Overexcitabilities and Bidirectional Development in Playfulness and Creative Potential among Kindergarten Children

This study examined the bidirectional relationship between children’s playfulness and creative potential and how these factors were longitudinally related to overexcitabilities. The participants were parents and teachers of 139 Hong Kong kindergarten children (52.1% boys, mean age = 4.4 years, age range = 3.4 to 5.9 years). At Time 1, the parents reported their children’s overexcitabilities (imaginational, psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, and emotional), and the teachers rated children’s playfulness (physical spontaneity, social spontaneity, cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy, and sense of humor) and creative potential (creative personality traits). Six months later, at Time 2, the teachers’ ratings of playfulness and creative potential were obtained. The results from the cross-lagged model revealed that the path from playfulness at Time 1 to creative potential at Time 2 and the path from creative potential at Time 1 to playfulness at Time 2 were both significant when the children’s age, gender, and their parent’s education were controlled. The indirect relationship between intellectual overexcitability at Time 1 and creative potential at Time 2, mediating through playfulness at Time 1, was also significant. These findings suggest that children who are overexcitable about manipulating concepts and ideas tend to be more playful and exhibit higher creative potential. At the same time, their creative potential may drive them to act playfully and engage in future kindergarten play. Practically, the results highlight the utility of promoting children’s playfulness and creative potential through increased participation in kindergarten group play activities such as sociodramatic play

Longitudinal Association between Children’s Mastery Motivation and Cognitive School Readiness: Executive Functioning and Social-emotional Competence as Potential Mediators

This study investigated the direct relationships between kindergarten children’s object and social mastery motivation and future cognitive school readiness and the indirect relationships mediated through executive functioning and social-emotional competence in the school context. The participants were 103 Hong Kong kindergarten children (45.6% girls, mean age = 60.4 months) and their teachers. The teachers reported the children’s demographic information and object and social mastery motivation at time 1 (in the middle of the school year). They rated the children’s executive functioning, social-emotional competence, and cognitive school readiness at time 2 (at the end of the school year). The results from the path analysis model revealed that the children’s object mastery motivation at time 1, but not their social mastery motivation, directly predicted their cognitive school readiness at time 2. The indirect relationships between (1) object mastery motivation at time 1 and cognitive school readiness at time 2 mediated through executive functioning (indirect effect: β = .32, SE = .05, p < .001), and (2) social mastery motivation at time 1 and cognitive school readiness at time 2 mediated through social-emotional competence (indirect effect: β = .09, SE = .03, p < .01) were significant. The findings highlight the differential roles of object and social mastery motivation in predicting children’s cognitive school readiness and propose children’s executive functioning and social-emotional competence as processes mediating the relationships. The results also suggest the desirability of providing kindergarten children with extensive play opportunities and materials to support their mastery motivation and cognitive school readiness

How PERMA Promotes Preschool Teacher Well-Being in Hong Kong : A 2-month Randomized Control Trial

Background: Preschool teachers’ well-being is positively associated with their student’s development and learning outcomes. Developing a positive psychological intervention that can foster preschool teachers’ well-being would be essential. Purpose: This study examined the effects of an intervention based on the PERMA (i.e., positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) model on well-being outcomes among preschool teachers in Hong Kong. Method: We recruited 116 preschool teachers (Mage = 34.14 years, SD = 10.17, range = 21–59; female = 98.51%). Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 51; received four online workshops that cultivated the PERMA dimensions in 4 weeks) and waitlist control group (n = 65; only received the workshops after the data collection). Participants completed a survey that measured the PERMA dimensions of well-being at baseline 4- and 8-week follow-up occasions. MANCOVA and ANCOVA, controlling for gender, age, and teaching experience, were employed to examine the intervention effects. Results: A significant time x group interaction effect was found in the MANCOVA, Wilks’ Lambda F(10,102) = 2.19, p = .02, η2 = .18. The results of ANCOVA revealed that participants in the intervention group scored significantly higher on engagement, relationship, and accomplishment (η2 = .02 to .05, p < .05) than those in the control condition across time. Conclusion(s): Our findings highlighted the effects of PERMA-based interventions to promote mental health of preschool teachers. Teachers are encouraged to engage in positive psychological activities (e.g., positive reappraisal and self-compassion) to cultivate their well-being

Promoting Psychological Well-being in Pre-service Preschool Teachers: A Multi-component Positive Psychology Intervention

Objective: This study aimed to assess the effects of a multi-component positive psychology intervention on psychological well-being (i.e., autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relationships, purpose in life, personal growth and self-acceptance) outcomes among pre-service preschool teachers in Hong Kong. Method: Participants were pre-service preschool teachers (N=67, Mage=21.45, SD=3.46, nfemale=95.3%). They were randomly assigned into the intervention group (n=34; who received four intervention workshops and a theory-driven mobile phone application) and waitlist control group (n=33; who received intervention materials after completing the data collection). Participants completed a survey that measured their psychological well-being at baseline and two months later. MANCOVA and ANCOVA were used to examine the intervention effects by adjusting for sex and age. Results: MANCOVA results showed no significant multivariate group x time interaction effects of the intervention on psychological well-being, Wilks’ Lambda F(6,58) =2.04, p=.07, η2=.17. However, in the results of ANCOVA, significant group x time interaction effects were found in environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, and self-acceptance (η2=.09-.14, p<.05). The results showed that the intervention group scored significantly higher on those variables than the control group over time. Conclusion: The multi-component positive psychology intervention is a promising way to promote four dimensions of pre-service teachers’ psychological well-being. Positive psychology training (e.g., introduction of growth mindset, SMART goals, psychological needs support) can be included in teacher education to equip the pre-service teachers with positive psychological skills/mindset before entering the stressful teaching environment

Well-being Profiles of Pre-service Teachers in Hong Kong: Associations with Teachers’ Self-efficacy during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The present study aims to 1) identify the profiles of subjective well-being (SWB) and psychological well-being (PWB) in a sample of pre-service teachers during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, and 2) explore how different profiles are linked with teachers’ self-efficacy. Participants were 291 pre-service teachers (Mage = 21.295, SD = 2.812, female = 89.903%) who were invited to complete self-report measures of SWB, PWB, and teachers’ self-efficacy. Latent profile analysis with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted to identify well-being profiles that emerged in this sample. The results suggested a 3-class model with a high, moderate, and low well-being group. The findings also revealed that the pre-service teachers’ well-being profiles as reflected by SWB and PWB indicators were consistent. Moreover, the pre-service teachers in the higher well-being group reported higher teaching self-efficacy than those in the lower well-being group. Findings highlighted the benefits of supporting pre-service teachers’ well-being (i.e., SWB and PWB) to maintain their teachers’ self-efficacy during the COVID-19 pandemic when teacher education and practicum are significantly disrupted. Interventions targeting various positive psychological skills (e.g., mindfulness, self-compassion, and positive reappraisal) are warranted. Future investigation is needed to examine the longitudinal relationship between pre-service teachers’ well-being and self-efficac

Contribution of discourse and morphosyntax skills to reading comprehension in Chinese dyslexic and typically developing children

This study aimed at identifying important skills for reading comprehension in Chinese dyslexic children and their typically developing counterparts matched on age (CA controls) or reading level (RL controls). The children were assessed on Chinese reading comprehension, cognitive, and reading-related skills. Results showed that the dyslexic children performed significantly less well than the CA controls but similarly to RL controls in most measures. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that word-level reading-related skills like oral vocabulary and word semantics were found to be strong predictors of reading comprehension among typically developing junior graders and dyslexic readers of senior grades, whereas morphosyntax, a text-level skill, was most predictive for typically developing senior graders. It was concluded that discourse and morphosyntax skills are particularly important for reading comprehension in the non-inflectional and topic-prominent Chinese system

The Impact of Morphological Awareness on Word Reading and Dictation in Chinese Early Adolescent Readers With and Without Dyslexia

This study investigated the role of morphological awareness in understanding Chinese word reading and dictation among Chinese-speaking adolescent readers in Hong Kong as well as the cognitive-linguistic profile of early adolescent readers with dyslexia. Fifty-four readers with dyslexia in Grades 5 and 6 were compared with 54 chronological age-matched (CA) typical readers on the following measures of cognitive-linguistic and literacy skills: morphological awareness, phonological awareness, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, vocabulary knowledge, verbal short-term memory (STM), Chinese word reading, and dictation (or spelling). The results indicated that early adolescent readers with dyslexia performed less well than the typical readers on all cognitive-linguistic and literacy measures except the phonological measures. Both groups' scores showed substantial correlations between morphological awareness and Chinese word reading and dictation. Visual-orthographic knowledge and rapid naming were also associated with dictation in early adolescent readers with and without dyslexia, respectively. Moderated multiple regression analyses further revealed that morphological awareness and rapid naming explained unique variance in word reading and dictation for the readers with dyslexia and typical readers separately after controlling readers' age and group effect. These results highlight the potential importance of morphological awareness and rapid naming in Chinese word reading and writing in Chinese early adolescents' literacy development and impairment

Association between children’s home play opportunity and school readiness: Object and social mastery motivation as mediators?

This study investigated the direct relationship between home play opportunity and prospective school readiness, and the indirect relationships as mediated through object and social mastery motivation among Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children. Participants were 106 local children (44.4% girls, mean age = 60.0 months) and their parents and teachers. Parents reported the demographic information and children’s home play opportunity at time 1 (beginning of the school year), whereas children’s object mastery motivation, social mastery motivation, and school readiness were reported by their teachers at time 2 (six months later). Results from the path analytic model revealed that children’s home play opportunity significantly predicted their object mastery motivation, but not social mastery motivation or school readiness. Both object and social mastery motivation were positively associated with school readiness. Furthermore, the indirect relationship between home play opportunity, object mastery motivation, and school readiness was significant, but the one via social mastery motivation was non-significant. The findings highlight the collective roles of object and social mastery motivation in predicting children’s school readiness. The results also suggest the desirability of providing kindergarten children with a varied and accessible home play environment which may promote their mastery motivation and school readiness

Overexcitabilities and creative potential in the kindergarten context: the mediating role of children’s playfulness

This study examined the direct and indirect relationships of children’s overexcitabilities with their playfulness and creative potential in the kindergarten context. Participants were parents and teachers of 140 Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children (47.9% girls, mean age = 52.2 months). Parents reported their children’s overexcitabilities (imaginational, psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, and emotional), and teachers rated children’s playfulness (physical spontaneity, social spontaneity, cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy, and sense of humor) and creative potential (creative personality traits) as demonstrated in the classrooms. Hierarchical regression revealed that controlling for child age, gender, and parental education, children’s social and cognitive spontaneity were significant correlates of their creative potential as perceived by the teachers. Moreover, results from the path analytic model showed that the positive relationship between intellectual overexcitability and creative potential was fully mediated by cognitive spontaneity. In contrast, the indirect relationship through social spontaneity was non-significant. The findings suggest that children’s daily imaginative and inventive peer play in kindergarten may be conducive to their creative potential. Practically, results underscore the utility of creating a preschool play environment that embraces children’s choice, autonomy, and originality while promoting peer interaction and collaboration, as such an approach may cultivate their creative potential