Monozygotic twins concordant and discordant for DCD: two sides to the story

Poor Motor Performance - Do Peers Matter? Examining the Role of Peer Relations in the Context of the Environmental Stress Hypothesis

The aim of the current study was to investigate pathways of the Environmental Stress Hypothesis concerning the role of peer relations in the context of poor motor skills. First, we examined (1) the mediating role of peer problems in the association between motor performance in daily activities and internalizing problems as a main pathway of the Environmental Stress Hypothesis. Furthermore, we explored the role of (2) children's popularity as a mediator and (3) best friendship quality as a moderator path of the effect of motor performance on both peer problems and internalizing problems. The non-clinical sample of the present study consisted of 189 children (48.6% females) aged 9-11 years (M_age = 9.69, SD_age = 0.46). Parents reported on their child's motor performance in daily activities by completing the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to assess peer problems as well as internalizing problems. The Self Description Questionnaire provided a measure of children's self-reported popularity. The Friendship Quality Questionnaire was used to investigate children's best friendship quality. Results of a structural equation model suggest that peer problems fully mediated the association between the motor performance in daily activities and both popularity and internalizing problems. However, no evidence for the mediating effect of popularity in the association between peer problems and internalizing problems was found. Further, best friendship quality had a non-significant moderating effect on the relation between peer problems and internalizing problems. The mediating role of peer problems highlights the importance of peer relations in the motor performance of daily activities. Schools and psychomotor interventions were suggested as practical implications to support children with poor motor performance in their relationship with their peers and to improve their motor performance in daily activities.

Promoting psychology to students: embracing the multiplicity of research foci and method

In order for the discipline of psychology to continue to thrive it is imperative that future students are effectively recruited into the field. Research is an important part of the discipline and it is argued that the nature of psychological research is naturally one of multiplicity in topic and methodology and that promoting and highlighting this should be considered as a potentially effective recruitment strategy. In this study, a snap-shot of current research topics and methodologies was collected based on published papers from one typical academic psychology department in Australia. Fifty articles published in the period 2010–2013 were randomly selected and then grouped using content analysis to form topic clusters. Five main clusters were identified and included: Grief and Loss; Psychopathology; Sociocultural Studies; Attachment and Parenting; and Developmental Disorders. The studies spanned the full spectrum of research methodologies from quantitative to qualitative and had implications for assessment practices, diagnosis, prevention and treatment, education, and policy. The findings are discussed in terms of the unique characteristics of psychology as a discipline and how this diversity ought to be utilized as the main selling point of the discipline to future students.