Reading in Adolescence Strengthens Educational Achievement Later On

The findings from this study suggest that book-oriented socialization, indicated by home library size, equips youth with life-long tastes, skills and knowledge. This study documents the advantageous effects of scholarly culture for adult literacy, adult numeracy, and adult technological problem-solving. Results show that growing up with home libraries boosts adult skills in these areas, beyond the benefits accrued from parental education or own educational or occupational attainment.

Sikora, J., Evans, M. D. R., & Kelley, J. (2018). Scholarly culture: How books in adolescence enhance adult literacy, numeracy and technology skills in 31 societies. Social Science Research, 77, 1-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2018.10.003

Examining Bullying Today

YouthTruth analyzed anonymous feedback from over 180,000 students across 37 states in grades five through twelve to understand how much, in what ways, and why students are being bullied. This analysis also explored how students of different gender identities are experiencing bullying, and uncovered valuable insights. The implication from this study is that understanding students’ experiences with bullying is crucial for schools and communities to build safe and supportive environments for learning.

Key findings include:

1.     It’s still true that 1 in 4 students are bullied.

2.     Most bullying happens in person.

3.     The top three reasons students believe they are bullied include their appearance, their race or skin color, and because other students thought they were gay.

Youthtruth Student Survey (2018). Learning from student voice: What do students tell us about bullying? San Francisco, CA: Youthtruth Student Survey. http://youthtruthsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/YouthTruth-Learning-from-Student-Voice-Bullying-2017.pdf

Effect of Surrounding Environment on Children’s Cognition

This study examined the influence of the surrounding environment on children’s cognition.

Key findings include: 

- They performed visuospatial cognitive tasks in two environment conditions.

- The visual surrounding environment was manipulated: high- vs. low-load environment.

- Children’s cognitive performance was reduced in the high-load visual environment.

Overall, the results suggested that the high-load visual environment affected children’s cognitive performance given that children performed better in the low-load visual environment. Understanding the impact that a visually rich surrounding environment has on children’s cognitive processes that support more complex ones is important to support recommendations on how the environment should be organized to foster better daily activities.

Rodrigues, P. F. S., & Pandeirada, J. N. S. (2018). When visual stimulation of the surrounding environment affects children’s cognitive performance. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 176, 140-149. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.07.014

Benefits of Childhood Immersion with Books

This study’s findings supports the contention of scholarly culture theory that immersing children in book-oriented environments benefits their later educational achievement, attainment and occupational standing. These findings have been interpreted as suggesting that book-oriented socialization, indicated by home library size, equips youth with life-long tastes, skills and knowledge. However, to date, this has not been directly assessed. Here, the researchers document advantageous effects of scholarly culture for adult literacy, adult numeracy, and adult technological problem solving. They find that growing up with home libraries boosts adult skills in these areas beyond the benefits accrued from parental education or own educational or occupational attainment.

Sikora, J., Evans, M. D. R., & Kelley, J. (2018). Scholarly culture: How books in adolescence enhance adult literacy, numeracy and technology skills in 31 societies. Social Science Research.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2018.10.003