Dataset Information

Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7- to 11-year-old children.

ABSTRACT: This study sought to explore whether creativity in undertaking activities such as free writing, telling a story, crafts, painting, drawing, or drama at age 7 is associated with a lower risk of social and behavioral maladjustment in children at the onset of adolescence. Data from 7558 7-year-olds who were socially and behaviorally "stable" at baseline were analyzed from the nationally representative National Child Development Study. Multinomial regression analyses showed associations between teacher-rated creativity at age 7 and a lower relative risk of social and behavioral instability and maladjustment at age 11. Specifically, the associations were found between moderate and marked creativity and a lower risk of symptoms of internalizing behaviors (including depression and withdrawal), externalizing behaviors (such as restlessness) as well as a lower risk of various nervous symptoms of social and behavioral instability and maladjustment. Associations were independent of social, demographic, educational, parental, academic, and personality covariates, and robust to a range of sensitivity analyses. These results suggest that facilitating engagement with creative activities could be explored further as a way of reducing levels of instability and maladjustment at the onset of adolescence.

SUBMITTER: Fancourt D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6446801 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7- to 11-year-old children.

Fancourt Daisy D Steptoe Andrew A

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 20180805 1

This study sought to explore whether creativity in undertaking activities such as free writing, telling a story, crafts, painting, drawing, or drama at age 7 is associated with a lower risk of social and behavioral maladjustment in children at the onset of adolescence. Data from 7558 7-year-olds who were socially and behaviorally "stable" at baseline were analyzed from the nationally representative National Child Development Study. Multinomial regression analyses showed associations between teac ...[more]

PMID: 30079606

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Project description:BackgroundChildren's current physical activity levels are disturbingly low when compared to recommended levels. This may be changed by intervening in the school environment. However, at present, it is unclear to what extent schoolyard physical activity contributes towards reaching the daily physical activity guideline. The aim of this study was to examine how long and at what intensity children are physically active at the schoolyard during different time segments of the day. Moreover, the contribution of schoolyard physical activity towards achieving the recommended guideline for daily physical activity was investigated.MethodsChildren (n=76) between the age of 6-11 years were recruited in six different schools in five cities (>70.000 residents) in the Netherlands. During the weekdays of a regular school week, childrens' physical activity and location were measured with ActiGraph accelerometers and Travelrecorder GPS receivers. Data was collected from December 2008 to April 2009. From the data, the amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on and outside the schoolyard was established. Moreover, the percentage of MVPA on the schoolyard was compared between the following segments of the day: pre-school, school, school recess, lunch break and post-school. Differences between boys and girls were compared using linear and logistic mixed-effects models.ResultsOn average, children spent 40.1 minutes/day on the schoolyard. During this time, boys were more active on the schoolyard, with 27.3% of their time spent as MVPA compared to 16.7% among girls (OR=2.11 [95% CI 1.54 - 2.90]). The children were most active on the schoolyard during school recess, during which boys recorded 39.5% and girls recorded 23.4% of the time as MVPA (OR=2.55 [95% CI: 1.69 - 3.85]). Although children were only present at the schoolyard for 6.1% of the total reported time, this time contributed towards 17.5% and 16.8% of boys' and girls' minutes of MVPA.ConclusionsOn the schoolyard, children's physical activity levels are higher than on average over the whole day. Physical activity levels are particularly high during school recess. The school environment seems to be an important setting for improving children's physical activity levels. Further research on the facilitators of these high activity levels may provide targets for further promotion of physical activity among children.

Project description:BackgroundDespite the widespread use of caffeine including consumption during pregnancy, the effect of prenatal caffeine exposure on child brain development and behavior is unclear.MethodsTo address this, we used data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (n = 11,875 children aged 9-11 years from 22 sites across the United States). We explored the associations between prenatal caffeine exposure and various developmental outcomes including birth outcomes, physical health, behavior problems, cognition, substance use and brain structure in children, and evaluated dose effects.ResultsAmong 9,978 children (4,745 females) who had valid data for prenatal caffeine exposure and whose mothers did not use drugs of abuse after knowing of pregnancy, 4,170 (41.79%) had no prenatal caffeine exposure, 2,292 (22.97%) had daily, 1,933 (19.37%) had weekly, and 1,583 (15.86%) had less than weekly exposures. Prenatal caffeine exposure including the widely recommended 'safe' dose was associated with greater externalizing problems, whereas greater BMI and soda consumption were only observed in children with high dose exposures (3+ per day). Notably, the effect size for association of externalizing problems with prenatal caffeine exposure was comparable with that reported for prenatal alcohol (The American Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 2020 and 1060) and prenatal cannabis (JAMA Psychiatry, 78, 2020 and 64) exposures from previous ABCD publications. Additionally, prenatal caffeine exposure was associated with brain structural changes that included greater posterior and lower frontal cortical thickness and altered parietooccipital sulcal depth.ConclusionsThe recommended 'safe' dose of caffeine during pregnancy should be carefully studied to assess whether the behavioral and brain correlates observed here are clinically relevant and determine whether it needs adjustment. Because of the high prevalence of caffeine use in the general population, studies on prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse should include prenatal caffeine use as a covariate.

Dataset Information

Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7- to 11-year-old children.

Publications

Effects of creativity on social and behavioral adjustment in 7- to 11-year-old children.

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