Papers by Anna-Maija Poikkeus
Physical activity (PA) promotes the development of brain functionality and may thereby enhance ac... more Physical activity (PA) promotes the development of brain functionality and may thereby enhance academic achievement. However, children of this millennium spend most of their day in sedentary tasks. We investigated the associations of PA and screen-based sedentary activity (SA) with academic skills during the first three school years among children.
Teaching and Teacher Education
This study investigates resilience strategies exhibited by teachers with dyslexia working at tert... more This study investigates resilience strategies exhibited by teachers with dyslexia working at tertiary education. Narrative interviews of tertiary teachers’ own perceptions of how dyslexia affects their work were analysed to understand how they cope in a challenging profession. Findings indicated a utilization of a range of resilience strategies; task-related strategies, personalizing work contexts, utilizing social support networks and nurturing self-esteem and self-efficacy. Developing individualized strategies is paramount to attaining a successful career in tertiary education. Self-awareness is required to build the strategies supporting teachers in fulfilling professional requirements and enable them to experience agency and self-efficacy in their work.
Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs, 2001
Cross-situational stability in parents' emotional warmth and guidance was studied by observin... more Cross-situational stability in parents' emotional warmth and guidance was studied by observing parents (N = 77, M age = 38 years) with their school-aged child in 2 dyadic problem-solving situations and in a family discussion concerning a moral dilemma. The observational data were coded by independent observers using dimensional ratings and dichotomous frequency counts as the 2 coding procedures. These procedures yielded a similar pattern of findings. Parents tended to behave consistently across situations, although the type of situation did affect the amount of emotional warmth and guidance manifested by the parent. Stability was further analyzed by means of structural equation modeling to test whether variance in parents' emotional warmth and guidance across situations was attributable to a generalized parenting style factor. A Parenting Style factor was identified that reflected the parents' child-centeredness; this factor explained, in part, parental behavior within e...
Developmental Psychology, 2015
This study examined cross-lagged associations between positive teacher and peer relations and aca... more This study examined cross-lagged associations between positive teacher and peer relations and academic skill development. Reading and math skills were tested among 625 students in kindergarten and Grade 4. Teacher reports of positive affect toward each student and classmate reports of peer acceptance were gathered in Grades 1-3. The results showed, first, that positive teacher affect toward the student and peer acceptance were reciprocally associated: Positive teacher affect predicted higher peer acceptance, and higher peer acceptance predicted a higher level of positive teacher affect. Second, the effect of positive teacher affect on academic skill development was partly mediated via peer acceptance, while the effect of early academic skills on peer acceptance was partly mediated via positive teacher affect. The results suggest that a warm and supportive teacher can increase a student's peer acceptance, which, in turn, is positively associated with learning outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
Learning and Individual Differences, 2014
This study investigated the associations between student's behavioral engagement; teacher, family... more This study investigated the associations between student's behavioral engagement; teacher, family, and peer emotional support; and school truancy. Student-reported data of 821 Finnish junior high school students were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Teacher and family support were positively associated with student behavioral engagement, which in turn was negatively associated with truancy. Behavioral engagement mediated the associations between teacher and family emotional support and truancy. The results highlight the pivotal roles of teacher and family emotional support in fostering student behavioral engagement and preventing truancy in junior high schools. Students who are attached to their teachers and parents are likely to conform to their expectations and not to play truant from school.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2014
Background: Social withdrawal in early childhood is a risk factor for later socioemotional diffic... more Background: Social withdrawal in early childhood is a risk factor for later socioemotional difficulties. This study examined the joint effects of children's social withdrawal and mothers' and fathers' parenting styles on children's socioemotional development. Based on diatheses-stress, vantage sensitivity, and differential susceptibility models, socially withdrawn children were assumed to be more prone to parental influences than others. Methods: Teachers rated 314 children on prosocial skills, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors at three points in time between grades 1-3. Mothers (n = 279) and fathers (n = 182) filled in questionnaires measuring their affection, and their behavioral and psychological control at the same points in time. Teacher reports on children's level of social withdrawal were obtained at the end of kindergarten. Results: Panel analysis showed that particularly those children who showed signs of social withdrawal were vulnerable to the negative effects of low maternal affection in terms of externalizing behavior. Moreover, among these children, mothers' and fathers' psychological control predicted high levels of internalizing problem but, at the same time, mothers' psychological control predicted also a high level of prosocial behavior and low levels of externalizing problem. Conclusions: The results supported the diathesis-stress model more than the differential susceptibility model. For example, socially withdrawn children were found to be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of low maternal affection. Although maternal psychological control had positive effects on the prosocial skills of socially withdrawn children, and reduced the amount of externalizing problems, it was at the same time associated with an increase in their internalizing problems. In this way, socially withdrawn children seem to be at risk of pleasing their mothers at the cost of their own well-being.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 2014
This longitudinal study investigated the associations among children's externalizing problems, ta... more This longitudinal study investigated the associations among children's externalizing problems, taskavoidant behavior, and academic performance in early school years. The participants were 586 children (43% girls, 57% boys). Data pertaining to externalizing problems (teacher ratings) and task-avoidant behaviors (mother and teacher ratings) were gathered, and the children were tested yearly on their academic performance in Grades 1-4. The results were similar for both genders. The analyses supported a mediation model: high externalizing problems in Grades 1 and 2 were linked with low academic performance in Grades 3 and 4 through increases in task-avoidant behavior in Grades 2 and 3. The results also provided evidence for a reversed mediator model: low academic performance in Grades 1 and 2 was associated with high externalizing problems in Grades 3 and 4 via high task avoidance in Grades 2 and 3. These findings emphasize the need to examine externalizing problems, task-avoidant behavior, and academic performance conjointly to understand their developmental dynamics in early school years.
Reading Research Quarterly
This study examined the role of reading disability (RD) risk and environmental protective factors... more This study examined the role of reading disability (RD) risk and environmental protective factors in reading fluency in grade 4. The sample consisted of 538 Finnish-speaking students. Kindergarten measures included the students’ risk for RD based on poor achievement in phonological awareness and letter knowledge as well as information on the three control variables: nonverbal ability, level of parental education, and gender. Measures in grades 1–3 included environmental protective factors: classmate reports of peer acceptance; teacher reports of positive affect for the student; and mother, father, and teacher reports of partnership between the home and the school. The students were also tested on their reading fluency in grade 4. The results showed, first, that environmental protective factors, namely, high levels of peer acceptance and positive teacher affect, uniquely predicted students’ improved reading fluency in grade 4, after controlling for RD risk, nonverbal ability, level o...
International Journal of Educational Research, 2012
Social Psychology of Education, 2012
The present study investigated mathematics performance and related interest value as the antecede... more The present study investigated mathematics performance and related interest value as the antecedents and consequences of teachers' causal attributions concerning children's academic outcomes during their kindergarten year. Sixty-nine children (5-6 years old at the baseline) and their teachers were examined twice during the kindergarten year. Children were tested in mathematics performance and interviewed about their interest value. Teachers rated their causal attributions in the fall and spring. The results showed that the higher the interest value in mathematics children showed, the more the teacher attributed their success to ability and effort. Teachers' ability attributions for success, in turn, contributed to an increase in children's interest value in mathematics. Moreover, attributing children's success and failure to external causes decreased children's mathematics-related interest value.
Scientific Studies of Reading, 2007
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 1999
Lyytinen P., Laakso M.-L., Poikkeus A.-M. & Rita N. (1999). The development and predictive relati... more Lyytinen P., Laakso M.-L., Poikkeus A.-M. & Rita N. (1999). The development and predictive relations of play and language across the second year. Scandina6ian Journal of Psychology, 40, 177-186.
Reading and Writing, 2013
We examined the double deficit hypothesis and literacy development in a longitudinal dataset of 1... more We examined the double deficit hypothesis and literacy development in a longitudinal dataset of 1,006 Finnish children who were nonreaders at school entry. A single phonological awareness (PA) deficit was a predictor of pseudoword spelling accuracy and reading fluency, and a single rapid automatized naming (RAN) deficit was a predictor of reading fluency. The group with both PA and RAN deficits experienced the most extensive reading and spelling difficulties. However, all groups included both poor and average Grade 2 readers and spellers. Poor letter knowledge and vocabulary, task avoidance, attention difficulties, hyperactivity, and lack of teaching at home were additional risk factors for reading and spelling problems, but their impact varied depending on the presence of PA and RAN deficits.
Psychological Science, 2014
Utilizing a longitudinal sample of Finnish children (ages 6-10), two studies examined how early l... more Utilizing a longitudinal sample of Finnish children (ages 6-10), two studies examined how early linguistic (spoken vs. written) and spatial skills predict later development of arithmetic, and whether counting sequence knowledge mediates these associations. In Study 1 (N = 1,880), letter knowledge and spatial visualization, measured in kindergarten, predicted the level of arithmetic in first grade, and later growth through third grade. Study 2 (n = 378) further showed that these associations were mediated by counting sequence knowledge measured in first grade. These studies add to the literature by demonstrating the importance of written language for arithmetic development. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that linguistic and spatial skills can improve arithmetic development by enhancing children's number-related knowledge.
Psychological Assessment, 2011
Test-taking behaviors (i.e., task focus, maintenance of attention, and cooperation) affect childr... more Test-taking behaviors (i.e., task focus, maintenance of attention, and cooperation) affect children's cognitive test performance, and, thus, it is critical to take test-taking behavior into account when drawing conclusions and making recommendations. Prior studies have evaluated test-taking behaviors at the end of the assessment; the present study focused on the fluctuation of cooperation and attention during a neuropsychological assessment. We examined the attention and cooperation of 5-year-old children in a test-taking situation; the associations between these aspects of their test-taking behavior and the children's concurrent neurocognitive test performance, IQ, and parent-rated behavior; and the associations with their IQ, behavioral outcomes, and academic achievement at 8 years of age. The data (for 76 boys and 63 girls) were drawn from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (Lyytinen et al., 2001, 2004). All the children were Caucasian and spoke Finnish as their native language. As a whole, the 5-year-old children showed high cooperation and attention, but a slight decrement in test-taking behavior toward the end of the session was rather common. Three subgroups of children with different levels of cooperation and attention were identified. Children in the subgroup with nonoptimal attention and cooperation showed decreasing neurocognitive test performance toward the end of the assessment session. They also showed more inattentive behavior 3 years later. The findings imply that the examiner's observations of waning attention and cooperation during the assessment session are highly relevant, as these provide stable and clinically meaningful information about the child's behavioral tendencies.
Nordic Psychology, 2007
The validity of early predictive measures of delayed reading acquisition is summarized on the bas... more The validity of early predictive measures of delayed reading acquisition is summarized on the basis of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD). These results show that children in need of support can be identified years before school age. After a brief review of the ...
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 2006
Abstract 1. In order to understand why some children are vulnerable to difficulties in their lang... more Abstract 1. In order to understand why some children are vulnerable to difficulties in their language development and their acquisition of reading skill, the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia followed 200 Finnish children from birth to school age. Half of these ...
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2014
We investigated the associations of cardiovascular and motor performance in grade 1 with academic... more We investigated the associations of cardiovascular and motor performance in grade 1 with academic skills in grades 1-3. The participants were 6- to 8-yr-old children with complete data in grades 1-2 for 174 children and in grade 3 for 167 children. Maximal workload during exercise test was used as a measure of cardiovascular performance. The shuttle run test (SRT) time, the errors in balance test, and the number of cubes moved in box and block test (BBT) were measures of motor performance. Academic skills were assessed using reading fluency, reading comprehension, and arithmetic skill tests. Among boys, longer SRT time was associated with poorer reading fluency in grades 1-3 (β = -0.29 to -0.39, P < 0.01), reading comprehension in grades 1-2 (β = -0.25 to -0.29, P < 0.05), and arithmetic skills in grades 1-3 (β = -0.33 to -0.40, P < 0.003). Poorer balance was related to poorer reading comprehension (β = -0.20, P = 0.042). The smaller number of cubes moved in BBT was related to poorer reading fluency in grades 1-2 (β = 0.23-0.28, P < 0.03), reading comprehension in grade 3 (β = 0.23, P = 0.037), and arithmetic skills in grades 1-2 (β = 0.21-0.23, P < 0.043). Among girls, longer SRT time was related to poorer reading fluency in grade 3 (β = -0.27, P = 0.027) and arithmetic skills in grade 2 (β = -0.25, P = 0.040). The smaller number of cubes moved in BBT was associated with worse reading fluency in grade 2 (β = 0.26, P = 0.030). Cardiovascular performance was not related to academic skills. Poorer motor performance was associated with worse academic skills in children, especially among boys. These findings emphasize early identification of children with poor motor performance and actions to improve these children's motor performance and academic skills during the first school years.
Uploads
Papers by Anna-Maija Poikkeus