Federal and state legislations continue to mandate high-stakes testing for American students. Consequences of high-stakes testing include but are not limited to, low teacher efficacy, narrow teaching strategies, lack of student motivation, and the feeling of insecurity in classrooms by the students. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper…

The aim of the current investigation was to compare the association between attachment and behaviour problems in children attending regular schools and children attending special education schools with a focus on emotional and social development. We draw upon data collected from 169 children attending regular schools (M[subscript age] = 9.66), and…

Two quasi-experimental field studies (N = 419; 248) tested the effects of an outdoor environmental education program based in local Protected Natural Areas (PNAs) on 3rd-to-6th-grade students' proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors. Results show the program increases children's place attachment, proenvironmental attitudes, ethics and…

The goal of the study was to examine the joint and distinct contribution of attachment security and social anxiety to Arab children's peer competence in middle childhood. We focused on Arab children as very little research has examined close relationships for this group. A sample of 404 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade Arabic students (203 boys and…

National educational achievement statistics show that academic underachievement is a significant problem for all students in the United States and for culturally diverse students in particular. The relationship of attachment and its interaction with traumatic stress has been proposed as an alternative explanation for the persistent…

Self-representations of 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-graders' social and academic competence were examined in relation to children's personal (grade/age); family (attachment to parents, marital conflict, anxiety related to conflict); and school (teacher appraisals) contexts. Children who reported higher levels of security of attachment to parents and lower…

Attachment relationships of first, third, and fifth graders with their mothers and fathers, and their associations with self-perceived and teacher-rated competence, were investigated. Children rated their attachment security with mothers and fathers using the Kerns security scale. Children's perceptions of academic and peer competence were…

This study identified mechanisms through which child-mother attachment security at 36 months was associated with mother- and teacher-reported friendship quality at 3rd grade. Data from a subsample of 1,071 children (536 boys) participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth…