Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Grit, Love for Learning: It's Not Just Smarts That Boost Child Academics

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

A child's intelligence is not the sole key to academic success, a new British study concludes.

Instead, intelligence plus "non-cognitive" factors, such as a determination to excel despite obstacles and an innate love of learning, can push a child to the top of the class, new genetic data shows.

"Our research challenges the long-held assumption that intelligence is the primary driver of academic achievement," said study co-lead author Dr. Margherita Malanchini.

"We’ve found compelling evidence that non-cognitive skills -- such as grit, perseverance, academic interest and value attributed to learning -- are not only significant predictors of success, but that their influence grows stronger over time," added Malanchini, a senior lecturer in psychology at Queen Mary University of London.

She and co-lead study author Dr. Andrea Allegrini, of University College London, published their findings in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

The new study involved over 10,000 British children whose academic success was tracked from ages 7 to 16. At the same time, the London researchers took a look at each child's DNA, seeking genes that are known to be linked to certain non-cognitive skills.

"We discovered that genetic effects associated with non-cognitive skills become increasingly predictive of academic achievement over the school years, in fact their effect nearly doubles between the ages of 7 and 16," Allegrini, a research fellow at University College London, said in a Queen Mary news release. "By the end of compulsory education, genetic dispositions towards non-cognitive skills were equally as important as those related to cognitive abilities in predicting academic success."

In other words, intelligence alone isn't always enough to excel: Drive, curiosity and other traits also play a big role in academic success.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/grit-love-for-learning-its-not-just-smarts-that-boost-child-academics

Teenagers' Motivation Dips in High School—Research Shows Supportive Teachers Can Really Help

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Phys.org.

Adolescence is often characterized as a time of "storm and stress." Young people are dealing with physical and cognitive changes and, as they move from childhood, can become increasingly distant from the adults in their lives.

In academic terms, this time of major hormonal change is also accompanied by a well-known dip in students' motivation and engagement at school. This often coincides with students' going to high school.

How can schools better help young people at this time? A new four-year study looked at the role of teaching support and whether teachers' influence on students' motivation and engagement grows or fades across the adolescent years.

The study involved 7,769 Year 6 New South Wales government school students who were tracked annually into Year 9. The students were part of the NSW Department of Education's annual "Tell Them From Me" student survey.

The findings confirmed  a decline in students' motivation and engagement from Year 6 to Year 9 (around 18% in total). This is consistent with the known dip in early- to mid-adolescence.

They also found in each of these four years, teaching support overall (and each of the three teaching support categories) was significantly associated with students' motivation and engagement. That is, more teaching support was linked to greater student aspirations, valuing school, perseverance, homework effort, connections with school friends, and less misconduct at school.

Source: Phys.org
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-teenagers-dips-high-school-teachers.html

Desperate Parents Considering Dumpster Diving and Theft to Afford Their Kids’ School Supplies

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

How are families faring in the U.S. economy this year? A concerning new poll finds that the answer could be summed up in one word — desperation. Three in four parents say they would try “any” workaround they could find to save some money on school supplies for their children—with some even dumpster diving and stealing from work!

A survey of 2,000 U.S. parents of elementary school kids found 77% believe staying under their budget is a top priority for them. The top resources parents have used to keep their back-to-school shopping under control include purchasing school supplies whenever they go on sale, even after back-to-school season (49%), and shopping at multiple stores for the best deals (45%).

The survey also revealed that many others said they’d also try to save money by even wilder means. These desperate parents would try hoarding school supplies throughout the year (37%), shopping exclusively when there’s a deal (34%), extreme couponing (22%), looking for half-used items around the home (16%),  joining buy-nothing groups on social media (10%), trading supplies with other parents (9%), and dumpster diving (5%). Another 12% admitted to stealing supplies from their workplace so their kids could use them as school supplies.

While two in three parents reported feeling prepared for back-to-school shopping this year, the results also found 82% believe the cost of supplies has increased in the past year, especially for clothing (59%), shoes (51%), backpacks (50%), and school uniforms (26%).

On average, parents anticipate spending $280 on supplies this year.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/desperate-parents-school-supplies/

Video Games Help Teens Cope With Academic Stress

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by PsyPost.

A recent study published in the journal Deviant Behavior has found a significant relationship between academic stress and increased video game use among adolescents. The research indicates that this connection is influenced by the adolescents’ confidence in their gaming abilities, suggesting that video games may serve as a coping mechanism for academic pressures.

The study, led by Yeungjeom Lee of the University of Texas at Dallas, aimed to examine how stress and gaming efficacy jointly affect video game overuse. The researchers utilized data from the Game User Panel administered by the Korea Creative Content Agency, which included a longitudinal sample of 801 adolescents from South Korea. The participants, ranging from 10 to 16 years old, provided data over five years, from 2014 to 2018.

The study focused on two types of stress: academic and peer-related. Academic stress encompassed concerns over grades, exams, and schoolwork, while peer stress involved difficulties in communication and bullying. The researchers measured excessive gaming using a 20-question survey assessing behaviors such as neglecting responsibilities and social life due to gaming. Gaming efficacy, or the belief in one’s ability to succeed in video games, was also measured.

The findings indicated a strong link between academic stress and increased video game use. Adolescents experiencing higher levels of academic stress were more likely to engage in excessive gaming. This relationship, however, was not observed with peer-related stress, which did not show a significant connection to gaming behavior.

A crucial element that the researchers identified was the moderating effect of gaming efficacy. Gaming efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in their ability to succeed at playing video games. The study found that adolescents with higher gaming efficacy were more likely to use video games as a coping mechanism in response to academic stress. This suggests that for those who feel competent and successful in the gaming environment, video games serve as an effective escape from the pressures and frustrations associated with their academic challenges.

The study highlights that video games provide a structured environment with clear goals and immediate rewards, which can be particularly appealing to adolescents who face ongoing academic pressures.

Source: PsyPost
https://www.psypost.org/video-games-help-teens-cope-with-academic-stress-study-suggests/

Peers Crucial in Shaping Boys' Confidence in Math Skills

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by ScienceDaily.

Boys are good at math, girls not so much? A study from the University of Zurich has analyzed the social mechanisms that contribute to the gender gap in math confidence. While peer comparisons seem to play a crucial role for boys, girls' subjective evaluations are more likely to be based on objective performance.

Research has shown that in Western societies, the average secondary school girl has less confidence in her mathematical abilities than the average boy of the same age. At the same time, no significant difference has been found between girls' and boys' performance in mathematics. This phenomenon is often framed as girls not being confident enough in their abilities or that boys might, in fact, be overconfident.

A study from the University of Zurich (UZH) focuses on a previously neglected aspect of the math confidence gap: the role of peer relationships. "Especially in adolescence, peers are the primary social reference for individual development. Peer processes that operate through friendship networks determine a wide range of individual outcomes," said the study's lead author, Isabel Raabe, from the Department of Sociology at UZH. The study analyzed data from 8,812 individuals in 358 classrooms in a longitudinal social network analysis.

As expected, the main predictor of math confidence is individual math grades. While girls translated their grades -- more or less directly -- into self-assessment, boys with below-average grades nevertheless believed they were good at math.

"In general, boys seem to be more sensitive to social processes in their self-perception -- they compare themselves more with others for validation and then adjust their confidence accordingly," Raabe explains. "When they were confronted with girls' self-assessments in cross-gender friendships, their math confidence tended to be lower." Peers' self-assessment was less relevant to girls' math confidence. Their subjective evaluation seemed to be driven more by objective performance.

The results of the study suggest that math skills are more important to boys, who adjust their self-assessment in peer processes, while math confidence does not seem to be socially relevant for girls.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240610140304.htm

Self-Critical Perfectionism Gnaws on Students' Well-Being Already in Lower Secondary School

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by ScienceDaily.

A new study among ninth-graders attending lower secondary school in Swedish-speaking areas of Finland identified four perfectionistic profiles with varying associations with students' psychological well-being. The study was conducted in collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland and Åbo Akademi University.

Perfectionism is characterized by high standards and striving for excellence, but it also involves concerns over one's own performance and dissatisfaction with one's achievements. In other words, there is both a positive and a negative side to perfectionism. Different individuals, however, place different emphasis on strivings and concerns.

"We identified four distinct perfectionistic profiles: moderately concerned (relatively low strivings and relatively high concerns), perfectionists (high strivings and high concerns), ambitious (high strivings and low concerns), and non-perfectionists (low strivings and low concerns)," Doctoral Researcher Anna Kuusi of the University of Eastern Finland says.

The study showed that perfectionistic profiles are substantially stable: around 80 percent of the students maintained the same profile over the school year. However, some significant transitions were observed as well: some students transitioned from moderately concerned to non-perfectionist or perfectionist or from perfectionist to moderately concerned. The profiles and transitions were also associated with well-being.

"Although both ambitious and perfectionist students were highly engaged and had high strivings, perfectionists displayed more burnout and anxiety and depressive symptoms than ambitious students, who only displayed a little of these. Both of these profiles, i.e., ambitious and perfectionist, which are characterized by high concerns, were associated with poorer well-being."

The moderately concerned profile was the most prevalent, and it can be thought to represent the typical ninth-grader. According to Kuusi, this is noteworthy because students with this profile also displayed relatively high emotional exhaustion as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms, compared to students with a non-perfectionist or an ambitious profile.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240506131549.htm

Children and Adolescents Enjoy Learning New Words

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalExpress.

New research led by academics at Royal Holloway, University of London, published in Developmental Science, suggests that children and adolescents remain excited by learning new words, all the way until adulthood.

The study, led by Professor Saloni Krishnan from the Department of Psychology, investigated how much children and adolescents enjoy learning the meaning of new words, as well as how well they retain them over time. This would suggest that such learning can be intrinsically motivating.

Recent research has demonstrated that adults experience a feeling of reward or "buzz" when they successfully learn new words which significantly enhances long-term memory retention of newly acquired words.

The study involved 345 children between the ages of 10 to 18. The children were given 40 self-paced trials, which involved pairing two sentences to make sense of the new word they were learning.

Children were tasked with working out the meaning of a new word by making a prediction based on the sentence context. They were then asked to rate their emotions, including confidence, happiness, and excitement, after every question.

The research found that not only did the children and adolescents learn and retain the words, but they also found the experience of successfully learning to be enjoyable. This is the first demonstration that language learning is intrinsically rewarding in children and provides clues to why we seek out and enjoy learning words (unlike our closest evolutionary cousins the chimpanzees).

"Our findings conclusively demonstrate children find such learning intrinsically rewarding—and don't need external rewards like validation. I think the experience of enjoyment is an important signal to seek out new knowledge and build our vocabulary.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-children-adolescents-enjoy-words.html

Academic Pressure Linked to Higher Depression Risk in Teens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by News Medical.

A recent study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health examines whether and how the need to achieve certain goals increases the risk of depression in adolescents.

Achievement goals, which are defined as cognitive representations that guide behaviors, have been identified as a modifiable risk factor for depression in adolescents.

Some psychological models suggest that people oriented towards achievement are more likely to become depressed, as they are often more focused on performance rather than mastery goals. Moreover, the inability to compete successfully with peers can lead to reduced self-worth due to feelings of inadequacy.

The current study sought to control for confounding factors by using a more representative sample of students. To this end, data was obtained from the National Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).

The study cohort included 3,200 kindergarten participants recruited between four and five years of age. About 2,700 from the baby group were recruited in the first year of life. Students in both cohorts were equally split between government and non-government schools.

Depressive symptom severity increased over time for both cohorts. In the kindergarten cohort, with each one-point increase in mastery-approach goals, there was a 33% reduced risk in depressive symptom severity scores, whereas a 30% reduction was observed in the baby cohort. With each corresponding increase in mastery-avoidance goals, a 35% and 44% increase in depressive symptom severity scores were observed within the kindergarten and baby cohorts, respectively.

The findings from the current longitudinal national-level adolescent cohort indicate that depression among adolescents is associated with their achievement goals. Although this is an early study, its findings reflect the utility of evaluating school environment interventions for their emphasis on mastery-approach goals.

Source: News Medical
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240422/Academic-pressure-linked-to-higher-depression-risk-in-teens.aspx

Irregular Sleep and Late Bedtimes Associated with Worse Grades for High School Students

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by the National Institutes of Health.

Irregular sleep and late bedtimes are linked to worse grades and more school-related behavioral problems among teens, suggests a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The authors stated that interventions to promote regular sleep schedules may boost adolescents’ academic performance.

The study, conducted by Gina Marie Mathew, Ph.D., and Lauren Hale, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University and colleagues, appears in Sleep. Funding was provided by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Researchers analyzed data from nearly 800 adolescents participating in a larger study. Participants provided information on grades and school-related behavioral issues. They also wore a wrist accelerometer (a device that records the wearer’s movements) for a week so that study staff could estimate their sleep patterns.

Participants with more variable bedtimes had a greater chance of receiving a D or lower during the last grading period, compared to those with more consistent bedtimes. Adolescents who went to bed later, got up later or varied the number of hours they slept per night had fewer classes in which they received an A. Adolescents were more likely to be suspended or expelled in the last two years if they got up later, varied the number of hours they slept each night or if they varied the time they went to bed each night.

Source: National Institutes of Health
https://www.nichd.nih.gov/newsroom/news/040224-teen-sleep

Loneliness And Depression In Teens Linked To Lack Of Sleep And Early School Start Times

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Forbes.

Teenagers who wake up early for school, sleep less than eight hours per night or spend time on their electronic devices within an hour of going to bed are more likely to have experienced depression and loneliness, results of a new National Sleep Foundation survey showed.

Fewer than two out of every 10 of the more than 1,100 American teenagers surveyed reported they get the recommended amount of sleep per night.

Among those who don’t get enough sleep were those who start school before the foundation-recommended time of 8:30 a.m.; seven out of 10 students said they start school earlier and those who do have higher levels of depressive symptoms than their peers.

Those who have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep also had their mental health negatively impacted: those who found it hard to fall asleep one or fewer nights per week were less likely to be depressed than those who struggled two or more nights.

The National Sleep Foundation asked teenagers to report their nighttime sleep behaviors and assigned grades based on how well they prioritized healthy rest. The behaviors include avoiding substances before bed (64% of respondents say they practice the habit daily), sleeping in a quiet, cool and dark environment (62%), keeping a consistent bedtime (27%) and avoiding electronic devices before bed, which only 9% of teenagers said they do daily. Depressive symptoms were reported much less by those who scored an A or B grade on the assessment of sleep-promoting behaviors (5% of high scoring respondents) than those who scored an F (19%).

Source: Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/03/07/loneliness-and-depression-in-teens-linked-to-lack-of-sleep-and-early-school-start-times-new-report-shows/