This study examined the amount and quality of educational dialogue in relation to student math performance in Grade 2. Domains of teacher occupational stress were considered predicting variables for dialogue and math performance. Video-recorded lessons (N = 151) of 50 teachers were analysed in terms of dialogic episodes to determine the amount…

This study investigated cross-lagged associations between parental trust in a child's teacher and children's academic interest across Grades 1-4 in primary school. Parents rated trust in their child's teacher, and 576 children reported their interest in reading and math at each grade. The results showed that high parental trust in a child's…

The purpose of this study was to examine how the members of children's peer groups resemble each other in terms of behavioural and emotional strengths, academic achievement and behaviour at school. The participants were 739 9- to 10-year-old children (354 boys, 385 girls) from 30 Finnish elementary schools. 431 children (241 girls, 190 boys) were…

In their recently renamed theory, situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), Eccles and Wigfield (2020) emphasized the importance of situations in influencing individuals' motivational beliefs and academic choices. Adopting a novel approach--network analysis--this study aimed to examine how situations may impact the associations among expectancies,…

This study examines primary-school children's beliefs about their school performance at the end of their first school year in Finland and feedback that they have received, and furthermore possible gender differences between these beliefs. Children from Grade 1 (N = 544), approximately 7 years old, were interviewed. The data were assessed using…

This study investigated the cross-lagged associations between teacher-student relationships and problem behaviors in a sample of 440 Finnish students (half of them identified as being at risk of reading difficulties). The degree to which these associations were moderated by a child's gender, academic performance, risk for reading difficulties,…

Drawing on the tradition of childhood studies, this study explores how children's problems are being conceptualised by primary school teachers in Finland and Norway and what kind of institutional childhood is reflected in those conceptualisations. I use thematic content analysis to analyse data derived from two primary schools in Tampere, Finland,…

This longitudinal study examined the cross-lagged relationships of ADHD symptoms, school adjustment and academic performance during the transition from primary to middle school (Grades 6-7) in a Finnish community sample (N = 311). We found that the mechanisms were different for boys and girls: for boys (N = 149) the effect ADHD symptoms had on…

The aim of this study was to find out if there have been any changes in technical abilities among Finnish school children during the last 30 years. Technical abilities were first measured in the affective, psychomotor, and cognitive areas in the year 1993 and these results were later compared with the results from 2012 and 2022. The number of test…

School engagement is critical to learning and long-term academic success. Feeling overwhelmed with school demands form a threat to students' engagement. We examined the roles of person-internal (academic buoyancy) and person-external (social support) factors in mediating the association between academic stress and school engagement among primary…

This study investigated associations of early adolescents' (N = 190, median age = 12) subjectively experienced emotions and psychophysiological reactions in achievement situations. Self-reported questions assessed adolescents' experienced emotions. Additionally, adolescents' autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactions were recorded; skin-conductance…

This longitudinal study examined how two externalising behaviour problems, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CDs), are associated over time with low motivation (MAS), and how these problems effect academic performance. In our cross-lagged analysis, we found reciprocal effects between ADHD symptoms and MAS…

This longitudinal study covering two educational transitions examined 1,821 Finnish students' participation in and identification with school and their associations with students' academic achievement and truancy. The students were surveyed (a) at the end of primary school, (b) at the beginning of lower secondary school, (c) at the end of lower…

The present study examines associations between learning difficulties (LD), academic emotions, and academic achievement among 845 Grade 6 adolescents (455 girls, 390 boys). Reading difficulties (RD) and math difficulties (MD) were identified based on tested reading and math skills in the fall semester of Grade 6. At this time, the students also…

This study examined the role of learning difficulties in academic emotions and achievement across the transition to lower secondary school among 848 Finnish adolescents. Reading difficulties (RD) and math difficulties (MD) were identified based on test scores in Grade 6 and 7. Students with difficulties were identified as having resolving,…