Cognitive predictors of language abilities in primary school children: A cascaded developmental view.

This study investigated the longitudinal relationship between children's domain-general cognitive constraints underlying phonological and sentence processing development in a big sample of typically developing children. 104 children were tested on non-linguistic processing speed, phonological skills (phonological short term memory, phonological knowledge, phonological working memory), and sentence processing abilities (sentence repetition and receptive grammar) in 1st grade (aged 6 to 6.5) and one year later. A cross-lagged structural equation model showed that non-linguistic processing speed was a concurrent predictor of phonological skills, and that phonology had a powerful effect on the child's sentence processing abilities concurrently and longitudinally, providing clear evidence for the role of domain-general processes in the developmental pathway of language. These findings support a cascaded cognitive view of language development and pose important challenges for evaluation and intervention strategies in childhood.

Do prepubertal hormones, 2D:4D index and psychosocial context jointly explain 11-year-old preadolescents' involvement in bullying?

BACKGROUND: Bullying is a type of aggressive behavior that occurs repeatedly and intentionally in school environments and where there is a power imbalance. The main objective of this study was to analyze the association that hormones and the psychosocial context jointly have with bullying behavior. METHOD: Participants were 302 11-year-old preadolescents from the Gipuzkoan cohort of the INMA Project. Bullying was assessed using the Olweus Bully/victim Questionnaire. Prenatal sexual hormones were assessed by calculating 2D:4D ratio and in order to measure prepubertal testosterone and cortisol levels saliva samples were collected within a week of each other. Additionally, various psychosocial factors were evaluated: executive function, family context, school environment and social context. To analyze our complex hypothesis, six metamodels were tested using structural equation modeling. RESULTS: In relation to victims, results showed that victimization was related to worse school environment' perception in boys, and higher stress and conflict in the family in girls. In the case of their involvement in bullying as a bully, lower salivary cortisol levels, worse school environment' perception and lower peers and social support was related to being more frequently involved as a bully in boys, while having more family stress and conflict was related with being a bully in girls. CONCLUSIONS: This approach makes it possible not only to explore the different biological and psychosocial factors affect bullying behavior, but also to explore associations between the predictor variables.

Family Context Assessment in Middle Childhood: A Tool Supporting Social, Educational, and Public Health Interventions.

Quality of the family context has an important role in the physical and mental health of children; that is why it is important to have reliable and updated tools. This study aims to design and validate a new tool, the Haezi Etxadi Family Assessment Scale 7-11 (HEFAS 7-11), to assess family context quality in middle childhood. A sample of two cohorts of 772 Spanish families with children aged between 7 and 11 (M = 9.39 years; SD = 1.57; 51.2% girls), participated in the study. Results showed good psychometric properties for the instrument and the confirmatory factor analysis showed a five individual subscales structure: 1. Promotion of Cognitive and Linguistic Development (α = 0.79); 2. Promotion of Socio Emotional Development (α = 0.83); 3. Organization of Physical Environment and Social Context (α = 0.73); 4. Parental Stress & Conflict (α = 0.75); and 5. Parental Profile Fostering Child Development (α = 0.80). The association between HEFAS 7-11 and Trial Making Test was also analyzed to determine the concurrent validity of the instrument. The new scale shows its potential in the fields of research, social and educational, to know those variables that need to be promoted under the approach of positive parenting from a public health perspective.