University of Cambridge
Predictors of cognitive and socioemotional development in early and middle childhood: Evidence from Chile and Hungary
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThis thesis presents four studies analysing children’s development of their cognitive and socioemotional skills. The first three studies focus on a nationally representative sample participating in ELPI (Encuesta Longitudinal de Primera Infancia; Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey) from Chile, an underrepresented population in research. Our large sample allowed the precise estimation of effect sizes and the generalizability of results. The first study ‘The relation of school achievement with self‑esteem and bullying in Chilean children’ (N = 8,381) studied the relationship between maths achievement, receptive vocabulary, Grade Point Average (GPA), self-esteem, and bullying in 8- to 12-year-old children. Unlike the international literature, we found a larger relationship between self-esteem and GPA, and a smaller relationship between bullying and GPA. The second study ‘Maternal cognitions and cognitive, behaviour and emotional development in middle childhood’ (N = 10,867 mother-child dyads) focused on mothers and their 7- to 12-year-old children. This is the first study to show that parenting stress was negatively related to self-esteem and positively related to being bullied; and parental sense of competence was negatively related to experiencing bullying and positively related to self-esteem, maths achievement, receptive vocabulary, and executive functions. Mothers with higher levels of depression and parenting stress perceived their children as having more behavioural and emotional problems than mothers from developed countries. On the contrary, there was a smaller negative effect of maternal depression on receptive vocabulary, maths, and bullying, and of parenting stress on children’s receptive vocabulary and executive functions. The third study ‘A 7-year longitudinal mediation model predicting maths and receptive vocabulary in primary school’ (N = 3,757) analysed early family and child predictors. The strongest path was preschool children’s executive functions mediating the relationship between early language skills and primary school maths and receptive vocabulary. Our model applied for girls and boys. Differing from previous Western findings on family socioeconomic status (SES) and maternal vocabulary, we found a non-significant effect of maternal capital (a measure including family SES and maternal vocabulary, working memory, and educational level) on children’s receptive vocabulary two years later. The final study ‘Anxiety predicts maths achievement in kindergarten children’ (N = 488) analysed a sample of Hungarian kindergarten children. Higher general anxiety levels had a stronger negative effect on girls’ than boys’ maths achievement. In line with previous findings with primary school children, we found no significant differences in maths achievement between girls and boys, SES disadvantage was positively related to general anxiety, and SES disadvantage and general anxiety had a negative effect on maths achievement. Overall, findings show that children’s achievement and their experiences at school are connected, that maternal cognitions can be protective or risk factors for a wide range of children’s outcomes, the impact of early skills and environment in predicting primary school achievement, and the role of gender in the relation between anxiety and maths. These results can provide useful information for stakeholders to support children’s development.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Cambridge
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2024
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Álvarez Barra, Carolina
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Szucs, Denes
Subjects
dc:subject × 4Rights
dc:rightsIdentifiers
dc:identifier.*- DOI dc:identifier.doi
- https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.111925
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/373564