title Recognition Test (TRT). Results showed that, across both SES groups, children's grade level was the most important predictor of their knowledge of “good writing” and “writing difficulties” and also of their writing self-efficacy, followed by the children's book reading experiences. HSES school children gained more writing knowledge as a function of grade level than did the LSES school children. An important and surprising finding was that children's knowledge of “good writing” and “writing difficulties” was explained by their book reading experiences only in the LSES group and not in the HSES group. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Multidimensional assessment of family involvement among urban elementary students

Family involvement in children's education is fundamental for academic success. This study extended the research on the Family Involvement Questionnaire for Early Childhood (FIQ-EC) by further developing the measure and testing its use with low-income urban elementary students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses affirmed three salient and reliable family involvement dimensions for a large sample of urban first- through fifth-grade students: Home-based Involvement, School-based Involvement, and Home–School Communication. Multivariate analyses demonstrated the significance of caregiver educational background, family characteristics, and child gender to involvement dimensions. Caregiver age or children's grade level did not significantly relate to family involvement dimensions. This study contributes to evidence for a multidimensional understanding of family involvement.

Childrens' notions of the malleability of their academic ability in the mother tongue and mathematics

The ways boys and girls (N = 119) at different grade levels rated and explained their potential for improvement in mathematics and the mother tongue were compared in order to examine their subject‐specific notions of the malleability of their academic ability. The findings indicate that children perceive their potential to improve their performance to be higher in mathematics than in the mother tongue. In the mother tongue the children's ratings of their potential for improvement became more pessimistic with advancement in the child's grade level. In mathematics the boys rated their potential for improvement higher than the girls did and trusted exertion as a means of improving their performance more than did the girls. Those children who gave optimistic ratings of their potential backed up their view by referring to the possibilities of practising and to the positive academic recognition they had received, and the role of these explanations grew stronger with advancement in the child's grade level. In contrast, those children who gave pessimistic ratings of their potential backed them up by referring to their poor performance and deficient ability. It was concluded that the optimistic pupils seem to place themselves in the ‘promotional sphere’ of the institution of school, whereas the pessimistic pupils seem to place themselves in the ‘restrictive sphere’ of education.