Late-Night Digital Media Use in Relation to Chronotype, Sleep and Tiredness on School Days in Adolescence.

Previous studies on late-night digital media use and adolescent sleep have not considered how chronotype, a natural tendency to be awake or asleep at certain time, is associated with this relationship. Therefore, the nature of the relationship between late-night digital media use and sleep in different chronotypes remains still unknown. The sample consisted of 15-20-year-old Finnish adolescents (n = 1084, mean age = 16.9 years, SD = 0.93, 45.7% female). This study examined whether chronotype, measured as diurnal type and midpoint of sleep, was associated with the time of evening/night when digital media was used. Associations between the use of different forms of digital media and sleep quality, sleep duration and tiredness on school days were also investigated. Finally, the mediation effect of late-night digital media use to the relationship between chronotype and sleep was examined. Generalized linear models showed that evening chronotype, weekend midpoint of sleep, and the time of evening or night at which digital media was used were associated with more insufficient sleep and tiredness, lower sleep quality and shorter sleep duration on school days. The total use of all media forms, i.e., late-night digital media for music, movies/series, social media, and studying, were associated with shorter sleep duration and more insufficient sleep and daytime tiredness. Late-night social media use also mediated the association between diurnal type and sleep quality. Watching movies or listening to music late at night was the strongest mediator of the association between diurnal type and sleep and tiredness. The most prominent finding shows that of the all different media forms, watching movies or listening to music late at night were associated with increased daytime tiredness, whereas late social media use was associated with poor sleep quality. These interactions were pronounced especially for evening-types. The findings of the current study suggest that the negative effects of late-night media use are reflected especially in sleep quality and daytime tiredness among evening-types during adolescence.

Cognitive and personality predictors of school performance from preschool to secondary school: An overarching model.

In this article, existing research investigating how school performance relates to cognitive, self-awareness, language, and personality processes is reviewed. We outline the architecture of the mind, involving a general factor, g, that underlies distinct mental processes (i.e., executive, reasoning, language, cognizance, and personality processes). From preschool to adolescence, g shifts from executive to reasoning and cognizance processes; personality also changes, consolidating in adolescence. There are three major trends in the existing literature: (a) All processes are highly predictive of school achievement if measured alone, each accounting for ∼20% of its variance; (b) when measured together, cognitive processes (executive functions and representational awareness in preschool and fluid intelligence after late primary school) dominate as predictors (over ∼50%), drastically absorbing self-concepts and personality dispositions that drop to ∼3%-5%; and (c) predictive power changes according to the processes forming g at successive levels: attention control and representational awareness in preschool (∼85%); fluid intelligence, language, and working memory in primary school (∼53%); fluid intelligence, language, self-evaluation, and school-specific self-concepts in secondary school (∼70%). Stability and plasticity of personality emerge as predictors in secondary school. A theory of educational priorities is proposed, arguing that (a) executive and awareness processes; (b) information management; and (c) reasoning, self-evaluation, and flexibility in knowledge building must dominate in preschool, primary, and secondary school, respectively. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Way of Distance Teaching Is Related to Adolescent Students' Health and Loneliness during the School Closure in Finland.

The COVID-19 pandemic enforced countries to close schools and rapidly transfer to distance teaching without preparation. Little is known about how different distance teaching practices influenced students' wellbeing. We studied this during the period of school closures in Finland. Wellbeing was measured by health complaints and perceived loneliness, and distance learning was measured in terms of structure and dialogue of teaching, functioning of internet and digital equipment, difficulty of given tasks, and support for studies. All lower secondary schools were invited, and 29,898 students from 340 schools (grades 7-9) participated. A digital survey was distributed through schools just when these were reopened in May 2020. The main results were that the distance learning practices were related to adolescent health complaints and loneliness, so that less structure and dialogue in teaching, more problems with digital devices and internet, more difficult tasks and less support for studies were associated with higher health complaints and loneliness. From the point of view of students' wellbeing, it matters how the distance learning is organised, how digital communication works, and if enough support for studies is available. These results of our research on distance learning practices during the present pandemic may guide schools in future crises and pandemic situations when distance learning is needed.

Bidirectional Relationship of Sleep with Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties: A Five-year Follow-up of Finnish Adolescents.

The long-term effects of sleep on adolescent psychosocial well-being are mostly unknown, although insufficient sleep has been associated with emotional and behavioral difficulties in cross-sectional studies. With a five-year follow-up of Finnish adolescents (Time 1: n = 8834; Mean age = 13 years, 51.1% female, Time 2: n = 5315, Mean age = 15 years, 51.6% female, Time 3: n = 3712; Mean age = 17 years; 50.2% female), the purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the relations between self-reported sleep duration, sleep problems, and emotional and behavioral difficulties during adolescence. Emotional and behavioral difficulties were assessed using The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) measuring emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems and total difficulties. Sleep duration was calculated by counting the hours between self-reported bedtime and wake-up time. Sleep problems were assessed with a single question about the general sleep problems. According to the cross-lagged models for sleep and emotional and behavioral difficulties, the findings of this study indicate a developmental process during adolescence where, firstly, short sleep duration is a stronger predictor for current and prospective emotional and behavioral difficulties than vice versa. Secondly, increased emotional and behavioral difficulties expose adolescents to current and later sleep problems more strongly than reverse. Thus, the results show that short sleep duration predisposed to emotional and behavioral difficulties across adolescence, which then led to more prospective sleep problems. These findings suggest a developmental process where sleep and emotional and behavioral difficulties are intertwined in shaping adolescents' health.

Late start of upper secondary education and health-compromising behaviours among Finnish adolescents-a follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: The Finnish government has emphasized the need to expedite educational transitions. We study if a late start of upper secondary education is related to health-related selection, namely health-compromising behaviours in adolescence. METHODS: A large cohort of adolescents from the seventh (12-13 years) and ninth (15-16 years) grades answered online classroom surveys (total n = 10 873). They were followed to the start of upper secondary education, obtained from the Joint Application Registry. We compared those who continued studies directly from the ninth grade with later starters. We measured late bedtime, breakfast not every school day, tooth brushing less than twice-a-day, monthly alcohol consumption, weekly smoking, daily energy drinks, physical activity <6 days/week and excessive screen time. Multilevel logistic regressions and latent class analyses were conducted. RESULTS: In gender and school adjusted models in the seventh grade, all behaviours except physical activity predicted the late start. The strongest predictor was smoking, OR = 2.96 (CI = 2.25-3.89). In the ninth grade, smoking, breakfast, tooth brushing and energy drinks, OR = 1.80, (CI = 1.36-2.39, strongest), were predictive. After controlling for sociodemographic background and academic achievement, associations for alcohol and screen time became non-significant in the seventh grade. In the ninth grade, only screen time remained significant, OR = 1.33 (CI = 1.04-1.71). Health-compromising behaviours formed clusters. Belonging to the unhealthy cluster predicted the late start in both grades, in adjusted models only in the seventh grade. CONCLUSIONS: Students with health-compromising behaviours are less likely to start upper secondary education directly after the compulsory education. This may increase the risk for fragmentary educational trajectories and work careers.

Health and educational aspirations in adolescence: a longitudinal study in Finland.

BACKGROUND: The health selection hypothesis suggests that poor health leads to low educational attainment during the life course. Adolescence is an important period as poor health might prevent students from making the best educational choices. We test if health in adolescence is associated with educational aspirations and whether these associations persist over and above sociodemographic background and academic achievement. METHODS: Using classroom surveys, a cohort of students (n = 5.614) from the Helsinki Metropolitan Region was followed from the 7th (12-13 years,) up to the 9th grade (15-16 years) when the choice between the academic and the vocational track is made in Finland. Health factors (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), self-rated health, daily health complaints, and long-term illness and medicine prescribed) and sociodemographic background were self-reported by the students. Students' educational aspirations (applying for academic versus vocational track, or both) and their academic achievement were obtained from the Joint Application Registry held by the Finnish National Agency for Education. We conducted multilevel multinomial logistic regression analyses, taking into account that students are clustered within schools. RESULTS: All studied health factors were associated with adolescents' educational aspirations. For the SDQ, daily health complaints, and self-rated health these associations persisted over and above sociodemographic background and academic achievement. Students with better health in adolescence were more likely to apply for the academic track, and those who were less healthy were more likely to apply for the vocational track. The health in the group of those students who had applied for both educational tracks was in between. Inconsistent results were observed for long-term illness. We also found robust associations between educational aspirations and worsening health from grade 7 to grade 9. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that selection by health factors to different educational trajectories takes place at early teenage much before adolescents choose their educational track, thus supporting the health selection hypothesis in the creation of socioeconomic health inequalities. Our findings also show the importance of adolescence in this process. More studies are needed to reveal which measures would be effective in helping students with poor health to achieve their full educational potential.

Complex problem solving: Profiles and developmental paths revealed via latent transition analysis.

Complexity is one of the major demands of adolescents' future life as adults. To investigate adolescents' competence development in applying problem-solving strategies in complex environments, we conducted a 2-wave longitudinal study in a sample of Finnish adolescents (11-17 years old; N = 1,959 at Time 1 and N = 1,690 at Time 2, 3 years later). In this study, we aimed to: (a) determine the optimal number of strategy use profiles while solving complex problems, (b) determine the number of meaningful developmental paths for each profile, and (c) test the impact of reasoning abilities and learning-related motivational beliefs on the probability that an adolescent with a given strategy use profile will take a given developmental path. Using latent transition analysis, we found 4 meaningful strategy use profiles: Proficient Explorers, Rapid Learners, Emerging Explorers, and Low-Performing Explorers. Forty-three percent of the participants were classified as having the same strategy use profile in Time 1 and Time 2. The strategy use of 34% was assessed as having improved between Time 1 and Time 2, while that of 21% was assessed as having declined between Time 1 and Time 2. Verbal reasoning ability and learning-related motivational beliefs predicted whether the developmental path of Emerging Explorers' was more likely to remain stable, improve, or decline over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Health as a Predictor of Students' Academic Achievement: A 3-Level Longitudinal Study of Finnish Adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown a relationship between students' health and their academic achievements, but whether health of classmates and schoolmates impacts individual students' school achievement is less known. We studied these effects on students in lower secondary school in Finland. METHODS: Students (seventh grade, age 12-13 years, N = 7779, 123 schools, 565 classes) participated in a classroom survey measuring health (externalizing and internalizing problems, daily health complaints, and long-term illness) and academic achievement. Academic achievement when leaving school (15-16 years) was obtained from the Finnish national application register on upper secondary education. Three-level (student, class, and school) multilevel regression analyses were executed. RESULTS: All health variables predicted academic achievement at leaving school at the student level and externalizing and internalizing problems at the class level; better health predicted better achievement. Students' health at the school level was not related to academic achievement. The effect of class-level health on academic achievement was as strong as the effect of student-level health. CONCLUSION: Both student and classmates' health at the beginning of lower secondary school contribute to academic achievement when leaving school.

A longitudinal study of higher-order thinking skills: working memory and fluid reasoning in childhood enhance complex problem solving in adolescence.

Scientists have studied the development of the human mind for decades and have accumulated an impressive number of empirical studies that have provided ample support for the notion that early cognitive performance during infancy and childhood is an important predictor of later cognitive performance during adulthood. As children move from childhood into adolescence, their mental development increasingly involves higher-order cognitive skills that are crucial for successful planning, decision-making, and problem solving skills. However, few studies have employed higher-order thinking skills such as complex problem solving (CPS) as developmental outcomes in adolescents. To fill this gap, we tested a longitudinal developmental model in a sample of 2,021 Finnish sixth grade students (M = 12.41 years, SD = 0.52; 1,041 female, 978 male, 2 missing sex). We assessed working memory (WM) and fluid reasoning (FR) at age 12 as predictors of two CPS dimensions: knowledge acquisition and knowledge application. We further assessed students' CPS performance 3 years later as a developmental outcome (N = 1696; M = 15.22 years, SD = 0.43; 867 female, 829 male). Missing data partly occurred due to dropout and technical problems during the first days of testing and varied across indicators and time with a mean of 27.2%. Results revealed that FR was a strong predictor of both CPS dimensions, whereas WM exhibited only a small influence on one of the two CPS dimensions. These results provide strong support for the view that CPS involves FR and, to a lesser extent, WM in childhood and from there evolves into an increasingly complex structure of higher-order cognitive skills in adolescence.