Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2024-04-23
Abstract： As a crucial component of cognitive function, mathematical ability plays an essential role in an individual’s future development. Previous studies have highlighted significant differences in this ability between children from high and low family socioeconomic backgrounds. Executive functioning are the most reliable factor in explaining this disparity. However, fundamental questions remain about the mediating role of executive functioning in this relationship: (1) The role of specific subcomponents of executive functioning in their relationship. (2) The differences in the impact of socioeconomic status on various mathematical abilities through these executive functioning subcomponents. (3) The variations in the role of executive functioning in the relationship between socioeconomic status and both current and future mathematical abilities. Accordingly, our study explored the impact of socioeconomic status on the second and third graders’ mathematical operations, logical reasoning, and spatial imagination abilities, as well as the mediation role of interference inhibition, response inhibition, and working memory. A total of 185 second-grade students were followed for 20 months in two assessments. At the beginning of second grade, children were assessed on their working memory through forward and backward digit span tasks; their interference inhibition was assessed with the Stroop task; and their response inhibition was assessed via the Go/No-go task. Children’s socioeconomic status was assessed using their parents’ educational levels, occupational status, and Family Affluence Scale. The Chinese Rating Scale of Pupil’s Mathematics Abilities, which included subtests for addition, subtraction, number sequence, length estimation, and cube counting, was utilized to assess the children’s mathematical calculation, logical thinking, and spatial imagination abilities. We explored the main effects of socioeconomic status on children’s current and future mathematical abilities using structural equation modeling and simultaneously developed multiple mediation models to investigate how executive functioning components mediate these relationships. The results indicated that the three types of mathematical abilities in second graders showed significant improvement over the 20-month period; socioeconomic status in the second grade directly predicted mathematical abilities at the same grade level; and socioeconomic status could indirectly predict mathematical calculation abilities in the second grade and logical thinking abilities in the third grade through the mediating role of working memory. It is concluded that the present study extends previous research that has explored the mediation role of executive functioning between socioeconomic status and mathematical ability, demonstrating that working memory is a crucial cognitive factor that contributes to the explanation of this mechanism. It provides a scientific basis for educational and research professionals to develop interventions aimed at enhancing the mathematical abilities of children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-11-15
Abstract： Learning engagement, an important indicator of the learning process, has garnered extensive attention. Developmental contextualism and the integrative model of engagement posit that the interaction between individuals and environmental factors results in heterogeneous learning engagement development among individuals. Previous studies have demonstrated learning engagement heterogeneity among primary school students. However, in the context of the “double reduction” policy, the dynamic development of children’s learning engagement remains unclear. Moreover, positive parenting style, teacher-student relationships, and peer relationships, as important environmental factors, may predict children’s learning engagement transitions. Thus, this study adopts a people-centered research method to address these issues from a longitudinal perspective.
This study recruited participants from three ordinary public primary schools in Shandong Province, China. Participants at T1 (June 2021, before the implementation of the “double reduction” policy) were 378 children (164 boys; mean age: 9.97 ± 0.91 years old). Participants at T2 (December 2021, six months after the implementation of the policy) were 357 primary school students (155 boys; mean age: 10.50 ± 0.94 years old). Participants at T3 (June 2022, a year after the implementation of the policy) were 347 primary school students (147 boys; mean age:10.97 ± 0.91 years old). Students completed the Children’s Learning Engagement Scale (at T1, T2, and T3), Short−form Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran (at T1 and T2), Student Teacher Relationship Scale (at T1 and T2) and Children’s Peer Relationship Scales (at T1 and T2) during the three measurements. Latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis were employed in this study to explore children’s potential learning engagement subtypes and examine transitions between different subtypes across the three waves. Multiple logistic regressions were also used to investigate the impact of various environmental factors (i.e., positive parenting style, student−teacher relationships, and peer relationships) on the latent transitions of different learning engagement subtypes.
All data were analyzed by SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.0. The results revealed four distinct subgroups of learning engagement among primary school students: the “Low Engaged”, “Moderately Engaged”, “High Absorption with Vigorous Disengagement”, and “Highly Engaged” groups. In addition, due to the “double reduction” policy, students in the “Moderately Engaged” and “Highly Engaged” groups displayed relative stability, while those in the “Highly Disengaged” group tended to transition toward the “Moderately Engaged” group. Regarding the “High Absorption with Vigorous Disengagement” group, the findings indicated a higher likelihood of transitioning to the “Moderately Engaged” group from T1 to T2; however, from T2 to T3, these students were more likely to remain in their original subgroup. Moreover, the study identified the varying roles of different environmental factors in children’s learning engagement subgroups. Specifically, under the “double reduction” policy, positive parenting style and teacher–student relationships exhibited robust effects on children’s learning engagement transitions. The predictive effects of teacher-student relationships varied across different learning engagement subtypes among primary school students. Additionally, the study found that peer relationships had a positive influence on the transition of children within the “Moderately Engaged” group following the implementation of the “double reduction” policy.
This study provides the first evidence of heterogeneity and dynamic changes in learning engagement among Chinese primary school students, which indicates that following the implementation of the “double reduction” policy, family–school–collaborative education has made initial progress. These findings not only enhance our understanding of the dynamic development of learning engagement among primary school students but also provide empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of the “double reduction” policy implementation.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-09-04
Abstract：依恋的可塑性是成人依恋领域研究的重要主题，而探究依恋的可塑性首先需要了解依恋安全感是如何获得的。依恋控制系统模型指出，个体可以通过内部表征的方式通达依恋安全感。现有研究中常常将安全基地脚本作为这种内部表征方式，但忽视了另一种内部表征形式，即依恋相关情景模拟。先前有几项研究提出并证实了依恋相关情景模拟这一新的依恋安全感通达路径，但尚未回答：这一新的通达路径与已有路径相比有何特异性？其作用机制是什么？以及如何基于此进行依恋安全干预？本课题将通过三项研究来对这些问题进行考察：研究一考察依恋相关情景模拟对依恋安全的影响及其特异性；研究二从依恋相关情景模拟的内容和加工过程的角度考察其对依恋安全感的影响机制；研究三采用自然语言处理技术开发依恋相关情景模拟分类方法，并将其用于依恋安全干预。本课题将补充依恋控制系统模型的内容，能够解释依恋系统的情境灵活性，并为理解依恋的可塑性及进行依恋安全的干预带来启发。
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-29
Abstract：
In China, left-behind children (LBC) refer to children (under the age of 16) who remain at rural regions while both of their parents migrate to urban area for work, or one of their parents migrates for work and the other has limited capacity to care for their children. Relative to non-left-behind children (NLBC), LBC are exposed to various risk factors related to family, such as lack of parental care and insufficient family support, which could increase their vulnerability to psychological and behavioral problems. Based on Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory and the cumulative risk (CR) model, this study used two-wave data (T1 and T2) and examined the association between cumulative risk related to family adversity (T1) and social adjustment outcomes (T1/T2), in which stress (T1/T2) is a mediator, and examined the moderating role of psychosocial resources (T1) in this association.
A two-wave longitudinal household surveys were conducted among six hundred fifty-one families of rural children. A total of 285 children whose both parents migrated for work throughout the study waves were categorized as the LBC group, while 366 children who reported living with their parents at least one of waves were categorized as the control group. All measures in the surveys showed good reliability, including family adversity, stress, psychosocial resources (i.e., psychological capital and social support) and social adjustment (i.e., subjective well-being, depression, positive behaviors and problem behaviors). Data analyses were performed using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 22.0.
Results showed that: (1) LBC’s T1 Cumulative risk related to family adversity was linearly associated with their T1/T2 social adjustment; (2) After controlling for gender and age, LBC’s T1 cumulative risk related to family adversity was negatively associated with T1 social adjustment (β=–0.42, p<0.001), and T1 stress mediated this association. The association between stress and social adjustment was moderated by psychosocial resources, with a higher level of psychosocial resources associated with a smaller mediating effect of stress. (3) After controlling for gender and age, T1 stress and T1 social adjustment, T1 cumulative risk related to family adversity were negatively associated with T2 social adjustment (β=–0.23, p<0.001), and T2 stress mediated this relationship. T1 psychosocial resources moderated the association of T1 cumulative risk related to family adversity on both T2 social adjustment and T2 stress. This showed that with the level of T1 psychosocial resources increasing, the main effect of T1 cumulative risk related to family adversity on T2 social adjustment and the mediation effect of T2 stress decreased and became statistically non-significant.
The findings of this study demonstrate the detrimental impact of cumulative risk related to family adversity on social adjustment among LBC, as well as the mediating role of stress and the moderating role of psychosocial resources. Overall, these findings suggest that family risk factors are proximal factors for LBC’s social maladjustment, and future intervention should attend to psychosocial resource promotion.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2022-12-18
Abstract： "Peer victimization (PV) is widespread among children and adolescents in China. Extant research indicated that children of adverse backgrounds, such as rural-to-urban migrant children and left-behind children, are more vulnerable to PV. Relatively few longitudinal studies, however, have examined how PV changes over time and whether children exposed to adversity are consistently victimized over time. Furthermore, PV can lead to serious psychological problems. Consistent with interpersonal risk and social information processing models, the deleterious effects of PV on externalizing problems and depressive symptoms are well-documented in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. However, previous studies mainly examined the separate effects of the initial level and change rates of PV on externalizing problems and depressive symptoms and ignored possible synergistic effects of the initial level and change rates of PV. Three competing models—the additive, stress-amplification, and stress-sensitization models—can explain how the synergistic effects of the initial level and change rates contribute to externalizing problems and depressive symptoms. Thus, the present study used a longitudinal design to explore changing trajectories of PV and investigated whether the PV trajectories differed across migrant status. This study further examined how the initial level and change rates of PV synergistically predicted externalizing problems and depressive symptoms among children and adolescents at two years later. This study employed a 4-wave longitudinal design spanning two years. Participants included 1,580 students from three provinces in China who were recruited through multiple schools including elementary (43.2%), middle (33.1%) and high (23.7%) schools. The mean age of participants at the baseline was 12.37 years (SD = 2.52, range = 9 to 19 years old; 54.9% boys).All measures in this study were based on participants’ self-report. At baseline, participants completed demographic information, including gender, grade, migrant status and subjective socioeconomic status. Multidimensional PV Scale was used to measure PV at waves 1 to 3. At baseline and wave 4, Child Behavior Checklist and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale were used to measure externalizing problems and depressive symptoms, respectively. All analyses were conducted using Mplus 8.0. The analyses were conducted in three steps. First, the unconditional latent growth model was used to estimate individual change in PV over time. Second, multi-group latent growth models were used to examine whether the initial level, change rates and the correlation between initial level and change rates of PV differed across migrant status. Finally, conditional latent growth models with latent variable interactions (between initial level and change rates) were used to examine how the initial level and change rates across wave 1 to wave 3 jointly predict externalizing problems and depressive symptoms at wave 4. First, unconditional latent growth modeling revealed a significant linear decline in PV over the three time points, and that individuals with higher initial levels of PV showed a faster decline; Second, multi-group latent growth model revealed significant differences in the trajectory of PV across migrant status. Specifically, compared to urban children, rural-to-urban migrant children, left-behind children and rural children had significantly higher initial levels of PV. Moreover, rural-to-urban migrant children and left-behind children exhibited a steep decline in PV; Third, conditional latent growth model with latent variable interactions showed that the interaction between the initial level and change rates of PV significantly predicted depressive symptoms and externalizing problems two years later, after controlling for demographics and depressive symptoms and externalizing problems at baseline. Supported by stress-sensitization model, individuals who were exposed to higher initial levels showed more depressive symptoms even when they exhibited a steeper decline in PV. But individuals exposed to lower initial levels would require more severe stress to trigger stronger stress reactivity (in our case, reflected as more depressive symptoms) at the slower rate of PV. Supported by stress-amplification model, individuals with higher initial levels of PV would have greater externalizing problems when experienced a slower change rate of PV. In contrast, individuals with lower initial levels would have fewer externalizing problems even when experienced a slower rate of PV. There are three major methodological and conceptual contribution of the present study: (1) we examined three key components— the initial level, change rates and the correlation between initial level and change rates of PV —to elaborate changing trends in PV over time and distinct victimization trajectories across children of different migrant status. These findings contribute to more comprehensive understanding of PV from developmental perspectives and precise detection and intervention aimed at supporting high-risk children and adolescents; (2) The analysis examining the interaction between initial level and change rates of PV adds novelty to extant literature and provides nuanced insights into synergistic effect that the initial level and change rates of PV affect problem behavior in an synergistic (rather than isolated) manner; (3) This study revealed that the initial level and change rates of PV play a unique role in depressive symptoms (risk sensitivity) and externalizing problems (risk enhancement). This highlights that the synergistic effect of initial level and change rates of PV may have significant implications for developmental science on adolescence health.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2022-11-10
Abstract：
Individuals form internal working models (IWMs) based on their early attachment experiences. IWMs consist of individuals’ views of themselves (i.e., IWM of the self) and others (i.e., IWM of others) within relationships. IWMs guide individuals’ interpretations and anticipations in interpersonal situations, which could influence their interactions with others and the quality of their relationships. As social networks shrink with age, older adults tend to focus more on relationships with close others. Due to the importance of marital relationships in late adulthood, the study examined whether and how older adults’ IWMs affect their marital satisfaction. In addition, the study also examined whether the differences in family roles between husbands and wives impact the relationship between IWMs and marital satisfaction.
The main purpose of this study is threefold: 1) To examine whether IWM of the self and IWM of others show different relationships with marital satisfaction; 2) To investigate whether the relationships between older adults’ IWMs and their marital satisfaction are mediated by marital attachment (i.e., the anxiety and the avoidance dimensions of marital attachment); 3) To explore the actor and the partner effects of IWMs on marital satisfaction by modeling couple data with the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). In order to gain a better understanding of whether traditional family roles have an impact on the relationship between IWMs and marital satisfaction, we also examined whether the effects mentioned above differed between husbands and wives.
A total of 112 older couples (mean age = 69.3, SD = 5.02) from communities in Beijing were recruited to participate in this study. Participants completed the demographic information questionnaire, the Elderly Marital Attachment Questionnaire, the Relationship Questionnaire, and the Marriage Satisfaction Questionnaire. SPSS23.0 and Dyad R were used to perform data analyses, including correlation analysis, mediation modeling, APIM, and analysis of variance (ANOVA).
The study yielded several major results. 1) Correlation analysis showed that husbands’ IWM of the self (but not IWM of others) was positively associated with marital satisfaction, while wives’ IWM of others (but not IWM of the self) was positively associated with marital satisfaction. 2) Mediation modeling showed that the association between husbands’ IWM of the self (but not IWM of others) and marital satisfaction was mediated by attachment anxiety and avoidance. In contrast, neither attachment anxiety nor attachment avoidance significantly mediated the relationships between wives’ IWMs and marital satisfaction. 3) APIM showed that husbands’ IWM of the self was positively associated with their own marital satisfaction, while wives’ IWM of others was positively associated with their own and spouses’ marital satisfaction. All other unidirectional paths in the APIM were non-significant. 4) ANOVA showed that husbands (but not wives) reported higher marital satisfaction when both husbands and wives had highly positive IWM of the self. In other words, husbands reported higher marital satisfaction when their own IWM of the self was positive and matched with their wives’ IWM of the self.
The study supports the importance of IWMs of attachment in older adults’ marital satisfaction. Our findings suggest that positive IWMs benefit marital satisfaction in general. The significant mediation effects of attachment anxiety/avoidance (particularly in the relationship between husbands’ IWM of the self and marital satisfaction) suggest that IWMs may influence marital satisfaction by affecting anxiety-/avoidance-related thoughts and behaviors during spousal interaction. The study also reveals intriguing differences between husbands and wives with regards to the IWMs – marital satisfaction relationship. Specifically, marital satisfaction seems to be more strongly associated with IWM of the self among husbands, but more strongly associated with IWM of others among wives. These differences may be related to the traditional patriarchal values of Chinese families.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2020-11-26
Abstract： From the perspective of life course, school transition is considered a key turning point in adolescent development and may alter individual developmental trajectories. Based on the deficit view, previous studies have suggested that most adolescents are at risk, beset by many challenges, and may experience a variety of negative developmental outcomes during that transition. Drawing on the positive youth development perspective, however, the transition period may be an important opportunity for adolescents to achieve adaptive and healthy development, and it is also the period in which developmental plasticity is most fully manifested. Along this line, if adolescents’ internal and external assets are well integrated, they may have a positive school transition." " "
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2020-02-28
Abstract： The control-system model of attachment is the most commonly used model to characterize the function of the adult attachment system. It posits that the way for individuals to attain security is to access information on the availability and responsiveness of the attachment figure. According to previous attachment theory, when the attachment figure is absent, the information related to their availability and responsiveness is acquired by accessing the secure base script. However, the function of episodic representation is overlooked during this process. Inspired by the research on episodic simulation and attachment theory, we hypothesized that episodic simulation is an effective episodic representation that could help individuals access information on their partner’s availability and responsiveness, and attain security in the attachment control system. This study investigated whether episodic simulation could promote the responsiveness of a partner and attachment security through an experiment. A total of 46 young adults currently involved in a romantic relationship for more than six months were recruited as participants. All of the tasks were arranged into two sessions. In session 1, the participants completed a scale related to attachment orientations, and then rated six scenarios related to distressful situations that frequently occurred in close relationships from four aspects, namely, distressful feeling, willingness to ask one’s partner for help, expected responsiveness of one’s partner, and state attachment security. Three days later, the participants were randomly arranged into an experimental group and a control group to complete the tasks of session 2. For each distressful situation, participants in the experimental group needed to simulate and write down how they asked their partner for help and how they would solve the distressing problem with the help of their partner. Participants in the control group needed to write down the possible outcomes when the situation happened in a regular couple. Subsequently, all participants rated the situation again from the four aspects in session 1. The results revealed no rating differences between the two groups in the pre-test. In the post-test, the experimental group had higher ratings in expected responsiveness of their partner and state attachment security compared with the control. When considering the changes from the pre-test to the post-test in each rating (calculated using the scores in the post-test minus that in the pre-test), we found the promotion in expected responsiveness of partners significantly correlated with the promotion in state attachment security. Moreover, the experimental group had higher promotions in their rating of expected responsiveness of their partner and state attachment security, as well as higher reduction in state attachment avoidance, compared with the control group. However, no group differences were observed in the rating changes related to distressful feeling, willingness to ask one’s partner for help, and state attachment anxiety. All of the results were the same after controlling for attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety, which are rooted in individuals’ stable attachment script. The results indicated that episodic simulation could function independently of the attachment script in the attachment control system. Episodic simulation could help individuals access information related to the responsiveness of their partner and attain security. This study provided a supplement for the attachment control-system model. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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