When girls do better than boys
[My Australasia]
Can we accept this, boys...,
From The Australian
By Kate Legge, Social affairs writer
GIRLS interact better than boys at a younger age than first thought and also learn to walk and talk earlier, according to a groundbreaking study that sheds new light on the development of Australian children from infancy through to school age.
Data from a new survey of 10,000 children and their families shows that girls do better than boys on social, educational and physical milestones in the very first year of life - differences that become more pronounced by the time they reach school.
The gender divide influences learning and academic competency, social and emotional skills and physical performance.
Numbers of siblings, the educational background of primary carers, early childhood learning programs, and the confidence that parents bring to raising offspring also strongly shape early childhood progress.
The first wave of data in the seven-year, $20 million longitudinal study of Australian children - coordinated by the Australian Institute of Family Studies - examines the complex array of parent and child relationships with particular emphasis on the role fathers play in family life.
The study will contribute vital empirical evidence to the international debate over how to manage gender differences in learning and development, which has intensified over the past two decades as girls continue to outperform boys in public examinations and achievement tests.
Researchers are tracking the development of 5000 babies under 12 months and 5000 four- to five-year-olds, drawing on data collected from teachers, carers and parents.
"The way that families function, including relationships among family members and parents' approaches to rearing their children has an important impact on the growing child," the report says.
Boys lead girls in every measure of disengagement and psychological disorder from attention deficit syndromes to at-risk social behaviour. The latest neuro-imaging research has identified gender differences in brain maturation, with boys slower to develop impulse control and executive planning skills.
Although boys and girls are parented in a similar fashion, levels of hostile parenting were higher for boys than girls.
The report warns that further analysis would be required to determine the cause and effect of this interaction. "A more challenging child may elicit less warmth, and hostility from parents or a colder, more hostile style of parenting could help create developmental difficulties in the child," it says.
Family size was found to influence children's performance. Infants with no siblings had the highest scores in the learning and academic competency measure while four- to five-year-olds also performed better on this scale if they were only children or had one sibling.
On the index measuring physical performance, children with more siblings scored highest, reflecting the skills associated with fighting harder for your cut of attention and food.
Having four or more siblings was associated with the lowest social and emotional score.
The study found that children reared by primary carers with a poor educational background performed worst in the learning and academic domain. Education's critical role in giving children a headstart was reinforced by the correlation between high-quality childcare and pre-school programs and higher learning scores.
Researchers found that parents' confidence in their ability flowed through to the child's social and emotional development so that confidence appears to breed confidence.
But the report cautions that parents raising a difficult child could feel less confident in assessing their skill. Low parental warmth and high parental hostility were associated with negative outcomes for children on the developmental scales.
Launching the first instalment study, the federal Minister for Family and Community Services, Kay Patterson, focused on the report's endorsement of high quality childcare and the positive attitudes of working parents towards the juggling of family and jobs.
The minister confirmed she was pressing ahead with plans for national co-ordination of childcare standards and accreditation systems.
"I have consistently said that children are better off in a household where both parents have a job," she said.
Can we accept this, boys...,
From The Australian
By Kate Legge, Social affairs writer
GIRLS interact better than boys at a younger age than first thought and also learn to walk and talk earlier, according to a groundbreaking study that sheds new light on the development of Australian children from infancy through to school age.
Data from a new survey of 10,000 children and their families shows that girls do better than boys on social, educational and physical milestones in the very first year of life - differences that become more pronounced by the time they reach school.
The gender divide influences learning and academic competency, social and emotional skills and physical performance.
Numbers of siblings, the educational background of primary carers, early childhood learning programs, and the confidence that parents bring to raising offspring also strongly shape early childhood progress.
The first wave of data in the seven-year, $20 million longitudinal study of Australian children - coordinated by the Australian Institute of Family Studies - examines the complex array of parent and child relationships with particular emphasis on the role fathers play in family life.
The study will contribute vital empirical evidence to the international debate over how to manage gender differences in learning and development, which has intensified over the past two decades as girls continue to outperform boys in public examinations and achievement tests.
Researchers are tracking the development of 5000 babies under 12 months and 5000 four- to five-year-olds, drawing on data collected from teachers, carers and parents.
"The way that families function, including relationships among family members and parents' approaches to rearing their children has an important impact on the growing child," the report says.
Boys lead girls in every measure of disengagement and psychological disorder from attention deficit syndromes to at-risk social behaviour. The latest neuro-imaging research has identified gender differences in brain maturation, with boys slower to develop impulse control and executive planning skills.
Although boys and girls are parented in a similar fashion, levels of hostile parenting were higher for boys than girls.
The report warns that further analysis would be required to determine the cause and effect of this interaction. "A more challenging child may elicit less warmth, and hostility from parents or a colder, more hostile style of parenting could help create developmental difficulties in the child," it says.
Family size was found to influence children's performance. Infants with no siblings had the highest scores in the learning and academic competency measure while four- to five-year-olds also performed better on this scale if they were only children or had one sibling.
On the index measuring physical performance, children with more siblings scored highest, reflecting the skills associated with fighting harder for your cut of attention and food.
Having four or more siblings was associated with the lowest social and emotional score.
The study found that children reared by primary carers with a poor educational background performed worst in the learning and academic domain. Education's critical role in giving children a headstart was reinforced by the correlation between high-quality childcare and pre-school programs and higher learning scores.
Researchers found that parents' confidence in their ability flowed through to the child's social and emotional development so that confidence appears to breed confidence.
But the report cautions that parents raising a difficult child could feel less confident in assessing their skill. Low parental warmth and high parental hostility were associated with negative outcomes for children on the developmental scales.
Launching the first instalment study, the federal Minister for Family and Community Services, Kay Patterson, focused on the report's endorsement of high quality childcare and the positive attitudes of working parents towards the juggling of family and jobs.
The minister confirmed she was pressing ahead with plans for national co-ordination of childcare standards and accreditation systems.
"I have consistently said that children are better off in a household where both parents have a job," she said.
posted by 9T9 at
8:21 pm
<< Home