Inducing adaptive coping self-statements in children with learning disabilities through self-instruction training

A Framework for Studying the Heterogeneity of Risk Factors in Math Anxiety

Math anxiety is a prevalent disorder which affects many people worldwide. Here, we draw together ample evidence to suggest a dynamic developmental bio-psycho-social model. The model highlights the complex pathways towards the development of math anxiety, with a focus on dynamism. That is, math anxiety is viewed here as a dynamic interplay between environmental (parenting style, as well as social style including teachers' attitude, instruction strategies and wider social effects) and intrinsic factors (i.e., neuro-cognitive and genetic predispositions, including brain malfunctions, heritability, predisposition towards general anxiety) and basic numerical cognition and affective factors. The model predicts that the dynamic interplay between these factors can either prevent or promote math anxiety's effects on the development of heterogeneous symptoms. Considering the universal nature of math anxiety, a systematic description of the vulnerability factors that contribute to the development of math anxiety is vital. Such information may be of particular value in informing the design of preventive interventions as well as of specific intervention tools.

Association between insomnia and coping style in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

PURPOSE

Insomnia, which is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), results in a low quality of life, and several relationships exist between insomnia and coping style. Thus, we clarified the association between some coping styles and insomnia among Japanese type 2 DM patients.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

The subjects included 503 type 2 DM patients (mean age 63.9±12.5 years). Sleep disturbance and personality traits were evaluated using the Japanese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Brief Scale for Coping Profile, respectively. Lifestyle factors, glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels, and the depression statuses of the patients were also included in the analyses.

RESULTS

Among the 503 subjects with type 2 DM, 141 (28.0%) subjects exhibited probable insomnia. After adjusting for confounders, being female, living alone, and using "avoidance and suppression" were significantly correlated with current insomnia. No other relationships were found between insomnia and HbA1c or lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and exercise frequency.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of insomnia in individuals with type 2 DM was high, and the protective factors included some emotion-focused coping styles. Future prospective studies are required to confirm the therapeutic effects of behavioral interventions on insomnia in patients with type 2 DM.

Verbal Self-Guidance as a Treatment Approach for Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Systematic Replication Study

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) experience many occupational performance difficulties in all areas of daily living. For the most part, research has failed to identify an effective treatment approach for these children. Verbal self-guidance (VSG), a new approach, first explored by Wilcox and Polatajko (1993), appears to have good potential in helping children with DCD become competent in the occupations of their choice. The purpose of this study was to carry out a systematic replication of the first VSG study to determine if a different therapist could achieve similar results. Repeating the VSG procedure with four different children, using a single case study design, a different therapist was able to replicate the earlier findings. This provides further evidence of the potential of VSG as an effective approach for enabling children with DCD to surmount their motor challenges.

The functions of internal dialogs and their connection with personality

In previous studies, seven key functions in internal dialogs were identified: Support, Substitution, Exploration, Bond, Self-improvement, Insight, and Self-guiding. It was also established that internal dialogs vary in the intensity of these functions. The presented research aimed to test if there are configurations of personality variables that allow us to predict specific patterns of functions performed by internal dialogs. Canonical correlation analysis revealed that the higher the intensity of neuroticism and anxious attachment and the lower the intensity of openness and the tendency to spontaneously adopt the viewpoints of others, the more strongly a person's internal dialogs perform the Substitution function and the weaker the Insight and Support functions are. The reverse configuration of personality characteristics intensifies Insight and Support and minimized Substitution. The results are presented in the context of the status of dialogicality and discussed in the light of other studies on internal dialogs.

Self-talk: conversation with oneself? On the types of internal interlocutors

The two studies presented in the article aimed to empirically verify the tentative typology of internal interlocutors in self-talk proposed in a previous research project. The typology comprised four emotional types: Faithful Friend, Ambivalent Parent, Proud Rival, and Helpless Child. Study 1 involved 98 participants (49 women) and Study 2 involved 114 (55 women), mostly students. In both studies, the names of internal interlocutors were generated by participants as qualitative data, quantified by reference to the standard set of affect terms, and, as affective patterns, subjected to clustering. Study 2 fully confirmed the recent results, whereas Study 1 revealed a new interlocutor type instead of Helpless Child - Calm Optimist. The conducted studies confirm the existence of four main types of inner interlocutors and provide a reason to verify the existence of Calm Optimist.

Veränderungen psychischer Belastung durch die Förderung von rechenschwachen Kindern und Jugendlichen

Fragestellung: Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte die Effekte der Förderung rechenschwacher Kinder mit der Wasserglasmethode im Vergleich zu konventioneller Nachhilfe. Methodik: In einem Prä-Post-Kontrollgruppendesign wurden N = 46 Kinder im Alter von 7 bis 12 Jahren und deren Eltern hinsichtlich Prüfungsangst, Schulunlust, Manifester Angst, Aufmerksamkeitsproblemen sowie internaler und externaler Auffälligkeiten befragt. Ergebnisse: Es zeigte sich, dass Kinder, die mit der Wasserglasmethode behandelt wurden, eine stärkere Reduktion von Prüfungsangst, Schulunlust und Aufmerksamkeitsproblemen, tendenziell auch im CBCL-Gesamtwert zeigten. Diese Veränderungen waren durch die Verbesserung der mathematischen Leistung mediiert. Darüber hinaus ließ sich feststellen, dass überzufällig viele Kinder zu Beginn der Intervention im internalen Störungsspektrum klinisch relevante Störungen aufwiesen. Schlussfolgerungen: Eine dyskalkuliespezifische Intervention bei Rechenschwäche wirkt sich positiv auf das psychische Funktionsniveau der Kinder aus. Weitere Studien sind notwendig, um die Wirkmechanismen und den Einfluss auf die mathematische Leistungsfähigkeit zu überprüfen.

Math Self-Assessment, but Not Negative Feelings, Predicts Mathematics Performance of Elementary School Children

Mathematics anxiety has been associated to performance in school mathematics. The association between math anxiety and psychosocial competencies as well as their specific contribution to explain school mathematics performance are still unclear. In the present study, the impact of sociodemographic factors, psychosocial competencies, and math anxiety on mathematics and spelling performance was examined in school children with and without mathematics difficulties. The specific contributions of psychosocial competencies (i.e., general anxiety and attentional deficits with hyperactivity) and math anxiety (i.e., self-assessment in mathematics) to school mathematics performance were found to be statistically independent from each other. Moreover, psychosocial competencies—but not math anxiety—were related also to spelling performance. These results suggest that psychosocial competencies are more related to general mechanisms of emotional regulation and emotional response towards academic performance, while mathematics anxiety is related to the specific cognitive aspect of self-assessment in mathematics.

Self-Talk and Sports Performance

Based on the premise that what people think influences their actions, self-talk strategies have been developed to direct and facilitate human performance. In this article, we present a meta-analytic review of the effects of self-talk interventions on task performance in sport and possible factors that may moderate the effectiveness of self-talk. A total of 32 studies yielding 62 effect sizes were included in the final meta-analytic pool. The analysis revealed a positive moderate effect size (ES = .48). The moderator analyses showed that self-talk interventions were more effective for tasks involving relatively fine, compared with relatively gross, motor demands, and for novel, compared with well-learned, tasks. Instructional self-talk was more effective for fine tasks than was motivational self-talk; moreover, instructional self-talk was more effective for fine tasks rather than gross tasks. Finally, interventions including self-talk training were more effective than those not including self-talk training. The results of this study establish the effectiveness of self-talk in sport, encourage the use of self-talk as a strategy to facilitate learning and enhance performance, and provide new research directions.

The relationship between parents' and children's automatic thoughts in a college student sample

Research demonstrates the importance of early social interactions in the development of schemas and automatic thoughts. It does not appear, however, that the existing research examines intergenerational correlations in automatic thoughts. As a result, this study explores the relationship between the automatic thoughts of parents and those of their college-age children in a sample of 252 college students and their mothers and fathers. Results of this study suggest that there are significant relationships between parents' and college students' positive automatic thoughts. Different trends by gender also are noted in the relationships among variables for male and female college students with their mothers and fathers. Further, mothers' positive ATs predicted the positive ATs of their college students, with mothers' ratings of their own communication with their college students mediating partially this relationship. Finally, college students' anxiety and self-esteem is predicted significantly by their mothers' anxiety and self-esteem (respectively) as well as their own positive and negative ATs. These findings suggest the possibility that ATs play a role in the intergenerational transmission of certain domains of psychological functioning.

Math Anxiety and Math Ability in Early Primary School Years

Mathematical learning disabilities (MLDs) are often associated with math anxiety, yet until now, very little is known about the causal relations between calculation ability and math anxiety during early primary school years. The main aim of this study was to longitudinally investigate the relationship between calculation ability, self-reported evaluation of mathematics, and math anxiety in 140 primary school children between the end of first grade and the middle of third grade. Structural equation modeling revealed a strong influence of calculation ability and math anxiety on the evaluation of mathematics but no effect of math anxiety on calculation ability or vice versa-contrasting with the frequent clinical reports of math anxiety even in very young MLD children. To summarize, our study is a first step toward a better understanding of the link between math anxiety and math performance in early primary school years performance during typical and atypical courses of development.

[German version of the math anxiety questionnaire (FRA) for 6- to 9-year-old children]

OBJECTIVES

Is the FRA a reliable and valid instrument? Are there any gender differences concerning math anxiety? Are there any developmental changes in this regard in the course of the early grades?

METHODS

Together with the dyscalculia test TEDI-MATH, the FRA was presented to a total of 450 children from the first to the third grade of primary school (at least 40 girls and 40 boys per semester).

RESULTS

The total scale has an internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) between 0.83 and 0.91. Correlations between arithmetic skills and the FRA scales were mostly significant. The significantly higher negative scores for girls were taken into account by providing standard scores corrected for gender. No systematic developmental changes could be observed.

CONCLUSIONS

The FRA is the first German math anxiety questionnaire for primary school children. High reliability, standard scores corrected for gender, and economic handling make it an instrument well suited for use in clinical settings (e.g., dyscalculia diagnostics and intervention).