Barbara M. Burns

Characterizing the Achievement Motivation Orientation of Children from Low- and Middle-Income Families.

Research Findings: The current study examined achievement motivation orientation in preschool-age children from low- and middle-income families. Participants were 126 children who were attending an urban Head Start site or a private preschool. Childrens motivation orientation was assessed as being performance oriented or mastery oriented using a challenging puzzle task (Smiley & Dweck, 1994). Childrens verbalizations during the task were coded into performance concern, disengaged, and negative self-evaluation categories. Logistic regression and Mann-Whitney U analyses were conducted to examine differences between income groups in motivation orientation and verbalizations. Patterns of motivation orientation in preschool-age children from low- and middle-income families did not differ after controlling for differences in age and puzzle-solving ability. However, children from low-income families made a significantly higher proportion of performance-related verbalizations while working on the task. Practice or Policy: The findings support the examination of childrens private speech as a way to assess cognitive processes underlying achievement motivation. In addition to providing a novel way to identify differences in achievement motivation that may be useful for teachers and researchers, the findings suggest the potential utility of designing interventions that promote positive private speech as a way of supporting mastery-oriented motivation in young children.

Basic Language Skills and Young Children's Understanding of Causal Connections During Storytelling

The current study examined the role of basic language skills for individual differences in preschoolers’ understanding of causal connections. Assessments of basic language skills, expressive vocabulary, phonological processing, and receptive language comprehension were examined in relation to the production of causal connections in a storytelling task, at two time periods. Similar to previous cross-sectional research, childrens causal connections increased over six months. As hypothesized, expressive vocabulary and phonological processing predicted causal connections at Time 1. Six months later, only phonological processing predicted causal connections. Results provide new information regarding the significance of basic language skills for early narrative skills.

Attention regulation in low‐risk very low birth weight preschoolers: the influence of child temperament and parental sensitivity

Even in the absence of major disabilities, children born prematurely are at high risk for academic delays and deficits. Research suggests that some differences in outcomes may relate to problems with self‐regulation, especially attention regulation. Previous research has demonstrated that individual differences in attention regulation is associated with both child and parent factors. This study examines the role of child temperament and parental sensitivity for attention regulation in preschool‐age children (n = 95) born with very low birth weights (VLBW) by using both questionnaire and observational data. Regression analyses demonstrate differential effects of specific child temperament characteristics and specific aspects of parental sensitivity on attention regulation. Early assessment of temperament and individualised parent sensitivity training may be important for improving outcomes for VLBW children.