Browsing by Author "Grigorenko, Elena L."
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Item Associations between household responsibilities and academic competencies in the context of education accessibility in Zambia(Learning and Individual Differences, 10/1/2013) Reich, Jodi; Hein, Sascha D.; Krivulskaya, Suzanna; Hart, Lesley; Gumkowski, Nina; Grigorenko, Elena L.; The Learning Disabilities ProjectThe relationship between education and socioeconomic status has been demonstrated in studies of the developed and the developing world, yet there are communities in which schooling is either not available to all children or not a preferred activity for all children. In this study, we investigated the differences between children in-school and out-of-school in rural and peri-urban communities of Zambia. As expected, we found that the children in-school performed higher in domains of adaptive behavior and on assessments of academic achievement (i.e., mathematics, reading). Somewhat unexpectedly, however, when controlling for socioeconomic status, home responsibilities (i.e., chores, work) were a positive predictor for the performance of the children out-of-school, but a negative predictor for the children in-school. The relationship between home responsibilities and academic performance may be bidirectional and differential; for example, our findings allow for the hypothesis that for in-school children chores take time away from the studies, but for out-of-school children they provide some limited mathematics exposure.Item Capturing Age-group Differences and Developmental Change with the BASC Parent Rating Scales(Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 7/1/2015) Barbot, Baptiste; Hein, Sascha D.; Luthar, Suniya S.; Grigorenko, Elena L.Estimation of age-group differences and intra-individual change across distinct developmental periods is often challenged by the use of age-appropriate (but non-parallel) measures. We present a short version of the Behavior Assessment System (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1998), Parent Rating Scales for Children (PRS-C) and Adolescents (PRS-A), which uses only their common-items to derive estimates of the initial constructs optimized for developmental studies. Measurement invariance of a three-factor model (Externalizing, Internalizing, Adaptive Skills) was tested across age-groups (161 mothers using PRS-C; 200 mothers using PRS-A) and over time (115 mothers using PRS-C at baseline and PRS-A five years later) with the original versus short PRS. Results indicated that the short PRS holds a sufficient level of invariance for a robust estimation of age-group differences and intra-individual change, as compared to the original PRS, which held only weak invariance leading to flawed developmental inferences. Importance of test-content parallelism for developmental studies is discussed.Item Caregiver separation, Resilience and Peer Attachment in Recently Immigrated Latinx Youth(2021-12) Hernandez Ortiz, Jessica Guadalupe; Sharp, Carla; Venta, Amanda C.; Grigorenko, Elena L.Background: Between 32% to 85% of first-generation immigrant Latinx youth experience separation from at least one primary caregiver (Lu et al., 2020; Suarez-Orozco et al., 2002). Research unequivocally associates caregiver separation with detrimental outcomes such as an increased likelihood for emotional and behavioral difficulties (e.g. Lu et al., 2020). Caregiver separation also has the potential to diminish resilience. Previous research suggests strong peer attachments may act as a buffer for negative effects of adversity and promote positive adaptation (e.g. He et al., 2018; Ju & Lee, 2018). Thus, this study sought to examine the relation between caregiver separation and resilience; and investigate the buffering effects of peer attachment in the relationship between caregiver separation and resilience in a sample of recently immigrated adolescents. Method: The sample (n = 60) was composed of adolescents recruited from a high school designed to serve recently immigrated youth. Participant age ranged from 15-25 years old (M=19.71, SD=2.23), and all participants self-identified as Hispanic (100%). Measures for this study included the Migration Experiences Interview (Venta et. al, 2019), the Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), and the Resilience Scale (Wagnild & Young, 1993). Results: Analyses indicated a significant effect of separation on resilience scores (F (3, 56) = 4.605, p <.01, η2 = .198). Post-hoc analyses indicated youth who did not experience caregiver separation had significantly higher resilience scores than youth who were separated from both parents. Additionally, analyses revealed moderation effects of peer attachment for youth separated only from their father (b = -.794, p < .05) and separated from both parents (b = .958 p < .05). Analyses indicated that at higher levels of peer attachment, youth separated from both parents had higher levels of resilience. However, youth only separated from their father had lower levels of resilience at higher levels of peer attachment. Conclusion: Results of this study give further insight into the function of peer attachment in resilience among Latinx, immigrant youth after experiencing caregiver separation. Further research should explore the clinical utility of peer-oriented interventions to promote positive adaptation in immigrant, Latinx youth.Item Child internalizing problems and mother-child discrepancies in perceptions of parenting: Evidence for bidirectional associations(Journal of Family Psychology, 3/1/2018) Hein, Sascha D.; Stone, L.; Tan, Mei; Barbot, Bastiste; Luthar, Suniya S.; Grigorenko, Elena L.We investigated the bidirectional associations between mother–child discrepancies in their perceptions of maternal rejection and children’s internalizing problems over 10 years from pre/early adolescence to early adulthood. Mothers’ reports of rejection and involvement in the parent–child relationship, the children’s perception of the mother’s rejection, and children’s self-report of internalizing problems were collected from a sample of 360 low-income ethnically diverse urban mother–child dyads at three time points (T1, T2, and T3) with 5-year intervals. Children were on average 12.6 years old at T1 (54% girls). Using a series of nested path analyses, we found that mother–child discrepancies while reporting maternal rejection at T1 were predictive of lower ratings of maternal involvement at T2 (β = −.14), which predicted higher levels of internalizing problems at T3 (β = −.16). The presence of mother’s affective disorder was related to T1 mother–child discrepancies (β = .14). Regarding bidirectional associations, children’s internalizing problems predicted maternal involvement across all time points, whereas T2 maternal involvement predicted T3 child internalizing problems. Discrepancies showed small associations with child internalizing problems both concurrently and over time. The findings highlight the importance of early discrepancies in the perception of maternal rejection for child internalizing symptoms.Item Differences in Judgments of Creativity: How Do Academic Domain, Personality, and Self-Reported Creativity Influence Novice Judges’ Evaluations of Creative Productions?(Journal of Intelligence, 9/14/2015) Tan, Mei; Mourgues, Catalina V.; Hein, Sascha D.; MacCormick, John; Barbot, Baptiste; Grigorenko, Elena L.Intelligence assessment is often viewed as a narrow and ever-narrowing field, defined (as per IQ) by the measurement of finely distinguished cognitive processes. It is instructive, however, to remember that other, broader conceptions of intelligence exist and might usefully be considered for a comprehensive assessment of intellectual functioning. This article invokes a more holistic, systems theory of intelligence—the theory of successful intelligence—and examines the possibility of including in intelligence assessment a similarly holistic measure of creativity. The time and costs of production-based assessments of creativity are generally considered prohibitive. Such barriers may be mitigated by applying the consensual assessment technique using novice raters. To investigate further this possibility, we explored the question: how much do demographic factors such as age and gender and psychological factors such as domain-specific expertise, personality or self-perceived creativity affect novices’ unidimensional ratings of creativity? Fifty-one novice judges from three undergraduate programs, majoring in three disparate expertise domains (i.e., visual art, psychology and computer science) rated 40 child-generated Lego creatures for creativity. Results showed no differences in creativity ratings based on the expertise domains of the judges. However, judges’ personality and self-perception of their own everyday creativity appeared to influence the way they scored the creatures for creativity.Item English Minority Students in Ghana: How Language of Test Administration and Regional Differences Influence Reading Performance on the Ghanaian Achievement Test(2019-08) Torres, Stephanie; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Hart, Lesley; Kulesz, Paulina A.It is estimated that roughly 40% of the world’s population lacks access to education in their native tongues. The impact of language of instruction and NDLL (nondominant language learner) status on academic achievement has received significant attention, but less attention has been given when considering degree of urbanization of where children reside and go to school; thus, careful consideration should be given to how cultural differences across regions in low- and middle- income countries may affect performance patterns when children are being taught in their non-dominant language. Here we consider the impact of language of test administration and degree of urbanization on reading performance on the Ghanaian Achievement Test (GAT) in a large sample (N = 1,309, Mage = 9.48 years, SD = 2.26; 45.5% Female) of Ghanaian children. Those included in this study are from a survey project carried out by The Education Quality for All (EQUALL) Complimentary Education Program in 2005. All participants completed demographics measures and assessments measuring different competencies such as nonverbal intelligence, language, and reading ability. Negative binomial and zero-inflated Poisson data models revealed that both language of test administration and degree of urbanization were significantly related to reading subskill ability and noted differences in predicted scores between NDLLs and DLLs (dominant language learners). Effects of the degree of urbanization and language of test administration varied by subskill, contrary to what we hypothesized. We expected a fairly linear relationship between all GAT reading subskill scores and degree of urbanization, but in some cases semi-urban local language speakers outperformed both their urban- and rural-dwelling counterparts.Item Epigenetic Patterns Modulate the Connection between Developmental Dynamics of Parenting and Offspring Psychosocial Adjustment(Child Development, 1/1/2017) Naumova, Oksana Yu; Hein, Sascha D.; Suderman, Matthew; Barbot, Baptiste; Lee, Maria; Raefski, Adam; Dobrynin, Pavel V.; Brown, Pamela J.; Szyf, Moshe; Luthar, Suniya S.; Grigorenko, Elena L.This study attempted to establish and quantify the connections between parenting, offspring psychosocial adjustment, and the epigenome. The participants, 35 African-American young adults (19 females and 16 males; age = 17 to 29.5 years), represented a subsample of a three-wave longitudinal 15-year study on the developmental trajectories of low-income urban mother-offspring dyads. Mothers were assessed on their perceptions of maternal stress at each wave. Offspring were assessed on their perceptions of maternal parenting at each wave and on their adaptive and maladaptive behavior at the last wave. Genome-wide DNA methylation in peripheral T-lymphocytes at the third wave was assayed using MBD-sequencing. Statistically significant associations were identified between the change in offspring's perception of parenting from middle childhood to adulthood and the DNA methylation in offspring's adult genomes. Specifically, the slope of perceived parental rejection across the three time points was related to an increase in methylation, or a potential downregulation, of 565 genes thought to be involved in the control of a broad spectrum of biological functions generally related to cellular signaling. A subset of these epigenetic marks, clustered in 23 genes, some of which participate in the development and functioning of the CNS, were in turn associated with psychosocial adjustment as captured by interpersonal relationships and emotional self-evaluation. This appears to be one of the first investigations of the modulating role of the methylome in associations between developmental dynamics of parenting throughout the formative years of child and adolescent development and psychosocial adjustment in adulthood.Item Exploring Multiple Dimensions of the Context for Child Development in Rural Zambia(2023-05-28) Tan, Mei; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Ali, Samira B.; Francis, David J.; Sharp, Carla; Yoshida, Hanako; Grigorenko, Elena L.In this dissertation, I present unique perspectives on data collected from both children and adults in rural Zambia, considering new methods and topics regarding the investigation of contexts for child development. I aim to bring to the field’s attention two larger issues. First, in a scoping review, I highlight the need to expand the range of methods being applied (for example, mixed methods studies still seem relatively scarce) while honing in on key, understudied variables. Then, in empirical work, I emphasize cultural facets of human behavior that appear to be much less well studied in non-Western settings. Specifically, in a quantitative analysis I examine in- and out-of-household migrations and their effect on children’s development; in a qualitative analysis I investigate adults’ conceptions of time as they are expressed in natural language samples. To introduce my research endeavors, I discuss the relevance of certain facets of African settings to child development as per theoretical frameworks of intelligence and of the developmental niche. The overall thrust of this work is to emphasize the need for attention to culture as an important source of information regarding the societal ideas, beliefs, values and behaviors that form the context for children’s development.Item Frequency Bands and Coherence in Resting-state EEG in Juvenile Delinquents in Response to Reading Intervention(2021-04-01) Ledesma, Leandro; Zhukova, Marina; Chinn, LisaElectroencephalography (EEG) research measures electrical activity on the scalp, which reflects brain activity. Resting-state EEG can be broken down into constituent frequencies termed delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma (Wang et al., 2013). It can be measured at individual locations or analyzed using coherence analyses to measure connectivity between brain regions. Previous studies have reported higher delta, theta and alpha 1 power in populations with learning disorders (LD) compared to neurotypical populations (Fonseca et al., 2006; Harmony et al., 1995). Additionally, differences in EEG coherence were observed between LD children and controls (Marosi et al., 1992; Arns et al., 2007). While these prior studies have investigated different aspects of resting-state EEG in samples with LD, none have investigated these differences in juveniles a part of the juvenile justice system, who are at high risk of having these disabilities (Keilitz & Dunivant, 1986). Thus, the objective of our study was to investigate resting-state EEG power and coherence in juveniles residing in a post-adjudicated residential facility. We introduced a 24-session reading intervention to 19 juveniles (all males) in a time span of 2 months. Resting-state EEG data was collected at the start of intervention (Pre), after 12 sessions (Mid) and after 24 sessions (Post). We hypothesized that delta, theta, alpha 1 and EEG coherence in these juveniles would decrease across time in specific topographical locations. Currently, data collection is ongoing but we expect our results to further shed light on resting-state EEG and its changes in this population in response to learning.Item Getting something out of nothing: Analyzing patterns of null responses to improve data collection methods in sub-Saharan Africa(Learning and Individual Differences, 2/1/2017) Hein, Sascha D.; Reich, Jodi; Marks,Sarah; Thuma, Philip E.; Grigorenko, Elena L.Careful development and adaptation of assessments is imperative for cultural psychological research. However, despite the best efforts, the use of assessments in new contexts can reveal atypical and/or unexpected patterns of performance. We found this to be the case in the testing of assessments to be used for a larger investigation of Specific Reading Disabilities in Zambia. In a sample of 207 children (100 female) from grades 2 to 7, we illustrated that assessment characteristics (i.e., stimulus type, answer choice, and response type) differentially impact patterns of responsiveness. The number of missing values was highest for assessments that (1) used written stimuli, (2) had an open-ended answer choice, and (3) required an action response. Age and socio-economic status explained some of the variance in responsiveness in selected, but not all assessments. Consideration of the impact of stimulus and response types when adapting assessments cross-linguistically and cross-culturally is essential.Item Identifying Learning Patterns of Children at Risk for Specific Reading Disability(Developmental Science, 5/1/2017) Barbot, Baptiste; Krivulskaya, Suzanna; Hein, Sascha D.; Reich, Jodi; Thuma, Philip E.; Grigorenko, Elena L.Differences in learning patterns of vocabulary acquisition in children at risk (+SRD) and not at risk (SRD) for Specific Reading Disability (SRD) were examined using a microdevelopmental paradigm applied to the multi-trial Foreign Language Learning Task (FLLT; Baddeley et al., 1995). The FLLT was administered to 905 children from rural Chitonga-speaking Zambia. A multi-group Latent Growth Curve Model (LGCM) was implemented to study interindividual differences in intraindividual change across trials. Results showed that the +SRD group recalled fewer words correctly in the first trial, learned at a slower rate during the subsequent trials, and demonstrated a more linear learning pattern compared to the SRD group. This study illustrates the promise of LGCM applied to multi-trial learning tasks, by isolating three components of the learning process (initial recall, rate of learning, and functional pattern of learning). Implications of this microdevelopmental approach to SRD research in low-to-middle income countries are discussed.Item Imaging Genetics Study of Specific Reading Disability: The Role of Semaphorin6d(2021-08) Thomas, Christina; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Cirino, Paul T.; Francis, David J.; Hoeft, FumikoThe current thesis focused on imaging genetics of specific reading disability (SRD), to better understand the biological risk factors that contribute to SRD. Part 1 of the thesis was a systematic review focusing on summarizing the current imaging genetics literature and characterizing effect sizes of these results, revealing significant associations between reading disability risk genes and brain phenotypes. A Fisher’s test revealed promising results for risk genes that had been replicated, including as DCDC2, KIAA0319, FOXP2, SLC2A3, and ROBO1. Part 2 of the thesis specifically examined associations of the novel candidate gene Semaphorin 6d (SEMA6D) on reading-related regions of interest and reading, revealing associations with white matter volume in the left transverse temporal gyrus, which was significantly associated with reading performance measures. Other phenotypes related to SEMA6D SNPs included cortical thickness in the fusiform gyrus and gyrification in the supramarginal gyrus, but these regions were not related to reading in the current sample. It is possible that the transverse temporal gyrus was more related to reading in this sample due to young participants who are still developing reading skills, with greater reliance on auditory processing for reading. Part 3 applied the imaging genetics literature to a clinical case to determine whether risk factors were related to SRD in a family consisting of twins discordant for SRD and an older sibling with reading difficulty. Results indicated that SNPs in the genes ZNF385D, LPHN3, CNTNAP2, FGF18, NOP9, CMIP, MYO18B, and RBFOX2 corresponded with SRD. Furthermore, cortical thickness in reading-related regions of interest was more similar among the siblings with SRD compared to the twins, with specific asymmetry differences in the transverse temporal and superior temporal gyri. The siblings with SRD also demonstrated reduced leftward asymmetry of grey matter volume and cortical surface area in the fusiform gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and transverse temporal gyrus. Overall, the current thesis summarized and added to the imaging genetics of SRD literature, demonstrated promising effects of a previously unstudied gene, SEMA6D, and used a clinical application to understand factors that may be related to SRD risk within a single family. Future research in this field using integrative imaging genetics methodology to understand and predict risk of SRD can better early identification and intervention to have a valuable clinical impact on children with SRD.Item Linguistic Diversity On Africa: Clustering Methods Application On Language Typology Data(2023-12) Markov, Ilia; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Francis, David J.; Rakhlin, Natalia V.One of the main goals in language research is to understand the distribution of linguistic diversity and its underlying principles. Linguistic typology allows us to characterize diverse languages in terms of their linguistic features, which can be used to create a relatively comprehensive description of any language. An important theoretical issue concerning linguistic diversity is whether it should be considered stochastic (randomly determined) or deterministic (based on a set of principles governing it). The latter may depend on a set of constraints imposed from inside or outside the linguistic system, i.e., language faculty in the narrow sense or the “interfaces” – aspects of perceptual, motor, and general cognition systems. The debate on the nature of language variation has not been settled. Africa, having the longest history of human settlement of any continent and hypothesized to be the place of origin of the Homo Sapiens, has the deepest genealogical relations between languages that are yet to be comprehensively and systematically described. By using a sample of the language typology data available in the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) and in the repository of crosslinguistic phonological inventory data (PHOIBLE 2) for languages of the African continent, we seek to address the following research objective: to investigate whether the typological diversity of languages in Africa can be characterized by clustering along two important structural divides: synthetic – analytic and tonal – non-tonal. Several methods, including latent class analysis and CFA models, hierarchical clustering, k-means family algorithms and CART modes, using feature networks focusing on relevant language domains were constructed to classify the data according to these structural divides. Those classification patterns can be further linked to several possible future interface hypotheses, leading to better understanding of human language.Item Methodological Contributions in Brain-Imaging Genetics: A Review, Simulation Study, and Experimental Analysis(2023-08) Cheek, Connor; Gunaratne, Gemunu H.; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Lindner, Peggy; Morrison, Greg; Ratti, ClaudiaBrain-imaging genetics is focused on understanding the genetic underpinnings of complex cognitive traits using imaging endophenotypes that reflect brain structure or function. This field has seen much methodological development over the past decade, but has not reached a consensus on “best” techniques for analyzing combined genetic, brain-imaging, and behavioral datasets. Historically, a lack of large and diverse datasets has limited method exploration. Recently, after years of collec- tion, new biobanks are releasing large-scale datasets aimed at understanding the biology of complex cognitive traits. Namely, the Child Mind Institute’s Healthy Brain Network (CMI HBN) has re- cently released genotypic, structural brain-imaging, and academic cognitive assessments for up to 4,868 children. We performed a three-part study to analyze this novel dataset. We first present a narrative review that captures the current state of brain-imaging genetic methodology. Next, we select leading methods from the field and compare their performance in a simulated setting. We find that a regularized multiple multivariate regression strategy, the elastic net, is most suited to analyzing simulated brain-imaging genetic data under a range of assumptions. We then apply the elastic net to the CMI HBN dataset exploring complex academic skills. Our analysis identifies sev- eral genes and imaging indicators associated with reading ability. Many of these findings align with previously established associations between the identified genes and reading or similar academic achievement measures. Besides our genetic findings, a key contribution of this work is a flexible and data-driven pipeline for analyzing any brain-imaging genetic datasets like the CMI HBN. Our analytical strategy can serve as a valuable resource for future brain-imaging genetic studies and facilitate the identification of key factors involved in academic skills.Item Paired Associate Learning Tasks and their Contribution to Reading Skills(Learning and Individual Differences, 1/1/2017) Mourgues, Catalina V.; Tan, Mei; Hein, Sascha D.; Ojanen, Emma; Reich, Jodi; Lyytinen, Heikki; Grigorenko, Elena L.Associative learning has been identified as one of several non-linguistic processes involved in reading acquisition. However, it has not been established whether it is an independent process that contributes to reading performance on its own or whether it is a process that is embedded in other linguistic skills (e.g., phonological awareness or phonological memory) and, therefore, contributing to reading performance indirectly. Research has shown that performance on tasks assessing associative learning, e.g., paired-associate learning (PAL) tasks, is lower in children with specific reading difficulties compared to typical readers. We explored the differential associations of two distinct verbal-visual PAL tasks (the Bala Bbala Graphogame, BBG, and a Foreign Language Learning Task, FLLT) with reading skills (word reading and pseudo-word decoding), controlling for phonological awareness, rapid naming, and letter and digit span in children at risk for reading disabilities and their typically developing peers. Our study sample consisted of 110 children living in rural Zambia, ranging in age from 7 to 18 years old (48.1% female). Multivariate analyses of covariance were used to explore the group differences in reading performance. Repeated-measures ANCOVA was used to examine children’s learning across the PAL tasks. The differential relationships between both PAL tasks and reading performance were explored via structural equation modeling. The main result was that the children at risk for reading difficulties had lower performance on both PAL tasks. The BBG was a significant predictor for both word reading and pseudo-word decoding, whereas the FLLT—only for word reading. Performance on the FLLT partially mediated the association between phonological awareness and word reading. These results illustrate the partial independence of associative learning from other reading-related skills; the specifics of this relationship vary based on the type of PAL task administered.Item Physical Growth and Nonverbal Intelligence: Associations in Zambia(Journal of Pediatrics, 11/1/2014) Hein, Sascha D.; Reich, Jodi; Thuma, Philip E.; Grigorenko, Elena L.Objective: To investigate normative developmental body mass index (BMI) trajectories and associations of physical growth indicators—height, weight, head circumference (HC), and BMI—with nonverbal intelligence in an understudied population of children from sub-Saharan Africa. Study design: A sample of 3981 students (50.8% male), grades 3-7, with a mean age of 12.75 years was recruited from 34 rural Zambian schools. Children with low scores on vision and hearing screenings were excluded. Height, weight, and HC were measured, and nonverbal intelligence was assessed using the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test, Symbolic Memory subtest and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, Triangles subtest. Results: Students in higher grades had a higher BMI over and above the effect of age. Girls had a marginally higher BMI, although that for both boys and girls was approximately 1 SD below the international Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization norms. When controlling for the effect of age, nonverbal intelligence showed small but significant positive relationships with HC (r = 0.17) and BMI (r = 0.11). HC and BMI accounted for 1.9% of the variance in nonverbal intelligence, over and above the contribution of grade and sex. Conclusion: BMI-for-age growth curves of Zambian children follow observed worldwide developmental trajectories. The positive relationships between BMI and intelligence underscore the importance of providing adequate nutritional and physical growth opportunities for children worldwide and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Directions for future studies are discussed with regard to maximizing the cognitive potential of all rural African children.Item School effects on non-verbal intelligence and nutritional status in rural Zambia(Learning and Individual Differences, 2/1/2017) Hein, Sascha D.; Tan, Mei; Reich, Jodi; Thuma, Philip E.; Grigorenko, Elena L.This study uses hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to examine the school factors (i.e., related to school organization and teacher and student body) associated with non-verbal intelligence (NI) and nutritional status (i.e., body mass index; BMI) of 4204 3rd to 7th graders in rural areas of Southern Province, Zambia. Results showed that 23.5% and 7.7% of the NI and BMI variance, respectively, were conditioned by differences between schools. The set of 14 school factors accounted for 58.8% and 75.9% of the between-school differences in NI and BMI, respectively. Grade-specific HLM yielded higher between-school variation of NI (41%) and BMI (14.6%) for students in grade 3 compared to grades 4 to 7. School factors showed a differential pattern of associations with NI and BMI across grades. The distance to a health post and teacher’s teaching experience were the strongest predictors of NI (particularly in grades 4, 6 and 7); the presence of a preschool was linked to lower BMI in grades 4 to 6. Implications for improving access and quality of education in rural Zambia are discussed.Item The Testing Effect, Individual Differences, and Transfer: An Investigation of Learning Strategies Using Educational Materials(2019-05) Pirozzolo, Joseph W.; Foss, Donald J.; Francis, David J.; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Hernandez, Arturo E.; Hein, Sascha D.The positive effect of testing memory has been well demonstrated in laboratory settings and there is now a growing body of supporting evidence in real educational environments. However, whether and under what conditions testing facilitates transfer of learning is still somewhat unclear. Individual differences in learning from tests have also not been extensively studied. The aim of the current study is to further investigate the limits of transfer of learning via testing and explore the role of key cognitive abilities (i.e., reading comprehension, reasoning ability, and working memory). To accomplish this goal, we use an instance in the subject of Biology where we believe that background knowledge (i.e., the components of nucleic acids) is necessary for understanding of a subsequent related concept (i.e., DNA transcription). In a within-subjects experimental design with data from 153 undergraduate students, we examined the effect of testing over background knowledge on performance on subsequent related information. Our study provides evidence of the positive effect of testing on not only exactly repeated test items (d= 1.01), but conceptually related questions (near transfer; d = .60) and questions about a subsequent related passage (far transfer; d = .21). We also report that testing influences pre-test score predictions, such that repeated testing is associated with increased pre-test confidence, while varied testing is not. Finally, we report that individual differences in cognitive ability do not interact with testing effects, but transfer performance is correlated with reasoning ability. Overall, we conclude that retrieval practice with cued recall questions is a highly effective strategy for learning complex educational materials.Item Understanding juvenile justice system involvement: Biological, psychological, and legal factors(2022-08-05) Kovalenko, Julia D.; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Bick, Johanna R.; Dow, Katya; Francis, David J.; Zvolensky, Michael J.Negative life outcomes are strongly linked to involvement in the juvenile justice system, JJS (Abram et al., 2015; Anthony et al., 2010; Van der Geest et al., 2016). It is crucial to understand the many factors that impact JJS involvement to not only prevent further recidivism but to provide targeted interventions to promote reintegration. To that end, we completed three studies aimed at examining the biological (genetic), psychological (mental health), and societal (legal) factors that may be related to antisocial behavior and JJS involvement. The first study aimed to summarize and interpret the current state of studies on genetic factors associated with a range of phenotypes capturing antisocial and delinquent behavior through a meta-analysis. The second study aimed to contribute to literature through examining the prevalence of mental health diagnoses in post-adjudicated adolescents in Harris County Juvenile Probation Department (HCJPD) via the administration of a semi-structured diagnostic interview and comparing the results to the diagnoses the system identifies in the youth. Last, we examined the interaction between juvenile record sealing, offense history, and court decisions.Item Understanding Parenting: Its Variation, Origins, and Impact on Children’s Outcomes(2023-08) Zhukova, Marina; Grigorenko, Elena L.; Francis, David J.; Vujanovic, Anka A.; Pollonini, LucaDyadic relationships with parents are foundational for children’s cognitive, social- emotional and language development. Depending on the quality of interactions with parents these dyadic relationships can serve as protective (or risk) factors for psychopathology and underlie some of the behavioral problems and developmental deficits in children. Studying the characteristics and the origins of dyadic interactions is crucial for understanding contextual developmental factors and identifying targets for intervention. Therefore, we completed a series of three empirical studies aimed at providing selective characterization of the impact of interactions with parents on children’s mental health and language development. The study described in Chapter I was aimed at identifying whether discrepancy in perceived parenting strategies as well as actual dissimilarity in parenting styles can predict children’s mental health problems. Chapter II contributes to the understanding of the origins of parenting styles. The study evaluated how childhood experiences of parents can be passed on to the next generation and affect children’s linguistic environment and neurobiology. Finally, Chapter III provides an in-depth investigation of the bidirectional influence between environment and child’s language development. The study examined the unique contributions of interactions with parents to children’s language outcomes compared to other sources of input, accounting for children’s language status.