29
January 2013: As children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD) get older, their Executive Function problems appear
to worsen. When compared to typically developing children,
children with ASD at all ages struggle with Executive
Function. However older adolescents variance is greater,
indicating more problems for high functioning ASD individuals
as they try to enter work and social environments. Rosenthal,
M. et al (2013, Jan). "Impairments in real-world
executive function increase from childhood to adolescence
in autism spectrum disorders." Neuropsychology, Vol
27(1), 13-18.
24
January 2013: Spanking children makes them more aggressive.
So says new research out this month. Children who were spanked
by mothers, as early as 1 year of age, or anytime during
early childhood, show more aggressive behavior. This effect
is not moderated by maternal warmth. So even warm, caring
mothers who spank will see more aggression in their children.
Lee, S., Altschul, I. & Gershoff, E. (2013) "Does
Warmth Moderate Longitudinal Associations Between Maternal
Spanking and Child Aggression in Early Childhood?"
. Developmental Psychology, Jan 21 preview, nps.
22
January 2013: Reasons for adolescent substance use falls
into 2 categories - enhancing a positive state or relieiving/coping
with a negative state. Those who use to relieve a negative
state have higher / more involved substance use and more psychological
distress, but respond better to treatment. Dow, S. & Kelly,
J. (2012) "Listening to Youth: Adolescents' Reasons for
Substance Use as a Unique Predictor of Treatment Response
and Outcome." Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Dec
31 preview, nps.
16
January 2013: High school students who work long hours
at a paying job tend to have lower grades and are at higher
risk for substance use. For white and asian students, the
risk increases with more educated parents. So the more advantaged
the student, apparently the more severe the cost of a job
while in high school. Bachman, J.; Staff, J.; O'Malley, P
& Freedman-Doan, P. (2013). "Adolescent Work Intensity,
School Performance, and Substance Use: Links Vary by Race/Ethnicity
and Socioeconomic Status." Developmental Psychology,
(Jan 14 preview, nps).
8 January
2013: A new study out this week suggests there may be
some relationship between aggression and anxiety in children
and mothers who work night shifts. Comparing aggression, deprression
and anxiety in 2500 children, researchers found higher incidence
of aggression linked to mothers with night shift work as compared
to children of mothers who either did not work or worked standard
shfts. Dunifon, R. et al (2013). "Mothers'
Night Work and Children's Behavior Problems." Jan 7 issue
preview, nps.
20
December 2012: Children who struggle with division of
whole numbers and understanding the magnitude of various fractions
tend to be the ones who struggle with fraction arithmetic
in middle grades. And as the children move through middle
school math, the struggles intensify. The difference between
low and high achieving 6th graders in math is much greater
by 8th grade. Siegler, R.& Pyke, A.(2012). "Developmental
and Individual Differences in Understanding of Fractions."
Developmental Psychology, Dec 17 preview, nps.
18
December 2012: Quality of housing affects children's and
adolescent's behavioral functioning, emotional function and
cogvitive skills. While housing cost and type does not seem
to have an effect on cognitive skills, quality does. Coley,
R. et al (2012). "Relations Between Housing Characteristics
and the Well-Being of Low-Income Children and Adolescents."
Developmental Psychology, Dec 17 preview, nps.
12
December 2012: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be
predicted by examining communications in children as young
as 13 months. Researchers observed infants spontaneously initiated
word and word - gesture combinations in 13 month infants.
They observed them again at 18 months and then tracked them
for 3 years. Those children who were at the bottom scoring
on communication at 13 months and especially at 18 months
were most likely to receive an ASD diagnosis at 36 months.
Winder, B. et al (2012). "Spontaneous Initiation of Communication
in Infants at Low and Heightened Risk for Autism Spectrum
Disorders."Developmental Psychology, Dec 10 preview,
nps
28
November: In men, a moderate amount of stress during testing,
can increase not only test performance, but memory recall
of the material at a later time. The effect is much more mild
for women. Hupbach, A. & Almut, F. (2012). "Moderate
stress enhances immediate and delayed retrieval of educationally
relevant material in healthy young men." Behavioral Neuroscience,
Vol 126(6), 819-825.
26
November: Adolescents with ADHD have more conflicts with
the parents and over more issues than adolescents without
ADHD. Mothers however, do not tend to attribute the conflict
to the ADHD, whereas Fathers do. Markel, C. & Wiener,
J. (2012). "Attribution Processes in Parent–Adolescent
Conflict in Families of Adolescents With and Without ADHD".
Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science. Nov 12. preview,
nps.
9 November:
High quality childcare during the infant to toddler period
appears to create better memory skills in children as they
begin school. High quality childcare during the preschool
years leads to better language skills. Cognitive skills were
highest in children who experienced high quality childcare
during both the infant to toddler and preschool periods. Li,
W. et al (2012, Nov 5) "Timing of High-Quality Child
Care and Cognitive, Language, and Preacademic Development."
Developmental Psychology, preview, nps.
16
October: While many adolescents experiment with substances,
most of them do not incur long term psychological problems
as a result. A new longitudinal study indicates that the level
of anxiety experienced by the adolescent prior to substance
use can predict who sustains long-term psychological problems
in the future. Those with high levels of anxiety who use stiumulants
and hallucinogens tend to have long terms problems. Interestingly
though, the use of cannibis (marijuana) by those with high
levels of anxiety tends to reduce the risk of long term problems.
Fallu, J. et al (2012). "Substance use among adolescents:
Moderating effects of anxiety." Canadian Journal of Behavioural
Science. Vol 44(4), 319-329.
14
October: For male students, a little bit of stress can
be a good thing - at least for increasing memory on studied
material. Researcher taught new material to students on day
1, exposed them to stress on day 2, and tested them on day
3. Males who incurred the stress on day 2, did better on the
test. Hupbach, A. & Fierman, R. (2012). "Moderate
Stress Enhances Immediate and Delayed Retrieval of Educationally
Relevant Material in Healthy Young Men." Behavioral Neuroscience,
Oct 15 preview, nps.
4 October:
Adolescent substance use can be divided into (1)abstainers
(2) experimenters (3) at-risk users (4) abusers. When tracked
into adulthood, at age 26 the "experimenters" group
were more likely to have a high school diploma and higher
education, regular involvement in long-term intimate relationships,
and better work ethic, when compared to the other groups.
Englund, M. et al. (2012). "The Developmental Significance
of Late Adolescent Substance Use for Early Adult Functioning."
Developmental Psychology, Oct 1 issue, preview, nps.
2 October:
Over the long term, children who do not get adequate sleep
tend to have higher rates of depression, anxiety and emotional
adjustment problems. Researchers tracked children through
upper elementary grades and found the relationship more pronounced
in girls, African American children and children from lower
SES homes. El-Sheikh, M. et al (2012). "Children's Sleep
and Adjustment: A Residualized Change Analysis." Developmental
Psychology, Oct 1 issue. Preview, nps.
4 September:
Who is most likely to be retained in kindergarten? Boys,
native English speakers, and children who attended daycare
at age 4 rather than public pre-K programs. Winsler, A. et
al. (2012, Sep). "Child, family, and childcare predictors
of delayed school entry and kindergarten retention among linguistically
and ethnically diverse children." Developmental Psychology,
Vol 48(5), 1299-1314.
2 September
2012: Chronic stress has now been shown to change the
chemical and physical struction of the prefrontal cortex and
affects both working memory and impulse control. Mika, A.
et al. (2012, Aug 20). "Chronic Stress Impairs Prefrontal
Cortex-Dependent Response Inhibition and Spatial Working Memory."Bhavioral
Neuroscience, preview, nps.
29
August 2012: Obviously mind wandering affects reading
comprehension. Researchers have studied influences on this
relationship. Individual differences in mind wandering can
be attributed to working memory capacity, interest in the
topic, motivation to do well on the task and experince with
the topic. Unsworth, N. & McMillan, B. (2012), "Mind
Wandering and Reading Comprehension: Examining the Roles of
Working Memory Capacity, Interest, Motivation, and Topic Experience,"
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.
Aug 20, preview, nps.
27
August 2012: Children who have been through trauma have
more trouble negotiating relationships in classrooms and within
their peer groups. Trauma in childhood leads to more severe
interpersonal struggles as adults. Moreso than people traumatized
as adults. Marylene Cloitre, PhD, National Center for PTSD,
Menlo Park, CA. "Trauma Recovery: The Art and Science
of Treating the Whole Person". Invited Address, Aug 4,
2012. APA National Conference, Orlando, FL.
2 August
2012: People with PTSD have problems with learning in
addition to problems with anxiety. New research shows that
individuals with PTSD also have hippocampus dysfunction, including
decreased volume and problems in the medial temporal lobe
associated with learning impairment. Levy-Gigi, E. et al.
(2012). Individuals With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Show
a Selective Deficit in Generalization of Associative Learning.
Neuropsychology, Jul 30, preview, nps.
31July
2012: New longitudinal research tracked Non Suicidal Self
Injury reports(NSSI) in 9th graders to later actual suicidal
attempts in later adolescence. Results show that NSSI, in
addition to factors such as depressionn can help predict suicide
risk for adolescents. Guan, K. et al (2012). "Nonsuicidal
Self-Injury as a Time-Invariant Predictor of Adolescent Suicide
Ideation and Attempts in a Diverse Community Sample,",
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Jul 30, preview
nps.
27
July 2012: While bilingual children tend to have lower
math scores when entering school, by 5th grade they are caught
up to their native English speaking peers. However due to
a variety of factors, non-English Dominant Bilingual students
and non English speaking students continue to score lower
on reading and math assessments. Wen-Jui, H. (2012). "Bilingualism
and Academic Achievement". Child Development, Vol 83(1),
300-321.
24
July 2012: Young adolescents who have trouble sustaining
attention are more likely to begin smoking at an early age.
However the researchers caution there are significant other
factors which influence adolesents to begin and continue smoking.
Harakeh,
Z. et al. (2012). "The Association Between Neurocognitive
Functioning and Smoking in Adolescence: The TRAILS Study."
Neuropsychology, Jul 9, preview, nps.
18
July 2012: How far you go in your schooling has been linked
to heridity to some extent. However, now researchers have
actually found the genes that correlate to educational attainment.
Variations in 3 dopaminergic genes, DAT1, DRD2, & DRD4,
have been found to be linked to dopamine levels associated
with the highest levels of education. Of course, so many other
factors play into a person's education achievement, but genetics
are a player. Beaver, K. et al (2012). "Dopaminergic
polymorphisms and educational achievement: Results from a
longitudinal sample of Americans". Developmental Psychology,
Vol 48(4), 932-938.
10
July 2012: Air pollution is not only bad for the body,
it is bad for the brain. Researchers at the Univ or Michigan
and the Ohio State University are conducting research which
now shows that exposure to smog damages children's cognitive
ability, changes the neuronal structure in the hippocampus,
increases brain declines due to age, and increases depression.
Weir, K. (2012). "Smog in our brsin." Monitor on Psychology,
Vol 43(7), pg 32 - 37.
6 July
2012:
More support for getting children up and moving in current
study out this month. Preadolescent children who engaged in
more sedentary behavior and had lower cardiorespiratory fitness,
scored lower on cognitive tests. They showed less cognitive
control, more errors of omission and lower response accuracy.
Chidren with higher aerobic fitness do better with cognitive
tasks. Pontifex, M. et al. (2012, July). "Fit and vigilant:
The relationship between poorer aerobic fitness and failures
in sustained attention during preadolescence." Neuropsychology,
Vol 26(4), 407-413.
4 July
2012:
The likelihood of a child becoming an entrereneur as an adult
is based on socioeconomic background and role model of parents.
For boys, having a self-employed father was biggest predictor.
For girls, it is SES background and resources. Most entrepreneurs
should good social skill development and intent by the age
of 16. Schoon, I. & Duckwork, K. (2012, July 2). "Who
Becomes and Entrepreneur? Early Life Experiences as Predictors
fo Entrepreneurship." Developmental Psychology, preview,
nps.
30
June 2012:
Playing board games, which involve linear numbers, in the
classroom can help preschool children with number ine estimation,
magnitude comparison and counting. Ramani, G.; Siegler, R,;
& Hitti, A. (2012, June 18) "Taking it to the Classroom:
Number Board Games as a Small group Learning Activity."
Journal of Educational Psychology, preview, nps.
31
May 2012:
While standardized tests may be somewhat valid instruments
for measuing IQ, they don't measure self-control. Self control
helps students study, complete homework and other learning
tasks and participate positively in the classroom - all equally
important to later success. Report card grades are better
at measuring self-control. Duckwork, A. et al. (2012). "What
No Child Left Behind leaves behind: The roles of IQ and self-control
in predicting standardized achievement test scores and report
card grades." Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol
104(2), 439-451
29
May 2012: New
longitudinal results out on English Language Learners (ELLs)
in the US as they progress through high school. Statistics
show that an amazing 60% of high school ELLs were born in
the United States - meaning they have spent at least 9 years
in the US without developing enough English language to function
academically in the school system. This would seem to imply
more emphasis is needed in our public schools for English
language development. On a good note, while foreign-born ELLs
begin high school functioning significantly lower in language
profieciency than their US-born ELL peers, by the end of high
school, they have caught up. Slama, R. (2012) "A longitudinal
analysis of academic English proficiency outcomes for adolescent
English language learners in the United States."
Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 104(2), 265-285
23
May 2012: Before
you or your school spends money on programs designed to improve
working memory (in both children with ADHD and just a general
improvement in typically developing children and adults),
you may want to look at a meta-analysis realized this month
which looked at the top 30 programs aimed at doing that. Researchers
found that any benefit is short-lived for the most part, with
little generalization. Some long term benefit remains for
visuospatial working memory but non for verbal working memory.Melby-Lervåg,
M. & Hulme, C. (2012). "Is Working Memory Training
Effective? A Meta-Analytic Review." Developmental Psychology,
May 21 issue, preview, nps.
20
May 2012: The
post-high school picture is a bleak one for young adults with
Autism. More than 1/2 of young adults with autism, tracked
2 years after high school had no paid job experience, nor
post high school education. The statistics shed light on the
need for public schools to focus more attention on helping
young people assimilate into being community participants
after graduation. Shattuck, P. et al. (2012) "Postsecondary
Education and Employment Among Youth With an Autism Spectrum
Disorder" Pediatrics May 14th preview, nps.
18
May 2012: Sexual
harrassment in early adolescense can lead to eating disorders
during teenage years. Researchers tracked 5th grade students
through 9th grade and found that those who experienced sexual
harrassment, tended to try to modify their own body image
and were more likely to have eating disorders by 9th grade.
Girls were more suseptable than boys. Petersen, J. (2012,
Apr 30). "Peer Sexual Harassment and Disordered Eating
in Early Adolescence." Developmental Psychology, preview,
nps.
11
May 2012: A
mind shift is taking place which views autism not as a deficit,
needing a cure, but simply a different, but valid pathway
within human diversity. This "neurodiversity movement"
challenges our traditional medical model which sees autism
as a separate entity from the person and something needing
a cure Kapp, S. et al. (2012, Apr 30). "Deficit, Difference,
or Both? Autism and Neurodiversity." Developmental Psychology,
preview, nps.
4 May
2012: Substance use increases in African American teens
as a result of feelings of racial discrimination. However,
the effect is only seen in youth who endorse substance use
as a coping mechanism. Gerrard, M. (2012, April 30). "Coping
With Racial Discrimination: The Role of Substance Use."
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, preview, nps.
2 May
2012: Diets high is saturated fats are not only bad for
your physical health, they cause impairment of cognitive function
and now researchers also link it to learning and relearning
of tasks. Asem, J. et al. (2012). "The Effect of High-Fat
Diet on Extinction and Renewal." Behavioral Neuroscience,
(Apr 30), preview nps.
1 May
2012: The positive feedback bias refers to previous studies
showing that white teachers give more positive feeback to
minority students. New research indicates this may be tempered
by stronger support systems from colleagues and administration.
In the new study, white teachers were less prone to the positive
feedback bias in high-support schools. The support system
though tempered the effect only on the feedback given to Black
students. White teachers show the bias toward Hispanic students,
regardless of school support network.
Harber, K. et al. (2012). "Students'
Race and Teachers' Social Support Affect the Positive Feedback
Bias in Public Schools." Journal of Educational Psychology,
Apr 30., preview, nps.
20
April 2012: Preschool / elementary students who come
from harsh home environments with punitive discipline practices,
and/or exposure to violence show declines in academic performance
and function. This decline is greatly exacerbated if the students
also experience victimization. Schwartz, D. et al. (2012,
Apr 16). The Link Between Harsh Home Environments and Negative
Academic Trajectories Is Exacerbated by "Victimization
in the Elementary School Peer Group." Developmental Psychology,
preview, nps.
14
April 2012: Adding traditional paper-based study aids
(especially those prompting key ideas) does increase learning
via computer and game-based applications. Providing a list
of main ideas to look for seemed to benefit all learners,
whereas have a paper the students had to fill out as they
went along only favored some learners. Fiorella, L. &
Mayer, R. (2012, Apr 9). "Paper-Based Aids for Learning
With a Computer-Based Game." Journal of Educational Psychology,
preview, nps.
10
April 2012: Adolescents who use fitness supplements are
at greater risk of later using illicit perfomance enhancing
substances such as anabolic-androgenic steroids. Other risk
indicators include body image disturbance, compulsive exercise,
and perfectionism.Hildebrandt, T, Harty, S.; Langenbucher,
J. (2012, Apr 9). "Fitness Supplements as a Gateway Substance
for Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Use". Psychology of Addictive
Behaviors, preview, nps.
6 April
2012: Pre-adolescent girls with ADHD were measured for
Executive Function (planning, organization, attention, working
memory, etc) and then tracked for 10 years into adulthood.
Regardless of whether or not the ADHD symptoms continued,
the girls continued to show problems with Exectuve Function
into adulthood compared to the control group of girls without
ADHD. Miller, M.; Ho, J.; Hinshaw S. (2012, April 2) "Executive
Functions in Girls With ADHD Followed Prospectively Into Young
Adulthood." Neuropsychology, preview nps.
28
Mar 2012: There is a reciprocal relationship between
math interest and math ability that begins before school even
starts. Researchers have found that preschooler's interest
in math predict their math performance later and preschoolers
math skills also predict interest in math later. Fisher, P.
et al. (2012, March 26). "Early Math Interest and the
Development of Math Skills.". Journal of Educational
Psychology, preview, nps.
25
Mar 2012: Research on rats shows that stress during adolescence
causes an increase in depression and anxiety in adulthood.
New research shows that WHERE in adolescence the stress occurs
has an effect too. Stress in early adolescence causes an increase
in both depression and anxiety problems in adulthood, whereas
stress in mid-adolescence did not cause an increase in axiety
related issues but did tend to increase risk-taking behavior.
Wilkin, M., et al. (2012, April). "Intermittent physical
stress during early- and mid-adolescence differentially alters
rats' anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in adulthood."
Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol 126(2), 344-360.
23
Mar 2012: Researchers used a large pool of elementary
children from diverse ethnic backgrounds who were below average
in both literacy and math at the end of first grade. Half
the students were retained a year and half were promoted onto
the next grade. They then tracked the students through elementary
grades using the Woodcock Johnson test annually. The retained
students received a one year boost in achievement early on,
however that boost had completely disappeared by the end of
the elementary grades. Moser, S.;West, S.;Hughes, J. (2012).
" Trajectories of Math and Reading Achievement in Low-Achieving
Children in Elementary School: Effects of Early and Later
Retention in Grade. Journal of Educational Psychology, Mar
19 preview, nps. .
21
Mar 2012: If you work with traditionally gifted, or high
achieving students, you may be aware of the "Big Fish
Little Pond" effect which suggests students may suffer
a decline in their academic self concept if put in groups
with higher achieving students. New reserach indicates that
may not be the case - often times it just depends on the educational
environment. When high achieving students were pulled out
to attend supplemental summer programs, not only did their
self concept not deminsh, many of them had a higher academic
self concept upon completion. Makel, M. et al (2012). "Changing
the Pond, Not the Fish: Following High-Ability Students Across
Different Educational Environments." Journal of Educational
Psychology, Mar 19 preview, nps.
19
Mar 2012: People of all ages who suffer from social anxiety
are much more likely to use marijuana to cope in social situations.
In fact, they are more likely to avoid any social situation
if marijuana is unavailable. Heimberg, J. et al. (2012). "Marijuana-related
problems and social anxiety: The role of marijuana behaviors
in social situations".Psychology of Addictive Behaviors,
Vol 26(1), 151-156 .
12
Mar 2012: Are you an "owl" or a "lark"?
It may make a difference in your mood and health. While most
adolescents are "owls" the fewer "larks"
or morning-type adolescents have more positive overall affect
and better subjective health. The greater the "morningness"
of an inidividual, the greater the positive affect. This may
be the reason older people in general report being happier.
Biss, R. & Hasher, L. (2012, Feb 6). "Happy as a
lark: Morning-type younger and older adults are higher in
positive affect." Emotion, preview nps.
