Effortful control and health among triads of mothers and twin children: An actor-partner interdependence modeling approach.

Associations between effortful control and physical and mental health were examined among triads of mothers and twin children by simultaneously modeling the effects of one's own effortful control on one's own health (actor effects) with the effects of the other two family members' effortful control on one's health (partner effects). Families (N = 761 individuals; 254 families) included mothers (Mage = 39.98, SD = 5.64) and their twin children (Mage = 8.58, SD = 0.57; 51% female; 54.7% non-Hispanic White, 28% Hispanic). Mothers completed online and in-person questionnaires, and mothers' and children's body composition indicators and dominant-handgrip strength were directly assessed during two home visits. Actor effects dominated in families with twin boys and mixed-sex twins, whereas partner effects were more apparent in families with twin girls. In addition, the effects of children's effortful control on mothers' health depended on the sex of the twins. Findings uncovered important family dynamics linking effortful control to health, including that associations may vary by sex match of children in the family. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion-related socialization in the classroom: Considering the roles of teachers, peers, and the classroom context.

The goal of this study was to apply aspects of the heuristic model advanced by Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad (1998) to the study of socialization that takes place in preschool and elementary school classrooms. Investigating socialization in this context is important given the number of hours students spend in school, the emotional nature of social interactions that take place involving teachers and students, and the emotions students often experience in the context of academic work. Guided by Eisenberg, Cumberland, et al.'s (1998) call to consider complex socialization pathways, we focus our discussion on ways teachers, peers, and the classroom context can shape students' emotion-related outcomes (e.g., self-regulation, adjustment) and academic-related outcomes (e.g., school engagement, achievement) indirectly and differentially (e.g., as a function of student or classroom characteristics). Our illustrative review of the intervention literature demonstrates that the proposed classroom-based socialization processes have clear applied implications, and efforts to improve socialization in the classroom can promote students' emotional and academic competence. We conclude our discussion by outlining areas that require additional study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Parents' and teachers' academic influences, behavioral engagement, and first- and fifth-grade achievement.

Parents and teachers-primary socializers across elementary grades-offer potentially differential support mechanisms for children's healthy functioning across developmental periods. Utilizing child, parent, teacher, and observational data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Department Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,031), we employed a longitudinal path model to examine indirect associations between parents' and teachers' academic influences (i.e., direct parental involvement, the student-teacher relationship, instructional support) and achievement (reading and math) through behavioral engagement at 1st and 5th grades. Results indicated indirect associations linking direct parental involvement (positively, 1st grade only), student-teacher conflict (negatively, both grades), and instructional support (positively, both grades) to achievement via behavioral engagement, after accounting for the co-occurrence of parents' and teachers' academic influences and other child characteristics. School psychologists may opt for interventions focusing on parents' and teachers' academic influence to indirectly effect achievement by promoting elementary school behavioral engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

First grade classroom-level adversity: Associations with teaching practices, academic skills, and executive functioning.

Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development and a model-building approach, the authors examined direct and indirect associations between first-grade (G1) classroom-level adversity (CLA), G1 teaching practices, and student (N = 1,073; M = 6.64 years; 49% girls; 82% White) academic skills and executive functioning in G1 and third grades (G3). Teachers reported the prevalence of adversity among their students (e.g., poor home/family life, poor academic/social readiness). Observers rated G1 teaching practices: teachers' classroom management, controlling instruction, and amount of academic instruction (classroom observation system). Children completed literacy and math assessments at 54 months, G1, and G3 (Woodcock Johnson Letter-Word Identification and Applied Problems), and executive functioning at G1 and G3 (Tower of Hanoi). Direct associations emerged between CLA and controlling instruction (positive), classroom management, and academic instruction (both negative). In addition, CLA was related to G1 literacy (but not math) directly and indirectly via classroom management (negatively) and controlling instruction (positively). The addition of G3 outcomes revealed a negative direct longitudinal association between CLA and G3 executive functioning, and indirect associations with G3 literacy and math through G1 teaching practices and literacy. Results support the notion that collective student characteristics influence student outcomes in part through teaching practices and suggest that teachers and students may benefit from the diffusion of high-adversity classroom compositions when possible. Moreover, in high-adversity classrooms teachers and students may benefit from supports targeting classroom management and foundational student competencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Kindergarten School Engagement: Linking Early Temperament and Academic Achievement at the Transition to School.

RESEARCH FINDINGS: Although children's temperament contributes to their academic success, little is known regarding the mechanisms through which temperament is associated withacademic achievement during the transition to elementary school. One such mechanism may be school engagement, but findings are inconsistent and limited. Across two waves of data at the transition to school, we examined the role of kindergarten emotional and behavioral engagement as links between preschool temperament (positive emotionality, anger, andeffortful control), and kindergartenacademic achievement, among a predominantlyMexican/Mexican-Americansample of 241children drawn from Head Start classrooms. Significant direct effects indicated that preschool anger was negatively,and positive emotionality and effortful control werepositively,associated withkindergarten behavioralengagement.Only preschool anger was significantly associatedwithkindergarten emotional engagement. In turn, kindergarten behavioral, but not emotional, engagement was directly, positively associated withkindergartenacademic achievement. All three preschool temperament measures were indirectly related to kindergarten achievement via kindergarten behavioral engagement, and anger was indirectly related to kindergarten achievement via emotional engagement. PRACTICE OR POLIC: Findings highlight the importance of understanding the role of engagement as a mechanismthat can foster children'sacademic achievement at a key developmental transition.

Classroom-level adversity: Associations with children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors across elementary school.

Concerns regarding the social-behavioral maladjustment of U.S. youth have spurred efforts among educators and policymakers to identify and remedy educational contexts that exacerbate children's anxiety, depression, aggression, and misconduct. However, investigations of the influence of collective classroom student characteristics on individuals' social-behavioral functioning are few. The present study examined concurrent and longitudinal relations between adversity factors facing the collective classroom student group and levels of children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors across the elementary school years, and whether the pattern of relations differed for girls and boys. First-, third-, and fifth-grade teachers reported on the extent to which adversity-related factors (e.g., home/family life, academic readiness, social readiness, English proficiency, tardiness/absenteeism, student mobility, health) presented a challenge in their classrooms (i.e., classroom-level adversity [CLA]). Mothers reported on their child's internalizing and externalizing behavior at each grade. Autoregressive, lagged panel models controlled for prior levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior, mothers' education, family income-to-needs, and class size. For all children at each grade, CLA was concurrently and positively associated with externalizing behavior. For first-grade girls, but not boys, CLA was also concurrently and positively associated with internalizing behavior. Indirect effects suggested CLA influenced later internalizing and externalizing behavior through its influence on maladjustment in a given year. Discussion highlights possible methods of intervention to reduce CLA or the negative consequences associated with being in a higher-adversity classroom. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mothers' Partnership Instability and Coparenting among Fragile Families.

OBJECTIVES: The rise in nonmarital childbearing has raised concerns about coparenting among unmarried parents with increasingly complicated relationship trajectories. We address this issue by examining associations between mothers' partnership transitions and coparenting and the moderating role of maternal race/ethnicity and child gender. METHODS: Data from the Fragile Families Study and ordinary least squares regression techniques are used to examine whether mothers' partnership transitions are related to coparenting. Lagged and fixed effects models are employed to test the robustness of the findings to selection. RESULTS: Coresidential and nonresidential, dating transitions are negatively associated with coparenting, but the association is stronger for coresidential transitions than for dating transitions. Coresidential transitions are stronger predictors of coparenting for White parents than for Black parents and for parents of sons than for parents of daughters. CONCLUSIONS: Policies aimed at strengthening families should emphasize relationship stability, regardless of the type of union, to promote high quality coparenting among at-risk populations.

Children's effortful control and academic achievement: do relational peer victimization and classroom participation operate as mediators?

Given that early academic achievement is related to numerous developmental outcomes, understanding processes that promote early success in school is important. This study was designed to clarify how students' (N=291; M age in fall of kindergarten=5.66 years, SD=0.39 year) effortful control, relational peer victimization, and classroom participation relate to achievement, as students progress from kindergarten to first grade. Effortful control and achievement were assessed in kindergarten, classroom participation and relational peer victimization were assessed in the fall of first grade, and achievement was reassessed in the spring of first grade. Classroom participation, but not relational peer victimization, mediated relations between effortful control and first grade standardized and teacher-rated achievement, controlling for kindergarten achievement. Findings suggest that aspects of classroom participation, such as the ability to work independently, may be useful targets of intervention for enhancing academic achievement in young children.

Longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's negative emotions, effortful control, and math achievement in early elementary school.

Panel mediation models and fixed-effects models were used to explore longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions, children's effortful control (EC), and children's math achievement (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = .39 year) across kindergarten through second grade. Parents reported their reactions and children's EC. Math achievement was assessed with a standardized achievement test. First-grade EC mediated the relation between parents' reactions at kindergarten and second-grade math achievement, beyond stability in constructs across study years. Panel mediation model results suggested that socialization of EC may be one method of promoting math achievement in early school; however, when all omitted time-invariant covariates of EC and math achievement were controlled, first-grade EC no longer predicted second-grade math achievement.

Linking Students' Emotions and Academic Achievement: When and Why Emotions Matter.

Few studies include associations of emotions, or of individual differences in emotionality, to academic competence, and there are virtually no empirical data on when or why relations exist (or do not exist). The few studies of emotion and achievement have largely focused on anxiety, but there has been scant theoretical and empirical attention devoted to the treatment of other emotions. It is suggested that considering the moderated and indirect effects of students' emotions on their academic functioning may provide an understanding of whether and under what circumstances emotions are related to achievement. This article briefly reviews findings linking situational and dispositional negative or positive emotions to academic achievement and suggests that researchers can learn much about relations between emotions and achievement by considering the potential moderating role of effortful control, as well as considering the mediating roles that cognitive processes, motivational mechanisms, and classroom relationships play in linking emotions and achievement.

Odorants that induce hygienic behavior in honeybees: identification of volatile compounds in chalkbrood-infected honeybee larvae.

Social insects that live in large colonies are vulnerable to disease transmission due to relatively high genetic relatedness among individuals and high rates of contact within and across generations. While individual insects rely on innate immune responses, groups of individuals also have evolved social immunity. Hygienic behavior, in which individual honeybees detect chemical stimuli from diseased larvae and subsequently remove the diseased brood from the nest, is one type of social immunity that reduces pathogen transmission. Three volatile compounds, collected from larvae infected with the fungal pathogen Ascosphaera apis and detected by adult honey bees, were identified by coupled gas chromatography-electroantennographic detection and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. These three compounds, phenethyl acetate, 2-phenylethanol, and benzyl alcohol, were present in volatile collections from infected larvae but were absent from collections from healthy larvae. Two field bioassays revealed that one of the compounds, phenethyl acetate is a key compound associated with Ascosphaera apis-infected larvae that induces hygienic behavior.

Children's responses to daily social stressors: relations with parenting, children's effortful control, and adjustment.

BACKGROUND: We examined children's coping and involuntary stress responses as mediators of the relations between parenting or children's effortful control (EC) and adjustment. METHOD: Two hundred and forty primarily Mexican American 7- to 12-year-old children reported on their EC, coping, involuntary stress responses, and problem behaviors. Teachers reported on children's academic competence. Parents reported on their reactions to children's negative emotions and on children's EC, problem behaviors, and academic competence. RESULTS: There were significant zero-order relations between parents' affective responses to children's negative emotions, children's EC, engagement coping, disengagement coping, involuntary stress responses, and adjustment. Consistent evidence emerged that children's engagement coping and involuntary stress-responses mediate the relations between parenting or EC and adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Results highlight the utility of assessing stress responses in a multidimensional manner and have implications for intervention programs.

Impact of obesity on health-related quality of life in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Studies have reported that up to 60% of individuals with schizophrenia and 68% of those with bipolar disorder are overweight/obese. This paper explores the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder as a function of obesity status. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Two hundred and eleven participants were recruited from four psychiatric programs (outpatient, day treatment, case management, and psychosocial rehabilitation). HRQOL was assessed using both a general measure (Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form-36 (SF-36)) and a weight-related measure (Impact of Weight on Quality of Life-Lite (IWQOL-Lite)). To interpret HRQOL scores obtained by the obese group, we compared scores to those obtained by reference groups from the weight-loss literature. RESULTS: Sixty-three percent of participants with schizophrenia and 68% of those with bipolar disorder were obese. Obese participants were more likely to be women, on mood stabilizers, taking a greater number of psychiatric medications, and to have poorer weight-related and general HRQOL. Weight-related HRQOL in the obese psychiatric sample was more impaired than in outpatient and day treatment samples seeking weight loss but less impaired than in gastric-bypass patients. Several of the physical domains of general HRQOL were more impaired for the obese psychiatric sample than for the outpatient weight-loss sample. However, physical functioning was less impaired for the obese psychiatric sample than for gastric-bypass patients. DISCUSSION: The presence of obesity among individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is associated with decreased HRQOL. These results have implications for prevention and management of weight gain in individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Prediction of Children's Academic Competence From Their Effortful Control, Relationships, and Classroom Participation.

The authors examined the relations among children's effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence with a sample of 7- to 12-year-old children (N = 264). Parents and children reported on children's effortful control, and teachers and children reported on children's school relationships and classroom participation. Children's grade point averages (GPAs) and absences were obtained from school-issued report cards. Significant positive correlations existed between effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence. Consistent with expectations, the teacher-child relationship, social competence, and classroom participation partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in GPA from the beginning to the end of the school year. The teacher-child relationship and classroom participation also partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in school absences across the year.

Performance of a weight-related measure of Quality of Life in a psychiatric sample.

The Impact of Weight on Quality of Life-Lite (IWQOL-Lite) questionnaire has been validated previously in weight loss program participants and community volunteers. Because of the prevalence of obesity in individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, this study evaluates the psychometric performance of the IWQOL-Lite in these populations. A sample of 111 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age = 43.5; mean BMI = 32.6; 42.3% female; 59.5% Caucasian) and 100 with bipolar disorder (mean age = 42.8; mean BMI = 34.8; 66.0% female; 81.0% Caucasian) were recruited from four programs. Height and weight measurements were taken and participants completed the IWQOL-Lite, Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form-36 (SF-36), and Global Ratings of quality of life. Sixty-five participants completed the IWQOL-Lite 1-2 weeks later to determine stability of results. Sixty-four percent of schizophrenic participants and 68.0% of bipolar participants were obese. The IWQOL-Lite demonstrated excellent reliability in the current sample, with alpha coefficients ranging from 0.874 to 0.970 and test-retest coefficients ranging from 0.740 to 0.945. Correlations with collateral measures and BMI supported the construct validity of the IWQOL-Lite in this population. The IWQOL-Lite is a reliable and valid measure for assessing weight-related quality of life in individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

An empirical analysis of eating disorders and anxiety disorders publications (1980-2000)--part I: Research methods.

OBJECTIVE: The current study compared the eating disorder and anxiety disorder literature in terms of research design and methodologic features in 1980, 1990, and 2000. METHOD: Computer literature searches were conducted using PubMed and PsychInfo databases to identify relevant eating disorder and anxiety disorder articles published at each of the three time points. A total of 456 articles were randomly selected, including 228 articles from the eating disorder literature and the anxiety disorder literature. Within each specific literature, one third (76) of the articles were selected from each of the three time points (1980, 1990, 2000). Two raters, from a team of eight trained raters, were randomly assigned to independently rate each article in terms of 75 separate methodologic features. Disagreements in ratings were resolved via consensus. Ratings were tabulated separately for eating disorders and anxiety disorders across the three time points. RESULTS: Although there were some differences between anxiety disorders and eating disorders, most of the variables did not substantially differ between these two fields. There was a consistent trend for both fields to show increases in more rigorous methodologies over time. However, both the eating disorder literature and the anxiety disorder literature were characterized by a pervasive absence of many recommended methodologic procedures across the past two decades. CONCLUSION: Although the eating disorder literature and the anxiety disorder literature are increasingly characterized by improved reporting of rigorous methodologic procedures, there is still a pervasive absence of such procedures in both literatures, which limits the strength of inference in these studies.

An empirical analysis of eating disorders and anxiety disorders publications (1980-2000)--part II: Statistical hypothesis testing.

OBJECTIVE: The current study compared the eating disorder literature and the anxiety disorder literature in terms of statistical hypothesis testing features in 1980, 1990, and 2000. METHOD: Computer literature searches were conducted using PubMed and PsychInfo databases to identify relevant eating disorder and anxiety disorder articles published at each of the three time points. A total of 456 articles were randomly selected, including 228 articles each from the fields of eating disorders and anxiety disorders. Within each field, one third (76) of the articles were selected from each of the three time points. Two raters, from a team of eight trained raters, were randomly assigned to independently rate each article in terms of 75 separate methodologic features. In the current article, we will emphasize the findings about hypothesis testing and statistical analysis. Disagreements in ratings were resolved via consensus. Ratings were tabulated separately by field across the three time points. RESULTS: Few differences were observed between eating disorder and anxiety disorder publications in terms of statistical hypothesis testing features. Although increases were observed in both fields in a number of areas from 1980 to 2000, there remains a pervasive absence of many of the statistical hypothesis testing features recommended by the American Psychological Association Task Force on Statistical Inference. CONCLUSION: These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the fields of eating disorders and anxiety disorders, for researchers, for reviewers, and for professional journals and editorial boards.