This study considered the quality and stability of infant and toddler nonparental child care from 6 to 36 months in relation to language, social, and academic skills measured proximally at 36 months and distally at kindergarten. "Quality" was measured separately as caregiver-child verbal interactions and caregiver sensitivity, and…

Social skills and academic competence are key factors influencing children's development and functioning across early childhood and through adolescence. There is a great need to understand the longitudinal patterns of growth in social and academic skills in order to further inform intervention, particularly for at-risk groups such as individuals…

The purpose of the study was to investigate if academic and social self-concept and motivation to improve in academic school subjects mediated the negative effect of summative assessment (grades) for low-ability students' achievement in compulsory school. In two previous studies, summative assessment (grading) was found to have a differentiating…

The formation of self-efficacy, according to Bandura's (1997) social-cognitive theory, is an important area of inquiry. This theoretical tenet posits the importance of enactive learning experience, followed by lesser influences of vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and emotional and physiological states. Quantitative research, predominantly,…

Research suggests that motivated students and those with high academic self-concepts perform better academically. Although substantial evidence supports a reciprocal relation between academic self-concept and achievement, there is less evidence supporting a similar relation between achievement goal orientations and achievement. There is also a…

Previous research has mainly focused on the persistent direct influence of early life contexts on young adult socioeconomic attainment, and less is known about intraindividual processes that are responsible for this persistent influence. The present study, using genetically informed longitudinal, prospective data from a nationally representative…

Longitudinal data are used to examine whether effects of early child care are amplified and/or attenuated by later parenting. Analyses tested these interactions using parenting as both a categorical and continuous variable to balance power and flexibility in testing moderation. The most consistent finding was that maternal sensitivity during…

(This study examines the directionality of the associations among cognitive assets (IQ, academic achievement), motivational beliefs (academic self-concept, task values), and educational and occupational aspirations over time from late adolescence (Grade 10) into early adulthood (5 years post high school). Participants were from a nationally…

This research examined whether the benefits of parents' involvement in children's learning are due in part to value development among children. Four times over the 7th and 8th grades, 825 American and Chinese children (M age = 12.73 years) reported on their parents' involvement in their learning and their perceptions of the value their parents…

This study focuses on processes involved in students' academic self-concept constructions before, during, and after secondary school transition. The study is based on a four-wave longitudinal dataset (N = 1953). Structural equation modeling showed that during school transition, the impact of grades on students' academic self-concepts in Math and…

In the present study, associations between executive functioning, metacognition, and self-perceived competence in the context of early academic outcomes were examined. A total of 209 children attending first grade were initially assessed in terms of their executive functioning and academic self-concept. One year later, children's executive…

The present study examined the structural relations of social influences, task values, ability beliefs, educational expectation and academic engagement for both boys and girls. The structural equation modelling analyses provided nationally representative evidence of gender differences in: (1) the links from teacher-student relationship and peer…

The present study explored whether competence beliefs and intrinsic motivation for different school domains show reciprocal effects over time. A sample of 670 German elementary school pupils (M= 8.8 years, SD= 0.51) was followed over 1 year. At 4 measurement occasions, children completed self-reports on their intrinsic motivation and competence…

While a great deal of research has examined students' critical thinking skills, less is known about students' tendencies to use these skills. Specifically, little is known about what factors contribute to students developing a disposition to think critically or what impact this disposition has on college students' academic achievement. Perceived…

The relations among maternal concern and restrictiveness, self-evaluated academic competence, and life satisfaction were explored in a short-term longitudinal study of 346 7th-grade students (126 males and 220 females) in Hong Kong. The authors found that perceived maternal concern, academic competence, and life satisfaction significantly declined…