Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:09:13.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Change in teachers' ratings of attention problems and subsequent change in academic achievement: a prospective analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

N. Breslau ,
J. Breslau ,
E. Peterson ,
E. Miller ,
V. C. Lucia ,
K. Bohnert  and
J. Nigg
N. Breslau*
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine, East Lansing, MI, USA
J. Breslau
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA
E. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics Research, Henry Ford Health Systems, Detroit, MI, USA
E. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA
V. C. Lucia
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine, East Lansing, MI, USA
K. Bohnert
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine, East Lansing, MI, USA
J. Nigg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, College of Social Science, East Lansing, MI, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: N. Breslau, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine, B645 West Fee Hall, East Lansing, MI48824, USA. (Email: breslau@epi.msu.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Recent research has documented a link between attention problems at school entry and later academic achievement. Little is known about the association of change in attention problems during the early school years with subsequent change in academic achievement.

Method

A community-based cohort was followed up and assessed for attention problems at ages 6 and 11 (Teacher Report Form; TRF) and for academic achievement in math and reading at ages 11 and 17 (Woodcock–Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery). Complete data were available on 590 children (72% of the initial sample). Ordinary least squares regressions were used to estimate change in academic achievement from age 11 to age 17 in relation to change in TRF-attention problems from age 6 to age 11. Children's IQ and family factors were statistically controlled.

Results

Change in teachers' ratings of attention problems from age 6 to age 11 was negatively associated with change in math and reading from age 11 to age 17, controlling for children's IQ and family factors. Externalizing problems had no significant association with change in math or reading, when added to the multivariable model.

Conclusions

Increases in teacher-rated attention problems from age 6 to age 11 were followed by declines in academic achievement from age 11 to age 17; decreases were followed by gains. The results underscore the need for research on the course of attention problems, the testing of interventions to address children's early attention problems and the evaluation of their effects on subsequent academic achievement.

Keywords

Academic achievementattention problemschange
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 159 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, TM (1991 a). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18 and 1991 Profile. University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry: Burlington, VT.Google Scholar
Achenbach, TM (1991 b). Manual for the Teacher's Report Form and 1991 Profile. University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry: Burlington, VT.Google Scholar
Achenbach, TM, Rescorla, L (2001). Manual for the ASEBA School-age Forms & Profiles: An Integrated System of Multi-informant Assessment. ASEBA: Burlington, VT.Google Scholar
Breslau, J, Lane, M, Sampson, N, Kessler, RC (2008). Mental disorders and subsequent educational attainment in a US national sample. Journal of Psychiatric Research 42, 708–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breslau, J, Miller, E, Breslau, N, Bohnert, K, Lucia, VC, Schweitzer, J (in press). The impact of early behavior disturbances on academic achievement in high school. Pediatrics.Google Scholar
Breslau, N, Chilcoat, HD, Susser, ES, Matte, T, Liang, KY, Peterson, EL (2001). Stability and change in children's intelligence quotient scores: a comparison of two socioeconomically disparate communities. Amweican Journal of Epidemiology 154, 711–717.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breslau, N, DelDotto, JE, Brown, GG, Kumar, S, Ezhuthachan, S, Hufnagle, KG, Peterson, EL (1994). A gradient relationship between low birth weight and IQ at age 6 years. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 148, 377–383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breslau, N, Dickens, WT, Flynn, JR, Peterson, EL, Lucia, VC (2006). Low birthweight and social disadvantage: Tracking their relationship with children's IQ during the period of school attendance. Intelligence 34, 351–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breslau, N, Paneth, NS, Lucia, VC (2004). The lingering academic deficits of low birth weight children. Pediatrics 114, 1035–1040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burd, L, Klug, MG, Coumbe, MJ, Kerbeshian, J (2003). Children and adolescents with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder: 1. Prevalence and cost of care. Journal of Child Neurology 18, 555–561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duncan, GJ, Dowsett, CJ, Claessens, A, Magnuson, K, Huston, AC, Klebanov, P, Pagani, LS, Feinstein, L, Engel, M, Brooks-Gunn, J, Sexton, H, Duckworth, K, Japel, C (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology 43, 1428–1446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farkas, G (2003). Cognitive skills and noncognitive traits and behaviors in stratification processes. Annual Review of Sociology 29, 541–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fergusson, DM, Lynskey, MT (1998). Conduct problems in childhood and psychosocial outcomes in young adulthood: a prospective study. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 6, 2–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fergusson, DM, Lynskey, MT, Horwood, LJ (1997). Attentional difficulties in middle childhood and psychosocial outcomes in young adulthood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 38, 633–644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flynn, JR (2007). What is Intelligence?: Beyond the Flynn Effect. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grigg, W, Donahue, PL, Dion, G (2007). The Nation's Report Card: 12th-Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005. National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.Google Scholar
Heckmann, JJ, Stixrud, J, Urzua, S (2006). The effects of cognitive and noncognitive abilities on labor market outcomes and social behavior. Journal of Labor Economics 24, 411–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinshaw, SP (1992). Academic underachievement, attention deficits, and aggression: comorbidity and implications for intervention. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60, 893–903.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huang-Pollock, CL, Carr, TH, Nigg, JT (2002). Development of selective attention: perceptual load influences early versus late attentional selection in children and adults. Developmental Psychology 38, 363–375.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, RC, Foster, CL, Saunders, WB, Stang, PE (1995). Social consequences of psychiatric disorders, I: Educational attainment. American Journal of Psychiatry 152, 1026–1032.Google ScholarPubMed
Kowelski-Jones, L, Duncan, GJ (1999). The structure of achievement and behavior across middle childhood. Child Development 4, 930–943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahey, BB, Pelham, WE, Loney, J, Lee, SS, Willcutt, E (2005). Instability of the DSM-IV Subtypes of ADHD from preschool through elementary school. Archives of General Psychiatry 62, 896–902.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLeod, JD, Kaiser, K (2004). Childhood emotional and behavioral problems and educational attianment. American Sociological Review 69, 636–658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miech, RA, Capsi, A, Moffitt, TE, Wright, BR, Silva, PA (1999). Low socioeconomic status and mental disorders: a longitudinal study of selection and causation during young adulthood. American Journal of Sociology 104, 1096–1131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, SL, Sameroff, AJ, Kerr, DCR, Lopez, NL, Wellman, HM (2005). Developmental foundations of externalizing problems in young children: the role of effortful control. Development and Psychopathology 17, 25–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, M, Crouse, J, Ralph, J (1998). Does the black-white test score gap widen after children enter school? In The Black-White Test Score Gap (ed. Jencks and, C.Phillips, M.), pp. 229–272. Brookings Institution Press: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Pungello, EP, Kupersmidt, JB, Burchinal, MR (1996). Environmental risk factors and children's achievement from middle childhood to early adolescence. Developmental Psychology 32, 755–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santapau, SL (2001). The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics Highlights 2000. National Assessment for Education Progress, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.Google Scholar
Woodcock, RW, Johnson, MB, Mather, N and Riverside Publishing Company (1990). Woodcock–Johnson Psycho-educational Battery – Revised. Riverside Publishing Co.: Itasca, IL.Google Scholar