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The aim of the current study was to investigate the personality characteristics and developmental characteristics of primary school students’ personality types in a cross-sectional sample of 10,366 Chinese children. The Personality Inventory for Primary School Student was used to evaluate primary school students’ personality. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to classify primary school students’ personality types. One-way ANOVA was used to explore the personality characteristics of personality types, and Chi-square tests were used to investigate grade and gender differences of primary school students’ personality types. Results showed that the primary school students could be divided into three personality types: the resilient, the overcontrolled, and the undercontrolled. Resilients had the highest scores, and undercontrollers had the lowest scores on all of five personality dimensions (intelligence, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability). The overcontrollers’ scores on personality were between the other two types, with lower emotional stability. As the grade level increased, the proportion of undercontrolled students in primary schools generally showed an upward trend and reached the maximum in grade 5. The proportion of resilient students in primary schools generally showed a downward trend. The proportion of resilient students was highest in grade 2 and lowest in grade 5. Girls were significantly more likely than boys to be resilient personality types, while boys were significantly more likely than girls to be undercontrolled personality types. The overcontrolled personality type did not show significant gender differences. Because of the undesirable internalizing problems related to overcontrollers and the externalizing problems related to undercontrollers, our results have implications for Chinese schools, families, and society in general.

This study aims to analyze the integrated construction and application of ideological and political education (IPE) and innovation and entrepreneurship education (IEE) in colleges based on the positive psychological quality of entrepreneurship. 549 college students are selected for a questionnaire survey. The correlations between entrepreneurial psychological quality of college students, IEE in colleges, IPE, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy are analyzed with the Spearman correlation and linear regression. The hierarchical regression analysis is used to analyze the intermediary role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in IEE, IPE in colleges, and entrepreneurial psychological quality of college students. The results show that the entrepreneurial psychological quality of college students is significantly different in gender, family location, and grade level (p < 0.05); the main channels of IPE and daily IPE have significant positive effects on the positive entrepreneurship psychological quality (p < 0.05), and have extremely significant positive effects on the entrepreneurial self-efficacy (p < 0.001); innovation and entrepreneurship course, innovation and entrepreneurship practices, innovation and entrepreneurship environment, and total score of IEE have significant positive correlations with positive entrepreneurship psychological quality and entrepreneurial self-efficacy of college students (p < 0.05); and the intermediary effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy accounts for 33.49% on the IPE and entrepreneurial psychological quality, and 41.85% on IEE and entrepreneurial psychological quality. In short, IPE and IEE can effectively improve the positive psychological quality and self-efficacy of college students, and the joint construction of the two can have a more significant effect.

Academic achievement in general, and in mathematics in particular, is positively associated not only with cognitive abilities, but also with emotional and motivational skills. The objective of this study was to analyze the prediction strength of cognitive, motivational, and emotional variables in mathematics achievement throughout high school, considering students' gender and age. A large sample of 2,365 Spanish students from the 4 years of high school (12-16 years old) participated in the study. Students provided information about their intellectual skills, perceived competence in mathematics, perceived utility of mathematics, intrinsic interest in learning, mathematics anxiety, and their causal attributions (for failure and for success), and of their achievement in mathematics. Data showed differences according to gender and the school grade level. The motivational and affective variables did not seem to play an important role in this relationship as predicted in the current study. The results of this study are discussed in light of previous research.

This study investigated grade level differences in teacher feedback, students’ self-regulated learning (SRL), and their relationship. Secondary students participated (N = 1,260; 430 tenth-, 460 eleventh-, and 370 twelfth-graders). Latent factor mean difference analyses suggested that teacher feedback and students’ SRL level varied across grades. Comparatively, tenth-grade teachers were perceived to provide verification feedback, scaffolding feedback, and praise most frequently; twelfth-grade teachers were perceived to provide directive feedback and criticism most frequently; and eleventh-grade teachers were perceived to provide all types of feedback least frequently. Students’ SRL generally declined as they aged. Results from three-group structural equation modelling indicated that praise generally had the strongest correlations with SRL regardless of grade level; directive feedback was negatively correlated with tenth-graders’ SRL but positively correlated with eleventh- and twelfth-graders’ SRL; scaffolding and verification feedback were positively correlated with eleventh-graders’ SRL; and criticism had small correlations with SRL, regardless of grade level.

Children’s block building performances are used as indicators of other abilities in multiple domains. In the current study, we examined individual differences, types of model and social settings as influences on children’s block building performance. Chinese preschoolers (N = 180) participated in a block building activity in a natural setting, and performance was assessed with multiple measures in order to identify a range of specific skills. Using scores generated across these measures, three dependent variables were analyzed: block building skills, structural balance and structural features. An overall MANOVA showed that there were significant main effects of gender and grade level across most measures. Types of model showed no significant effect in children’s block building. There was a significant main effect of social settings on structural features, with the best performance in the 5-member group, followed by individual and then the 10-member block building. These findings suggest that boys performed better than girls in block building activity. Block building performance increased significantly from 1st to 2nd year of preschool, but not from second to third. The preschoolers created more representational constructions when presented with a model made of wooden rather than with a picture. There was partial evidence that children performed better when working with peers in a small group than when working alone or working in a large group. It is suggested that future study should examine other modalities rather than the visual one, diversify the samples and adopt a longitudinal investigation.

There has been extensive research on children's moral evaluation of lying in prosocial situations. Current knowledge regarding the concept of lying has been derived from studies showing that cultural differences exist, whereby non-Western children tend to rate lie telling more positively than Western children do. These findings suggest that there are different views about whether children should publicize their prosocial behaviors and that children have universal motives when they admit to engaging in prosocial behavior. A gender difference has also been found in relation to prosocial behavior. However, previous studies did not investigate in detail children's motives for admission or non-admission to prosocial behavior, and if there is a gender difference. Therefore, this study examined the diversity in and development of motives for admitting or not admitting to engaging in prosocial behavior, with the aim of clarifying these behaviors as a function of children's grade level in school, and how such motives differ with age and gender. Questionnaires from 1345 elementary and junior high school students in Japan were analyzed. Results showed that children's communication tendency with regard to prosocial behavior reports peaked in the fourth grade of elementary school and gradually decreased thereafter. From the third grade of elementary school onwards, children reported that they refrained from admitting prosocial behaviors. Younger children more likely cited honesty as a crucial motive for admitting to prosocial behaviors. Girls were more likely to endorse honesty as a motive than boys were. Moreover, among younger children, girls feared others' negative evaluation and wanted to comply with modesty norms when not admitting. Further research is needed to examine the developmental process for motives behind prosocial behaviors.