Why are students with LD depressed? A goal orientation model of depression vulnerability

Internalizing problems in individuals with reading, mathematics and unspecified learning difficulties: a systematic review and meta-analysis

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine if individuals with reading difficulties (RD), mathematics difficulties (MD), or unspecified learning difficulties (ULD) experience internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, somatic complaints, and social withdrawal) to the same extent, and if the effect sizes are influenced by moderators (age, internalizing problems type, anxiety type, rater type, selection criteria, and attention control). We reviewed 2,806 studies published in English between January 2000 and April 2023. Our final sample consisted of 96 studies that reported effect sizes or data to calculate them (a total of 120 unique samples, 83,260 participants, age range = 7.3 - 34.8 years). Risk of bias and sensitivity were assessed. A random-effects model analysis revealed a significant and moderate overall effect size (Hedge's g = -.54), indicating that individuals with RD, MD or ULD experience more internalizing problems than their chronological-age (CA) controls. Follow-up analyses showed that neither learning difficulties type nor age of participants were significant moderators, but selection criteria (diagnosis versus screening) and internalizing problems type were. These findings suggest that individuals with RD do not differ from those with MD or ULD in internalizing problems, and all fare poorly compared to CA controls.

Depression and approach-avoidance achievement goals of Chinese undergraduate students: A four-wave longitudinal study

OBJECTIVE

The study explored the prospective relations between depression and approach-avoidance achievement goals of undergraduate students in China.

METHODS

2473 full-time undergraduates reported their depression and achievement goals annually from the freshman to the senior year. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and cross-lagged models.

RESULTS

Students' achievement goals decreased gradually during the first 3 years but rose in the fourth year, and the avoidance goals appeared to be less prevalent than the approach goals over time. Depression was negatively associated with approach goals, whereas positively correlated with avoidance goals. Depression in the freshman and sophomore years resulted in more avoidance goals 1 year later, and the depressive problems in the junior year predicted the decline of approach goals in the senior year.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study highlighted the deleterious effects of depression on the achievement goals of college students.

Mathematics Difficulties and Psychopathology in School-Age Children

This study investigated the relationship between mathematics difficulties and psychopathology in a large community sample (N = 881) of youth (8-18 years of age) in the United States. The primary aims of the study were to (a) test the associations between mathematics difficulties and specific components of internalizing, externalizing, attention, and social problems; (b) examine potential age and gender differences; and (c) investigate the longitudinal relationship between mathematics and psychopathology using 5-year follow-up data. Results indicated that individuals with mathematics difficulties exhibited elevations in most dimensions of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, externalizing behaviors, attention problems, and social problems. Furthermore, mathematics impairment was associated with internalizing problems, rule-breaking behaviors, inattention, and social problems even after controlling for comorbid reading difficulties. Results suggested that the associations between mathematics and psychopathology are generally similar in males and females. Finally, preliminary longitudinal evidence suggested that initial mathematics difficulties predicted elevations of conduct disorder, rule-breaking behavior, inattention, hyperactivity, and social problems at follow-up, with several of these associations remaining significant even after controlling for initial reading. In contrast, there was no significant association between initial mathematics ability and internalizing symptoms at follow-up, demonstrating some amelioration of internalizing symptoms over time.

Low goal-directed behavior in negative symptoms is explained by goal setting - Results of a diary study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Engaging in goal-directed activities is a core difficulty of people with negative symptoms in schizophrenia. A previously developed goal pursuit model of negative symptoms (Schlier et al. 2017) postulates that negative symptom severity correlates with a tendency to set more avoidance- than approach-oriented goals. This shift in goal orientation correlates with low levels of goal expectancy, goal importance, and goal commitment. We explored whether these alterations translate into reduced goal-directed behavior (i.e., reduced goal striving and goal attainment).

METHODS

We conducted a one-week diary-study in a population sample (N=91). Participants were assessed for subclinical negative symptoms at baseline. Next, they set a daily goal and completed an online survey measuring goal orientation, goal characteristics, goal pursuit, and goal attainment once per day for one week.

RESULTS

Multilevel regression analyses and structural equation models showed that negative symptoms correlated with a tendency to set less approach-oriented goals with reduced goal expectancy and goal commitment. Goal orientation, expectancy, and commitment mediated the association between negative symptoms and reduced goal pursuit and attainment.

LIMITATIONS

We used a community sample, thus our results need to be replicated in a clinical sample of people with motivational negative symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results support the hypothesis that dysfunctional goal pursuit processes explain why negative symptoms lead to reduced goal-directed behavior. Interventions focusing on goal setting and goal expectations could be promising in improving goal-directed behavior in people with negative symptoms.

A multiple levels of analysis examination of the performance goal model of depression vulnerability in preadolescent children

If performance goals (i.e., motivation to prove ability) increase children's vulnerability to depression (Dykman, 1998), why are they overlooked in the psychopathology literature? Evidence has relied on self-report or observational methods and has yet to articulate how this vulnerability unfolds across levels of analysis implicated in stress-depression linkages; for example, hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal axis (HPA), sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Utilizing a multiple-levels-of-analysis approach (Cicchetti, 2010), this experimental study tested Dykman's goal orientation model of depression vulnerability in a community sample of preadolescents (N = 121, Mage = 10.60 years, Range = 9.08-12.00 years, 51.6% male). Self-reports of performance goals, attachment security, and subjective experience of internalizing difficulties were obtained in addition to objective behavioral (i.e., task persistence) and physiologic arousal (i.e., salivary cortisol, skin conductance level) responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and two randomly assigned coping conditions: avoidance, distraction. Children with performance goals reported greater internalizing difficulties and exhibited more dysregulated TSST physiologic responses (i.e., HPA hyperreactivity, SNS protracted recovery), yet unexpectedly displayed greater TSST task persistence and more efficient physiologic recovery during avoidance relative to distraction. These associations were stronger and nonsignificant in the context of insecure and secure attachment, respectively. Findings illustrate a complex matrix of in-the-moment, integrative psychobiological relationships linking performance goals to depression vulnerability.

The Mediating Role of Stress Perception in Pathways Linking Achievement Goal Orientation and Depression in Chinese Medical Students

Mental health problems are frequent obstacles in medical students’ careers as doctors. Given that previous studies overlook the mediation of stress perception, the current study expanded previous goal orientation researches by addressing an unexplored mechanism. This study aims to examine the mediational roles of stress perception (perceived stressors and stress-related cognition) on the relationship between achievement goal orientation and depression in medical students. A total of 1,015 Chinese 2-year medical students completed a multi-section questionnaire. Hypotheses were examined by structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that performance-avoidance goal orientation and perceived stressors both demonstrated direct facilitative effects on depression, whereas stress-related cognition demonstrated direct obstructive effects on depression. Both perceived stressors and stress-related cognition mediated the relationship between achievement goal orientation and depression. The findings spark a new perspective on motivational intervention that assist students in adopting mastery-approaching strategy as well as ways of coping with stressful academic situations. Identifying students with achievement goal orientation and providing them with the appropriate supportive services may help them to manage stress and mitigate or prevent depression.

Behavior Problems and Depressive Symptoms in Developmental Dyslexia: Risk Assessment in Brazilian Students

Objective

To investigate if students with developmental dyslexia (DD) have more behavior problems and depressive symptoms than students without learning difficulties.

Method

Participants were 61 students, aged 7-14 years, including 31 with interdisciplinary DD diagnosis and 30 without learning disabilities. We collected data from parents, using the children’s behavior checklist (CBCL), and from students, using the children’s depression inventory (CDI).

Results

The DD group had higher CBCL averages for anxiety, depression, withdrawal, rule-breaking behaviors, aggressiveness, and social, attentional and thought problems. They also showed higher results for the internalizing and externalizing categories, others and total. In the CDI, DD students had higher averages for total score and for the following symptoms: negative self-evaluation, guilt, suicidal thoughts, feeling concern, performance comparison, sleeping difficulties, fatigue, and problems in interacting with peers at school.

Conclusions

We discuss the results in terms of implications for DD diagnosis and intervention. Parent reports indicate a higher frequency of behavior problems in students with DD diagnosis. Those students also demonstrate more symptoms of depression than students without learning difficulties.

Can the Relationship Between Rapid Automatized Naming and Word Reading Be Explained by a Catastrophe? Empirical Evidence From Students With and Without Reading Difficulties

The purpose of the present study was to explain the moderating role of rapid automatized naming (RAN) in word reading with a cusp catastrophe model. We hypothesized that increases in RAN performance speed beyond a critical point would be associated with the disruption in word reading, consistent with a "generic shutdown" hypothesis. Participants were 587 elementary schoolchildren (Grades 2-4), among whom 87 had reading comprehension difficulties per the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion. Data were analyzed via a cusp catastrophe model derived from the nonlinear dynamics systems theory. Results indicated that for children with reading comprehension difficulties, as naming speed falls below a critical level, the association between core reading processes (word recognition and decoding) becomes chaotic and unpredictable. However, after the significant common variance attributed to motivation, emotional, and internalizing symptoms measures from RAN scores was partialed out, its role as a bifurcation variable was no longer evident. Taken together, these findings suggest that RAN represents a salient cognitive measure that may be associated with psychoemotional processes that are, at least in part, responsible for unpredictable and chaotic word reading behavior among children with reading comprehension deficits.

Reading Achievement, Mastery, and Performance Goal Structures Among Students With Learning Disabilities: A Nonlinear Perspective

The purpose of the present study was to examine the hypothesis that a nonlinear relationship exists between a performance-classroom climate and the reading achievement of adolescent students with learning disabilities (LD). Participants were 62 students with LD (Grades 5-9) from public elementary schools in northern Greece. Classroom climate was assessed using the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Styles. Achievement in reading was assessed using a normative reading assessment. Data were analyzed by means of catastrophe theory in which the behavior is predicted as a function of two control variables, the asymmetry factor and the bifurcation factor. Reading achievement (word identification) was predicted by students' ability to decode pseudowords (asymmetry variable) and by a mastery or performance motivational discourse (bifurcation factor). Results indicated that in classrooms with a performance goal structure, the cusp model fit the data and accounted for 54% of the variance in real word identification. In this condition, the association between pseudoword reading and real word reading was nonlinear. When a mastery climate was tested as a bifurcation variable, results indicated that its effect was nonsignificant and that instead the linear model fitted the data more adequately. Thus, increases in a classroom's performance motivational discourse are associated with sudden, unpredictable, and discontinued changes in students' reading performance.

Anxiety and Depression in Children With Nonverbal Learning Disabilities, Reading Disabilities, or Typical Development

The main goal of the present study was to shed further light on the psychological characteristics of children with different learning disability profiles aged between 8 and 11 years, attending from third to sixth grade. Specifically, children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD), reading disabilities (RD), or a typical development (TD) were tested. In all, 15 children with NLD, 15 with RD, and 15 with TD were administered self-report questionnaires to assess different types of anxiety and depression symptoms. Both NLD and RD children reported experiencing more generalized and social anxiety than TD, the NLD children reported more severe anxiety about school and separation than TD, and the children with RD had worse depressive symptoms than those with NLD or TD.

Achievement Goals in Students With Learning Disabilities, Emotional or Behavioral Disorders, and Low IQ Without Special Educational Needs

This study focuses on the goal orientations of students with and without special educational needs (SEN). The sample (mean age 13 years, 10 months) was composed of 37 students with low IQ, but without SEN; 37 students who were diagnosed as having learning disability (LD); and 37 students having emotional or behavioral disorders (ED). The groups were matched by IQ and gender. The results showed that students without SEN scored significantly higher in mastery goal orientation, significantly lower in performance-avoidance orientation, and had a lower work-avoidance orientation than students with LD or ED. Students with ED showed a significantly lower performance-approach orientation than students without SEN and students with LD. Results from correlational and regression analyses showed that SEN is always an explaining variable for goal orientation and that group differences cannot be explained by IQ, gender, actual achievement, self-estimation of achievement, and school anxiety.

Creating a brief rating scale for the assessment of learning disabilities using reliability and true score estimates of the scale's items based on the Rasch model

The purpose of the present studies was to provide the means to create brief versions of instruments that can aid the diagnosis and classification of students with learning disabilities and comorbid disorders (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). A sample of 1,108 students with and without a diagnosis of learning disabilities took part in study 1. Using information from modern theory methods (i.e., the Rasch model), a scale was created that included fewer than one third of the original battery items designed to assess reading skills. This best item synthesis was then evaluated for its predictive and criterion validity with a valid external reading battery (study 2). Using a sample of 232 students with and without learning disabilities, results indicated that the brief version of the scale was equally effective as the original scale in predicting reading achievement. Analysis of the content of the brief scale indicated that the best item synthesis involved items from cognition, motivation, strategy use, and advanced reading skills. It is suggested that multiple psychometric criteria be employed in evaluating the psychometric adequacy of scales used for the assessment and identification of learning disabilities and comorbid disorders.

Children with and without learning disabilities: a comparison of processes and outcomes following group counseling

This study compared outcomes and processes in counseling groups of an expressive-supportive modality for children with learning disabilities (LD) and without them (NLD). Participants were 266 students (ages 10-18), all referred for emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties; of these, 123 were identified with LD and 143 were not. There were 40 groups in all--20 with LD children and 20 with NLD. Outcome variables included adjustment, social competence, and academic achievements. Process variables included bonding, group functioning, and client behavior. Analyses were nested using mixed models. Results indicated no differences in outcomes or process variables between populations except for academic achievements; some between-group differences were found in the effect of processes on outcomes. It was concluded that children with LD may be successfully treated in expressive-supportive counseling groups for their emotional and social difficulties.

Coping styles and strategies: a comparison of adolescent students with and without learning disabilities

In this study, the authors compared the results of a coping measure completed by 98 seventh through ninth grade students who were assessed as having learning disabilities with published means from the general Australian student population. The Adolescent Coping Scale was the measure used. The results suggested higher use by students aged 12 to 13 years who had learning disabilities of an overall nonproductive coping style and in particular of the nonproductive strategies of ignoring the problem and not coping. Although there was no difference in overall productive or nonproductive coping style for 14- to 15-year-olds, the students in this age group who had learning disabilities reported higher use of the strategies of not coping and ignoring the problem. These findings are discussed in relation to a need for interventions that give students who have learning disabilities strategies that address the risk of a passive coping style.

How Goals and Beliefs Lead People into and Out of Depression

There is evidence that beliefs (cognitive vulnerabilities) and goals (to prove self-worth) contribute to depression but little consideration of how they work in tandem. Synthesizing research on beliefs and goals leads us to four propositions: (a) People with cognitive vulnerabilities often adopt self-worth goals (seeking to prove self-worth and to avoid proof of worthlessness). People with the opposite beliefs often adopt learning goals. (b) Stressors trigger depression largely because they lead people with self-worth goals to focus narrowly on goals to avoid proof of worthlessness. The same stressors do not lead people with learning goals to become depressed. (c) People with goals to avoid proof of worthlessness adopt defensive self-handicapping behaviors (e.g., effort withdrawal, rumination) when dealing with stressors, because those behaviors serve their goals. The same stressors lead people with learning goals to adopt constructive, problem-solving strategies. (d) A key to alleviating depression is fostering a shift from self-worth goals to learning goals and from the beliefs underlying self-worth goals to the opposite beliefs.

Internalizing correlates of dyslexia

BACKGROUND

Over the last ten years a considerable amount of literature has described the socio-emotional discomfort that is often associated with learning disorders at all ages, but a comprehensive review about internalizing symptoms in dyslexia is needed.

DATA SOURCES

Medical and psychological search engines (PubMed, PsychArticles and Academic Search Elite) were used to identify all those studies published in peer-reviewed journals, relative to the association of reading difficulties, dyslexia, or learning disorders/disabilities, and internalizing symptoms, anxiety, or depression.

RESULTS

The present review of studies confirms dyslexia as a specific risk factor for an increased internalizing, anxious and depressive symptomatology. The severity of dyslexia, its comorbidity with attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity disorder, the level of perceived social support and female gender are some of the factors that mostly influence its psycho-social outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Findings of this review confirm that suitable social, health and school policies aimed at identifying and treating dyslexia as a cause of discomfort are called for, and confirm the clinical need to assess and contrast additional risk factors that may increase the probability of this suffering in dyslexic students.

Assessing Cognitive Interference Using the Emotional Stroop Task in Students with and Without Attention Problems

The present study describes the Emotional Stroop Task as a means to assess cognitive interference triggered by emotional stimuli in elementary school students with and without attention problems. Using the Emotional Stroop Task in a computerized environment and employing samples of students with and without attention problems (111 without and 29 with attention problems), results indicated that prolonged latencies to stimuli with heavy emotional content related to their school experiences were predictive of students’ membership, after controlling for their gender and grade levels. These effects were independent of students’ processing ability as indicated by the lack of significant differences in reaction time to neutral stimuli. It is concluded that the Emotional Stroop Task can be used to assess cognitive interference in emotionally charged conditions across groups of students.