Emphasis on continuous infant sleep overnight may be driven by parental concern of risk to child mental health outcomes. The Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study (MPEWS) examined whether infant sleep at 6 and 12 months postpartum predicts anxiety disorders at 2–4 years, and whether this is moderated by maternal depression, active physical comforting (APC) or maternal cognitions about infant sleep. Data included 349 women and infants. Infant sleep was measured using the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire and child anxiety disorders by the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment. The risk of developing generalised anxiety or social phobia disorders at 3–4 years was reduced by 42% (p = 0.001) and 31% (p = 0.001), respectively, for a one standard deviation increase in total sleep at 12 months. No other infant sleep outcomes were associated. Maternal depression, APC and cognitions about infant sleep did not significantly moderate these relationships. Focus may need to be on total infant sleep, rather than when sleep is achieved.
Symbolic and situational mathematics are the two major representations of mathematical knowledge. Although previous literature has studied the relationship between the two from the perspective of teaching practice, learning effectiveness and behavioural performance, there is still a lack of empirical psychological research on cognitive mechanisms to explore the psychological processes of the two. The current study investigated the relationship between symbolic and situational mathematics by determining the differences in cognitive correlates between the two in fourth-grade children. Their symbolic and situational mathematics abilities were assessed using symbolic and situational enumeration tests under the same conditions. Several types of general cognitive abilities, language processing and academic achievements were also examined. Results showed that both situational and symbolic mathematics are crucial for mathematical achievement. Arithmetic computation is closely correlated with symbolic mathematics, whereas spatial processing and inductive reasoning ability are uniquely correlated with situational mathematics. The results suggest that situational and symbolic mathematics have separate cognitive correlates, which means the two are distinct in terms of psychological processing.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic has been implicated in increased mental health concerns for families of low income, we aimed to describe maternal perspectives about the pandemic's impact on their kindergartener's mental health during the 2020–2021 school year. We conducted 22 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with U.S. mothers with low income who had kindergarten-age children (50% male and 50% female). All participants were female, ranging in age from 24 to 44 years, and reported the following ethnic/racial identities: non-Hispanic Black or African American (41%), Hispanic of any race (36%) and non-Hispanic, White (23%). With a team comprising multiple researchers from varied disciplines (e.g., medicine, education and public health) our analytic process used an iterative approach for developing and revising codes and themes until we reached thematic saturation. Most mothers described negative impacts on social, behavioural and emotional aspects of mental health. Some described positive social impacts, including strengthened family relationships. Mothers described no positive changes to behavioural or emotional aspects of mental health. Maternal perspectives suggest the importance of prioritising access to screening and treating mental health needs to support children's kindergarten transition, mitigate pandemic impacts and plan for future disruptions.
In the still-face episode of the Face-to-Face/Still-Face (FFSF), parents are asked to become unresponsive. However, infant–parent interaction may be irrepressible, and there is some evidence that interaction during the still-face is associated with attachment outcome. To explore these questions, we independently coded the continuous affective valence (negative to positive) of seventy-three 6-month-old infants (45 males; 36 Hispanic/Latinx; 38 White, 3 Black/African-American, 2 Asian, 30 multiracial) and their parents (Mage = 36 years; 5 males; 30 Hispanic/Latinx; 65 White, 3 Black/African-American, 2 Asian, 2 unknown) during the FFSF and assessed attachment at 15 months with the Strange Situation Procedure (n = 66). There was a mean positive correlation between moment-to-moment parent and infant affective valence, indicating synchronous affective interaction during the still-face (d = 0.63). Higher levels of affect interaction during the still-face episode were detected in infants later classified as disorganised compared to securely attached (d = 0.97). Findings underscore the importance of testing for still-face interaction and suggest that this interaction may be an unappreciated predictor of infant attachment outcomes.
A student's socioeconomic status (SES) has a significant relation to their academic achievement. Much of this work has explored this in math and reading, but less is known about how SES relates to science achievement, particularly in the early grades. Using quantile regression with nationally representative data, we explored this relation in 12,676 kindergarten students (51.2% boys, 52.2% White, 21.8% Hispanic, 12.7% Black and 6.6% Asian) and 10,339 fifth-grade students (51.3% boys, 49.4 White, 27.2% Hispanic, 9.4% Black and 8.2% Asian). We found less variability in science achievement scores for those high on SES than those low on SES. The scores of the high SES students cluster together on the high end of science achievement, whilst those from low SES score across the distribution. These findings highlight the need to explore what can mitigate the relation between SES and science achievement and where resources to support science achievement are most needed.
Shy-withdrawn behaviours place preschoolers at increased risk of experiencing adverse developmental outcomes. Positive teacher-child relationships play a protective role against these negative socioemotional outcomes. This study aimed to understand, in-depth, the beliefs, practices and support needs of preschool teachers toward shy-withdrawn children. Thirty preschool teachers of children aged 3–5 years were interviewed, using a semistructured guide. The thematic analysis revealed that most preschool teachers were aware of the main manifestations, transactional influences and consequences of shy-withdrawn behaviours, and of the empirically validated strategies that may be useful to modify them. However, a noteworthy proportion of participants reported misconceptions about the intentionality of shy-withdrawn behaviours, negative emotions and inconsistent or less effective practices. Our findings highlight that strengthening pre-service and in-service training and providing coaching to the preschool staff may be helpful to restructure dysfunctional beliefs about shy-withdrawn behaviours, translate developmental knowledge in evidence-based classroom practices and enhance professionals' self-awareness.
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