Family structure and change through middle childhood : the impact on children's adjustment and achievement

This research project investigated the influence of family transitions on children's adjustment and school achievement across the primary school years, in single-parent, re-partnered and two-parent families. The quality of children's relationships with parents, teachers and peers were predictive of more positive outcomes, regardless of family structure. The research analysed data from the Kindergarten Cohort participating in Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Across the age span of the children studied, cumulative effects of any residential or school changes, or decreased family income, associated with family transitions, were more likely to predict poorer child outcomes in behaviour adjustment and school achievement.

Developmental cascades of peer rejection, social information processing biases, and aggression during middle childhood.

This study tested a developmental cascade model of peer rejection, social information processing (SIP), and aggression using data from 585 children assessed at 12 time points from kindergarten through Grade 3. Peer rejection had direct effects on subsequent SIP problems and aggression. SIP had direct effects on subsequent peer rejection and aggression. Aggression had direct effects on subsequent peer rejection. Each construct also had indirect effects on each of the other constructs. These findings advance the literature beyond a simple mediation approach by demonstrating how each construct effects changes in the others in a snowballing cycle over time. The progressions of SIP problems and aggression cascaded through lower liking, and both better SIP skills and lower aggression facilitated the progress of social preference. Findings are discussed in terms of the dynamic, developmental relations among social environments, cognitions, and behavioral adjustment.

Values in middle childhood: Social and genetic contributions

Theories of value development often identify adolescence as the period for value formation, and cultural and familial factors as the sources for value priorities. However, recent research suggests that value priorities can be observed as early as in middle childhood, and several studies, including one on preadolescents (Knafo & Spinath, 2011), have suggested a genetic contribution to individual differences in values. In the current study, 174 pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic 7-year old Israeli twins completed the Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS–C; Döring et al., 2010). We replicated basic patterns of relations between value priorities and variables of socialisation – gender, religiosity, and socioeconomic status– that have been found in studies with adults. Most important, values of Self-transcendence, Self-enhancement, and Conservation, were found to be significantly affected by genetic factors (29%, 47% and 31% respectively), as well as non-shared environment (71%, 53% and 69% respectively). Openness to change values, in contrast, were found to be unaffected by genetic factors at this age and were influenced by shared (19%) and non-shared (81%) environment. These findings support the recent view that values are formed at earlier ages than had been assumed previously, and they further our understanding of the genetic and environmental factors involved in value formation at young ages.

Introduction to the Special Section Value Development from Middle Childhood to Early Adulthood: New Insights from Longitudinal and Genetically Informed Research

Research into values at an early age has only started recently, although it has expanded quickly and dynamically in the past years. The purpose of this article is twofold: First, it provides an introduction to a special section that aims to help fill the gap in value development research. The special section brings together four new longitudinal and genetically informed studies of value development from the beginning of middle childhood through early adulthood. Second, this article reviews recent research from this special section and beyond, aiming to provide new directions to the field. With new methods for assessing children's values and an increased awareness of the role of values in children's and adolescents' development, the field now seems ripe for an in-depth investigation. Our review of empirical evidence shows that, as is the case with adults, children's values are organized based on compatibilities and conflicts in their underlying motivations. Values show some consistency across situations, as well as stability across time. This longitudinal stability tends to increase with age, although mean changes are also observed. These patterns of change seem to be compatible with Schwartz's (1992) theory of values (e.g., if the importance of openness to change values increases, the importance of conservation values decreases). The contributions of culture, family, peers, significant life events, and individual characteristics to values are discussed, as well as the development of values as guides for behavior.

Kindergarten characteristics and risk-taking behaviors in middle childhood = Caractéristiques à la maternelle et comportements de prise de risques en 6e année

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The effects of a pre-movement delay on the kinematics of prehension in middle childhood

The present study examined the effects of a pre-movement delay on the kinematics of prehension in middle childhood. Twenty-five children between the ages of 5 and 11 years made visually open-loop reaches to two different sized objects at two different distances along the midline. Reaches took place either (i) immediately, or (ii) 2 s after the occlusion of the stimulus. In all age groups, reaches following the pre-movement delay were characterised by longer movement durations, lower peak velocities, larger peak grip apertures and longer time spent in the final slow phase of the movement. This pattern of results suggests that the representations that control the transport and grasp component are affected similarly by delay, and is consistent with the results previously reported for adults. Such representations therefore appear to develop before the age of 5. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Informing early intervention: preschool predictors of anxiety disorders in middle childhood

Background: To inform early intervention practice, the present research examines how child anxiety, behavioural inhibition, maternal overinvolvement, maternal negativity, mother-child attachment and maternal anxiety, as assessed at age four, predict anxiety at age nine. Method: 202 children (102 behaviourally inhibited and 100 behaviourally uninhibited) aged 3–4 years were initially recruited and the predictors outlined above were assessed. Diagnostic assessments, using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule, were then conducted five years later. Results: Behavioural inhibition, maternal anxiety, and maternal overinvolvement were significant predictors of clinical anxiety, even after controlling for baseline anxiety (p,.05). No significant effect of negativity or attachment security was found over and above baseline anxiety (p..1). Conclusions: Preschool children who show anxiety, are inhibited, have overinvolved mothers and mothers with anxiety disorders are at increased risk for anxiety in middle childhood. These factors can be used to identify suitable participants for early intervention and can be targeted within intervention programs.

How different are the visual representations used for object recognition in middle childhood and adulthood?

Recent experimental studies have shown that development towards adult performance levels in configural processing in object recognition is delayed through middle childhood. Whilst partchanges to animal and artefact stimuli are processed with similar to adult levels of accuracy from 7 years of age, relative size changes to stimuli result in a significant decrease in relative performance for participants aged between 7 and 10. Two sets of computational experiments were run using the JIM3 artificial neural network with adult and 'immature' versions to simulate these results. One set progressively decreased the number of neurons involved in the representation of view-independent metric relations within multi-geon objects. A second set of computational experiments involved decreasing the number of neurons that represent view-dependent (nonrelational) object attributes in JIM3's Surface Map. The simulation results which show the best qualitative match to empirical data occurred when artificial neurons representing metric-precision relations were entirely eliminated. These results therefore provide further evidence for the late development of relational processing in object recognition and suggest that children in middle childhood may recognise objects without forming structural description representations.

Relations among fluid intelligence, sensory discrimination and working memory in middle to late childhood – A latent variable approach

Two factors that have been suggested as key in explaining individual differences in fluid intelligence are working memory and sensory discrimination ability. A latent variable approach was used to explore the relative contributions of these two variables to individual differences in fluid intelligence in middle to late childhood. A sample of 263 children aged 7–12 years was examined. Correlational analyses showed that general discrimination ability (GDA)and working memory (WM) were related to each other and to fluid intelligence. Structural equation modeling showed that within both younger and older age groups and the sample as a whole, the relation between GDA and fluid intelligence could be accounted for by WM. While WM was able to predict variance in fluid intelligence above and beyond GDA, GDA was not able to explain significant amounts of variance in fluid intelligence, either in the whole sample or within the younger or older age group. We concluded that compared to GDA, WM should be considered the better predictor of individual differences in fluid intelligence in childhood. WM and fluid intelligence, while not being separable in middle childhood, develop at different rates, becoming more separable with age.

A longitudinal study of overweight during childhood : etiology, mental health outcomes and mediating factors

Au cours des 30 dernières années, l’embonpoint et l’obésité infantile sont devenus de véritables défis pour la santé publique. Bien que l’obésité soit, à la base, un problème physiologique (i.e. balance calorique positive) une série de facteurs psychosociaux sont reliés à son développement. Dans cette thèse, nous avons étudié le rôle des facteurs périnataux et de la petite enfance dans le développement du surpoids, ainsi que la relation entre le surpoids et les troubles internalisés au cours de l’enfance et au début de l’adolescence. Nous avions trois objectifs généraux: 1) Modéliser le développement de l’indice de masse corporelle (IMC) ou du statut pondéral (le fait d’être en surpoids ou non) durant l’enfance, ainsi qu’estimer l’hétérogénéité dans la population au cours du temps (i.e. identification de trajectoires développementales de l’IMC). 2) Identifier les facteurs périnataux et de la petite enfance pouvant accroitre le risque qu’un enfant suive une trajectoire menant au surpoids adolescente. 3) Tester la possibilité que le surpoids durant l’enfance soit associé avec des problèmes de santé mentale internalisés à l’adolescence, et vérifier la possibilité qu’une telle association soit médiatisée par l’expérience de victimisation par les pairs et l’insatisfaction corporelle. Ce travail est mené dans une perspective de développement au cours de la vie (life span perspective), considérant l’accumulation des facteurs de risques au cours du temps ainsi que les facteurs qui se manifestent durant certaines périodes critiques de développement.1,2 Nous avons utilisé les données provenant de l’Étude Longitudinale du Développement des Enfants du Québec (ELDEQ), une cohorte de naissances de la province de Québec, Canada. L’échantillon initial était composé de 2120 familles avec un bébé de 5 mois nés au Québec en 1997. Ces familles ont été suivies annuellement ou à tous les deux ans jusqu’à ce que les enfants atteignent l’âge de 13 ans. En ce qui concerne le premier objectif de recherche, nous avons utilisé la méthode des trajectoires développementales fondée sur des groupes pour modéliser l’IMC en continu et en catégories (surpoids vs poids normal). Pour notre deuxième objectif, nous avons effectué des modèles de régression multinomiale afin d’identifier les facteurs périnataux et de la petite enfance associés aux différents groupes développementaux du statut pondéral. Les facteurs de risques putatifs ont été choisis parmi les facteurs identifiés dans la littérature et représentent l’environnement périnatal, les caractéristiques de l’enfant, ainsi que l’environnement familial. Ces facteurs ont été analysés longitudinalement dans la mesure du possible, et les facteurs pouvant servir de levier potentiel d’intervention, tels que l’usage de tabac chez la mère durant la grossesse, le sommeil de l’enfant ou le temps d’écoute de télévision, ont été sélectionnés pour l’analyse. Pour notre troisième objectif, nous avons examiné les associations longitudinales (de 6 à 12 ans) entre les scores-z d’IMC (selon la référence CDC 2000) et les problèmes internalisés avec les modèles d’équations structurales de type « cross-lagged ». Nous avons ensuite examiné comment la victimisation par les pairs et l’insatisfaction corporelle durant l’enfance peuvent médiatiser un lien potentiel entre le surpoids et les troubles internalisés au début de l’adolescence. Les contributions scientifiques de la présente thèse incluent l’identification de trajectoires distinctes du statut pondérale durant l’enfance (précoce, tardive, jamais en surpoids), ainsi que les facteurs de risques précoces et les profils de santé mentale pouvant différer selon la trajectoire d’un enfant. De plus, nous avons identifié des mécanismes importants qui expliquent une partie de l’association entre les trajectoires de surpoids et les troubles internalisés: la victimisation par les pairs et l’insatisfaction corporelle.

Facial identity and facial expression matching in 5 - 12-year-old children and adults

Facial identity and facial expression matching tasks were completed by 5–12-year-old children and adults using stimuli extracted from the same set of normalized faces. Configural and feature processing were examined using speed and accuracy of responding and facial feature selection, respectively. Facial identity matching was slower than face expression matching for all age groups. Large age effects were found on both speed and accuracy of responding and feature use in both identity and expression matching tasks. Eye region preference was found on the facial identity task and mouth region preference on the facial expression task. Use of mouth region information for facial expression matching increased with age, whereas use of eye region information for facial identity matching peaked early. The feature use information suggests that the specific use of primary facial features to arrive at identity and emotion matching judgments matures across middle childhood.

Child temperament and parental personality: continuity and transactional change

Studying the continuity and underlying mechanisms of temperament change from early childhood through adulthood is clinically and theoretically relevant. Knowledge of the continuity and change of temperament from infancy onwards, especially as perceived by both parents is, however, still scanty. Only in recent years have researchers become aware that personality, long considered as stable in adulthood, may also change. Further, studies that focus on the transactional change of child temperament and parental personality also seem to be lacking, as are studies focusing on transactions between child temperament and more transient parental characteristics, like parental stress. Therefore, this longitudinal study examined the degree of continuity of temperament over five years from the infant s age of six months to the child s age of five and a half years, as perceived by both biological parents, and also investigated the bidirectional effects between child temperament and parents personality traits and overall stress experienced during that time. First, moderate to high levels of continuity of temperament from infancy to middle childhood were shown, depicting the developmental links between affectively positive and well-adjusted temperament characteristics, and between characteristics of early and later negative affectivity. The continuity of temperament was quantitatively and qualitatively similar in both parents ratings. The findings also demonstrate that infant and childhood temperament characteristics cluster to form stable temperament types that resemble personality types shown in child and adult personality studies. Second, the parental personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism were shown to be highly stable over five years, but evidence of change in relation to parents views of their child s temperament was also shown: an infant s higher positive affectivity predicted an increase in parental extraversion, while the infant s higher activity level predicted a decrease in parental neuroticism over five years. Furthermore, initially higher parental extraversion predicted higher ratings of the child s effortful control, while initially higher parental neuroticism predicted the child s higher negative affectivity. In terms of changes in parental stress, the infant s higher activity level predicted a decrease in maternal overall stress, while initially higher maternal stress predicted a higher level of child negative affectivity in middle childhood. Together, the results demonstrate that the mother- and father-rated temperament of the child shows continuity during the early years of life, but also support the view that the development of these characteristics is sensitive to important contextual factors such as parental personality and overall stress. While parental personality and experienced stress were shown to have an effect on the child s developing temperament, the reverse was also true: the parents own personality traits and perceived stress seemed to be highly stable, but also susceptible to their experiences of their child s temperament.