Helen Davis

Theoretical models and empirical evidence suggest parental involvement in general education is beneficial for children’s educational outcomes and that motivational factors may contribute to explaining parental involvement in children’s education. Few studies, however, have examined the role of parental involvement in children’s writing outcomes and, to our knowledge, none has investigated the motivations of Parents/Carers to support their children’s writing development in the first place. In this study, we aimed to address this gap by measuring Parents'/Carers' autonomous and controlled motivations for supporting their children’s writing at home and their engagement in writing activities with their children, and then assessing the links between parental motivations and involvement, and children’s writing quality and attitudes toward writing. Participants included 159 Year 2 children and their Parents/Carers. Structural equation modelling showed indirect effects between Parents'/Carers' autonomous motivation and children’s writing quality via the mediators of parental involvement and children’s attitudes towards writing. Conversely, Parents'/Carers' controlled motivation had no significant association with children’s writing outcomes. Findings suggested that, when Parents/Carers are autonomously motivated and involved in writing activities with their children at home, their children show stronger positive attitudes towards writing. Educational implications include encouraging home-school initiatives that foster autonomous motivation in Parents/Carers and support Parents/Carers in engaging in a wide range of enjoyable writing activities with their children at home, creating a community where writing is valued across home and school contexts.

This qualitative study aimed to explore parents' and children's perspectives of parental involvement in children's writing. Theoretical models argue for the benefits of parental involvement to supporting children's learning. Research has placed little attention in examining parental involvement in children's writing. Participants included 27 Australian Year 2 parent-child dyads, who were interviewed about their home-led writing. Results suggested parents and children valued parental involvement. Despite this, parents reported little communication from teachers about supporting their child's writing. Implications include encouraging stronger partnerships and more frequent communication between parents and schools to help support children's writing across home and school fronts.

With dementia incidence projected to escalate significantly within the next 25 years, the United Nations declared 2021-2030 the Decade of Healthy Ageing, emphasising cognition as a crucial element. As a leading discipline in cognition and ageing research, psychology is well-equipped to offer insights for translational research, clinical practice, and policy-making. In this comprehensive review, we discuss the current state of knowledge on age-related changes in cognition and psychological health. We discuss cognitive changes during ageing, including (a) heterogeneity in the rate, trajectory, and characteristics of decline experienced by older adults, (b) the role of cognitive reserve in age-related cognitive decline, and (c) the potential for cognitive training to slow this decline. We also examine ageing and cognition through multiple theoretical perspectives. We highlight critical unresolved issues, such as the disparate implications of subjective versus objective measures of cognitive decline and the insufficient evaluation of cognitive training programs. We suggest future research directions, and emphasise interdisciplinary collaboration to create a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that modulate cognitive ageing.

Executive functioning (EF) and self-regulated learning (SRL) are established predictors of academic achievement, both concurrent and future. Although it has been theorized that EF development enables SRL in early childhood, this directional model remains empirically untested against plausible alternatives. Thus, this study investigated the longitudinal relations between children’s EF and SRL during the transition from kindergarten to Year 1 in an Australian sample to determine the direction and strength of the association between EF and SRL. We compared four directional models and also tested whether EF and SRL can be construed as manifestations of a common factor. Children’s EF was assessed using a battery of tasks tapping working memory, inhibition, and shifting, and their SRL was assessed by teachers using the Checklist of Independent Learning Development. Cross-lagged structural equation modelling analyses were conducted on a longitudinal dataset of 176 children at the end of kindergarten (age M = 5 years, 8 months; SD = 4.02 months), and 1 year later (age M = 6 years, 5 months; SD = 3.65 months). EF predicted SRL longitudinally (β= .58, controlling for kindergarten SRL), consistent with common assumptions, whereas SRL did not predict EF. However, the common factor model also fit the data very well. We concluded that EF and SRL are indeed related concurrently and longitudinally but that further evidence is needed to disambiguate whether EF is best understood as a necessary antecedent of SRL development in early childhood, or whether they reflect the same general construct.

Objective: Our research investigated whether extracurricular activity intensity in early adolescence predicted coping efficacy one year later. The study also tested whether activity participation intensity showed a linear or a nonlinear relationship with coping efficacy. Method: Year 8 students (N = 1,162; M = 13 years; SD = .35) reported on extracurricular activities and coping efficacy, and repeated the survey in year 9. Results: Greater sporting intensity predicted greater coping efficacy. In contrast, non-sporting activity intensity had a quadratic association with coping efficacy, suggesting that different types of activity participation might have different optimal patterns of participation. After controlling for gender, school SES, initial coping efficacy, and current activity participation, non-sporting activity intensity in grade 8 remained significantly associated (linearly and quadratically) with coping efficacy one year later. Conclusion: Our results offer preliminary evidence that extracurricular activity participation in early adolescence predicts better coping efficacy. The quadratic results indicate that very high levels of activity participation may not be necessary to capitalize on the positive effects of activity participation.

Recent research indicates that parental behaviours may influence the development of executive functions (EFs) during early childhood, which are proposed to serve as domain-general building blocks for later classroom behaviour and academic achievement. However, questions remain about the strength of the association between parenting and child EFs, more specifically which parental behaviours are most strongly associated with child EFs, and whether there is a critical period in early childhood during which parental behaviour is more influential. A meta-analysis was therefore conducted to determine the strength of the relation between various parental behaviours and EFs in children aged 0 to 8 years. We identified 42 studies published between 2000 and 2016, with an average of 12.77 months elapsing in the measurement of parent and child variables. Parental behaviours were categorised as positive (e.g. warmth, responsiveness, sensitivity), negative (e.g. control, intrusiveness, detachment) and cognitive (e.g. autonomy support, scaffolding, cognitive stimulation). Results revealed significant associations (ps < .001) between composite EF and positive (r = .25), negative (r = −.22) and cognitive (r = .20) parental behaviours. Associations between cognitive parental behaviours and EFs were significantly moderated by child age, with younger children showing a stronger effect size, whereas positive and negative parental behaviours showed a stable association with EFs across ages. We conclude that modest, naturally occurring associations exist between parental behaviours and future EFs and that early childhood may be a critical period during which cognitive parental behaviour is especially influential.

Empathy is an essential building block for successful interpersonal relationships. Atypical empathic development is implicated in a range of developmental psychopathologies. However, assessment of empathy in children is constrained by a lack of suitable measurement instruments. This article outlines the development of the Kids’ Empathic Development Scale (KEDS) designed to assess some of the core affective, cognitive and behavioural components of empathy concurrently. The KEDS assesses responses to picture scenarios depicting a range of individual and interpersonal situations differing in social complexity. Results from 220 children indicate the KEDS measures three related but distinct aspects of empathy that are also related to existing measures of empathy and cognitive development. Scores on the KEDS show age and some gender-related differences in the expected direction.

The best test of any relationship’s significance in a person’s life is. Perhaps, what happens when it comes to an end. Although losing a pet has been likened to losing a valued possession or occupation (e.g., Parkes, 1971), current evidence suggests that an owner’s response to pet death usually has more in common with bereavement following the death of a beloved human than with the loss of a possession (Archer & Winchester, 1994). Grief is a normal response to the death of a beloved other and has been characterised as progressing through a series of stages or phases from initial shock, numbness, and denial, occurring even when the death is expected, to a range of intense emotional reactions that may include anger and guilt, to depression and helplessness, where a person may become withdrawn, to a stage of dialogue and bargaining, where the bereaved person may begin to reach out to others, want to tell their story, and struggle to find meaning in what happened. The final stage involves acceptance of the loss and moving on (Kühler-Ross, 1969). The nature of response to pet death seems to follow this pattern, though being on average less extremely distressing and less prolonged (Archer & Winchester, 1994; Gerwolls & Lahott, 1994). People vary considerably in how they manifest their grief. Nevertheless, some bereaved persons may find their response severely debilitating and protracted and may even become suicidal (Archer & Winchester, 1994). This is termed complicated or pathological grief (Williams & Mills, 2000).

In this paper, we investigate longitudinally the association between participation in a musical ensemble in secondary school, academic performance and academic self concept to test whether more able students are more likely to participate in musical ensembles and whether participation confers any academic advantages. Longitudinal data on extracurricular activity participation, school grades, academic self concept and general intellectual aptitude were drawn from 1257 adolescents in the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions. School results at Grade 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of participants in school band or orchestra in Grade 10 were compared to participants in school sports clubs and to students who took part in no extracurricular activities. Ensemble players did not differ from any of the other groups at any time point except for Grade 9, where they showed a significantly smaller decline in performance than students participating in no extracurricular activities, but no differences from participants in other activities. Ensemble players and participants in other activities did, however, self-rate their academic abilities significantly more positively in Grades 6 and 7 than non-participants, irrespective of their actual ability. Positive self concept in primary school appears to be predictive of participation in extracurricular activities in secondary school, but there was no compelling evidence of ensemble participation or extracurricular activity more generally having positive effects on academic performance or academic self concept for this age group, once gender and general ability were controlled.