Longitudinal Study of Young Children's Responses to Challenging Achievement Situations

Abstract

Three studies were conducted to replicate and extend Dweck's findings regarding young children's responses to challenging achievement situations. Dweck's dichotomous helplessness classification system (i.e., task choice, task choice reason) was replicated with kindergartners, n = 235 (50% male), and first graders, n = 70 (46% male). To test whether individual differences in young children's responses to challenging situations are stable over time, 1- and 5-year follow-ups of the kindergartners were conducted. On the basis of children's responses on age-appropriate behavioral tasks, a composite of cognitive, behavioral, and affective helplessness indices predicted helplessness at 1 and 5 years later, n = 114 (50% male), above and beyond kindergarten task ability and gender, p<.05. Kindergarten helplessness predicted teacher ratings of children's helplessness 5 years later as well, p<.05. The implications of these findings for early intervention are discussed.

A Bayesian-optimal principle for learner-friendly adaptation in learning games

“…This is especially important for children who may develop avoidance towards challenging tasks due to too many failures (Onatsu-Arvilommi & Nurmi, 2000;Ziegert, Kistner, Castro, & Robertson, 2001). Assuming that the chances of learning are proportional to the amount of measurement information given by the results of the learning tasks, and inversely proportional to the number of failures of the student, the mathematically optimal teaching strategy is to optimize the information gain divided by the number of failures.…”

Visually detected NREM Stage 2 sleep spindles in kindergarten children are associated with stress challenge and coping strategies

“…We claim that HPA activity and stress coping consist of individually stable trait-like patterns, which are reflected in nocturnal sleep every day. Ziegert et al (2001) showed that children's responses to challenging situations are stable over years. While this paper did not focus on the direct association between a particular stress challenge and spindle activity in the following night, it would be a good idea for a further study to test the direct effects of acute stress on sleep spindle activity in a stresscontrolled test-retest design.…”

Attachment Style and the Stability of Self-worth Following Life Events

“…Relative to children with secure attachment histories, children with insecure attachment histories were less likely to show task persistence. The lack of persistence in the face of challenge suggests that these children have an unstable sense of self-worth (Morley & Moran, 2011;Ziegert, Kistner, Castro, & Robertson, 2001). Accordingly, Sroufe et al (2005) found that the insecurely attached children, relative to the securely attached children, had lower teacher-rated self-esteem.…”