RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Self-control supports many positive life outcomes. However, the processes underlying the development of self-control are not well understood. Drawing on the TESSERA model of personality development, we examined whether weekly schoolwork effort predicts self-control (in the subsequent week). We also examined the role of schoolwork emotions and whether these emotions moderated the impact of schoolwork effort on self-control based on predictions from the TESSERA model. METHODS: Data are from a weekly diary study (N = 98) that measured children's schoolwork effort, schoolwork emotions, and self-control during five consecutive weeks. Data were analyzed at the between- and within-person levels using multilevel models. RESULTS: Between-person results show that schoolwork effort is related to variations in children's self-control. Furthermore, some emotions moderated the influence of schoolwork effort on self-control at the between- and within-person levels. CONCLUSION: In line with the TESSERA model of personality development, positive state expressions of effort during schoolwork (e.g., putting in effort) predicted higher self-control in the subsequent week. However, this finding was dependent on the reactions and reinforcement children felt about their effort (e.g., emotional responses to their remote schoolwork). The discussion examines how these findings extend to previous literature.
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Emociones , Autocontrol , Niño , Humanos , Emociones/fisiología , Desarrollo de la PersonalidadRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Parental support plays an important role in children's schoolwork motivation and may have been even more important during the first UK COVID-19 pandemic lockdown because all schoolwork was completed at home. When examining the effect of parental support on children's schoolwork motivation, research has typically focused on comparing families with each other (i.e., difference between families). In reality, however, the effect unfolds as a transactional, bidirectional process between parents and children over time (i.e., a within family process). This research trend can result in imprecise conclusions about the association between parental support and schoolwork motivation. OBJECTIVES: We examined bidirectional effects of parental schoolwork support and children's schoolwork motivation at both the between-family and within-family level. METHODS: This study reports findings from a weekly-diary study conducted during the first UK COVID-19 school lockdown. Cross-lagged within and between multilevel modelling was used to analyse data from UK secondary school students (N = 98) in Years 7-9. RESULTS: Between-family results show no evidence of association between motivation and parental support. Within-family results indicate that higher motivation (assessed as higher expectations of success) predicted more support from parents. However, in contrast with predictions, weekly levels of parental support did not predict children's weekly fluctuations in motivation. CONCLUSIONS: Within-family results were not consistent with between-family results. This study is novel in showing that child-driven effects appear to be important in eliciting parental support within families over time.
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COVID-19 , Motivación , Humanos , Pandemias , Control de Enfermedades Transmisibles , Estudiantes , PadresRESUMEN
Environmental noise is one of the main sources of pollution in today's modern world. Health effects associated with noise depend on both environmental exposure and individuals' noise sensitivity. However, still little is known as to why some children are more noise sensitive than others. Studies to date have focused on adult populations and have not considered both cognitive and personality factors when explaining noise sensitivity. The current research investigates individual differences in noise sensitivity among elementary school children, with the aim of shedding light on its underlying mechanisms. Study 1 (n = 112) validated a novel questionnaire assessing children's reactions to classroom noise against two measures of noise sensitivity that are commonly used in adult populations. Study 2 (n = 237) investigated how children's reactions to classroom noise covaried with their effortful control and prosocial skills, both measured through a teacher report. Prosocial skills were not related to children's reactions to noise. However, children with lower effortful control skills reported more negative reactions to classroom noise. Given the importance of effortful control skills to succeed at school, children at risk of school difficulty might also be the ones who are particularly vulnerable to noise.
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Ruido , Instituciones Académicas , Adulto , Niño , Humanos , Ruido/efectos adversos , Encuestas y CuestionariosRESUMEN
Emerging evidence suggests interventions can improve childhood self-regulation. One intervention approach that has shown promise is Taekwondo martial arts instruction, though little is known about its acceptability among stakeholders or its mechanisms of effect. We extend evidence on Taekwondo interventions in three ways: (a) testing the efficacy of a standard introductory course of Taekwondo, (b) assessing the acceptability of Taekwondo instruction among school children, and (c) investigating two self-regulatory mechanisms by which Taekwondo may operate (executive functions and motivation). This article reports findings from a randomized control trial implementing a standard 11-week beginners' course of Taekwondo. Participants were from a mixed-sex, nonselective U.K. primary school (N = 240, age range 7 to 11 years). Measures of self-regulation included teacher-rated effortful control, impulsivity, prosocial behavior, and conduct problems; computer-based assessments of executive functions; and child self-reported expectancies and values to use self-regulation. Postintervention, children in the Taekwondo condition were rated by teachers as having fewer symptoms of conduct problems and better effortful control (specifically attentional control), and they also had better executive attention assessed by a flanker task. Effects were not found for teacher-rated inhibitory control, activation control, impulsivity, and prosocial behavior or for assessments of response inhibition, verbal working memory, and switching. Taekwondo was rated very positively by children. Finally, there was evidence that children who completed Taekwondo classes reported higher expectancies and values to use self-regulation and that expectancies and values mediated intervention effects on self-regulation. We conclude that short standard Taekwondo courses are well received by pupils, improve attentional self-regulation, and reduce symptoms of conduct problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Artes Marciales , Autocontrol , Niño , Función Ejecutiva/fisiología , HumanosRESUMEN
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with friendship difficulties. This may partly account for the increasingly recognised association between ADHD and subsequent depression. Little is known about the types of friendship difficulties that could contribute to the association between ADHD and depressive symptoms and whether other relationships, such as parent-child relationships, can mitigate against potential adverse effects of friendship difficulties. In a representative UK school sample (n = 1712), three main features of friendship (presence of friends, friendship quality and characteristics of the individual's classroom friendship group) were assessed in a longitudinal study with two assessment waves (W1, W2) during the first year of secondary school (children aged 11-12 years). These friendship features (W1) were investigated as potential mediators of the prospective association between teacher-rated ADHD symptoms (W1) and self-rated depressive symptoms (W2) seven months later. Parent-child relationship quality (W1) was tested as a moderator of any indirect effects of ADHD on depression via friendship. ADHD symptoms were inversely associated with friendship presence, friendship quality and positive characteristics of classroom friendship groups. Depressive symptoms were inversely associated with presence and quality of friendships. Friendship quality had indirect effects in the association between ADHD and subsequent depressive symptoms. There was some evidence of moderated mediation, whereby indirect effects via friendship quality attenuated slightly as children reported warmer parent-child relationships. This highlights the importance of considering the quality of friendships and parent-child relationships in children with ADHD symptoms. Fostering good quality relationships may help disrupt the link between ADHD symptomology and subsequent depression risk.
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Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad , Amigos , Depresión , Humanos , Relaciones Interpersonales , Estudios Longitudinales , Relaciones Padres-HijoRESUMEN
The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictions imposed by governments worldwide have had profound social and psychological effects, particularly for young adults. This study used longitudinal data to characterise effects on mental health and behaviour in a UK student sample, measuring sleep quality and diurnal preference, depression and anxiety symptoms, wellbeing and loneliness, and alcohol use. Self-report data was collected from 254 undergraduates (219 females) at a UK university at two-time points: autumn 2019 (baseline, pre-pandemic) and April/May 2020 (under 'lockdown' conditions). Longitudinal analyses showed a significant rise in depression symptoms and a reduction in wellbeing at lockdown. Over a third of the sample could be classed as clinically depressed at lockdown compared to 15% at baseline. Sleep quality was not affected across the sample as a whole. The increase in depression symptoms was highly correlated with worsened sleep quality. A reduction in alcohol use, and a significant shift towards an 'evening' diurnal preference, were also observed. Levels of worry surrounding contracting COVID-19 were high. Results highlight the urgent need for strategies to support young people's mental health: alleviating worries around contracting COVID, and supporting good sleep quality, could benefit young adults' mental health as the COVID-19 crisis unfolds.
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Consumo de Bebidas Alcohólicas , Ansiedad , COVID-19 , Control de Enfermedades Transmisibles , Depresión , Soledad , Trastornos del Sueño-Vigilia , Estudiantes , Adolescente , Adulto , Consumo de Bebidas Alcohólicas/epidemiología , Ansiedad/epidemiología , Ansiedad/etiología , Depresión/epidemiología , Depresión/etiología , Femenino , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Trastornos del Sueño-Vigilia/epidemiología , Trastornos del Sueño-Vigilia/etiología , Estudiantes/psicología , Estudiantes/estadística & datos numéricos , Reino Unido/epidemiología , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: This study extends existing research on the role of infant temperament as a moderator of the association between the quality of parent-child relationships and children's self-control during the pre-school years. In particular, we focus on the potential moderating role of a dimension of early infant temperament known as behavioral inhibition. Assumptions formulated within the diathesis-stress, the vantage-sensitivity, and the differential susceptibility models of individual differences in environmental sensitivity are tested. METHOD: Data are from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 18,552 infants born in the United Kingdom during 2000/01. RESULTS: The results show that the quality of both mother-child and father-child relationships are associated with children's development of self-control in early childhood. Additionally, individual differences in infant temperament moderate the association between mother-child conflict and children's development of self-control. Specifically, high behavioral inhibition shows a vantage-sensitivity pattern for mother-child conflict. CONCLUSIONS: Aspects of both mothers' and fathers' relationships with their young children independently predict variations in self-control. This study also provides an initial indication that behavioral inhibition, a temperamental trait best-known for being a risk factor for anxiety, may provide small benefits in relation to young children's self-control development.
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Responsabilidad Parental , Autocontrol , Preescolar , Estudios de Cohortes , Relaciones Padre-Hijo , Femenino , Humanos , IndividualidadRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Friendships have been linked to mental health and school attainment in children. The effects of friendlessness and friendship quality have been well researched, but less is known about the role of friendship stability (i.e., maintaining the same friend over time), an aspect of friendship which is often interrupted by the transition between phases of schooling. Many children report concerns about the secondary school transition which introduces a number of new social and academic challenges for children. AIMS: To explore rates of friendship stability and whether maintaining a stable best friend across the primary to secondary school transition provided benefits to children's adjustment during this period. SAMPLE: Data were from 593 children (M age = 11 years 2 months). METHODS: This study used longitudinal data from children transitioning into 10 UK secondary schools and explored the association between self-reported friendship stability and three outcomes: academic attainment, emotional problems and conduct problems. Analyses controlled for friendship quality and pre-transition psychological adjustment or attainment as appropriate. RESULTS: Rates of friendship stability were relatively low during this period. Children who kept the same best friend had higher academic attainment and lower levels of conduct problems. Exploratory analyses indicated that secondary school policies that group children based on friendships may support friendship stability. CONCLUSIONS: Helping maintain children's best friendships during the transition to secondary school may contribute to higher academic performance and better mental health.
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Éxito Académico , Conducta Infantil/psicología , Amigos/psicología , Problema de Conducta/psicología , Estudiantes/psicología , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Instituciones AcadémicasRESUMEN
Maternal depression is associated with reduced academic attainment in children, however, it is not clear how this association comes about. Depressive symptoms are associated with impairment in social roles including parenting. Children's self-control is an important contributor to academic attainment and is influenced by parenting. We therefore hypothesised that impaired parenting and children's self-control may mediate links between maternal depression and children's academic attainment. Data were from a brief longitudinal study (3 waves) of UK children aged 11-12 years and their mothers. Higher maternal depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with lower academic attainment in children assessed one year later. There was evidence to support an indirect effect of maternal depressive symptoms on children's academic attainment through the mother-child and the father-child relationship which, in turn, reduced children's self-control. These influences were independent of socio-economic deprivation. A direct effect of maternal depression on children's academic attainment was also observed.
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Éxito Académico , Depresión/complicaciones , Relaciones Madre-Hijo/psicología , Madres/psicología , Responsabilidad Parental/psicología , Autocontrol/psicología , Adulto , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Conducta Materna/psicología , Reino UnidoRESUMEN
Internal locus of control is associated with academic success and indicators of wellbeing in youth. There is however less understanding regarding the role of locus of control in shaping the transition from school to work beyond the more widely studied predictors of socioeconomic background and academic attainment. Guided by a socio-ecological model of agency, the current study examines to which extent internal locus of control, understood as an indicator of individual agency, can compensate for a lack of socioeconomic resources by moderating the association between parental disadvantage and difficulties in the transition from school to work. We draw on data collected from a longitudinal nationally representative cohort of 15,770 English youth (48% female) born in 1989/90, following their lives from age 14 to 20. The results suggest that the influence of agency is limited to situations where socioeconomic risk is not overpowering. While internal locus of control may help to compensate for background disadvantage regarding avoidance of economic inactivity and unemployment to some extent, it does not provide protection against long-term inactivity, i.e. more than 6 months spent not in education, employment or training.
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Conducta del Adolescente/psicología , Empleo/psicología , Control Interno-Externo , Adolescente , Escolaridad , Empleo/estadística & datos numéricos , Femenino , Humanos , Acontecimientos que Cambian la Vida , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Padres , Grupo Paritario , Psicología del Adolescente , Instituciones Académicas , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have shown that individual differences in self-control emerge early in childhood and predict a range of important outcomes throughout childhood and adulthood. There is, however, less knowledge about the social origins of self-control, including the mechanisms by which early socioeconomic adversity may lead to lower levels of self-control. This study aimed to extend understanding of the link between socioeconomic adversity and self-control by (a) testing which individual aspects of socioeconomic risk uniquely predict lower self-control; (b) testing whether objective socioeconomic risk operates independently of, or via, subjective parental stress; and (c) examining the interplay of socioeconomic risk factors and individual differences in children's temperament as predictors of early self-control. METHOD: Data were from a UK population birth cohort of 18,552 children born in 2000 and 2001. RESULTS: Multiple individual socioeconomic risk factors have independent associations with children's self-control, including low parental education, income, and occupational class; insecure housing tenure; and younger parenthood. Results point to independent additive effects of exposure to objective and subjective risk. There was evidence of mothers' subjective stress partially mediating objective socioeconomic risks but only weak evidence of hypothesized interaction effects between temperament and socioeconomic risk. CONCLUSIONS: Results were consistent with additive risk and bioecological perspectives.
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Conducta Infantil , Edad Materna , Madres/psicología , Autocontrol , Factores Socioeconómicos , Estrés Psicológico , Temperamento , Preescolar , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Factores de Riesgo , Estrés Psicológico/epidemiología , Reino UnidoRESUMEN
Higher self-control in children and adolescents is associated with a range of positive outcomes in adulthood. However, little is known about the naturalistic development of self-control during early adolescence and the factors that affect this. We examined the role of puberty and parenting style as theoretically important influences on stability and change in self-control. A longitudinal (3 waves), multiple-informant dataset of children entering early adolescence (M = 11 years) was used to explore longitudinal change in self-control using latent growth curve modelling. Children's self-control declined during the one-year study period and declines were associated with children's behavioural and social functioning. Associations with self-control were found for pubertal status and parental warmth and hostility, but not for parental discipline. The findings suggest that during early adolescence, when children make the transition to secondary school, self-control declines. This is particularly the case for those experiencing puberty earlier than their peers. Parent warmth influences the trajectory of self-control during this period.
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Relaciones Padres-Hijo , Responsabilidad Parental/psicología , Pubertad/psicología , Instituciones Académicas , Autocontrol/psicología , Adolescente , Conducta del Adolescente , Niño , Escolaridad , Femenino , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , MasculinoRESUMEN
Stress has been shown to have a causal effect on risk for depression. We investigated the role of cognitive ability as a moderator of the effect of stressful life events on depressive symptoms and whether this varied by gender. Data were analyzed in two adolescent data sets: one representative community sample aged 11-12 years (n = 460) and one at increased familial risk of depression aged 9-17 years (n = 335). In both data sets, a three-way interaction was found whereby for girls, but not boys, higher cognitive ability buffered the association between stress and greater depressive symptoms. The interaction was replicated when the outcome was a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. This buffering effect in girls was not attributable to coping efficacy. However, a small proportion of the variance was accounted for by sensitivity to environmental stressors. Results suggest that this moderating effect of cognitive ability in girls is largely attributable to greater available resources for cognitive operations that offer protection against stress-induced reductions in cognitive processing and cognitive control which in turn reduces the likelihood of depressive symptomatology.
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Aptitud , Cognición , Depresión/psicología , Trastorno Depresivo Mayor/psicología , Estrés Psicológico/psicología , Adaptación Psicológica , Adolescente , Niño , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Factores SexualesRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Very little is known about the extent to which eleven-year olds might consider a career in medicine. This exploratory study therefore asked children and their parents about medicine as a possible career, looking also at the relationship to a range of background measures. METHODS: A longitudinal, three-wave, questionnaire study of students transferring from primary to secondary school (STARS), with data collection at primary school (wave 1; mean age 11.3 yrs), in the first months of secondary school (wave 2; mean age 11.7 yrs) and at the end of the first year of secondary school (wave 3; mean age 12.3 yrs). Parents/carers also completed questionnaires. Children were entering ten large comprehensive secondary schools in the south-east of England; 46.3 % were female, 15.6 % receiving free-school meals, 39.8 % were Black or Minority Ethnic and 28.8 % had a first language which was not English. Of 2287 children in the study, 1936 children (84.5 %) completed at least one questionnaire of the three waves (waves 1, 2 and 3). The main outcome measures were an open-ended question in each wave, "What job would you like to do when you grow up?", and a more detailed questionnaire in wave 3 asking about 33 different jobs. RESULTS: 9.9 % of children spontaneously mentioned medicine as a career on at least one occasion. For the specific jobs, would-be doctors particularly preferred Hospital Medicine, followed by Surgery, General Practice and then Psychiatry. Would-be doctors were also more interested in careers such as Nurse, Archaeologist, Lawyer and Teacher, and less interested in careers such as Shopkeeper, Sportsperson, or Actor/dancer/singer/musician. Would-be doctors were less Neurotic, more Open to Experience, more Conscientious, and preferred higher prestige occupations. Those interested in medicine did not score more highly on Key Stage 2 attainment tests or Cognitive Abilities Test, did not have a higher family income or greater parental/carer education, and did not have more experience of illness or deaths among family and friends. CONCLUSIONS: An interest in a medical career, unlike high prestige jobs in general, is not associated with higher educational attainment or cognitive ability, and it is likely that only one in ten of the children interested in medical careers will have sufficient educational attainment at GCSE or A-level to be able to enter medical school.
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Selección de Profesión , Conducta Exploratoria , Medicina , Ocupaciones , Niño , Inglaterra , Femenino , Humanos , Renta , Masculino , Médicos , Encuestas y CuestionariosRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: We assessed changes in Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores over time. We investigated the impact of life events and changes in mental health status on AUDIT scores over time in UK military personnel. METHODS: A random representative sample of regular UK military personnel who had been serving in 2003 were surveyed in 2004-2006 (phase 1) and again in 2007-2009 (phase 2). The impact of changes in symptoms of psychological distress, probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), marital status, serving status, rank, deployment to Iraq/Afghanistan and smoking was assessed between phases. RESULTS: We found a statistically significant but small decrease in AUDIT scores between phases 1 and 2 (mean change=-1.01, 95% confidence interval=-1.14, -0.88). Participants reported a decrease in AUDIT scores if they experienced remission in psychological distress (adjusted mean -2.21, 95% CI -2.58, -1.84) and probable PTSD (adjusted mean -3.59, 95% CI -4.41, -2.78), if they stopped smoking (adjusted mean -1.41, 95% CI -1.83, -0.98) and were in a new relationship (adjusted mean -2.77, 95% CI -3.15, -2.38). On the other hand, reporting new onset or persistent symptoms of probable PTSD (adjusted mean 1.34, 95% CI 0.71, 1.98) or a relationship breakdown (adjusted mean 0.53, 95% CI 0.07, 0.99) at phase 2 were associated with an increase in AUDIT scores. CONCLUSIONS: The overall level of hazardous alcohol consumption remains high in the UK military. Changes in AUDIT scores were linked to mental health and life events but not with deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.
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Alcoholismo/epidemiología , Personal Militar/estadística & datos numéricos , Adulto , Campaña Afgana 2001- , Estudios de Cohortes , Femenino , Humanos , Guerra de Irak 2003-2011 , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Salud Mental , Persona de Mediana Edad , Fumar/efectos adversos , Fumar/psicología , Factores Socioeconómicos , Trastornos por Estrés Postraumático/complicaciones , Trastornos por Estrés Postraumático/psicología , Encuestas y Cuestionarios , Reino Unido/epidemiología , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Adolescence is associated with developments in the reward system and increased rates of emotional disorders. Familial risk for depression may be associated with disruptions in the reward system. However, it is unclear how symptoms of depression and anxiety influence the development of reward-processing over adolescence and whether variation in the severity of parental depression is associated with hyposensitivity to reward in a high-risk sample. METHODS: We focused on risk-adjustment (adjusting decisions about reward according to the probability of obtaining reward) as this was hypothesized to improve over adolescence. In a one-year longitudinal sample (N = 197) of adolescent offspring of depressed parents, we examined how symptoms of depression and anxiety (generalized anxiety and social anxiety) influenced the development of risk-adjustment. We also examined how parental depression severity influenced adolescent risk-adjustment. RESULTS: Risk-adjustment improved over the course of the study indicating improved adjustment of reward-seeking to shifting contingencies. Depressive symptoms were associated with decreases in risk-adjustment over time while social anxiety symptoms were associated with increases in risk-adjustment over time. Specifically, depression was associated with reductions in reward-seeking at favourable reward probabilities only, whereas social anxiety (but not generalized anxiety) led to reductions in reward-seeking at low reward probabilities only. Parent depression severity was associated with lowered risk-adjustment in offspring and also influenced the longitudinal relationship between risk-adjustment and offspring depression. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety and depression distinctly alter the pattern of longitudinal change in reward-processing. Severity of parent depression was associated with alterations in adolescent offspring reward-processing in a high-risk sample.