Jari-Erik Nurmi

University of Jyväskylä | JYU · Department of Psychology

The present study compares two methods for assessing peer influence: the longitudinal actor–partner interdependence model (L-APIM) and the longitudinal social network analysis (L-SNA) Model. The data were drawn from 1,995 (49% girls and 51% boys) third grade students ( M age = 9.68 years). From this sample, L-APIM ( n = 206 indistinguishable dyads...

It has repeatedly been found that temperamental inhibition and low academic achievement are associated with each other: children with cautious and wary or shy behaviour are at risk for low academic achievement. Several suggestions about the mechanism behind this association have been made, these highlighting for example, the fewer learning opportun...

Background Children who are not accepted in their peer group are at risk of developing internalizing problem behaviors. It is possible, however, that supportive parenting can provide a buffer against the detrimental effects of low peer acceptance. Objective This study examined maternal and paternal affection and psychological control as moderators...

This study examined the role of verbal counting skill as an early predictor of math performance and difficulties (at or below -1.5 standard deviation in basic math skills) in middle school. The role of fourth-grade level arithmetical skills (i.e., calculation fluency, multi-digit arithmetic i.e. procedural calculation, and word problem solving) as...

We investigated the extent to which home literacy activities during the preschool year would predict the development of children’s language and literacy skills in primary school, in a highly transparent Finnish language. Also, the correlates of maternal literacy activities during preschool were examined. Literacy and language skills of 1,880 childr...

The present study examined the longitudinal associations between first-grade teaching practices and children's reading skills development from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Using the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM), the teaching practices of 32 Finnish teachers were observed in Grade 1. Students' (N = 359) word recognition and sentence...

The present study investigated the role of parenting stress in early adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing behavior and, particularly, the moderating effect of maternal affection on these associations. The data of 992 early adolescents (X¯age=12.71; 454 girls) and their mothers during the transition from primary school to lower secondary sch...

School bullying is associated with externalizing and internalizing problems, but little is known about whether reading difficulties also play a part. We asked how, in Grades 1 and 2, word reading skills and externalizing/internalizing problems predict the degree to which students are involved in bullying in Grade 3. Using a sample of 480 Finnish ch...

It is well-known that very preterm children perform at lower levels than full-term children in reading and arithmetic at school. Whether the lower performance levels of preterm children in these two separate domains have the same or different origins, however, is not clear. The present study examined the extent to which prematurity is associated wi...

This person-centered study examined the patterns and the dynamics of pattern change based on 1666 Finnish students' self-reported psychological well-being during the transition from primary school to lower secondary school. Moreover, we examined the stability in the profile memberships and the influence of changes in perceived support from teachers...

POST-PRINT: Changes in Students’ Psychological Well-Being during Transition from Primary School to Lower Secondary School: A Person-Centered Approach

The aim of this person-centered study is to identify the profiles of interest value, self-concept, and performance in the domain of mathematics among elementary school students and to examine the stability and changes in these profiles from grade 1 to grade 2. Teacher-reported evaluations of students' mathematical ability and gender were examined a...

Background Prior research has shown that engagement plays a significant role in students’ academic learning. Aims The present study sought to expand the current understanding of students’ engagement by examining how situational engagement during a particular lesson is associated with the observed teacher–student classroom interactions (i.e., emoti...

Shyness, feelings of uneasiness or hesitation when faced with a novel or unfamiliar social situation, in early childhood has been found to be a risk factor for social difficulties later in life. When combined with fitting parenting, however, outcomes of shyness can be less detrimental. The present study examined the joint effects of children’s shyn...

Mathematical difficulties have been distinguished as mathematics learning disability (MLD) and persistent low achievement (LA). Based on 1,880 Finnish children who were followed from kindergarten (age 6) to fourth grade, this study examined the early risk factors for MLD and LA. Distinct groups of MLD (6.0% of the sample) and LA (25.7%) children we...

The present study used a sample of 365 children to investigate the longitudinal associations between maternal homework assistance (i.e., help, monitoring, and autonomy granting) and children's task-persistent behavior in learning situations from grade 2 to grade 4 of elementary school. Also, the extent to which task-persistent behavior plays a role...

Work–family balance is often defined as the extent to which individuals are satisfied and functioning well, both in work and family domains, with the lowest level of role conflict (Clark, 2000). In the present study, we sought to identify longitudinal profiles of work–family balance and examine their mediating roles in the relationship between job...

The aim was to examine reading comprehension among elementary school students in two shallow orthographies, Estonian and Finnish. Participants were 619 Estonian children (50% boys) and 292 Finnish children (52% boys) whose reading comprehension was assessed in first, second, third, and sixth grades. The results showed that reading comprehension amo...

We examined the prevalence of comorbidity of dysfluent reading and math skills longitudinally in a representative sample (N = 1,928) and the stability of comorbid and single difficulties from first to fourth grades. The findings indicated that half the children who showed very low performance in one skill also evidenced low or very low performance...

The present study examines whether characteristics of parents predict the stability of a child’s best friendships across the primary school years. Participants included 1,523 Finnish children (766 boys) who reported involvement in a total of 1,326 reciprocated friendship dyads in the 1st grade (M = 7.16 years old). At the onset of the study, mother...

This study investigated longitudinal associations between mathematics- and literacy-related causal attributions and self-concepts of ability among Finnish adolescents (N = 237). Questionnaires were administered to adolescents in Grades 7 and 9 to obtain information on their causal attributions and self-concepts of ability. The results showed that a...

The longitudinal relations of domain-general and numerical skills at ages 6–7 years to 3 cognitive domains of arithmetic learning, namely knowing (written computation), applying (arithmetic word problems), and reasoning (arithmetic reasoning) at age 11, were examined for a representative sample of 378 Finnish children. The results showed that domai...

In the original publication, some data were published incorrectly. The authors apologize for the errors. © 2017 Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa, Portugal and Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Research Findings: The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which the quality of teacher–child interactions and teachers’ self-reported curriculum emphases are related to children’s reading skill development during their 1st school year. To accomplish this, we assessed the reading skills of 1,029 Finnish children (M age = 85.77...

This longitudinal study from Grades 1 to 4 investigated (a) the extent to which children select peers based on similarity in reading skills and (b) the extent to which children are influenced by the level of their peers’ reading skills. The sample consisted of 1003 Finnish children in Grades 1–4, for whom reading fluency and comprehension were asse...

The aim of this study was to identify subgroups of mothers and fathers who differ according to the patterns of causal attribution to ability for their children's academic success and failure across early school years. Moreover, the extent to which the mother and father of the same child share the same attribution pattern, and how the attribution pa...

This study examined the extent to which the quality of teacher–child interactions assessed in kindergarten (6-year-olds) is associated with children's reading and math development across the elementary school years. The sample consisted of 515 Finnish children (271 boys, 244 girls). Teacher–child interactions were observed in 49 kindergarten classr...

This study examined the effect of students' externalizing problems on changes in values that they attach to math across the transition from primary to lower secondary school. Data pertaining to externalizing problems and to intrinsic, attainment, and utility values in math were gathered using the self-ratings of students in Grades 6 and 7. The anal...

Children with low peer acceptance are at risk for developing internalizing problem behaviors. It is possible, however, that supportive parenting buffers against the negative effects of low peer acceptance. The present study examined mothers? parenting styles as moderators of the longitudinal association between children's peer acceptance and intern...

This cross-lagged longitudinal study examines the evocative impact of a child’s psychological adjustment on teachers’ affective response and instructional support for a child, and the influence this support and response has on the child’s subsequent adjustment. A hundred and seventeen Finnish teachers self-rated the instructional support they gave,...

The majority of previous research has examined school engagement as an overall student characteristic. The present study contributes to the field by examining variation in students' situation-specific engagement from one lesson to another and by investigating situational determinants of such variation. An intensive one-week lesson-to-lesson data co...

This study investigated the cross-lagged associations between teacher-student relationships and problem behaviors in a sample of 440 Finnish students (half of them identified as being at risk of reading difficulties). The degree to which these associations were moderated by a child’s gender, academic performance, risk for reading difficulties, pare...

This study examined the extent to which reading and arithmetic skills show covariation at Grade 1 and at Grade 7, to what extent this covariation is time-invariant or time-specific, and to what extent different antecedents will predict these time-invariant and time-specific portions of the covariation. The reading and arithmetic skills of a total o...

This study examined the developments in children’s externalizing problems and interest in reading during their first four years of school (Grades 1–4) and investigated whether this development predicted the children’s Grade 6 reading skills and educational aspirations. Data comprised (1) teachers’ ratings of externalizing problems and children’s (N...

The aim of this study was to examine the role of mothers’ (language minority mothers, LM, n = 49, and Finnish-speaking mothers, MP, n = 368) parenting styles and maternal help with their children’s homework in the children’s (mean age 11.43 years) literacy skills at fourth grade in Finland. In addition, the moderating effect of a child’s gender on...

Background: Task avoidance is a significant predictor of literacy skills. However, it remains unclear if the relation between the two is reciprocal and if it is affected by the type of literacy outcome, who is rating children’s task avoidance, and the children’s gender. Aim: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the cross-lagged r...

The Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure was used to observe 91 first-grade and 70 third-grade teachers in Estonia and Finland. Using a person-oriented approach, four profiles of teaching practices were identified in grade 1: the child-centred style, teacher-directed style, child-dominated style and a mixture of the child-centred and teach...

This study examined the reliability and validity of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System-Secondary (CLASS-S; Pianta, Hamre, & Mintz, 2012) in Finnish classrooms. Trained observers coded classroom interactions based on video recordings of 46 Grade 6 classrooms (450 cycles). Concurrent associations were investigated with respect to teacher self-ra...

Reading and math skills of preterm born (birth weight 1500 g or gestational age:532 weeks) children and full term (FT) children were compared during the first weeks of grade 1. The participants were 194 preterm born and 175 FT children born between 2001 and 2006. There were more precocious readers among FT than among preterm students, but even the...

In order to advance models of educational processes (intraindividual, intensive longitudinal), we propose a model in which we specify state and trait constructs, and an intraindividual variability construct. In our ecological momentary assessment study, we investigated how trait-level and intraindividual variability of students’ learning experience...

The present study aims to expand the current understanding of engagement by examining variations in students' situation-specific engagement in lower secondary school. In addition, the validity and reliability of a new situation-specific InSitu Instrument were examined. The sample consisted of 1809 Finnish students attending Grade 7. The students fi...

This study examined the development of adolescents’ self-concept of ability in math and literacy during secondary school, and the role that mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs concerning their child’s abilities play in this development. Also examined was whether the role of mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs about their adolescent child’s ability in math and...

This study investigated friend influence over mathematics achievement in 202 same-sex friendship dyads (106 girl dyads). Participants were in the third grade (around age 9) at the outset. Each friend completed a questionnaire describing interest in mathematics and a standardized mathematical reasoning assessment. Peer nominations provided a measure...

This study examined the development of adolescents’ self-concept of ability in math and literacy during secondary school, and the role that mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs concerning their child’s abilities play in this development. Also examined was whether the role of mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs about their adolescent child’s ability in math and...

This study examined the role of temperament, prereading skills, and age at school entry in the development of Finnish children's task avoidance. Teachers rated the task-avoidant behavior of 198 participants in kindergarten and twice in Grades 2 and 3. Parents rated the children's temperament at age 3 and children's prereading skills were measured a...

The majority of previous research on academic skills, self-concept of ability and interest has deployed the variable-oriented approach and focused on self-concept, or ability, or interest only. This study examined the patterns and dynamics of pattern change in Finnish children’s word reading skill, self-concept of ability and interest from kind...

This longitudinal study, conducted among a sample of Finnish primary-school children, examined the proposition that a single high-quality relationship (either with a teacher or a parent) can buffer against adjustment problems. Teachers rated the externalizing problems and prosocial behaviors of 378 children in Grade 1 and again in Grade 2. Relation...

This study examined the dynamic relationships among the components of the Simple View of Reading (SVR) in a transparent orthography (Finnish) and the predictive value of cognitive skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid naming, and vocabulary) on the SVR components. Altogether, 1,815 Finnish children were followed from kindergarten...

The present study reports on the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM) in Finnish and Estonian first and third grade classrooms. The observation data were collected from 91 first grade teachers and 70 third grade teachers. Teachers' curriculum goals, teaching experience and the classroom size were meas...

Understanding of the factors that underlie the development of fluency in reading and arithmetic is limited. This longitudinal study examined whether verbal counting and rapid naming (RAN) were predictors of arithmetic and reading fluency in a population-based sample and to what extent related early emerging cognitive abilities and socioeconomic bac...

The challenge of combining elite sport and education into a dual career pathway remains to be a source of concern for many high-performance athletes. Previous research findings suggest that committed participation in both domains is highly demanding and success in one pursuit often comes at the expense of the other. There are emergent studies, howe...

Going beyond studies of individual differences in and profiles of students' motivation, we investigated situation-specific (intra-personal) experiences of autonomous (enjoyment, interest, and task choice) and controlled (having to do, and the teacher wanting them to do a task) motivation across learning situations during one week, and how these wer...

Background: The present study aims to identify different work-family boundary management profiles among Finnish employees, and examine how these relate to conflict between work and family or their mutual enrichment. Method: Participants from two samples, one consisting of university staff (n1 = 1,139) and another of nurses (n2 = 271), were asked to...

This study investigated the interindividual stability and mean-level changes in parents’ causal attributions for their children’s academic performance across a 9-year period from the first year in primary school (Grade 1, age 7) to the end of lower secondary school (Grade 9, age 16). In all, 212 children participated in the study. The results showe...

This study was designed to investigate friend influence over mathematical reasoning in a sample of 374 children in 187 same-sex friend dyads (184 girls in 92 friendships; 190 boys in 95 friendships). Participants completed surveys that measured mathematical reasoning in the 3rd grade (approximately 9 years old) and 1 year later in the 4th grade (ap...

This study investigated the dynamics between the causal attributions parents reported daily for their children's success in learning situations and parental positive emotions. The sample consisted of 159 mothers and 147 fathers of 162 first graders (83 girls, 79 boys; aged from 6 to 7 years, M = 7.5 years, SD = 3.6 months). Parents filled in a stru...

This study examined how interest and importance values concerning mathematics and literacy develop from grade 7 to grade 9 in comprehensive school and to what extent gender, in addition to mothers' and fathers' beliefs about the abilities of individual children, predicts the level of and changes in these values. A total of 206 Finnish students (100...

In the present study, we examined the extent to which the responses of teachers and mothers toward a particular child are similar in respect to their instructional support and affect, and whether child characteristics predict these responses. The data of 373 Finnish child–teacher–mother triads (178 girls, 195 boys) were analysed. Teachers and mothe...

Classroom research has typically focused on the role of teaching practices and the quality of instruction in children’s academic performance, motivation and adjustment—in other words, classroom interactions initiated by the teacher. The present article presents a model of classroom interactions initiated by the child, that is, the notion that a chi...

A special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development (IJBD) devoted to the topic “Student effects on teacher behaviours and attitudes.”

This study examined the longitudinal associations between children’s academic skills and the instructional support teachers gave individual students. A total of 253 Finnish children were tested on reading and math skills twice in the first grade and once in the second grade. The teachers of these children rated the instructional support that they g...

The present study followed 156 Finnish children (Mage = 7.25 years) during the first grade of primary school to examine to what extent parent- and teacher-rated temperament impacts children's math and reading skill development during the first grade, and the extent to which this impact would be mediated by teachers' interaction styles with the chil...

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between children's academic performance and their mothers' affect, practices, and perceptions of their children in homework situations. The children's (n = 2,261) performance in reading and math was tested in Grade 1 and Grade 4, and the mothers (n = 1,476) filled out questionnaires on their aff...

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to identify the developmental trajectories of impulsive behavior among 378 Finnish children who were followed from kindergarten to 4th grade. In addition to ratings of children’s impulsivity, the analyses included measures of motivation, cognitive skills, socioemotional adjustment, and teacher-studen...

This study examined cross-lagged associations between positive teacher and peer relations and academic skill development. Reading and math skills were tested among 625 students in kindergarten and Grade 4. Teacher reports of positive affect toward each student and classmate reports of peer acceptance were gathered in Grades 1-3. The results showed,...

Abstract This study focuses on parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of practices aimed at easing the transition to formal schooling (e.g., familiarization with the school, discussions about the school entrants). A total of 230 preschool teachers, 131 elementary school teachers, and 2,662 mothers and fathers filled in a questionnaire containing items...

2015). A person-oriented approach to diary data: Children's temperamental negative emotionality increases susceptibility to emotion transmission in father-child dyads. Abstract: The notion that some individuals are more prone to emotion transmission than others has prompted the need for a person-oriented approach to emotion transmission in parent-c...

This longitudinal study investigated the associations among children's externalizing problems, taskavoidant behavior, and academic performance in early school years. The participants were 586 children (43% girls, 57% boys). Data pertaining to externalizing problems (teacher ratings) and task-avoidant behaviors (mother and teacher ratings) were gath...

This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the extent to which primary school text comprehension predicts mathematical word problem-solving skills in secondary school among Finnish students. The participants were 224 fourth graders (9-10 years old at the baseline). The children’s text-reading fluency, text comprehension and basic calculation abil...

The present study examined career pursuit pathways in 100 Israeli emerging adults (54 men) who were followed from age 22 to 29. Employing a semi-structured interview at the age of 29, participants were asked about current work and educational status, work and educational goals and status changes in recent years, and to reflect on the meaning of the...

Only a few studies have examined the direction of associations between academic achievement, interest, and self-concept of ability simultaneously by using longitudinal data over several school years. To examine the cross-lagged relationships between students' interest, self-concept of ability, and performance in mathematics and reading, longitudina...

Utilizing a longitudinal sample of Finnish children (ages 6-10), two studies examined how early linguistic (spoken vs. written) and spatial skills predict later development of arithmetic, and whether counting sequence knowledge mediates these associations. In Study 1 (N = 1,880), letter knowledge and spatial visualization, measured in kindergarten,...

There is accumulated evidence that social capital, i.e. social networks and related resources, enhances people’s career success. Less is known about the antecedents of social capital, particularly about the role of genetic and environmental influences in the formation of social capital, and to what extent genetic and environmental influence is rela...

This study examined the contents of adolescents' hopes and fears for the future in a sample of 1,975 urban and rural 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in China. Chinese adolescents' hopes and fears were most often related to future education, occupation, parental well-being, marriage and family, academics, leisure activities, wealth, interpersonal relati...

Purpose The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the cross-lagged relations between core self-evaluations, vigor at work, and work–family enrichment over 3 years. Design/Methodology/Approach Data were obtained from a follow-up study of a sample of Finnish university employees (N = 700). Findings The results of structural equat...