Search

This study investigated the overall happiness, school-related happiness, and depression of traditionally bullied and cyberbullied 12-year-old Finnish students. Among the more than 700 participants, traditional bullying (26%) was more frequent than cyberbullying (18%). Receiving insulting text messages or being the subject of offensive comments on the Internet were the most common forms of cyberbullying. Often those who were cyberbullied were also victims of traditional bullying (the poly-victimized comprised 11% of all participants). We found no differences between genders in traditional bullying rates, but cyberbullying was more common among girls. Being victimized, in either form, was related to a decrease in all measures of psychological well-being, with the poly-victimized scoring the lowest. In particular, being victimized predicted depression, with the poly-victimized scoring the highest. The results indicate a clear need to intervene in early adolescents' culture of communicating via electronic devices and especially to identify victims of bullying in both the real and cyberworld.

In this study happiness and depression in 737 12-year-old Finnish children were predicted by relationships with family members and other people, the number of close friends and their experiences of parental fighting and drinking. There were no differences in happiness between the genders, but the girls were more depressed than the boys. Low happiness was predicted by confidential family relationships and the number of close friends in both genders. High happiness was predicted by confidential family relationships and confidential relationships with other people in the girls, and confidential family relationships and the number of close friends in the boys. Depression was accounted for by poor family relationships, the number of close friends and parental fighting in the girls. In the boys, depression was related to poor family relationships and the number of close friends. Thus, the factors explaining happiness and depression were partly different and not necessarily interrelated. The results confirm that the correlates of well-being differ between the genders already at the age of 12 and the girls are more sensitive to family discord than the boys.

This study compared the subjective and school-related happiness of 75 11- to 16-year-old special education students to 77 age- and gender-matched mainstream students using two quantitative measures. Additionally, the respondents chose from a list of 12 putative happy makers what they felt increased their happiness. Ten special education students also described their opinions on happiness qualitatively. In both quantitative measures, the special education students reported lower happiness than did their counterparts. Girls reported lower happiness than did boys in subjective happiness. Both educational groups valued money, success in school and leisure time. The most frequent choice of special education students was to have more friends. This paper discusses reasons for the relative unhappiness of special education children. (Contains 5 tables.)

Passive and active visuospatial working memory (VSWM) were investigated in relation to maths performance. The mental rotation task was employed as a measure of active VSWM whereas passive VSWM was investigated using a modified Corsi Blocks task and a matrix pattern task. The Raven Progressive Matrices Test measured fluid intelligence. A total of 128 students, aged 15-16, served as participants. Fluid intelligence and passive VSWM accounted for variance in overall maths performance. Active VSWM exhibited significant correlations with maths measures, but in a series of regression analyses most of its effect was observed to be mediated by fluid intelligence. Different subscores of mathematical skills (geometry, word problems, and mental arithmetic) were accounted for by fluid intelligence and different measure s of VSWM. The educational implications of the results are discussed. (Contains 5 figures and 3 tables.)

Fluid/spatial intelligence, crystallized intelligence and their relationships to verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) were studied. A total of 120 Finnish Air Force recruits participated in this study. Fluid/spatial intelligence was assessed using four different tasks, while crystallized intelligence was defined with the help of test scores of Finnish upper secondary school National Matriculation Tests in three different academic subjects and one additional Verbal Relations task. Complex WM span tasks were used to measure visuospatial and verbal WM capacities. Structural equation modeling indicated that verbal WM was related to crystallized intelligence when both WM tasks were included in the model, whereas performance on the visuospatial WM task was related to fluid/spatial intelligence, but not to crystallized intelligence. Verbal WM was not related to fluid intelligence when used as a single WM predictor. The results indicate that verbal WM might be related to verbal ability and learning at school, while visuospatial WM is relatively strongly related to nonverbal reasoning and spatial visualization. The current results further suggest that WM capacity is not a unitary system.

Studied aspects of listening comprehension skills in 107 second, fourth, and sixth graders in Finland using the Sentence Verification technique. Findings, comparable with previous research, show age-related improvement in listening comprehension for narrative, but not expository, passages. Cluster analysis produced four comprehension strategies. (SLD)

Studied phonological processing in relation to academic achievement in the native and a second language in 66 12-to-13-year-old Finnish students at the end of their sixth school year. Findings are in agreement with findings from other studies, demonstrating a fairly strong relationship between language competencies and phonological processing. (SLD)

Examines the cognitively high-level text processing, or macro-processing, of expository passages. Investigates reading comprehension during the sixth and ninth school years. Finds that girls outperformed boys regardless of the comprehension measure and also finds that performance on both measures, but particularly on hierarchy-rating, correlated with school achievement. Discusses the educational implications of the survey. (SG)

Investigates expository text macroprocessing and its relationship to working memory and school achievement by using a hierarchy-rating test. Indicates that the ability to identify expository text topics and main points are connected to Working Memory (WM). Finds that hierarchy-rating and multiple-choice task are strongly related to school achievement. (CMK)

A test for children's goal-directed behavior was developed, based on neuropsychological executive function research of Vilkki and Holst and on the frame work of Lewin's level-of-aspiration research. 46 12-yr.-old children were participants. Fluid Intelligence was expected to be linked to goal-directed behavior and a commonly used executive function task, the Wisconsin Card-sorting Test. A child was asked to set personal goals in a short-term memory task without prior knowledge about performance. Four different task versions were developed employing both verbal (memorizing series of words) and visuospatial (memorizing block sequences) material. The child set an individual goal for each memory trial. Goal-setting after successful and failed trials was investigated. Usually, the children lowered their goals after failures and set their goals higher or did not change them after successful trials. Compared to goal on a previous trial, Inadequate Responses included setting a goal higher after a failed trial and setting it lower after success. Fluid Intelligence was related to goal-directed behavior, viz., Inadequate Responses. It also correlated with scores on the Wisconsin Card-sorting Test. The results are in concordance with previous research. In addition to experimental executive function research, the novel test might be useful in research concerning children's motivation, self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning.

Investigates the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) in relation to fluid intelligence and two conventional executive function tasks. Intercorrelations among executive function tasks; Comparison of different measures of the IGT between adults and children; Conclusion that the IGT may serve as a complementary tool to the executive functions test battery.

This study investigated dimensions of executive functioning in 8- to 13-year-old children. Three tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), two tasks from the NEPSY battery and some additional executive function (EF) tests were administered to 108 children. In line with earlier work, modest correlations among EF measures were obtained (r < .4). Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded three interrelated factors, which resembled those obtained by Miyake et al. (2000) and which were--with some reservations--labelled Working Memory (WM), Inhibition and Shifting. Age correlated with performance on most individual EF measures as well as Shifting and WM. The present findings are in agreement with contemporary views as to the simultaneous unity and diversity of EFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pilot study concerning Finnish dyslexics at senior high school (lukio), for 16-19- year-olds, is reported. The phonological processing deficit was assumed to underlie dyslexia in these late teenage subjects. The regular nature of Finnish orthography was taken into consideration. Four tasks were introduced to a total of 32 students, of whom 15 were dyslexics and 17 were controls. The controls outperformed the dyslexics on three tasks: text recoding, pseudoword recoding and pseudoword spelling. On the text spelling task, both groups performed equally well. In the correlational analysis of all subjects, both recoding tasks showed high correlations with selfestimated school achievement in language-related subjects. The recoding time appeared to be more important than the number of reading errors. These preliminary results suggest that the three tasks, capable of discriminating dyslexics, might be useful in the development of an adult dyslexia test in Finnish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Studies have shown that poor sleep is related to burnout, but research to date has not yet explored sleep-related factors in relation to school burnout., Methods: A total of 555 students, aged 15 to 20 years, participated in this study. The participants reported their diurnal patterns, sleep quality, tiredness, and school burnout in printed questionnaires. Using logistic regression analysis, the study examined how sleep-related factors explained school burnout., Results: School burnout was related to daytime sleepiness, tiredness and poor sleep quality. Neither time in bed, social jet lag nor diurnal preferences could explain school burnout., Conclusion: The results contribute to the growing evidence showing the importance of sleep for well-being.