Distinctions without a difference? Preschool curricula and children's development.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Jenkins JM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7500564 | biostudies-literature | 2019
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Distinctions without a difference? Preschool curricula and children's development.
Jenkins Jade Marcus JM Whitaker Anamarie Auger AA Nguyen Tutrang T Yu Winnie W
Journal of research on educational effectiveness 20190809 3
Similar Datasets
Project description:ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the association between preschool playground size, formalized physical activity (PA) policies, time spent outdoors and preschool teacher's levels of PA and children's objectively assessed levels of PA and sedentary time (ST) during preschool hours.MethodsIn total, 369 children and 84 preschool teachers from 27 preschools in Södermalm municipally, Stockholm Sweden wore an Actigraph GT3X+ accelerometer during 7 consecutive days. Preschool environmental and structural characteristics were measured via the Environment and Policy Evaluation Self-Report (EPAO-SR) instrument and time in- and outdoors was recorded by preschool teachers during the PA measurements. Weight and height of children were measured via validated scales and parents filled out a questionnaire on demographical and descriptive variables. Linear mixed models, nested on preschool level, were used to assess the association between predictors and outcomes.ResultsThe mean child age was 4.7 years (SD 0.8) and 45% were girls. We found that children were more active in preschools with a formalized PA policy, compared to preschools without such a policy, but not less sedentary. The association between policy and activity seemed to be more pronounced when accounting for other environmental factors. Similar associations were found in children spent most time outdoors (uppermost quartile) compared with children spent least time outdoors (Lowermost quartile). Preschool teachers' light PA (LPA) (ß = 0.25, P = 0.004) and steps (ß = 0.52, P<0.001) were associated with children's LPA and steps while the preschool playground size showed no association with PA in children, when accounting for other environmental factors.ConclusionThe current study showed that preschool structural characteristics such as formalized PA policies and more time spent outdoors were positively associated with children's PA. These findings suggest that formalized PA policies and time outdoors may be of importance for promoting children's PA during preschool hours.
| S-EPMC7561096 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The regulation of interpersonal distance and social space plays a central role in social behavior, and intrusions into personal space often lead to irritations in social interactions. Although there is plenty of research on people's actual proxemics in social interactions, less is known about how individuals represent and reason about social space, and whether there are age-related differences. The current study examined preschool children's and adults' predictions about others' interpersonal distances in two experiments. The findings show that preschool children have systematic expectations about others' proxemics. In addition, we found age-related differences as adults assumed people to keep greater interpersonal distance than preschool children.
| S-EPMC6298249 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Social indirect reciprocity seems to be crucial in enabling large-scale cooperative networks among genetically unrelated individuals in humans. However, there are relatively few studies on social indirect reciprocity in children compared to adults. Investigating whether young children have a behavioral tendency toward social indirect reciprocity will help us understand how and when the fundamental ability to form cooperative relationships among adults is acquired. Using naturalistic observation at a nursery school, this study examined whether 5- to 6-year-olds show a behavioral tendency to engage in social indirect reciprocity in response to their peers' prosocial behavior toward a third party. The results revealed that bystander children tended to display prosocial behavior toward their peers more frequently after observing these peers' prosocial behavior toward third-party peers, compared with control situations; this suggests that 5- to 6-year-olds may have an essential behavioral tendency to establish social indirect reciprocity when interacting with peers in their daily lives. In addition, bystanders tended to display affiliative behavior after observing focal children's prosocial behavior. In other words, observing peers' prosocial behavior toward third-party peers evoked bystanders' positive emotions toward the helpers. Considering both the present results and previous findings, we speculate that in preschoolers, such positive emotions might mediate the increase in the bystander's prosocial behavior toward the helper. In addition, an intuitional emotional process plays an important role in the preschooler's behavioral tendency toward social indirect reciprocity in natural interactions with peers.
| S-EPMC3737253 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesPreschool is an important setting for regulating sedentary time (ST). The preschool day in Finland follows daily structures by having morning and afternoon slots for group-based activities that can encourage children for movement (eg, free play and outdoor time) or be still (eg, teacher-led sessions and sitting-based circles). This study aims to explore if the weekly routines in preschool and if more frequent visits in places encouraging physical activity (PA) are associated with children's ST during preschool hours.DesignCross-sectional DAGIS (Increased Health and Wellbeing in Preschools) study in the years 2015 and 2016.SettingIn Finland.Participants864 children (48% girls, 4.7 years) from 159 preschool groups in 66 preschools OUTCOME MEASURES: A total of 778 children wore required lengths of time (at least 240?min per preschool day, at least 2?days) the accelerometer during preschool hours. Each preschool group reported their weekly schedule during the week, and one early educator completed a questionnaire covering practices. The following five measures related to weekly structures were formed; times of outdoors (times per day), teacher-led sessions (times per day), free play (low, middle or high), organised PA lessons (no lessons at all/others) and mixed activities (no lessons at all/others), and the following five measures about the frequencies of visits in places encouraging PA; nature trips (times per week), play parks (times per week), neighbourhood sport facilities (no visits at all/others), visits to gym or other indoor facility (no visits at all/others) and field trips to neighbourhoods (times per week). Multilevel linear regression analyses were conducted to measure the associations.ResultsOf all the tested associations, only more frequently conducted nature trips were associated with lower children's ST during preschool hours (?=-1.026; 95%?CI -1.804 to -0.248).ConclusionFrequent nature trips in preschools may be important due to its association with lower preschool children's ST.
| S-EPMC6937063 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Evidence that the learning gains of preschool fade as children transition into elementary school has led to increased efforts to sustain preschool advantages during this key transitional period. This study explores whether the observed benefits of sustainability practices for a range of child outcomes are explained and/or moderated by family and school mechanisms selecting children into experiencing these practices. Analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort revealed that both family and school factors predicted children's exposure to several PK-3 sustainability practices. PK-3 sustainability practices were associated with reading (but not math) gains and better interpersonal skills (but not fewer externalizing behaviors) following the transition into kindergarten. These links were not conditioned by the selection mechanisms. The findings highlight who is more likely to seek out (at the family level) or offer (at the school level) sustainability practices and how relevant they are to fighting preschool fadeout.
| S-EPMC5546791 | biostudies-other
Project description:Researchers have extensively studied the social mechanisms that drive the formation of networks observed among preschool children. However, less attention has been given to global network structures in terms of blockmodels. A blockmodel is a network where the nodes are groups of equivalent units (according to links to others) from a studied network. It is already shown that mutuality, popularity, assortativity, and different types of transitivity mechanisms can lead the global network structure to the proposed asymmetric core-cohesive blockmodel. Yet, they did not provide any evidence that such a global network structure actually appears in any empirical data. In this paper, the symmetric version of the core-cohesive blockmodel type is proposed. This blockmodel type consists of three or more groups of units. The units from each group are internally well linked to each other while those from different groups are not linked to each other. This is true for all groups, except one in which the units have mutual links to all other units in the network. In this study, it is shown that the proposed blockmodel type appears in empirical interactional networks collected among preschool children. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that the most often studied social network mechanisms can lead the global network structure to the proposed symmetric blockmodel type. The units' attributes are not considered in this study.
| S-EPMC6961920 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated that a novel psychotherapy, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-Emotion Development (PCIT-ED), effectively treats preschool-onset depression. However, little is known about which children benefit most from PCIT-ED. As positive parent-level factors are associated with lesser depressive symptoms, this study explored the potential moderating role of positive parenting relationships on PCIT-ED efficacy. This study examined mothers and their children aged 3-6 (N = 185) who participated in the PCIT-ED RCT. Children were randomized to immediate PCIT-ED treatment (n = 94) or a waitlist control condition (n = 91) that received treatment after 18 weeks. Prior to treatment, children completed a narrative story completion task that was videotaped and coded for children's positive and negative representations of their mothers. Parent-child interaction tasks were also completed pre-treatment and videotaped and coded to measure observed parenting. Odds of MDD diagnosis post-treatment were predicted by the interaction of children's negative maternal representations and treatment group (Estimate = -.68; SE = .27; [Formula: see text] = 6.45; p = .01) and the interaction of children's relatively more positive than negative maternal representations and treatment group (Estimate = .30; SE = .13; [Formula: see text] = 5.27; p = .02). Observed parenting measures did not significantly predict odds of MDD diagnosis. Thus, PCIT-ED predicted loss of MDD diagnosis for children who displayed maternal representations that were less negative, and relatively more positive than negative. Results suggest that children with relatively more positive maternal representations may be more likely to benefit from PCIT-ED, whereas children with more negative maternal representations may need targeted work to decrease negative maternal perceptions before initiating PCIT-ED in order for treatment to be most effective.
| S-EPMC9808883 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Silicone wristbands can be used as passive sampling tools for measuring personal environmental exposure to organic compounds. Due to the lightweight and simple design, the wristband may be a useful technique for measuring children's exposure. In this study, we tested the stability of flame retardant compounds in silicone wristbands and developed an analytical approach for measuring 41 flame retardants in the silicone wristband in order to evaluate exposure to these compounds in preschool-aged children. To evaluate the robustness of using wristbands to measure flame retardants, we evaluated the stability of 3 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs), and 2 organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) in wristbands over 84 days and did not find any evidence of significant loss over time at either 4 or -20°C (p>0.16). We recruited a cohort of 92 preschool aged children in Oregon to wear the wristband for 7 days in order to characterize children's acceptance of the technology, and to characterize their exposure to flame retardants. Seventy-seven parents returned the wristbands for analysis of 35 BDEs, 4 OPFRs, and 2 other brominated flame retardants although 5 were excluded from the exposure assessment due to protocol deviations (n=72). A total of 20 compounds were detected above the limit of quantitation, and 11 compounds including 4 OPFRs and 7 BDEs were detected in over 60% of the samples. Children's gender, age, race, recruitment site, and family context were not significantly associated with returning wristbands or compliance with protocols. Comparisons between flame retardant data and socio-demographic information revealed significant differences in total exposures to both ?BDEs and ?OPFRs based on age of house, vacuuming frequency, and family context. These results demonstrate that preschool children in Oregon are exposed to BDEs that are no longer being produced in the United States and to OPFRs that have been used as an alternative to polybrominated compounds. Silicone wristbands were well tolerated by young children and were useful for characterizing personal exposure to flame retardants that were not bound to particulate matter.
| S-EPMC4821754 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In collaborative decision-making, partners compare reasons behind conflicting proposals through meta-talk. We investigated UK-based preschoolers' (mixed socioeconomic status) use of meta-talk (Data collection: 2018-2020). In Study 1, 5- and 7-year-old peer dyads (N = 128, 61 girls) heard conflicting claims about an animal from two informants. One prefaced her claim with "I know"; the other with "I think". Dyads identified the more reliable informant through meta-talk ("She said she knows"). In Study 2, 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 64, 34 girls) searched for a toy with an adult partner making incorrect proposals. Children refuted this through reporting what they had witnessed (It cannot be there because "I saw it move", "she moved it"). In preschool period, children start using meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions.
| S-EPMC9541187 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Chile's Physical Activity Report Card graded the overall index on PA behavior with an F The Ministry of Sports is implementing since 2014 "Jardín Activo" (JA program) which recommends 3 weekly teacher-led PE lessons for preschool children, on half or full day attendance. We determined the effectiveness of the JA program (contribution to MVPA during school time) and assessed if effectiveness varied according to schedule. 596 five y olds, (50% boys) were selected from 66 schools; 52.9% attended half day and 47.1% full day. Children wore accelerometers during school time a day with and one without PE lesson (JA day/non JA day). We compared PA intensity between both these days by gender, using descriptive statistics and t-tests and determined the differential effect on PA intensity, between non JA and JA days by school schedule, using mixed models analyses We compared β of sedentary and of MVPA by schedule with t-tests. Significant differences were found in PA intensity between both days within each gender. Minutes being sedentary were significantly less during JA days (14 and 15 min in boys and girls respectively); MVPA significantly higher in JA days (11 and 10 min respectively). % time children were sedentary and % they engaged in MVPA differed by schedule. Sedentary minutes were significantly higher (β - 16.2 vs - 13.2) in half day, while the increase in MVPA was significantly higher (β 12.5 vs 9.7) in full day. The JA program is effective, especially when children attend school full time.
| S-EPMC5554917 | biostudies-other