Family Stress Processes and Children's Self-Regulation.

Economic hardship can affect children's development through child-caregiver interactions, which may mediate cascading effects of other family stress processes. This study examined, simultaneously, the relations of financial strain, caregiver general stress, and child-caregiver conflict-each measured at two time points-with child self-regulatory outcomes in a high-poverty sample (age 5-7 years; n = 343). Increase in child-caregiver conflict mediated negative relations between other processes and development of executive function. In contrast, only increase in financial strain had direct, negative association with development of delay of gratification and did not significantly mediate relations between any other process and children's outcomes. Results have implications for understanding effects of family stress on self-regulatory outcomes and for interventions with low-income families.

Developmental Relations Among Motor and Cognitive Processes and Mathematics Skills.

This study explored transactional associations among visuomotor integration, attention, fine motor coordination, and mathematics skills in a diverse sample of one hundred thirty-five 5-year-olds (kindergarteners) and one hundred nineteen 6-year-olds (first graders) in the United States who were followed over the course of 2 school years. Associations were dynamic, with more reciprocal transactions occurring in kindergarten than in the later grades. Specifically, visuomotor integration and mathematics exhibited ongoing reciprocity in kindergarten and first grade, attention contributed to mathematics in kindergarten and first grade, mathematics contributed to attention across the kindergarten year only, and fine motor coordination contributed to mathematics indirectly, through visuomotor integration, across kindergarten and first grade. Implications of examining the hierarchical interrelations among processes underlying the development of children's mathematics skills are discussed.

Choosing immediate over delayed gratification correlates with better school-related outcomes in a sample of children of color from low-income families.

Delayed, as opposed to immediate, gratification is generally understood to indicate adaptive development. The present study investigates performance on a choice-based delay of gratification measure and its relations with other outcomes in a sample of children of color from low-income families, who are underrepresented in delayed gratification research. The 6-item choice delay of gratification task, administered at the start of kindergarten (Mage = 5.5 years), exhibited good reliability. Items were largely equal in difficulty, but not equally discriminant. Children who chose immediate gratification had better executive function and were rated higher than their peers by their kindergarten teachers on behavioral measures; patterns in relations with first grade classroom behavior were similar, but weaker and not robust to controls. Choosing immediate gratification was also positively related to concurrent and later achievement, but not after controlling for executive function. These observations reinforce a need to clarify constructs underlying delay of gratification choices within groups of children underrepresented in this line of research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Teacher stress and burnout in urban middle schools: Associations with job demands, resources, and effective classroom practices.

Stress and burnout are pervasive among public school teachers and amplified in urban schools, where job demands are often high and resources low. Relatively little is known about factors contributing to stress and burnout among urban school teachers specifically, or how these aspects of teacher occupational wellbeing relate to their use of effective classroom practices. Rather than utilizing objective measures, extant research has relied heavily on teacher self-report of antecedents and consequences of stress and burnout, which have also rarely been examined in tandem. To address this and other gaps in the literature, the current study examined the interplay of job demands and resources, stress and burnout, and effective classroom practices (operationalized as warm-demanding teaching). Two discrete observational measures, in addition to teacher self-report, were collected from a sample of 255 teachers in 33 low-income, urban middle schools. Findings indicated that White teachers, female teachers, and teachers in low-income schools reported higher stress and burnout. Teachers reporting more self-efficacy, affiliation with colleagues, and student emphasis on their academics (i.e., more resources) reported lower stress and burnout; furthermore, adding resources to the model attenuated associations between student disruptive behaviors and stress and burnout. In turn, stress was associated with lower levels of observed demanding teaching (instructional dialogue); however, surprisingly, burnout was related to higher levels of observed teacher warmth (sensitivity). We discuss these findings in light of prior research and consider implications for future research and professional development for teachers.