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The present contribution aims at presenting an assessment tool (i.e., the TALK-assessment) built to evaluate the language development and school readiness of Italian preschoolers before they enter primary school, and its predictive validity for the children's reading and writing skills at the end of the first year of primary school. The early literacy competences of 98 preschoolers were assessed and the statistical proprieties (item difficulty level and Discrimination Index, and the factorial structure using Confirmatory Factor Analysis) of each subtest of the assessment were presented (Study 1). Results showed that the subtests of the tool have good psychometric properties, with the only exception of the morpho-syntactic comprehension task, and are adequate for use with preschoolers in the school context. Study 2 investigated the early literacy skills of a group of 62 preschoolers and their reading and writing abilities at the end of primary school 1st grade. The scores obtained in the phonological awareness task of the final version of the assessment in preschool significantly predicted children's reading scores 12 months later, at primary school. The scores obtained in the lexical comprehension and morpho-syntactic production (i.e., sentence repetition) tasks of the final version of the assessment in preschool significantly predicted children's writing scores 12 months later, at primary school. The assessment has specific characteristics that make it a valuable candidate for adoption in educational settings, both to identify fragile areas in time to modify the children's developmental paths to literacy and to prevent future language and literacy difficulties at primary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Achievement Emotions Adjective List (AEAL) is a brief self-report multi-item questionnaire deputed to assess ten achievement emotions, namely enjoyment, pride, hope, relief, relaxation, anxiety, anger, shame, hopelessness, and boredom. This study aimed at describing the initial construction and validation of the AEAL focusing on school-related emotions. We involved 2874 Swiss 10th to 13th graders (Mage = 16.87, SD = 1.41, 56% females), who completed the 30-item version of the AEAL, a measure of value, and the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised. Findings supported the reliability of the instrument. As for construct validity, a ten-factor model best fit the data; also, partial scalar measurement invariance across grade level and gender was confirmed. As for predictive validity, achievement emotions related significantly to control-value appraisals, achievement goals, attitudes towards teachers/classes, attitudes towards school, and motivation/self-regulation, with some exceptions. Findings provide evidence on the goodness of the AEAL to assess secondary students' achievement emotions as a brief, simple, and not-invasive instrument. Implications for research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety of elementary school students and the relations of these emotions with achievement in two domains. Seven-hundred-and-sixty-seven second- and fourth-graders completed an adaptation of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Elementary School (AEQ-ES: Lichtenfeld, Pekrun, Stupnisky, Reiss, & Murayama, 2012) assessing their emotions in their native language and mathematics. The hierarchical model of the instrument was invariant across countries (Italy, Germany, United States), grades, gender, and domains. Anxiety related negatively to achievement, while enjoyment related positively to achievement only in mathematics. Second-graders reported more enjoyment and less boredom and anxiety than fourth-graders. Overall, mathematics resulted in better emotions than native language. The results have implications for future research on achievement emotions in elementary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pride and shame, two moral emotions partially neglected by the literature, can also be categorised as achievement emotions, because of their salience within everyday school and academic life. Our aims were to explore whether they are organised in a setting-specific manner and whether they differ in two settings, learning exam-relevant material and taking exams. Five hundred and forty university students evaluated pride and shame related to the two settings. A confirmatory multitrait-multimethod analysis (MTMM) indicated higher salience of type of emotion rather than type of setting; however, the structure of pride and shame was best explained when also type of setting was accounted for. A repeated-measure analysis of variance revealed higher levels of the positive emotion compared to the negative emotion, with the latter higher for the evaluative setting. Findings are discussed in light of their theoretical and applied relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]