Entry into school represents as much a challenge for children as it does for their parents. The authors examined the ways in which transition practices help children and their families feel prepared for school entry, as measured by the child's emotional adaptation during the first days in class and the family's sense of being prepared for this…

The traditional discourse in the scholarship on cultural capital theory has focused on how exclusive participation in elite status culture by students from higher socioeconomic status families benefits their learning in schools, the effects of which are most evident in linguistic subject areas such as reading achievement. However, some scholars…

Couples affect each other cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally. The goal of this study is to test the benefits and potential use of the actor-partner interdependence model in examining how parental self-efficacy and positive contributions of fathers and mothers of children with Autism Spectrum Condition influence each other's psychological…

Objectives: To examine the components affecting the quality of the implementation and their impact on the outcomes of the "Growing Up Happily in the Family" program targeted at parents with children aged 0-5. Method: At-risk and non-at-risk parents (N = 196) participated in 26 groups in local social services. Adherence, adaptations,…

We asked whether parental questionnaires on the heritage language proficiency of bilingual children might elucidate how proficient bilingual children are in their heritage language. We tested 20 UK-based Polish-English bilingual children between 4;5 and 5;9 years on Polish and English versions of the Cross-linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLTs). These…

Children develop linguistic competencies during interactions with more knowledgeable others. Consequently, one way to support this development is by enhancing the home literacy environment (HLE) in which children live. In this study a non-intensive intervention procedure was developed to improve HLE and linguistic competencies of 125 German…

Grouping similar students together within schools ("streaming") or classrooms ("tracking") based on past literacy skills (reported by parents), family socioeconomic status (SES) or reading attitudes might affect their reading achievement. Our multilevel analysis of the reading tests of 208,057 fourth-grade students across 40…

Although countries worldwide are emphasizing the importance of science education for technological development and global economic competition, comparative findings from standardized international student assessments reveal a huge gap in science scores between developed and developing countries. Certain developed economies too have made little…

Some people believe that making the morally right decision makes people feel good. However, until now, there has been no empirical evidence in support of this belief. In a representative two-wave longitudinal study of 995 15-year-old adolescents followed for 3 years (until the age of 18) in Switzerland, adolescents were asked about their decisions…

This study examines whether the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system influences targeted risk and protective factors and the subsequent development of problem behaviour among adolescents (12-18 years) in the Netherlands. In this quasi-experimental study of ten communities (five experimental, five control), adolescent outcomes were…

This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to examine the influence of a range of factors on the science performances of Hong Kong students in PISA 2006. Hong Kong has been consistently ranked highly in international science assessments, such as Programme for International Student Assessment and Trends in International Mathematics and Science…

Parents' involvement in their children's education is known to be an important predictor of a range of adaptive outcomes. For learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), lack of parental engagement and confidence has been highlighted as a problematic issue. Given this, the objectives of the current study were to: (i) determine…

Background: Chronotype refers to individuals' preference for morning or evening activities. Its two dimensions (morningness and eveningness) are related to a number of academic outcomes. Aims: The main goal of the study was to investigate the incremental validity of chronotype as a predictor of academic achievement after controlling for a number…