The Mediating Role of Cardiometabolic Dysregulation on the Relation Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Cognition.

OBJECTIVE: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are uncontrollable stressful events during early life that predispose adults to adverse health outcomes, such as impaired cognitive functioning. However, little is known about the factors indirectly impacting this relation. Biological dysregulation may be one pathway that can help explain the relations between ACEs and later cognition. The current study examined the mediating role of cardiometabolic dysregulation on the relation between ACEs and cognition. METHODS: Our study gathered data from 1053 participants using three waves of the Midlife in the United States longitudinal study. Linear regression analyses and bootstrapped mediation analyses were performed to analyze the direct and indirect associations of cardiometabolic dysregulation on ACEs and cognition. RESULTS: Our results showed a significant linear relationship between ACEs and cardiometabolic dysregulation ( b = 0.152, standard error [SE] = 0.056, p = .007), and a significant indirect association, such that cardiometabolic dysregulation mediated the relation between ACEs and cognitive status at wave II ( b = -0.007, SE = 0.004, p = .044) and cognitive status at wave III ( b = -0.006, SE = 0.003, p .042). There was no significant direct or indirect relation when cognitive change was the outcome variable. CONCLUSIONS: The present study identifies a combined biological pathway that connects ACEs to cognition in late life. These findings supports the need to empirically determine biological mechanism that can be used to develop targeted clinical interventions to prevent the progression of chronic cognitive impairment.

The home math environment and math achievement: A meta-analysis.

Mathematical thinking is in high demand in the global market, but approximately 6 percent of school-age children across the globe experience math difficulties (Shalev et al., 2000). The home math environment (HME), which includes all math-related activities, attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and utterances in the home, may be associated with children's math development. To examine the relation between the HME and children's math abilities, a preregistered meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the average weighted correlation coefficient (r) between the HME and children's math achievement and how potential moderators (i.e., assessment, study, and sample features) might contribute to study heterogeneity. A multilevel correlated effects model using 631 effect sizes from 64 quantitative studies comprising 68 independent samples found a positive, statistically significant average weighted correlation of r = .13 (SE = .02, p < .001). Our combined sensitivity analyses showed that the present findings were robust and that the sample of studies has evidential value. A number of assessment, study, and sample characteristics contributed to study heterogeneity, showing that no single feature of HME research was driving the large between-study differences found for the association between the HME and children's math achievement. These findings indicate that children's environments and interactions related to their learning are supported in the specific context of math learning. Our results also show that the HME represents a setting in which children learn about math through social interactions with their caregivers (Vygotsky, 1978) and what they learn depends on the influence of many levels of environmental input (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and the specificity of input children receive (Bornstein, 2002). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Establishing a Reading Mindset Measure: A Validation Study.

Much attention has been given to the development and validation of measures of growth mindset and its impact on learning, but the previous work has largely been focused on general measures of growth mindset. The present research was focused on establishing the psychometric properties of a Reading Mindset (RM) measure among a sample of upper elementary school students and validating the measure via its relations with standardized measures of word reading and comprehension. The RM measure was developed to capture student beliefs about their ability, learning goals, and effort during reading. Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to select items that optimally measured the RM measure from a pool of existing items from previous research (Petscher et al., 2017). The final five-item RM measure predicted reading comprehension outcomes above and beyond the effects of word reading, indicating that this measure may be an important tool for diagnosing non-cognitive areas of improvement for developing readers. The implications, limitations, and future directions for expanding upon the measure were discussed.

What is text reading fluency and is it a predictor or an outcome of reading comprehension? A longitudinal investigation.

Text reading fluency refers to the ability to read connected texts with accuracy, speed, and expression (prosody), and has garnered substantial attention as an important skill for reading comprehension. However, two fundamental questions remain-the dimensionality of text reading fluency including text reading efficiency (accuracy and speed) and reading prosody, and the directionality of the relation between text reading fluency and reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data from Grade 1 (Mage = 6.36 years) to Grade 3 (Mage = 8.34 years). Majority of children were White (approximately 60%) and African American (26%) with 39% to 52% from low-SES backgrounds, depending on the grade. Text reading fluency, word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension were measured. Results from confirmatory factor analysis revealed that text reading fluency is a multidimensional construct with a trifactor structure, which has a general factor that captures common ability across text reading efficiency and reading prosody as well as local and specific factors that are unique beyond the general factor. However, the general factor was the most reliable factor, whereas local and specific factors were not reliable. The directionality of the relation between text reading fluency and reading comprehension was addressed by examining two competing structural equation models-text-reading-fluency-as-a-predictor/mediator model and text-reading-fluency-as-an-outcome model-and data supported the former. These results indicate that text reading fluency is a multidimensional construct, and it acts as a predictor, mediating the relations of word reading and listening comprehension to reading comprehension. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Differential Co-Development of Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension for Students with and without Learning Disabilities.

In this large-scale study of students from Title 1 schools (N = 14,773), we used multiple-group latent change score (LCS) modeling to investigate the developmental relations between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in students with a school-identified learning disability (LD, n = 627) and typically developing students (n = 14,146). Students were tested for their vocabulary breadth and passage comprehension skills in Kindergarten through fourth grade. For typically developing students, there were bidirectional influences between their vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skills. There were no cross-lagged influences across constructs for students with an LD. We find evidence for a developmental delay, such that students with an LD had similar levels and gains in their vocabulary knowledge relative to typically developing students, but these students started much lower in their reading comprehension skills and did not catch up to their typically developing peers. We discuss the implications for children with learning disabilities and the development of their reading comprehension skills.

Adverse childhood experiences and coping strategies: identifying pathways to resiliency in adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined whether coping strategies mediate the link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adult psychiatric and physical health outcomes. METHODS: Data were drawn from wave I (N = 7108), wave II (N = 4963), and wave III (N = 3294) of the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) Survey. An ACE count was created using seven aspects of early adversity based on prior literature. Coping variables were created using subscales of the COPE inventory. Psychiatric and health outcomes were assessed at baseline and at the 20-year follow-up. Bootstrapping mediation analyses were conducted using MPLUS to examine the link between ACEs and health outcomes and to determine if coping strategies mediate these relationships. RESULTS: Results of path analyses in Mplus showed that ACEs, reported at Wave I, were associated with worse psychiatric and physical health outcomes at Wave III. ACEs at Wave I were associated with greater use of avoidant emotion-focused coping and lower use of problem-focused strategies at Wave II. Avoidant emotion-focused coping at Wave II partially mediated the relationship between ACEs, reported at Wave I, and psychiatric and physical health outcomes reported at Wave III. No significant mediation was detected for problem-focused coping. CONCLUSIONS: Coping strategies may be an important point target for prevention or intervention for individuals who have experienced ACEs.

Relations between spatial skills and math performance in elementary school children: A longitudinal investigation.

Previous research has demonstrated a link between spatial and math skills. However, little research has examined this relation longitudinally. The present study examines the development of and reciprocal relations between spatial and math skills in elementary school students. We administered two spatial tasks and a math task to 312 first- through third-grade students who were tested in the spring for three consecutive school years. Linear growth models showed increases for each skill across the three school years. A random intercepts cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that controlling for task-specific (i.e., autoregressive) growth, there was a relation between spatial visualization/mental rotation at Year 1 and math performance at Year 2. In addition, math scores in Year 2 predicted Year 3 spatial visualization/mental rotation skills as well as Year 3 spatial perception skills. Further, there were significant differences in task performance depending on grade in school, and there were gender differences in spatial perception and sometimes math performance. Thus, we find some evidence for reciprocal relations between spatial and math skills over development, but our results suggest that the particular type of spatial skill measured is important to consider in studying these relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Differential Identification of Females and Males with Reading Difficulties: A Meta-Analysis.

Males are more likely than females to be identified as having reading difficulties, but it is unclear if this is a result of sample ascertainment or identification bias. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the magnitude of gender differences in reading difficulties using available studies in which researchers investigated this difference and an additional dataset with a representative U.S. SAMPLE: After conducting a literature search, sixteen studies and a restricted use dataset were included in the present analysis (N = 552,729). A random-effects odds ratio (OR) model indicated that males are 1.83 times more likely than females to have reading difficulties. Moderator analyses revealed that the gender ratio is greater when the identified reading difficulties were more severe. Further, this difference in identification rates across males and females was found without evidence of publication bias. Implications for the identification of students with reading difficulties are discussed.

Using Meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling to Study Developmental Change in Relations Between Language and Literacy.

The purpose of this review was to introduce readers of Child Development to the meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) technique. Provided are a background to the MASEM approach, a discussion of its utility in the study of child development, and an application of this technique in the study of reading comprehension (RC) development. MASEM uses a two-stage approach: first, it provides a composite correlation matrix across included variables, and second, it fits hypothesized a priori models. The provided MASEM application used a large sample (N = 1,205,581) of students (ages 3.5-46.225) from 155 studies to investigate the factor structure and relations among components of RC. The practical implications of using this technique to study development are discussed.

Examining the Effects of Afterschool Reading Interventions for Upper Elementary Struggling Readers.

We examined the efficacy of an afterschool multicomponent reading intervention for third- through fifth-grade students with reading difficulties. A total of 419 students were identified for participation based on a 90 standard score or below on a screening measure of the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension. Participating students were randomly assigned to a business as usual comparison condition or one of two reading treatments. All treatment students received 30 min of computer-based instruction plus 30 min of small-group tutoring for four to five times per week. No statistically significant reading comprehension posttest group differences were identified (p > .05). The limitations of this study included high attrition and absenteeism. These findings extend those from a small sample of experimental studies examining afterschool reading interventions and provide initial evidence that more instruction, after school, may not yield the desired outcome of improved comprehension.

What explains the correlation between growth in vocabulary and grammar? New evidence from latent change score analyses of simultaneous bilingual development.

A close relationship between children's vocabulary size and the grammatical complexity of their speech is well attested but not well understood. The present study used latent change score modeling to examine the dynamic relationships between vocabulary and grammar growth within and across languages in longitudinal data from 90 simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual children who were assessed at 6-month intervals between 30 and 48 months. Slopes of vocabulary and grammar growth were strongly correlated within each language and showed moderate or nonsignificant relationships across languages. There was no evidence that vocabulary level predicted subsequent grammar growth or that the level of grammatical development predicted subsequent vocabulary growth. We propose that a common influence of properties of input on vocabulary and grammatical development is the source of their correlated but uncoupled growth. An unanticipated across-language finding was a negative relationship between level of English skill and subsequent Spanish growth. We propose that the cultural context of Spanish-English bilingualism in the US is the reason that strong English skills jeopardize Spanish language growth, while Spanish skills do not affect English growth. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/qEHSQ0yRre0.

Exploring the Co-Development of Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study.

This study explores the co-development of two related but separate reading skills, reading fluency and reading comprehension, across Grades 1-4. A bivariate biometric dual change score model was applied to longitudinal data collected from 1,784 twin pairs between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Grade 1 skills were influenced by highly overlapping genetic and environmental factors. Growth in both skills was influenced by highly overlapping shared environmental factors. Cross-lagged parameters indicated bidirectional effects, with stronger effects from fluency to comprehension change than from comprehension to fluency change.

Modeling the co-development of correlated processes with longitudinal and cross-construct effects.

Conceptualizations of developmental trends are driven by the particular method used to analyze the period of change of interest. Various techniques exist to analyze developmental data, including individual growth curve analysis in observed and latent frameworks, cross-lagged regression to assess interrelations among variables, and multilevel frameworks that consider time as nested within individual. In this paper, we report on findings from a latent change score analysis of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension data from a longitudinal sample of approximately 16,000 students from first to fourth grade. Results highlight the utility of latent change score models compared to alternative specifications of linear and nonlinear quadratic latent growth models as well as implications for modeling change with correlated traits. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reconsidering the simple view of reading in an intriguing case of equivalent models: commentary on Tunmer and Chapman (2012).

Recently, Tunmer and Chapman provided an alternative model of how decoding and listening comprehension affect reading comprehension that challenges the simple view of reading. They questioned the simple view's fundamental assumption that oral language comprehension and decoding make independent contributions to reading comprehension by arguing that one component of oral language comprehension (vocabulary) affects decoding. They reported results from hierarchical regression analyses, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling to justify their conclusion. Their structural equation modeling results provided the strongest and most direct test of their alternative view. However, they incorrectly specified their simple view model. When correctly specified, the simple view of reading model and an alternative model in which listening comprehension affects decoding provide identically good fits to the data. This results from the fact that they are equivalent models. Although Tunmer and Chapman's results do not support their assertion that a model in which oral language comprehension affects decoding provides a better fit to their data, the presence of equivalent models provides an ironic twist: The mountain of evidence that supports the simple view of reading provides equivalent support to their alternative interpretation. Additional studies are needed to differentiate these two theoretical accounts.

Developmental relations between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension: a latent change score modeling study.

The present study followed a sample of first-grade (N = 316, Mage = 7.05 at first test) through fourth-grade students to evaluate dynamic developmental relations between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Using latent change score modeling, competing models were fit to the repeated measurements of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension to test for the presence of leading and lagging influences. Univariate models indicated growth in vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension was determined by two parts: constant yearly change and change proportional to the previous level of the variable. Bivariate models indicated previous levels of vocabulary knowledge acted as leading indicators of reading comprehension growth, but the reverse relation was not found. Implications for theories of developmental relations between vocabulary and reading comprehension are discussed.

Gender Differences in Reading Impairment and in the Identification of Impaired Readers: Results From a Large-Scale Study of At-Risk Readers.

Reading impairment is more common in males, but the magnitude and origin of this gender difference are debated. In a large-scale study of reading impairment among 491,103 beginning second-graders, gender differences increased with greater severity of reading impairment, peaking at a ratio of 2.4:1 for a broad measure of fluency and a ratio of 1.6:1 for a narrow measure of decoding. Results from three tests indicate that gender differences in reading impairment are attributable primarily to male vulnerability rather than ascertainment bias. Correspondence between identification as an impaired reader by our study criteria and school identification as learning disabled was poor overall and worse for girls: Only 1 out of 4 boys and 1 out of 7 girls identified as reading impaired in our study was school identified as learning disabled.

Specific Reading Comprehension Disability: Major Problem, Myth, or Misnomer?

The goal of the present study was to test three competing hypotheses about the nature of comprehension problems of students who are poor in reading comprehension. Participants in the study were first, second, and third graders, totaling 9 cohorts and over 425,000 participants in all. The pattern of results was consistent across all cohorts: Less than one percent of first- through third-grade students who scored as poor in reading comprehension were adequate in both decoding and vocabulary. Although poor reading comprehension certainly qualifies as a major problem rather than a myth, the term specific reading comprehension disability is a misnomer: Individuals with problems in reading comprehension that are not attributable to poor word recognition have comprehension problems that are general to language comprehension rather than specific to reading. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.