Teacher-assigned grades and external exams: sources of discrepancy.

Modest correlations between teacher-assigned grades and external assessments of academic achievement ( = .40-.60) have led many educational stakeholders to deem grades subjective and unreliable.

The double jeopardy of low family income and negative emotionality: The family stress model revisited.

The family stress model has, for decades, guided empirical work linking poverty with increased risk of child social-emotional dysfunction. The present study extends this line of work by examining whether child negative emotionality moderates associations between family income, family stress (maternal distress, parental locus of control, and relationship dissatisfaction), and later externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. In a longitudinal population-based sample (n ~ 80,000) of Norwegian children followed from birth through age five (The Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Cohort Study; MoBa), we examined whether high (vs.

Childhood personality and academic performance: A sibling fixed-effects study.

Objective: This study investigated the associations between personality traits at age 8 and academic performance between ages 10 and 14, controlling for family confounds.

Background: Many studies have shown links between children's personality traits and their school performance. However, we lack evidence on whether these associations remain after genetic and environmental confounders are accounted for.

Effect of ADHD medication on risk of injuries: a preference-based instrumental variable analysis.

ADHD is associated with an increased risk of injury. Causal evidence for effects of pharmacological treatment on injuries is scarce. We estimated effects of ADHD medication on injuries using variation in provider preference as an instrumental variable (IV).

Effect of Pharmacological Treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on Criminality.

Objective: Criminality rates are higher among persons with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and evidence that medication reduces crime is limited. Medication rates between clinics vary widely even within universal health care systems, partly because of providers' treatment preferences. We used this variation to estimate causal effects of pharmacological treatment of ADHD on 4-year criminal outcomes.

Boys with overweight status lagged behind girls with overweight status in reading: evidence from mendelian randomization.

Objectives: We investigated the relationship between childhood weight status and academic achievement across sexes and different school subjects in Norway.

Study Design And Setting: We used data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), which includes genetic data (N = 13,648, 8-year-old children). We employed within-family mendelian randomization, using a body mass index (BMI) polygenic risk score as an instrument to address unobserved heterogeneity.

Do more hours in center-based care cause more externalizing problems? A cross-national replication study.

Whether high quantities of center-based care cause behavior problems is a controversial question. Studies using covariate adjustment for selection factors have detected relations between center care and behavior problems, but studies with stronger internal validity less often find such evidence. We examined whether within-child changes in hours in center-based care predicted changes in externalizing problems in toddlers and preschoolers (N = 10,105; 49% female; data collection 1993-2012) in seven studies, including from Germany, Netherlands, Norway, two from Canada and two from the U.

A population-wide gene-environment interaction study on how genes, schools, and residential areas shape achievement.

A child's environment is thought to be composed of different levels that interact with their individual genetic propensities. However, studies have not tested this theory comprehensively across multiple environmental levels. Here, we quantify the contributions of child, parent, school, neighbourhood, district, and municipality factors to achievement, and investigate interactions between polygenic indices for educational attainment (EA-PGI) and environmental levels.

A Gentle Introduction to Instrumental Variables.

Instrumental variables (IV) is a central strategy for identifying causal effects in absence of randomized experiments. Clinicians and epidemiologists may find the intuition of IV easy to grasp by comparison to randomized experiments. Randomization is an ideal IV because treatment is assigned randomly, and hence unaffected by everything else.

How interactions between ADHD and schools affect educational achievement: a family-based genetically sensitive study.

Background: Children with ADHD tend to achieve less than their peers in school. It is unknown whether schools moderate this association. Nonrandom selection of children into schools related to variations in their ADHD risk poses a methodological problem.

Social and genetic associations with educational performance in a Scandinavian welfare state.

Recent research has suggested that across Western developed societies, the influence of genetics on educational outcomes is relatively constant. However, the degree to which family environment matters varies, such that countries with high levels of intergenerational mobility have weaker associations of family background. Research in this vein has relied on twin-based estimates, which involve variance decomposition, so direct assessment of the association of genes and environments is not possible.

Geographical variation in ADHD: do diagnoses reflect symptom levels?

Rates of ADHD diagnosis vary across regions in many countries. However, no prior study has investigated how much within-country geographic variation in ADHD diagnoses is explained by variation in ADHD symptom levels. We examine whether ADHD symptom levels explain variation in ADHD diagnoses among children and adolescents using nationwide survey and register data in Norway.

Adult outcomes of sustained high-quality early child care and education: Do they vary by family income?

Experimental research demonstrates sustained high-quality early care and education (ECE) can mitigate the consequences of poverty into adulthood. However, the long-term effects of community-based ECE are less known. Using the 1991 NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 994; 49.

Preference-based instrumental variables in health research rely on important and underreported assumptions: a systematic review.

Objective: Preference-based instrumental variables (PP IV) designs can identify causal effects when patients receive treatment due to variation in providers' treatment preference. We offer a systematic review and methodological assessment of PP IV applications in health research.

Study Design And Setting: We included studies that applied PP IV for evaluation of any treatment in any population in health research (PROSPERO: CRD42020165014).

Causal modelling of variation in clinical practice and long-term outcomes of ADHD using Norwegian registry data: the ADHD controversy project.

Introduction: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most common mental disorders in children and adolescents, and it is a strong risk factor for several adverse psychosocial outcomes over the lifespan. There are large between-country and within-country variations in diagnosis and medication rates. Due to ethical and practical considerations, a few studies have examined the effects of receiving a diagnosis, and there is a lack of research on effects of medication on long-term outcomes.

Mechanisms linking parental educational attainment with child ADHD, depression, and academic problems: a study of extended families in The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study.

Background: Low educational attainment in parents is associated with child psychopathology. It is not clear whether the associations are due to risk factors that family members share or due to effects of maternal or paternal education on the offspring. We investigate whether associations between maternal and paternal educational attainment and child symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, and academic problems are due to shared genetic factors, shared family environmental factors, or effects of the parental phenotype educational attainment itself.

Peer Effects on Aggressive Behavior in Norwegian Child Care Centers.

This study examined whether exposure to changes in peer aggression predicted changes in child physical aggression (PA) in preschool children attending Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers. Data from the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study were used, including 956 children. In fixed effects models, within-child changes in exposure to peer aggression predicted changes in teacher-rated child PA across ages 2, 3, and 4.

Economic volatility in childhood and subsequent adolescent mental health problems: a longitudinal population-based study of adolescents.

Objective: The aim of the current paper was to investigate the association between the patterns of duration, timing and sequencing of exposure to low family income during childhood, and symptoms of mental health problems in adolescence.

Setting: Survey administered to a large population-based sample of Norwegian adolescents.

Participants: Survey data from 9154 participants of 16-19 years age (53% participation rate; 52.

Is Affluence a Risk for Adolescents in Norway?

Studies suggest that affluence poses a risk for adolescents, but this has rarely been studied outside the United States. We examined the unique and additive roles of family and school affluence for adolescent outcomes among 10th-grade students (n = 7,203) in Oslo, Norway. Multilevel models were estimated separately by gender.

Maternal perinatal and concurrent depressive symptoms and child behavior problems: a sibling comparison study.

Background: Previous studies have found significant associations between maternal prenatal and postpartum depression and child behavior problems (CBP). The present study investigates whether associations remain in a prospective, longitudinal design adjusted for familial confounding.

Methods: The sample comprised 11,599 families including 17,830 siblings from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study.

Three Randomized Effectiveness Trials - One Question: Can Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children Be Altered?

Children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional (CU) traits are at risk for multiple problems. Outcome research and mediation analyses testing for mechanisms of change in CU traits have been limited. We examined whether parent training-in a short-term (Brief Parent Training; BPT) or a comprehensive format (Parent Management Training, Oregon Model; PMTO)-or child-directed social skills training (Individual Social Skills Training [ISST]) produced positive effects on CU traits.

Low Family Income and Behavior Problems in Norwegian Preschoolers: Is Child Emotionality a Marker for Sensitivity of Influence?

Unlabelled: Poor children have higher rates of mental health problems than more affluent peers, also in progressive welfare states such as Norway. Temperamental characteristics may render some children more sensitive to the adverse influence of poor economy.

Objective: This study examined the direct associations between family income-to-needs and mental health and assessed moderation by early temperamental characteristics (i.

Age of Entry Into Early Childhood Education and Care as a Predictor of Aggression: Faint and Fading Associations for Young Norwegian Children.

Socioemotional risks associated with nonparental care have been debated for decades, and research findings continue to be mixed. Yet few studies have been able to test the causal hypothesis that earlier, more extensive, and longer durations of nonmaternal care lead to more problems. To examine the consequences of age of entry into nonparental care for childhood aggression, we used prospective longitudinal data from Norway, where month of birth partly determines age of entry into Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers.

Family income dynamics, early childhood education and care, and early child behavior problems in Norway.

The sociopolitical context of Norway includes low poverty rates and universal access to subsidized and regulated Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). In this context, the association between family income dynamics and changes in early child behavior problems was investigated, as well as whether high-quality ECEC buffers children from the effects of income dynamics. In a population-based sample (N = 75,296), within-family changes in income-to-needs predicted changes in externalizing and internalizing problems (from ages 18 to 36 months), particularly for lower income children.