Responding to Joint Attention (RJA) involves an infant's ability to follow a gaze or point by a partner. Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE), which places a child in danger of numerous risks, has been accepted as having subtle effects on developmental outcomes such as social competence and associated socio-emotional outcomes. The current study looked at a sample of 166 children prenatally exposed to cocaine who were attending an early intervention program. The study established group and individual trajectories of responding to joint attention from 12, 15, and 18 months of age. Hierarchical modeling identified two groups, a delay group and an average group, while individual trajectories identified a linear pattern of growth of RJA. Both individual and group trajectories indicated that children with higher RJA from 12 to 18 months demonstrated better social competence at three years of age and first grade. The delay and average group showed significant differences on later social competence measures, but not problem behaviors, such that RJA, a positive behavior, may connect more closely with later positive behaviors than with behavior problems. RJA may therefore be useful in a preventative intervention targeted at enhancing positive social behaviors and as an important and simple screening tool for possible delay early in a child's life, helping to deliver early intervention services in a targeted and effective manner.

Efforts to understand growth and disparities in science achievement have mainly been focused on the middle and high school grades in studies of K – 12 science education, leaving a gap in the research about the early elementary years. This study used a nationally-representative sample of students in Grades K – 2 to examine science achievement and growth trajectories of students by gender and race/ethnicity. Using multilevel growth modeling, differences in science achievement at Grade 2 and in rate of growth were detected for several student groups. Socioeconomic status, prior reading and math achievement, and student home language status were also significant predictors of science achievement. Growth effect size estimates were calculated by student group and showed substantial year-to-year growth in science achievement in the early elementary grades, with a slight decrease in effect size across years. In order to strengthen current efforts to increase student engagement and participation in science and STEM-related career and college pathways, especially for historically underrepresented groups, policymakers should shift focus to better understand promising practices that best support all students in science from the onset of their K – 12 educational experience.

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Although researchers studying adolescent aggression have proposed a conceptual distinction between physical and relational aggression, there is contradictory evidence regarding the degree to which they differ in their trajectories and relations to other outcomes. This study explored the importance of differentiating between these two forms of aggression based on comparisons of their trajectories, relation with each other, impact on delinquency and substance use, and gender differences. Data were collected as part of the Multisite Violence Prevention Project, conducted at 19 middle schools from four sites with a predominantly low-income, minority sample of students (N = 2,822). Growth curves showed significant linear increases and quadratic trends for physical and relational aggression. Boys and girls had similar shaped trajectories, but boys reported significantly higher levels of physical aggression than girls. Bivariate latent growth curve models and autoregressive models suggested that physical aggression was a stronger predictor of externalizing difficulties than relational aggression.

過去關於父母參與效果的研究發現：父母參與有助於提升子女的學習成就。由於父母參與被視為一種社會資本或文化資本的延伸，父母參與的愈多，其子女學習效果也愈好。有鑑於此，本研究主要在探討父母參與在家庭社經地位和子女學習成就之間所扮演的角色，並將研究目的細分為三個研究議題。首先，根據智力發展理論與認知能力成長曲線相關研究，第一個議題探討臺灣青少年學生學習成長軌跡的發展與變化情形為何？接著，運用 Bourdieu 的文化資本與 Coleman 的社會資本的概念說明父母參與的重要性，其它兩個議題則探討家庭社經地位對子女學習成長軌跡的影響歷程中，父母參與扮演著中介效果還是交互作用效果？ 原始資料來源取自臺灣教育長期追蹤資料庫（Taiwan Education Panel Survey）公共使用版中的第一波到第四波國中長期追蹤樣本，使用潛在成長曲線模型進行次級資料分析。研究結果發現：1.就整體學習發展型態來看，臺灣青少年學生學習成長軌跡的發展是一種非線性遞增減速的成長曲線，年級愈高，學習成長速率愈慢；2.就個別學習成長軌跡而言，學生間起始狀態與成長速率有個別差異現象，進一步透過潛在成長混合模型的分析，發現學生學習成長軌跡的發展型態並無類別上的差異；3.學生的起始能力會影響學習成長速率的變化而產生馬太效應；4.隨著時間的遞移，高起始能力組的學生，其學習成長速率高於低起始能力組的學生，兩者的學習成就間差距會逐漸擴大而產生扇形擴散效應；5.父母參與對子女學習成就表現有顯著正向的短期立即效果與長期延宕效果，但波段與波段之間的延宕效果則沒有顯著差異；6.在家庭社經地位對子女學習成長軌跡的影響歷程中，父母參與扮演著部份中介而不調節的影響效果。 最後，依據上述研究發現，就研究結果與研究方法兩方面，將提出相關研究建議以供實務參考及後續研究之用。 / The previous research has shown that parental involvement produces measurable gains in student achievement. Since parental involvement is seen as a form of social capital and cultural capital, it is possible that the more a student owns parental involvement, the bigger the effect is. Thus, this study explores what role parental involvement plays between parents’ social-economic status and their children’s academic performance. The major purpose is further categorized into three specific questions. Based on the intelligence developmental theory and growth curve analyses of cognitive ability, the first is to inquire what patterns the development and change of academic growth trajectories of Taiwanese teenager’s academic performance are. Using the concepts of Bourdieu’s cultural capital and Coleman’s social capital to explain the importance of parental involvement, the other two purposes are to explore whether the effects of parental involvement on adolescent academic growth trajectories are mediated or moderated by family socioeconomic status. Using the data from the public released core panel data of the Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS) in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007, this study employs the method of the latent growth curve modeling to address research questions. The results are the following: (1) Academic growth trajectory of Taiwan adolescence’s achievement reveals a nonlinear de-accelerating growth curve; (2) There are significant individual differences in both the initial status and growth rate of achievement among students, but further employing different latent growth mixture models shows no individual differences in the patterns of academic growth trajectories; (3) The Matthew Effects occur in the academic growth trajectories of Taiwanese teenagers; (4) Students with lower initial status learn more slowly over time than those with higher initial status do, and the “fan-spread” effect is found; (5) There are positive short-term and longer term effects of parental involvement on the Taiwanese adolescents’ academic achievement performance, but no significant difference among patterns of longer term effects over 6 years; (6) The effects of parental involvement are partially mediated, but not moderated by family SES. Finally, the study discusses the implications of parental involvement and suggests directions for future research.