Umeå universitets logga

Recurrent pain is an increasing public health problem among school-aged children, with potential negative impact on children's daily lives, such as schoolwork. The overall aim of this study was to investigate whether recurrent pain in school year 6 was associated with poorer academic achievement at the end of elementary school in school year 9. The study was a follow-up study based on data from "The Study of Health in School-Aged Children from Umeå". Participants were 1567 children aged 12 to 13 years who attended school year 6. A follow-up was performed in school year 9, when the children were 16 years old. The children answered a questionnaire about recurrent pain (headache, stomachache, and backache). Information about academic achievement was collected from school registers. The results showed that having weekly recurrent pain in school year 6 predicted lower final overall grade points in school year 9 than in children with no recurrent pain. This applied for recurrent headache, stomachache, backache, and multiple pains and for both girls and boys. Recurrent pain did not predict secondary school eligibility, however. Perceived problems with academic achievement and problems with concentration partly mediated the association between recurrent pain and lower final overall grade points. Sleep problems were not associated with academic achievement and were therefore not a mediator. Thus, the results suggest that recurrent pain may predict later impairment of academic achievement and that problems with concentration and children's perceived achievement in school, but not sleep problems, may partly explain this relationship.

Recurrent pain and school failures are common problems in children visiting the school nurses office. The overall aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between recurrent pain and academic achievement in school-aged children. Literature was searched in seven electronic databases and in relevant bibliographies. Study selection, data extraction, and study and evidence quality assessments were performed systematically with standardized tools. Twenty-one studies met the inclusion criteria and 13 verified an association between recurrent pain (headache, stomachache, and musculoskeletal pain) and negative academic achievement. Two longitudinal studies indicated a likely causal effect of pain on academic achievement. All studies had substantial methodological drawbacks and the overall quality of the evidence for the identified associations was low. Thus, children’s lack of success in school may be partly attributed to recurrent pain problems. However, more highquality studies are needed, including on the direction of the association and its moderators and mediators.

This article draws on data from a bigger project where we explore what is taking place in the daily life of classrooms during the national testing period in mathematics for nine- to ten-year-old children in Sweden. Data was produced by observations, video-recordings, and interviews with children. The article shows on a micro level how assessment trends, on a macro level, affect children. It further focuses how children through different repertoires of time position themselves as 'appropriate' test takers

While test anxiety has been studied extensively, little consideration has been given to the cultural impacts of children's experiences and expressions of test anxiety. The aim of this work was to examine whether variance in test anxiety scores can be predicted based on gender and cultural setting. Three hundred and ninety-eight pupils in Grade 3 in China, Finland, and Sweden, each of which has different testing realities, completed the Children's Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS). Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) results indicated that the Chinese sample scored more highly on the autonomic reactions component, whereas the Nordic sample scored higher on the off-task behaviors component. Significant interaction effects between gender and culture were also observed: The Nordic girls exhibited higher levels of autonomic reactions, but the opposite was seen in the Chinese sample, with boys reporting higher levels of the cognitive component. The conceptualization of test anxiety encompassing the off-task behaviors component does not appear to be universal for children. It is also suggested that gender differences vary as a function of culture.

This article reports on a Swedish research project on the reintroduction of national tests in mathematics for nine- to ten-year-old pupils. Data were collected over a period of three years (2010-2012) by video recording test situations in different classrooms and by conducting video-stimulated recall interviews with children. The aim is to explore and analyse the testing situation and how it creates different positions for children. We conclude that discourses of testing, caring and competition, sometimes strengthening and sometimes shadowing each other and thereby, produce knowledge in children about success and failure in mathematics, positioning children as ‘winners’ or ‘losers’. The tests are interpreted as a technology – a form of disciplinary power that functions at the level of the body (Foucault, 1980).

Är de nationella proven ett bra verktyg för bedömning eller kan de rentav ha negativa konsekvenser för elevernas lärande? Gunnar Sjöberg och Eva Silfver har följt införandet av proven i matematik i årskurs 3.

This paper reports on a research project relating to the newly implemented mandatory Swedish national mathematics tests for third-grade students (aged nine and ten). The project’s main research concerns the students’ ideas about and reactions towards these tests and how the specific test situation affects their perception of their own mathematical proficiency. Drawing on theories which suggest that identities are more fluid than static, we want to understand how students with special needs are ‘created’. The specific aim of this paper is to discuss how our research methods have been refined during the various phases of data collection and the resulting implications. It discusses issues surrounding child research and how methods involving video recording and video stimulated recall dialogue (VSRD) can contribute to research on children’s experiences. Particular attention is given to methodological and ethical issues; how to disrupt power relations, for example. In this paper we argue that the context of the test situation not only impacted upon the students but also affected how we changed, developed and adapted our approaches as the project evolved.