Biomedical subjects

Jari-Erik Nurmi

Publications and source records attributed to Jari-Erik Nurmi.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Achievement strategies in peer groups and adolescents' school adjustment and norm-breaking behavior.

The present study examined the extent to which the achievement strategies deployed by adolescents, and those used by their peers would predict adolescents' school adjustment, academic achievement and problem behavior. The participants were 287 14-15-year-old comprehensive school students (121 boys and 165 girls) from a middle-sized town in central Sweden. The results showed that not only the maladaptive strategies used by adolescents, but also those reported by their peers predicted adolescents' norm-breaking behavior, low school adjustment and low level of achievement: high levels of failure expectations and task-avoidance among adolescents' peers were positively associated with adolescents' own norm-breaking behavior, and indirectly via this, also with their maladjustment at school and low grades. These associations were found after controlling for the impact of adolescents' own achievement strategies.

Achievement↗

PubMed2006

The role of learning to read in the development of problem behaviour: a cross-lagged longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: This study investigates the posited relationship between learning to read, and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviours, during the transition from preschool to primary school. METHODS: A total of 196 (104 boys, 92 girls) children participating in the Jyväskylä Entrance into Primary School (JEPS) study were followed up six times during their transition from preschool to primary school. At each measurement, the children's reading performance was tested. Moreover, their internalizing and externalizing problem behaviour was examined by means of structured interviews. RESULTS: The results showed that problems in reading acquisition predicted an increase in internalizing problem behaviour during the preschool year and first grade, whereas during the second grade they were associated with an increase in subsequent externalizing problem behaviour. Moreover, from preschool to the beginning of the primary school internalizing problem behaviour predicted subsequent externalizing problem behaviour. Later on during the first and the second primary school years, it was externalizing problem behaviour that predicted an increase in internalizing problem behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggested that difficulties in learning to read, and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviours are developmentally linked in a cumulative manner.

Child↗

PubMed2006

Developmental dynamics between mathematical performance, task motivation, and teachers' goals during the transition to primary school.

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that children's learning motivation and interest in a particular subject play an important role in their school performance, particularly in mathematics. However, few cross-lagged longitudinal studies have been carried out to investigate the prospective relationships between academic achievement and task motivation. Moreover, the role that the classroom context plays in this development is largely unknown. AIMS: The aim of the study was to investigate the developmental dynamics of maths-related motivation and mathematical performance during children's transition to primary school. The role of teachers' pedagogical goals and classroom characteristics on this development was also investigated. SAMPLE: A total of 196 Finnish children were examined four times: (0) in October during their preschool year; (1) in October and (2) April during their first grade of primary school; and (3) in October during their second grade. METHOD: Children's mathematical performance was tested at each measurement point. Task motivation was examined at measurement points 2, 3, and 4 using the Task-value scale for children. First-grade teachers were interviewed in November about their pedagogical goals and classroom characteristics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that children's mathematical performance and related task motivation formed a cumulative developmental cycle: a high level of maths performance at the beginning of the first grade increased subsequent task motivation towards mathematics, which further predicted a high level of maths performance at the beginning of the second grade. The level of maths-related task motivation increased in those classrooms where the teachers emphasized motivation or self-concept development as their most important pedagogical goal.

Child↗

PubMed2004

Maternal affection moderates the impact of psychological control on a child's mathematical performance.

This study investigated the extent to which mothers' psychological control predicts their children's mathematical performance during the children's transition from preschool to primary school over and above the impact of maternal affection and behavioral control. Also investigated was the extent to which maternal affection and behavioral control moderate the impact of mothers' psychological control. Children 5-6 years old at baseline (N=196) were followed up 6 times to measure their performance in mathematics over a 3-year period from preschool to 2nd grade. Mothers were asked to fill in a questionnaire measuring their parenting styles once every year over the 3-year period. A high level of psychological control exercised by mothers predicted their children's slow progress in mathematics. However, this impact was particularly evident among those children whose mothers reported a high level of affection. No evidence was found that children's mathematical performance had any effect on their mothers' parenting styles.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Achievement strategies at school: types and correlates.

In this study we made an effort to identify the kinds of strategies adolescents deploy in achievement context in an unselected sample of Swedish adolescents. The participants were 880 14-15-year-old comprehensive school students (399 boys and 481 girls) from a middle-sized town in central Sweden. Six groups of adolescents were identified according to the strategies they deployed. Four of them, i.e. optimistic, defensive pessimistic, self-handicapping and learned helplessness strategies, were similar to those described previously in the literature. The results showed that membership in the functional strategy groups, such as in mastery-oriented and defensive pessimist groups, was associated with well-being, school adjustment and achievement, and low levels of norm-breaking behaviour. By contrast, membership in the dysfunctional, for example self-handicapping and learned helplessness strategy groups, was associated with low levels of well-being, and of school adjustment, and a higher level of norm-breaking behaviour.

Achievement↗

PubMed2002

Personal agency and personality in adolescence: silent voices and findings.

We discuss the studies reported in this special issue on the basis of a descriptive framework. We conclude that implicit assumptions-silent voices, as we call them-concerning the transactional influence between person and environment, and concerning the primacy of personal agency exist side by side. We find in the studies both a variable-centred and a person-centred approach, and show that the person-centred approach can complement the variable-centred approach in a fruitful manner. On the other hand, both approaches seem to lead to similar results in the studies reported in this special issue. As a rule, the approaches lead to characterization of categories of adolescents, and moreover they can both be seen as exemplifying transactional thinking in the psychology of adolescence. Personal agency and personality are systematically correlated with developmental outcomes, but there are no strong indications that personal agency and personality are important predictors of later developmental outcomes. Such indications are found to a greater extent as regards the influence of parenting and the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship. Finally, there is evidence that peers have their own specific significance in the exploration of developmental options.

Achievement↗

PubMed2002

Sense of coherence as a mediator between hostility and health: seven-year prospective study on female employees.

OBJECTIVE: We proposed and tested a model in which low sense of coherence (SOC) was hypothesized to underlie the association between hostility and health problems. METHODS: Structural equation modeling was based on cross-lagged 7-year follow-up data, relating to five measurement points in 433 female municipal employees. RESULTS: The mediated model fitted well with the data. After adjustment for baseline characteristics, hostility was associated with increased risk of health problems, as indicated by records of sickness absences and poor self-rated health. Incorporating SOC into the model attenuated this association by 33-50%, depending on the indicator of health. The mediated effect of SOC was stronger than that of an alternative mediator, depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: Low SOC may be a psychological background factor partially underlying the adverse effect of hostility on ill health.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Goal construction, reconstruction and depressive symptoms in a life-span context: the transition from school to work.

This study focused on investigating the kinds of personal goals young adults have when they are faced with the transition from school to work; the extent to which they reconstruct these goals as a consequence of their success in dealing with this transition; and how their goals influence their depressive symptoms. In order to investigate these research questions, 250 young adults who were facing a transition from school to work were studied at three points of the transition process: while they were still at school; 8 months after their graduation; and 1.5 years after it. At each measurement point, they were asked to complete the Personal Project Analysis, a revised form of Beck's Depression Inventory, and the Work Status Questionnaire. The results revealed that the outcomes of young adults' efforts to deal with the transition from school to work had consequences for the ways in which they reconstructed their goals: Those who were successful in this transition showed a decline in the number of personal goals that did not relate to the next stages of this particular developmental trajectory, whereas those who had problems turned to goals that concerned other life domains, as an alternative, compensatory control strategy. The results also revealed that the impact of personal goals on depressive symptomatology was moderated by individuals' life situations following the transition: Work-related goals reduced individuals' depressive symptoms only among those who had been able to find a job, whereas self-related goals decreased it in a moratorium-type of life situation.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Three methods for studying developmental change: a case of reading skills and self-concept.

AIMS: First, to introduce and compare three statistical methods for investigating development as a cumulative process: a simplex model, latent growth curve analysis, and clustering by cases. Second, to investigate the developmental dynamics of reading skills, and self-concept of reading ability, across the first year of primary school. SAMPLE: One hundred and five (61 boys, 44 girls) 6- to 7-year-old children from four first-grade classes in two primary schools participated in the study. METHOD: Children were studied three times during their first school year using an identical set of measurements: a Reading Skills Test and the Self-Concept of Ability scale. RESULTS: A uni-construct 'Matthew' effect was found for the development of self-concept, but not for the reading skills. However, the results showed that there was a multi-construct cumulative cycle between children's reading skills and their self-concept. CONCLUSIONS: Simultaneous use of variable- and person-oriented methods in developmental research seems to be a valuable approach, which not only provides a proper way to investigate the cumulative developmental cycles but also an option to examine how large a proportion of the sample follows the positive and negative pattern found in variable-oriented analyses.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Anxious solitude across contexts: girls' interactions with familiar and unfamiliar peers.

Cross-situational continuity and change in anxious solitary girls' behavior and peer relations were examined in interactions with familiar versus unfamiliar playmates. Fourth-grade girls (N=209, M age=9.77 years, half African American, half European American) were identified as anxious solitary or behaviorally normative using observed and teacher-reported behavior among classmates. Subsequently, girls participated in 1-hr play groups containing 5 same-race familiar or unfamiliar girls for 5 consecutive days. Results support both cross-situational continuity and change in anxious solitary girls' behavior and peer relations. Although anxious solitary girls exhibited difficulty interacting with both familiar and unfamiliar playmates relative to behaviorally normative girls, elements of their behavior improved in unfamiliar play groups, a context in which they received less peer mistreatment.

Anxiety↗