Deprivation in experience in the first year of life has more long-lasting effects on physical growth than on mental development. The variable most consistently related to development was height-to-age ratio. As a measure of nutritional status, the findings reinforce the critical importance of early nutrition.

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A transactional model was used to examine the reciprocal relationship between maternal negativity and child externalizing behavior over three time points. Data were collected from 1,479 children and their mothers every two years, as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). Children were 10—11 years old at Time 1, 12—13 at Time 2, and 14—15 at Time 3. Measures of maternal negativity were obtained from both mothers and children, while measures of child externalizing behavior were obtained from children only. Structural Equation Modeling revealed that both members of the dyad influenced one another’s behavior, with evidence of a recursive feedback loop over time. These influences were not equal (across persons) or stable (across time). Children’s influence on the development of maternal negativity increased over time.

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This study investigated the adequacy of an expanded simple view of reading (SVR) framework for English language learners (ELLs), using mediation modeling approach. The proposed expanded SVR included reading fluency as an outcome and phonological awareness and naming speed as predictors. To test the fit of the proposed mediation model, longitudinal data from 308 ELLs from different linguistic backgrounds were analyzed using structural equation modeling. We examined the mediating role of Grade 2 word-level reading skills in the association between Grade 1 phonological awareness, naming speed, and listening comprehension and Grade 3 reading comprehension and reading fluency. The results indicated that word-level reading skills fully mediated the association between phonological awareness, reading comprehension and reading fluency. Word-level reading skills partially mediated the association between naming speed and reading fluency. Listening comprehension contributed directly to reading comprehension and reading fluency. It appears that reading development in ELLs is better understood when reading fluency is added to the SVR framework as an outcome and naming speed as a building block of SVR. Theoretical aspects of the mediation model in relation to ELL reading development are also addressed.

The present study integrates findings from three lines of research on the association of social cognition and externalizing psychopathology, language and externalizing psychopathology, and social cognition and language functioning using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). To date these associations have been examined in pairs. A sample of 354 clinic-referred children (aged 7 to 14 years) recruited from a children's mental health centre were tested on measures of language, social cognition, working memory, and child psychopathology. We compared a hypothesized model presenting language functioning as a mediator of the association between social cognition and externalizing psychopathology to a model presenting the independent contribution of language and social cognition to externalizing psychopathology. As hypothesized, we found that the mediation model fits the data better than the alternative model. Our findings have implications for developing and modifying intervention techniques for children with dual language and externalizing psychopathology.

This study investigated the effect of acculturation on definitions and attributions towards children's school achievement. Iranian and Iranian-canadian immigrant mothers and their upper-elementary school children were interviewed about their definitions and attributions about school success and failure. There were significant effects of acculturation on the definitions and attributions of both mothers and children. Definitions of school success and failure held by Iranian mothers and their children were product-based, whereas the immigrant mothers and their children used definitions that were more process-based. While Iranian mothers attributed their children's school performance primarily to `effort', `family' appeared to be the most frequent attribution held by Iranian-canadian immigrant mothers. The Iranian children consistently attributed academic success and failure to `effort', whereas the immigrant children's responses were variable, demonstrating acculturation to Western belief systems. The findings demonstrate how acculturation influences mothers' and children's beliefs about school achievement through the process of immigration. Implications for theory are discussed.