Developmental precursors of engagement and motivation in fifth grade: Linkages with parent- and teacher-child relationships

Multiple attachment perspectives: the relationship between interpersonal attachment from family and school environments and children's learning engagement

OBJECTIVES

Abundant evidence has demonstrated that positive interpersonal relationships promote children's learning engagement. However, most existing studies only focus on the role of one or two attachment relationships, and few studies examine the relationship between multiple positive interpersonal relationships from family and school environments and children's learning engagement. The purpose of this study is to simultaneously examine the effects of father-child and mother-child attachment from the family environment and teacher-student relationship and peer attachment from the school environment on learning engagement of Chinese boys and girls.

METHODS

Participants (N = 702; 51.6% male, Mage = 10.39, SDage = 0.49) were recruited from seven primary schools in Guizhou province, China. Participants completed five self-report questionnaires assessing children's learning engagement, father-child attachment, mother-child attachment, teacher-student relationship and peer attachment.

RESULTS

The results displayed that only mother-child attachment and teacher-student relationship significantly predicted boys' learning engagement. In addition, we also found that only teacher-student relationship and peer attachment positively predicted girls' learning engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings highlight that teacher-student relationship promotes learning engagement in both boys and girls, and in addition, mother-child attachment from the family environment enhances boys' learning engagement and peer attachment from the school environment promotes girls' learning engagement. This study's results suggest that future attachment-based interventions aimed at contributing to children's academic development should focus on teacher-student relationships for both boys and girls, on mother-child relationships for boys, and on peer relationships for girls.

A Theoretical Framework for the Development of Need for Cognition in Childhood and Adolescence

Extensive research has highlighted the importance of Need for Cognition (NFC) in various contexts, but our understanding of its development remains limited. In particular, the current psychological literature is relatively silent regarding the factors influencing NFC development. We aim to address this gap by proposing a developmental model of NFC based on the principles of the Cognitive Adaptation Trait Theory (CATT). Through a comprehensive review of the current literature, we elucidate the potential key components contributing to the development of NFC in childhood and adolescence. Additionally, we outline several potential strategies to foster NFC development based on the key components of the model. The model aims to provide a starting point for future research on possible mechanisms underlying the development of NFC. Moving forward, future research should empirically test these hypotheses in real-world settings to enhance our understanding of NFC development and validate the suggested fostering strategies on their effectiveness.

Facilitating Youth's Curiosity in Learning: Needs-based Ecological Examinations

The decline of curiosity during adolescence has received increasing concerns in education. The present study aimed to identify the key factors in the environment that promote young people's curiosity from a needs-based ecological perspective, focusing on family and school. To enable a better understanding of the developmental effects, this study compared two age groups: 10-year-olds and 15-year-olds. A total of 5482 Finnish students (3034 aged 10 and 2448 aged 15; 48% female and 51% male) from the OECD Survey on Social-emotional Skills participated in the study, and their family and school factors related to basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness) were assessed through surveys. Hierarchical Linear Modeling results revealed that: (1) contrary to the expectations, factors that support competence and relatedness facilitated youth curiosity to a greater extent than factors that support autonomy; (2) positive relationships with teachers were more beneficial for curiosity among older youth than younger youth; whereas, a sense of belonging at school was the most important factor for younger youth's curiosity. These findings have significant implications for promoting curiosity in general as well as during different age periods.

Cross-informant agreement between caregivers and teachers for prosocial behavior across child welfare settings

Healthy social functioning has been a growing focus for understanding children's positive development and well-being. Despite the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of behavior rating scales, there has been a rising issue of concern in both practice and research applications regarding rating scales and its low cross-informant agreement. The present study aimed to analyze the extent to which caregivers and teachers agree about children's prosocial behaviors, identify whether there were differences in the degree of agreement across child welfare settings, and ultimately offer recommendations for assessing behavior for children involved with child welfare services. To do so, the reports of 1,224 children, caregivers, and teachers from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) I who have been investigated by Child Protective Services (CPS) for abuse and/or neglect have been examined. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) of caregiver and teacher assessment of children's prosocial functioning were calculated to understand the degree of agreement in their perceptions of children's prosocial behaviors. ICC values presented show that agreement was low but significant across all samples and subscales (ICC range, .11-.22). It is suggested that future researchers pursue examination of the underlying mechanisms or factors that contribute to informant discrepancies.

Patterns of Children's Relationships With Parents and Teachers in Grade 1: Links to Task Persistence and Performance

Our study aimed to investigate the patterns of children's relationships with their parents and teachers, the development of these relationships during Grade 1, and respective links to children's learning (in task persistence and performance). Parents of 350 children answered questionnaires about the quality of their relationships with their children; 25 teachers answered questions about children's task persistence at school and the quality of their relationships with their students; 350 children completed literacy and math performance tests; and six testers evaluated children's task persistence when completing those tests. All measures were administered twice: at the start and end of Grade 1. Latent profile analyses found two meaningful child profiles that were similar at the beginning and end of Grade 1: average relationship (89% at T1, 85% at T2) and conflictual relationship (11% at T1, 15% at T2) with parents and teachers. These profiles were highly stable throughout Grade 1, except for 15 children who moved from an average relationship to a conflictual relationship profile. This declining trajectory can be characterized by poor relationships with teachers and low task persistence at the end of Grade 1, although they did not perform any worse than other children. Finally, children exhibiting conflictual relationships with their parents and teachers at the beginning of Grade 1 performed worse on spelling and subtraction tasks and demonstrated lower task-persistent behavior at the end of Grade 1 than those with average (good) relationships with parents and teachers.