Catherine McBride-Chang

What Is Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness was hypothesized to be composed of at least 3 component skills- IQ, verbal short-term memory, and speech perception. In addition, 4 linguistic manipulations within 3 phonological awareness tasks were theorized to affect item difficulties. Multiple measures of IQ, verbal short-term memory, speech perception, and phonological awareness were administered to 136 3rd and 4th graders. Application of structural equation modeling revealed that IQ, speech perception, and verbal short-term memory each contributed unique variance to the phonological awareness construct. All 4 experimental linguistic manipulations influenced phonological awareness item difficulties as well. Results underscore the importance of speech perception for phonological awareness

Structural invariance in the associations of naming speed, phonological awareness, and verbal reasoning in good and poor readers: A test of the double deficit hypothesis.

The associations of multiple measures of speeded naming, phonological awareness, and verbal intelligence with word reading were examined in 51 poor readers and 74 good readers in third and fourth grade. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the extent to which these two groups exhibited structurally invariant patterns of associations among the constructs. Results revealed that for poor readers, both speeded naming and phonological awarencess were significantly associated with word reading, but verbal intelligence had no association with it. In contrast, for good readers, phonological awareness and verbal intelligence were significantly associated with word reading, but naming speed was not. Findings are discussed in light of the double deficit hypothesis.

The classroom performance and behavior of sexually abused females

This study examines the relationship of child sexual abuse to classroom academic performance and behavior in a sample of 6–16-year-old girls. Half of the sample was sexually abused by a family member. The other half is a demographically similar nonabused comparison group. Measures of academic performance include school records, teachers ratings of classroom behavior and performance, and parental reports of school performance. Possible mediators of the impact of sexual abuse on classroom performance and behavior – cognitive capability, perceived competence, and behavior problems–are also measured. Results can be summarized as follows, (a) A history of sexual abuse does predict academic performance: Abuse is directly negatively related to ratings of classroom social competence, competent learner, and overall academic performance and positively related to school avoidant behavior, but is not related to grades, (b) Sexual abuse is negatively related to cognitive ability and positively related to measures of behavior problems indicating depression, destructiveness, and dissociation, (c) Cognitive ability and perceived competence predict the more “academic” aspects of academic performance—grades, ratings as a competent learner, and overall academic performance. Behavior problems predict ratings as a competent learner, classroom social competence, school avoidant behavior, and overall academmic performance.

The Factor Structure of the Life Orientation Test

This study disputed the unidimensionality of the Life Orientation Test (LOT). The eight-item LOT was administered to undergraduates in its original mixed form and in consistent optimism and consistent pessimism forms. Within the original form, two factors of optimism and pessimism were identified. However, when items had the same connotations, only one factor emerged. Researchers should acknowledge the two-factor structure of the LOT or reconstruct the items to maintain the unidimensional interpretation of the test.

Functional Parenting in Pakistan

We obtained information regarding parenting perceptions and psychosocial adjustment from 102 Pakistani young women. Parenting behaviours assessed pertained to warmth and dominating control, as well as to “training” (proposed by Chao as having relevance in other Asian cultures), and indigenously relevant items related to religion and shame/honour. Adjustment measures included self-esteem, relationship harmony, and self-perceived health, shown to have relevance in other Asian cultures. In two-factor analyses, perceptions of parents’ warmth and training behaviours combined into a factor that correlated positively with adjustment measures, whereas the dominating control factor correlated negatively. In three-factor analyses, perceptions of mothers’ training behaviours predicted variance in relationship harmony, independent of perceptions of warmth and dominating control behaviours. These findings support Chao’s views that the dimension of training may play a particularly important role in functional parenting in some non-Western cultures

Visual spatial skill: A consequence of learning to read?

Does learning to read influence ones visual skill? In Study 1, kindergartners from Hong Kong, Korea, Israel, and Spain were tested on word reading and a task of visual spatial skill. Chinese and Korean kindergartners significantly outperformed Israeli and Spanish readers on the visual task. Moreover, in all cultures except Korea, good readers scored significantly higher on the visual task than did less good readers. In Study 2, we followed 215 Hong Kong Chinese kindergartners across 1year, with word reading and visual skills tested twice. In this study, word reading at Time 1 by itself predicted 13% of unique variance in visual skill at Time 2. Together, these results underscore the potential importance of the process of learning to read for shaping ones visual spatial skill development.

Hong Kong Chinese Kindergartners Learn to Read English Analytically

We examined the extent to which young Hong Kong Chinese children, taught to read English as a second language via a logographic “look and say” method, used information about letter names and letter sounds to learn English words. Forty children from each of three kindergarten grade levels (mean ages 3.8, 5.0, and 5.9 years old, respectively) were taught to pronounce novel English spellings that were based on letter-name (e.g., DK = Deke), letter-sound (DK = Dick), or visual (DK = Jean) cues. By the 2nd year of kindergarten, children performed significantly better in the name condition than the other conditions. The 3rd-year kindergartners performed better in the sound condition than the visual condition as well. The results point to the importance of letter-name and letter-sound knowledge for learning to read English, regardless of native-language background or method of instruction.

Maternal mediation of writing in Chinese children

Two scales of mothers’ mediation of their childrens writing based on Aram and Levin (2001) were developed and tested in 67 mother–child Hong Kong Chinese dyads in three grade levels – second-year kindergarten, third-year kindergarten, and first grade. With childrens ages, grades, and non-verbal IQs, as well as mothers’ education levels statistically controlled in a regression equation, the four strategies of the ‘Print Mediation’ scale, a measure of mother–child joint writing productions, explained a unique 10% of the variance in childrens word reading. These four strategies tended to change with age such that higher autonomy was more common among older children and lower autonomy was more prevalent among younger children. In a separate hierarchical regression equation, the ‘Literate Mediation’ scale, tapping specific writing strategies, explained a unique 8–11% of the variance in childrens word reading. A prevalence of copying strategies tended to be negatively associated with reading skill and a prevalence of morphologically based strategies tended to be positively associated with reading skill, even apart from age and grade level. Findings demonstrate some strong developmental trends in the writing process but also suggest that a more analytic approach to Chinese character writing may be helpful for literacy development, even among the youngest children.

Memory, Print Exposure, and Metacognition: Components of Reading in Chinese Children

This study examined the relative contributions of visual and verbal memory, metacognition about reading, and print exposure to reading comprehension among 100 Chinese fifth graders. The four concurrently measured componential skills were substantially associated with reading comprehension and reliably distinguished between good and poor readers. In a hierarchical regression, after controlling for the effects of verbal intelligence, both verbal and visual memory abilities predicted unique variance in reading comprehension. The distinctness of each memory skill underscores the existence of two unique memory processes in Chinese reading. Future research should examine the longitudinal contributions of these cognitive abilities to reading comprehension.

Auditory sensitivity, speech perception, L1 Chinese, and L2 English reading abilities in Hong Kong Chinese children.

A 4-stage developmental model, in which auditory sensitivity is fully mediated by speech perception at both the segmental and suprasegmental levels, which are further related to word reading through their associations with phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, verbal short-term memory and morphological awareness, was tested with concurrently collected data on 153 2nd- and 3rd-grade Hong Kong Chinese children. Nested model comparisons were conducted to test this model separately against alternatives in relation to both Chinese and English word reading using structural equation modeling. For Chinese word reading, the proposed 4-stage model was demonstrated to be the best model. Auditory sensitivity was associated with speech perception, which was related to Chinese word reading mainly through its relations to morphological awareness and rapid automatized naming. In contrast, for English word reading, the best model required an additional direct path from suprasegmental sensitivity (in Chinese) to English word reading. That is, in addition to phonological awareness, Chinese speech prosody was also directly associated with English word recognition.