Years Of Formal Schooling Research Articles

Age at onset of first suicide attempt: Exploring the utility of a potential candidate variable to subgroup attempters.

Our objective was to explore the utility of age at first suicide attempt in identifying subgroups of suicide attempters. In a retrospective study design, we collected information from the clinical charts of 895 patients assessed over a seven-year period. Admixture analysis was used to determine the best fitting theoretical model for distribution of age at first attempt that divided the sample. Subsequently, multivariate analysis was performed to identify variables that distinguished the subgroups identified. The theoretical solution that best explained the observed distribution of age at first suicide attempt was a mixture of two Gaussian distributions with a cut-off of 31 years for the two subgroups. In logistic regression analysis, male gender (Odds ratios [OR] 3.047, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.818-5.106), fewer years of formal schooling (OR 3.384, 95% CI 1.701-6.734) and being married (OR 23.36, 95% CI 10.753-50.000), were more commonly associated with the late onset subgroup (age at first attempt >31 years). Further, the late onset subgroup had poorer global functioning (OR 0.980, 95% CI 0.962 to 0.998). Age at onset of first suicide attempt is a useful candidate marker to delineate an early and late onset subgroup among suicide attempters. These results are likely to inform customization of suicide prevention strategies.

Validity and test-retest reliability of the Brazilian version of the Return-to-work self-efficacy questionnaire.

ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE To investigate the validity and test-retest reliability of the Brazilian version of the Dutch questionnaire “Verwachtingen over werken”.METHODS We analyzed data from a longitudinal study conducted in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, from 2014 to 2016. Participants were 411 workers on sick leave for more than 15 days due to mental disorders. A subsample of 126 participants responded the questionnaire a second time, seven to 21 days later. Factorial and concurrent validities and the test-retest reliability were analyzed.RESULTS Most participants were female (71.5%), the average age was 36.7 years; 83.1% had attended 12 or more years of formal schooling; the average length of sick leave was 84 days. The average self-efficacy score tended to be below the scale midpoint. The construct had a two-dimensional structure and the concurrent validity confirmed the original construct. For all items, the test-retest reliability adjusted for prevalence ranged from good (0.70) to almost perfect (0.83).CONCLUSIONS While the two-dimensional structure diverges from the original, other parameters were adequate. Application of the Return-to-work self-efficacy questionnaire to Brazilian workers might contribute to the planning of return-to-work process. Additional studies are needed to complement the analysis of the use of this instrument in Brazil.

Reading Recovery's unrecovered learners: Characteristics and issues

Reading Recovery (RR) was developed in New Zealand in the early 1980s to provide 30 minutes of daily individualised literacy instruction over 20 weeks for students struggling with learning to read after one year of formal schooling. Considerable research has been undertaken on the RR programme. While results indicate short‐term success for some students, each year 15–30% of students do not successfully complete the programme and are therefore ‘unrecovered’. Research on the characteristics of these unrecovered students is sparse. This review examines findings on the characteristics of unrecovered students. These RR students typically have limited phonemic awareness and phonemically based decoding skills, and lower scores on RR screening measures on entry to RR than ‘recovered’ students. In New Zealand, unrecovered students tend to be enrolled in schools serving lower socio‐economic neighbourhoods, and tend to be from Māori or Pasifika (Polynesian Pacific Island heritage) backgrounds. These students typically receive more RR lessons than recovered students. We conclude that RR does not tailor instruction to meet the needs of individual students, as claimed. The RR instructional model, developed in the 1970s, fails to recognise the importance of explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and the use of letter–sound relations. Such instruction is essential for most students who struggle with literacy learning during their early years of schooling and especially important for students who experience the most difficulty with learning to read. Suggestions are presented for strengthening the RR programme and for reducing the number of unrecovered students.

Dot plots and hat plots: supporting young students emerging understandings of distribution, center and variability through modeling

An important use of statistical models and modeling in education stems from the potential to involve students more deeply with conceptions of distribution, variation and center. As models are key to statistical thinking, introducing students to modeling early in their schooling will likely support the statistical thinking that underpins later, more advanced work with increasingly sophisticated statistical models. In this case study, a class of 10–11 year-old students are engaged in an authentic task designed to elicit modeling. Multiple data sources were used to develop insights into student learning: lesson videotape, work samples and field notes. Through the use of dot plots and hat plots as data models, students made comparisons of the data sets, articulated the sources of variability in the data, sought to minimize the variability, and then used their models to both address the initial problem and to justify the effectiveness of their attempts to reduce induced variation. This research has implications for statistics curriculum in the early formal years of schooling.

Predicting PISA Scores from Students’ Digital Traces

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an influential worldwide study that tests the skills and knowledge in mathematics, reading, and science of 15-year-old students. In this paper, we show that PISA scores of individual students can be predicted from their digital traces. We use data from the nationwide Russian panel study that tracks 4,400 participants of PISA and includes information about their activity on a popular social networking site. We build a simple model that predicts PISA scores based on students' subscriptions to various public pages on the social network. The resulting model can successfully discriminate between low- and high-performing students (AUC = 0.9). We find that top-performing students are interested in pages related to science and art, while pages preferred by low-performing students typically concern humor and horoscopes. The difference in academic performance between subscribers to such public pages could be equivalent to several years of formal schooling, indicating the presence of a strong digital divide. The ability to predict academic outcomes of students from their digital traces might unlock the potential of social media data for large-scale education research.

Developmental dynamics of early reading skill, literacy interest and readers\u2019 self-concept within the first year of formal schooling

Previous studies have documented robust relationships between emergent literacy and later reading performance. A growing body of research has also reported associations between motivational factors and reading in early phases of reading development. However, there is less research about cross-lagged relationships between motivational factors and reading skills in beginning readers. To examine relationships between early reading skills, literacy interest and reader self-concept, we tested 1141 children twice during their first year of formal reading instruction in school. Cross-lagged analysis showed strong stability in reading skills and medium stability in literacy interest and reader self-concept over the first school year. We also found bidirectional relationships between reading skills and self-concept and between the motivational components of literacy interest and reader self-concept. In the final part of the article, we address the potential theoretical progress attainable through the use of cross-lagged designs in this field.

Silent pauses in aphasia

Pauses may be studied as an aspect of the temporal organization of speech, as well as an index of internal cognitive processes, such as word access, selection and retrieval, monitoring, articulatory planning, and memory. Several studies have demonstrated specific distributional patterns of pauses in typical speech. However, evidence from patients with language impairment is sparse and restricted to small-scale studies. The aim of the present study is to investigate empty pause distribution and associations between pause variables and linguistic elements in aphasia. Eighteen patients with chronic aphasia following a left hemisphere stroke were recruited. The control group consisted of 19 healthy adults matched for age, gender, and years of formal schooling. Speech samples from both groups were transcribed, and silent pauses were annotated using ELAN. Our results indicate that in both groups, pause duration distribution follows a log-normal bimodal model with significantly different thresholds between the two populations, yet specific enough for each distribution to justify classification into two distinct groups of pauses for each population: short and long. Moreover, we found differences between the patient and control group, prominently with regard to long pause duration and rate. Long pause indices were also associated with fundamental linguistics elements, such as mean length of utterance. Overall, we argue that post-stroke aphasia may induce quantitative but not qualitative alterations of pause patterns during speech, and further suggest that long pauses may serve as an index of internal cognitive processes supporting sentence planning. Our findings are discussed within the context of pause pattern quantification strategies as potential markers of cognitive changes in aphasia, further stressing the importance of such measures as an integral part of language assessment in clinical populations.

Should We Use Sentence- or Text-Level Tasks to Measure Oral Language Proficiency in Year-One Students following Whole-Class Intervention?

Aims: To compare students’ oral language proficiency on sentence- versus text-level tasks at school entry and following tier 1 intervention in their first year of formal schooling. Methods: 104 students participated in this study. Participants were part of a broader longitudinal study and were enrolled at 3 low socioeconomic, linguistically diverse Australian primary schools. Tasks were administered to all students at the beginning and end of the school year. Performance on the sentence-level task, the Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT), was analysed for information and grammar as per the test manual. Performance on the text-level task, the Profile of Oral Narrative Ability, was analysed for measures of story length, mean length of utterance, grammatical accuracy, number of different words, and story quality. Results: Results showed that both tasks are sensitive to measure progress following tier 1 intervention. However, RAPT concern status was not related to oral narrative concern status. Furthermore, if only the RAPT task had been used, between 11 and 21% of students performing below expectations in oral narrative would not have been identified. Conclusion: It is recommended that the assessment of oral language proficiency of students from culturally diverse, low socioeconomic backgrounds goes beyond the sentence level and includes an oral narrative retell task.

Determinants of sustainable efficiency of rice farming in peri-urban area, evidence from Ladkrabang district, Bangkok, Thailand

Growing urbanisation, dwindling land for rice cultivation, and declining numbers of rice farmers have been major concerns. Yet, many local people living in peri-urban areas still produce rice for their livelihood. This study aimed to estimate the sustainable efficiency (SE) of the rice farmers in the peri-urban areas and investigate the determinants of SE by employing a multiple linear regression methods. Based on data collected from 230 rice farmers in the Ladkrabang district, the peri-urban area located to the East of Bangkok, Thailand, this study revealed that, on average, the SE of sample rice farmers was 0.84. The large-sized farmer had a higher average SE than small-sized and medium-sized ones. The results of regression analysis indicated having heirs working in farm was the most effective variable on the SE of rice farming, followed by participation in agricultural training programs, formal years of schooling, the number of family labour, and subsidies.

THE USE WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH ON YOUNG LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY ENRICHMENT

Vocabulary is an English basic need that is required in the learning process. Through vocabulary, people can express their ideas. In fact, the students still get some difficulties when they learn vocabulary, especially for young learners. Young learners are supposed to be the children who study at the first year of formal schooling. They are kindergarten students in 4 years old and elementary students who are 6-12 years old. This research is conducted at SDIT Bening to find out the effect of using whole language approach on young learners’ vocabulary enrichment. In this research, pre-experimental method with one group pre-test post-test is used. 22 students are taken as the sample. Some statistical calculations are done to analyze the data and t-test formula is applied to get the final result. Based on the data calculation, the t-test value is 3.22. The result of t-calculated and t-table with d.f = 21 at significant level 0.01 is 2.83 and significant level of 0.05 is 2.08. It shows that the value of t-calculated is higher than t-table (3.22more than 2.83 more than 2.08). It means that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is an effect of using whole language approach on young learners’ vocabulary enrichment. Keywords: whole language approach, young learners, vocabulary enrichment.

Reciprocal relations among motivational frameworks, math anxiety, and math achievement in early elementary school

ABSTRACTSchool-entry math achievement is a strong predictor of math achievement through high school. We asked whether reciprocal relations among math achievement, math anxiety, and entity motivational frameworks (believing that ability is fixed and a focus on performance) can help explain these persistent individual differences. We assessed 1st and 2nd graders’ (N = 634) math achievement, motivational frameworks, and math anxiety 2 times, 6 months apart. Cross-lagged path analyses showed reciprocal relations between math anxiety and math achievement and between motivational frameworks and math achievement. Entity motivational frameworks predicted higher math anxiety. High math achievement was a particularly strong predictor of lower math anxiety and less entity-oriented motivational frameworks. We concluded that reciprocal effects are already present in the first 2 years of formal schooling, with math achievement and attitudes feeding off one another to produce either a vicious or virtuous cycle. Improving both math performance and math attitudes may set children onto a long-lasting, positive trajectory in math.

The Effects of Graduation Requirements on Risky Health Behaviors of High School Students

Previous studies have shown that years of formal schooling attained affects health behaviors, but little is known about how the stringency of academic programs affects such behaviors, especially among youth. Using national survey data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, we study the effects of mathematics and science high school graduation requirements (HSGR) on high school students’ risky health behaviors—specifically on drinking, smoking, and marijuana use. We find that an increase in mathematics and science HSGR has significant negative impacts on alcohol consumption among high school students, especially males and nonwhite students. The effects of math and science HSGR on smoking and marijuana use are also negative but generally less precisely estimated. Our results suggest that curriculum design may have potential as a policy tool to curb youth drinking.

Households’ Willingness to Pay for Improved Solid Waste Management in Uyo Metropolis, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Municipal solid waste if not properly disposed could cause pollution to the environment or even harm to human health. This study examined household’s willingness to pay for improved solid waste management in Uyo metropolis, Akwa Ibom State. Primary data were randomly collected from 160 respondents’ households and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Tobit regression model. The results show that the mean household monthly expenditure was ₦ 52, 173 ($ 144.93), and they were willing to pay ₦ 618.28 ($ 1.72) monthly for an improved solid waste management. Also, some variables including number of years of formal schooling, household’s monthly expenditure and awareness of negative health implications of indiscriminate waste disposal, had positive and significant influenced on willingness to pay (WTP) for improved solid waste management, while age had negative and significant influence on WTP. Incorporating these findings and adoption of house to house collection of solid waste with a monthly service charge is recommended for efficient solid waste management in the study area.

Three levels of education and the economic growth

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is to solve the question how the three main stages of education contribute to the labour productivity growth in selected 125 countries in the period 1999–2014. The model is based on the neoclassical production function enhanced with human capital. The authors draw on the Penn World Tables 9.0 and UNESCO databases. The key benefit of this article is that human capital is characterized according to the returns to education from average number of years of formal schooling at the primary, secondary and tertiary level. Based on the panel data analysis, the contributions of capital and of the three levels of education to the growth of labour productivity are estimated. At the same time, the model allows to estimate the contribution of total factor productivity. The results of the analysis show that tertiary education has the strongest impact on labour productivity across the considered economies. At the same time, the breakdown of aggregate human capital by level of education leads to better clarification of the effects of human capital and physical capital on labour productivity. The conclusions also indicate a tendency towards rising returns to scale induced by the secondary and tertiary education.

Engaging with emergent bilinguals and their families in the pre-primary classroom to foster well-being, learning and inclusion

ABSTRACTThis article presents data from a longitudinal study undertaken in a pre-primary classroom of 3–4-year-old emergent bi/plurilingual children during their first year of formal schooling in France. It focuses on how the teacher’s intercultural competence facilitated the emergent bilingual children’s transition from home to school and fostered positive relationships with these parents and included them in the classroom. The data also suggest that the establishment of trusting relationships and safe spaces for these children and their families favoured the emergence of co-educational practices, namely in the area of literacy and fostered their well-being, learning and inclusion.

Longitudinal vocabulary development in Australian urban Aboriginal children: Protective and risk factors.

Vocabulary is a key component of language that can impact on children's future literacy and communication. The gap between Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children's reading and academic outcomes is well reported and similar to Indigenous/non-Indigenous gaps in other nations. Determining factors that influence vocabulary acquisition over time and may be responsive to treatment is important for improving Aboriginal children's communication and academic outcomes. To determine what factors influence Australian urban Aboriginal children's receptive vocabulary acquisition and whether any of these are risks or protective for vocabulary development. One hundred thirteen Aboriginal children in South Western Sydney from the longitudinal birth cohort Gudaga study were assessed on The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test multiple times: 3years, just prior to school entry, at the end of the first and second years of formal schooling. Multilevel models were used to determine the effects of 13 fixed and manipulable maternal, child, and family variables drawn from previous research. Higher maternal education was found to be protective at 3years and over time. The number of children in urban Australian Aboriginal households made an impact on vocabulary development and this varied over time. From 3 to 6years, those with early poor non-verbal cognitive skills had vocabulary skills that remained below those with stronger non-verbal skills at 3years. Girls exhibit an earlier advantage in vocabulary acquisition, but this difference is not sustained after 4years of age. The risk and protective factors for vocabulary development in Australian Aboriginal children are similar to those identified in other studies with some variation related to the number of children in the home. In this limited set of predictors, maternal education, gender, non-verbal cognitive skills, and the number of children in households were all shown to impact on the acquisition of vocabulary to 3years and or the developmental trajectory over time.

Health profile of family caregivers of the elderly and its association with variables of care: a rural study

Abstract Objective: to analyze the profile of a population of caregivers from a city in a rural area of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and identify their health complaints and the characteristics of care provided. Method: a prospective cross-sectional study was performed based on a domicile survey of 99 caregivers and their elderly care recipients. Information about the profile, context of care and health complaints of the caregivers was collected. The caregivers responded to the Zarit Burden Inventory and the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 and the elderly underwent a cognition and functionality assessment. The chi-squared test with odds ratio (OR) was performed to test associations. Result: the majority of the caregivers were women (n=76), elderly (n=83), with a median age 65.8 (±10.4) years and 4.9 (±4.2) years of formal schooling. The most frequent health complaints were pain, systemic hypertension, insomnia, back problems and vision problems. The elderly care recipients were men (n=75), with an average age of 72.0 (±8.2) years. Analysis of associations revealed that caregivers who received emotional support had a lower chance of being highly overburdened (OR=0.37; CI95% 0.15-0.90). Caring for over five years was associated with arthritis (OR=2.50; CI95% 1.0-6.56). Caring of an elderly person with cognitive impairment was strongly associated with peripheral vascular diseases (OR=2.70; CI95% 1.11-6.85) and other diseases (OR=6.94; CI95% 1.43-33.63). Conclusion: A better understanding of the reality of care in rural and remote areas and the identification of factors related to the health care of caregivers provides better care management for the elderly and caregivers, who themselves are aging.

Cognitive reserve and TMEM106B genotype modulate brain damage in presymptomatic frontotemporal dementia: a GENFI study.

Frontotemporal dementia is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder with around a third of cases having autosomal dominant inheritance. There is wide variability in phenotype even within affected families, raising questions about the determinants of the progression of disease and age at onset. It has been recently demonstrated that cognitive reserve, as measured by years of formal schooling, can counteract the ongoing pathological process. The TMEM106B genotype has also been found to be a modifier of the age at disease onset in frontotemporal dementia patients with TDP-43 pathology. This study therefore aimed to elucidate the modulating effect of environment (i.e. cognitive reserve as measured by educational attainment) and genetic background (i.e. TMEM106B polymorphism, rs1990622 T/C) on grey matter volume in a large cohort of presymptomatic subjects bearing frontotemporal dementia-related pathogenic mutations. Two hundred and thirty-one participants from the GENFI study were included: 108 presymptomatic MAPT, GRN, and C9orf72 mutation carriers and 123 non-carriers. For each subject, cortical and subcortical grey matter volumes were generated using a parcellation of the volumetric T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging brain scan. TMEM106B genotyping was carried out, and years of education recorded. First, we obtained a composite measure of grey matter volume by graph-Laplacian principal component analysis, and then fitted a linear mixed-effect interaction model, considering the role of (i) genetic status; (ii) educational attainment; and (iii) TMEM106B genotype on grey matter volume. The presence of a mutation was associated with a lower grey matter volume (P = 0.002), even in presymptomatic subjects. Education directly affected grey matter volume in all the samples (P = 0.02) with lower education attainment being associated with lower volumes. TMEM106B genotype did not influence grey matter volume directly on its own but in mutation carriers it modulated the slope of the correlation between education and grey matter volume (P = 0.007). Together, these results indicate that brain atrophy in presymptomatic carriers of common frontotemporal dementia mutations is affected by both genetic and environmental factors such that TMEM106B enhances the benefit of cognitive reserve on brain structure. These findings should be considered in evaluating outcomes in future disease-modifying trials, and support the search for protective mechanisms in people at risk of dementia that might facilitate new therapeutic strategies.

Life Satisfaction, Personal Growth Initiative and the Role of Hope in Alcoholics and in People Who are Occasional Drinkers

The study was conducted to find out the Life Satisfaction, Personal Growth Initiative and the role of Hope in Alcoholics and in people who are Occasional Drinkers. The sample chosen for this study was, 100 adults aged 20-50 years (50 for each group), both males and females with minimum five years of formal schooling. The tools of assessment used were Satisfaction with Life Scale, The Personal Growth Initiative Scale and the Adult Trait Hope Scale. It was found that occasional drinkers scored significantly higher on the variables of Life Satisfaction, Hope and Personal Growth Initiative. The results are discussed in terms of role of positive factors in alcoholism as compared to occasional drinkers.

Factors associated with use of personal protective equipment by health care professionals who suffered accidents with biological materials in the State of Maranhão, Brazil.

Health care professionals are at high risk for work accidents; within this context, personal protective equipment (PPE) acts as a barrier and affords protection in any situation of potential exposure to biological materials. To analyze associated factors and determine the frequency of adherence to use of PPE by health care professionals from the state of Maranhão who suffered sharps injuries at work. A cross-sectional epidemiological and analytical study based on secondary data from the System of Information on Notifiable Diseases (Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação - SINAN) was performed with health care professionals who suffered sharps injuries from 2010 to 2015. Unadjusted analysis was performed first and then hierarchical adjusted analysis with adherence to use of PPE as response variable. Only variables with p<0.05 were considered as having association with the response variable. The frequency of use of PPE was 41%. At the end of hierarchical analysis, non-adherence to use of PPE remained associated with having 12 or less years of formal schooling, working at the capital/metropolitan area, percutaneous exposure, exposure to blood, needlestick injuries and improper disposal of sharps. The frequency of adherence to PPE was relatively low among health care professionals from the state of Maranhão who were victims of accidents. Twelve years or less of formal schooling, not using PPE and improper disposal of sharps might contribute to the occurrence of work accidents at health care services.