Factors Predictive of Being Bullies or Victims of Bullies in US Elementary Schools.

We analyzed a population-representative cohort (N=13,611; Mage at kindergarten, first, and second grade = 67.5, 79.5, and 91.5 months, respectively) to identify kindergarten to second grade factors predictive of being bullies or victims during third to fifth grade. We did so by estimating a block recursive structural equation model (SEM) with three sets of predictors. These were: (a) individual and school socio-demographics; (b) family distress and harsh parenting; and (c) individual behavior and achievement. Relations between each of the included variables and the bullying outcomes were simultaneously estimated within the SEM. Thus, each variable served as a control for estimating the effects of the other variables. We used robust standard errors to account for student clustering within schools. Results indicated that externalizing problem behavior strongly predicted being a bully ([ES] = .56, p<.001) and a victim (ES=.29, p<.001). We observed a negative relation between being Hispanic and being a victim (ES = -.10, p<.001) and a positive relation between being Black and being a bully (ES = .11, p<.001). We also observed statistically significant relations between a family's socioeconomic status and being a bully (ES = -.08, p<.001) as well as school poverty and being a victim (ES = .07, p<.001). The results advance the field's limited understanding of risk and protective factors for bullying perpetration or victimization during elementary school and provide additional empirical support for assisting young children already exhibiting externalizing problem behaviors.

The subcomponents of affect scale (SAS): validating a widely used affect scale.

OBJECTIVE: There is a need for a brief affect scale that also encompasses different components of affect relevant for researchers interested in physiological and health outcomes. The Subcomponents of Affect Scale (SAS) meets this need. This 18-item scale has nine positive and nine negative affect items encompassing six subscales (calm, well-being, vigour, depression, anxiety, anger). Previous research using the SAS has demonstrated its predictive validity, but no work has tested its subscale structure or longitudinal validity. DESIGN: Data from the Common Cold Project in which individuals (N = 610) completed the SAS over the course of seven days were used. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the reliability of the subscale structure of the SAS across seven days (positive affect subscale structure: CFIs ≥ 0.98; negative affect subscale structure: CFIs ≥ 0.94 with day 6 CFI = 0.91) and tests of factorial invariance showed the scale is valid to use over time. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the psychometric validity of the subscale structure of the SAS and imply that the subscales can be used longitudinally, allowing for its use in health research as well as non-health research that can benefit from its subscale structure and longitudinal capabilities.

Longitudinal Trajectories of Reading and Mathematics Achievement for Students With Learning Disabilities.

We examined to what extent subgroups of students identified with learning disabilities (LDs; N = 630) in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998 to 1999 (ECLS-K): 1998 national longitudinal study displayed heterogeneity in longitudinal profiles of reading and mathematics achievement from first to eighth grades. Multivariate growth mixture modeling yielded four classes of combined reading and mathematics trajectories for students with LD. The largest class of students with LD (Class 2, 54.3%) showed mean T-scores for both achievement domains that averaged about 1 SD below the mean, with modest decline over time. Almost a quarter of the sample (Class 1, 22.3%) displayed mean T-scores in both achievement areas near the peer-normed average; these students were mostly White, from higher socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, and had experienced earlier identification as having an LD as well as shorter duration of LD service. Classifying heterogeneity in longitudinal trajectories of both achievement areas shows promise to better understand the educational needs of students identified with an LD.

High School Math and Motivation for autistic students.

Analyzing data from students in the NCES High School Longitudinal Study dataset, we drew upon expectancy-value theory to examine the role of student motivation (measured by self-efficacy, identity, utility, and interest), as mediators between 9th grade math test scores and final math GPA for autistic students. In predicting final high school math GPA, math identity was the strongest predictor for autistic students with above average test scores. Findings for autistic students contrast with results for non-autistic students whose final math GPA is strongly predicted by the direct effects of 9th grade test scores. These results suggest that seeing oneself as a "math person" may be particularly influential for autistic students with higher 9th grade math performance.

Which Students With Disabilities are Placed Primarily Outside of U.S. Elementary School General Education Classrooms?

Students with disabilities (SWD) who are Black or Hispanic have been reported to be more likely to be placed primarily outside of general education classrooms while attending U.S. schools. Federal law and regulation require monitoring of special education placement based on race or ethnicity. Yet, whether and to what extent racial or ethnic disparities in placement are explained by bias or by other explanatory factors is currently unclear. We evaluated for racial and ethnic bias in special education placement by analyzing longitudinal data from two independent samples of SWD (N values range 590-1,130) attending U.S. elementary schools. We statistically controlled for plausibly exogenous sociodemographic, academic, and behavioral risk factors measured in kindergarten in analyses of the students as they attended first, third, and fifth grades between the 1999-2000 and 2015-2016 school years. Of the resulting 12 Black or Hispanic grade-year-specific tests, 11 (i.e., 92%) indicated that controls for kindergarten explanatory factors-particularly significant academic difficulties-fully explained the risk initially attributable to race or ethnicity. We observed little evidence that bias explains racial or ethnic disparities in special education placement in U.S. elementary schools.

Which Children are Frequently Victimized in U.S. Elementary Schools? Population-based Estimates.

We analyzed a population-based cohort of 11,780 U.S. kindergarten children to identify risk and protective factors predictive of frequent verbal, social, reputational, and/or physical bullying victimization during the upper elementary grades. We also stratified the analyses by biological sex. Both girls and boys displaying kindergarten externalizing problem behaviors were at consistently higher risk of frequent victimization during 3rd-5th grade (for the combined sample of boys and girls, verbal odds ratio [OR] = 1.82, social OR = 1.60, reputational OR = 1.85, physical OR = 1.67, total OR = 1.93). Hispanic children relative to non-Hispanic White children and those from higher income families were the most strongly and consistently protected from victimization. Boys were more likely to be physically bullied but less likely to be verbally, socially or reputationally bullied than girls. Other variables including disability, cognitively stimulating parenting, academic achievement, and internalizing behavior problems had statistically significant but less consistent and generally weaker relations with frequent victimization.

The Observed Quality of Caregiver-Child Interactions With and Without a Mobile Screen Device.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated how caregivers' mobile device use influenced the quality of their interactions with their children. The associations between quality of interactions and the type of activity (eg, typing/swiping, looking at screen), setting, caregiver-child proximity, and child behaviors were also examined. METHOD: Researchers anonymously and systematically observed and coded the behavior of 98 caregiver-child dyads in public settings (eg, parks, food courts) during real-time, naturally occurring interactions using time sampling. RESULTS: Caregivers who used a mobile device for the entire observation engaged in less joint attention and were less responsive than caregivers who used the device some of the time. When looking at patterns within caregivers who used the device intermittently, the probability that they would engage in joint attention, initiate interactions with their child, talk, and display positive emotions was lower when they used a mobile device than when they did not. Child talking and positive affect were unrelated to caregiver device use. Activity type with the device, caregiver-child proximity and setting also related to interaction quality. CONCLUSIONS: Caregiver device use was negatively associated with adult behaviors that are key components of high-quality caregiver-child interactions. Additionally, setting, activity type, and caregiver-child proximity are factors that should be considered because they relate to the quality of caregiver-child interactions in the context of mobile screen technologies.

Reciprocal effects of reading and mathematics? Beyond the cross-lagged panel model.

Prior nonexperimental studies have been used to conclude that children's reading and mathematics achievement bidirectionally influence each other over time, with strong paths from (a) early reading to later mathematics and (b) early mathematics to later reading. In the most influential study on the topic, the early math-to-later-reading path was reported to be stronger than the early reading-to-later-math path (Duncan et al., 2007). Yet prior estimates may be confounded by stable environmental and personal factors influencing both reading and mathematics achievement. We reexamined the bidirectional relations between reading and mathematics achievement using both traditional models and extensions intended to account for unmeasured confounding. Results based on a large nationally representative sample of children from kindergarten to 3rd grade (N = 9,612) indicated that the estimated effects between reading and mathematics achievement differ substantially after accounting for the confounding effects of stable unmeasured factors. In these models, autoregressive and cross-lagged paths were substantially reduced. The finding that early mathematics predicts later reading more strongly than early reading predicts later math disappears and sometimes reverses, suggesting that larger paths from math to reading than from reading to math in previous related analyses are not causally informative. Stability in early mathematics and reading achievement resulted from substantially overlapping time invariant factors that correlate above .90. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Are students with disabilities suspended more frequently than otherwise similar students without disabilities?

Students with disabilities (SWD) have been reported to be disproportionately suspended from U.S. schools and so more likely to experience the "school-to-prison pipeline" through suspension's associations with lower academic achievement, dropout, juvenile delinquency, and adult criminality. Yet few studies have estimated SWD's risk of more frequent suspension while simultaneously controlling for potential confounds. Negative binomial regression modeling of suspension count data from a nationally representative and longitudinal sample (N = 6,740) indicated that males, those from lower resourced families, and students attending more economically segregated schools were more frequently suspended. On average, students who are Black received about 1.6 times as many suspensions by the end of 8th grade as otherwise similar White students. In contrast, having a disability by 1st grade was not a risk factor for more frequent suspension by the end of 8th grade while simultaneously accounting for other risk factors (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, family SES, prior history of externalizing problem behaviors, being from a English-speaking household, school-level economic composition). Students with specific disability conditions (e.g., emotional disturbances, speech or language impairments) were not at increased risk for more frequent suspension. Students with disabilities who are Black, Hispanic, or of other race/ethnicity were not more frequently suspended than SWD who are White.

Kindergarten Children's Executive Functions Predict Their Second-Grade Academic Achievement and Behavior.

Whether and to what extent kindergarten children's executive functions (EF) constitute promising targets of early intervention is currently unclear. This study examined whether kindergarten children's EF predicted their second-grade academic achievement and behavior. This was done using (a) a longitudinal and nationally representative sample (N = 8,920, Mage  = 97.6 months), (b) multiple measures of EF, academic achievement, and behavior, and (c) extensive statistical control including for domain-specific and domain-general lagged dependent variables. All three measures of EF-working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control-positively and significantly predicted reading, mathematics, and science achievement. In addition, inhibitory control negatively predicted both externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. Children's EF constitute promising targets of experimentally evaluated interventions for increasing academic and behavioral functioning.

Double Down or Switch It Up: Should Low-Income Children Stay in Head Start for 2 Years or Switch Programs?

BACKGROUND: Recent growth in subsidized preschool opportunities in the United States for low-income 4-year-old children has allowed federal Head Start programs to fund more slots for 3-year-old children. In turn, when Age-3 Head Start participants turn four, they may choose to switch into one of the many alternative care options or choose to stay in Head Start for a second year. OBJECTIVES: We analyze a nationally representative sample of Age-3 Head Start participants to examine whether children who stay in Head Start for a second year at Age 4 exhibit greater school readiness and subsequent cognitive and behavioral performance compared with children who switch out of Head Start into alternative care. We also examine differences between children who stay at the same Head Start center at Age 4 with those who switch to a different Head Start center. RESEARCH DESIGN: Child fixed effects analyses coupled with inverse probability of treatment weights to remove observable, time-invariant differences between Head Start stayers and switchers. SUBJECTS: Cohort of Age-3 Head Start attendees from the Head Start Impact Study. MEASURES: Child cognitive and behavioral skills assessed by trained administrators annually at ages 3-7. RESULTS: Age-3 Head Start participants' outcomes do not differ at the end of preschool, kindergarten, or first grade based on their choice of Age-4 program. Staying at the same Head Start center for 2 years may be beneficial for behavioral skills. CONCLUSIONS: For low-income families, there exist many equally beneficial options to support their children's school readiness through public preschool programs.

Eight-Year Latent Class Trajectories of Academic and Social Functioning in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

We examined trajectories of academic and social functioning in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to identify those who might be at risk for especially severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. We estimated a series of growth mixture models using data from two subsamples of children participating in the NIMH Collaborative Multisite Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) including those with at least baseline and 96-month data for reading and mathematics achievement (n = 392; 77.3% male; M age = 7.7; SD = 0.8) or social skills ratings from teachers (n = 259; 74.9% male; M age = 7.6; SD = 0.8). We compared latent trajectories for children with ADHD to mean observed trajectories obtained from a local normative (i.e., non-ADHD) comparison group (n = 289; 80.6% male; M age = 9.9; SD = 1.1). Results indicated six latent trajectory classes for reading and mathematics and four classes for teacher social skills ratings. There was not only a relationship between trajectories of inattention symptoms and academic impairment, but also a similarly strong association between trajectory classes of hyperactive-impulsive symptoms and achievement. Trajectory class membership correlated with socio-demographic and diagnostic characteristics, inattention and hyperactive-impulsive symptom trajectories, externalizing behavior in school, and treatment receipt and dosage. Although children with ADHD display substantial heterogeneity in their reading, math, and social skills growth trajectories, those with behavioral and socio-demographic disadvantages are especially likely to display severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. Evidence-based early screening and intervention that directly address academic and social impairments in elementary school-aged children with ADHD are warranted. The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier is NCT00000388.

Executive Functioning Deficits Increase Kindergarten Children's Risk for Reading and Mathematics Difficulties in First Grade.

Whether executive functioning deficits result in children experiencing learning difficulties is presently unclear. Yet evidence for these hypothesized causal relations has many implications for early intervention design and delivery. We used a multi-year panel design, multiple criterion and predictor variable measures, extensive statistical control for potential confounds including autoregressive prior histories of both reading and mathematics difficulties, and additional epidemiological methods to preliminarily examine these hypothesized relations. Results from multivariate logistic regression analyses of a nationally representative and longitudinal sample of 18,080 children (i.e., the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort of 2011, or ECLS-K: 2011) indicated that working memory and, separately, cognitive flexibility deficits uniquely increased kindergarten children's risk of experiencing reading as well as mathematics difficulties in first grade. The risks associated with working memory deficits were particularly strong. Experimentally-evaluated, multi-component interventions designed to help young children with reading or mathematics difficulties may also need to remediate early deficits in executive function, particularly in working memory.

Late Talkers: A Population-Based Study of Risk Factors and School Readiness Consequences.

Purpose: This study was designed to (a) identify sociodemographic, pregnancy and birth, family health, and parenting and child care risk factors for being a late talker at 24 months of age; (b) determine whether late talkers continue to have low vocabulary at 48 months; and (c) investigate whether being a late talker plays a unique role in children's school readiness at 60 months. Method: We analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, a population-based sample of 9,600 children. Data were gathered when the children were 9, 24, 48, and 60 months old. Results: The risk of being a late talker at 24 months was significantly associated with being a boy, lower socioeconomic status, being a nonsingleton, older maternal age at birth, moderately low birth weight, lower quality parenting, receipt of day care for less than 10 hr/week, and attention problems. Being a late talker increased children's risk of having low vocabulary at 48 months and low school readiness at 60 months. Family socioeconomic status had the largest and most profound effect on children's school readiness. Conclusions: Limited vocabulary knowledge at 24 and 48 months is uniquely predictive of later school readiness. Young children with low vocabularies require additional supports prior to school entry.

Head Start at ages 3 and 4 versus Head Start followed by state pre-k: Which is more effective?

As policy-makers contemplate expanding preschool opportunities for low-income children, one possibility is to fund two, rather than one year of Head Start for children at ages 3 and 4. Another option is to offer one year of Head Start followed by one year of pre-k. We ask which of these options is more effective. We use data from the Oklahoma pre-k study to examine these two 'pathways' into kindergarten using regression discontinuity to estimate the effects of each age-4 program, and propensity score weighting to address selection. We find that children attending Head Start at age 3 develop stronger pre-reading skills in a high quality pre-kindergarten at age 4 compared with attending Head Start at age 4. Pre-k and Head Start were not differentially linked to improvements in children's pre-writing skills or pre-math skills. This suggests that some impacts of early learning programs may be related to the sequencing of learning experiences to more academic programming.

Academic and Social Functioning Associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Latent Class Analyses of Trajectories from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade.

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are known to exhibit significantly lower academic and social functioning than other children. Yet the field currently lacks knowledge about specific impairment trajectories experienced by children with ADHD, which may constrain early screening and intervention effectiveness. Data were analyzed from a nationally representative U.S. cohort in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K) for 590 children (72.7 % male) whose parents reported a formal diagnosis of ADHD. Children's math, reading, and interpersonal skills were assessed at 5 time points between kindergarten and fifth grade. Growth mixture model analyses indicated 4 latent trajectory classes for reading, 8 classes for math, and 4 classes for interpersonal skills. Membership in reading and math trajectory classes was strongly related; overlaps with interpersonal skills classes were weaker. Trajectory class membership was correlated with demographic characteristics and behavioral functioning. Children with ADHD display substantial heterogeneity in their reading, math, and interpersonal growth trajectories, with some groups of children especially likely to display relatively severe levels of academic and social impairment over time. Early screening and intervention to address impairment, particularly reading difficulties, among kindergarten students with ADHD is warranted.

Does Head Start differentially benefit children with risks targeted by the program's service model?

Data from the Head Start Impact Study (N = 3540) were used to test for differential benefits of Head Start after one program year and after kindergarten on pre-academic and behavior outcomes for children at risk in the domains targeted by the program's comprehensive services. Although random assignment to Head Start produced positive treatment main effects on children's pre-academic skills and behavior problems, residualized growth models showed that random assignment to Head Start did not differentially benefit the pre-academic skills of children with risk factors targeted by the Head Start service model. The models showed detrimental impacts of Head Start for maternal-reported behavior problems of high-risk children, but slightly more positive impacts for teacher-reported behavior. Policy implications for Head Start are discussed.

Who Receives Speech/Language Services by 5 Years of Age in the United States?

PURPOSE: We sought to identify factors predictive of or associated with receipt of speech/language services during early childhood. We did so by analyzing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B; Andreassen & Fletcher, 2005), a nationally representative data set maintained by the U.S. Department of Education. We addressed two research questions of particular importance to speech-language pathology practice and policy. First, do early vocabulary delays increase children's likelihood of receiving speech/language services? Second, are minority children systematically less likely to receive these services than otherwise similar White children? METHOD: Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed for a population-based sample of 9,600 children and families participating in the ECLS-B. RESULTS: Expressive vocabulary delays by 24 months of age were strongly associated with and predictive of children's receipt of speech/language services at 24, 48, and 60 months of age (adjusted odds ratio range = 4.32-16.60). Black children were less likely to receive speech/language services than otherwise similar White children at 24, 48, and 60 months of age (adjusted odds ratio range = 0.42-0.55). Lower socioeconomic status children and those whose parental primary language was other than English were also less likely to receive services. Being born with very low birth weight also significantly increased children's receipt of services at 24, 48, and 60 months of age. CONCLUSION: Expressive vocabulary delays at 24 months of age increase children's risk for later speech/language services. Increased use of culturally and linguistically sensitive practices may help racial/ethnic minority children access needed services.

Who Is At Risk for Persistent Mathematics Difficulties in the United States?

We analyzed two nationally representative, longitudinal data sets of U.S. children to identify risk factors for persistent mathematics difficulties (PMD). Results indicated that children from low socioeconomic households are at elevated risk of PMD at 48 and 60 months of age, as are children with cognitive delays, identified developmental delays or disabilities, and vocabulary difficulties. In contrast, children attending preschool either in Head Start or non-Head Start classrooms are at initially lower risk of PMD. Kindergarten-aged children experiencing either low socioeconomic status or mathematics difficulties are at greatest risk for PMD across third, fifth, and eighth grades. Also at risk for PMD between third and eighth grades are children displaying reading difficulties or inattention and other learning-related behaviors problems, children with identified disabilities, and those who are retained. Educationally relevant and potentially malleable factors for decreasing young children's risk for PMD may include increasing children's access to preschool, decreasing their risk of experiencing vocabulary or reading difficulties, and avoiding use of grade retention.

Which kindergarten children are at greatest risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity and conduct disorder symptomatology as adolescents?

We sought to identify which kindergarten children are simultaneously at risk of moderate or severe symptomatology in both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CD) as adolescents. These risk factor estimates have not been previously available. We conducted multinomial logistic regression analyses of multiinformant ratings by the end of middle school of a population-based, longitudinal sample of children followed from kindergarten to eighth grade (N = 7,456). Kindergarten children from low SES households, those raised by mothers with depressive symptoms or experiencing emotional problems or substance abuse, or those who were punished by spanking were significantly more likely to later display severe levels of ADHD-CD symptomatology in eighth grade. Kindergarten children frequently engaging in ADHD-CD-type behaviors were more likely to later experience both moderate (covariate adjusted OR = 2.37) and severe (covariate adjusted OR = 3.63) ADHD-CD symptomatology. Low academic achievement uniquely increased the risk of both moderate and severe symptomatology (adjusted OR range = 1.7 to 2.24). The results should guide early screening and school-based intervention efforts for ADHD-CD. Reducing children's risk for adolescent ADHD-CD symptomatology may require remediating low behavioral and academic functioning by the end of kindergarten. When these 2 modifiable factors occur together they increase kindergarten children's odds of experiencing severe ADHD-CD symptomatology in eighth grade by a multiplicative factor of 8.1.