School: what helps children do well?

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1. 1

   Screen Exposure and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Review.

   Pediatric discovery (Pinheiro et al.)Published Sep 24, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Although recreational screen use has frequently been linked to negative outcomes, the effects of educational use remain less well defined. A bibliographic search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Mendeley for articles published between 2020 and 2024 that addressed screen use in relation to academic skills. Thirty-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Excessive exposure was most often associated with delays in language development, poorer executive function and self-regulation and reduced motor proficiency. In contrast, interactive and well-structured educational applications showed potential to support literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional development, and classroom engagement. Limitations of the available evidence include the predominance of studies in preschool populations, a lack of clear definitions of "screen exposure" and "educational tool," and insufficient differentiation between devices and content types. The findings highlight the importance of parental and educational mediation and underscore the need for further longitudinal studies to clarify the long-term impact of educational screen use across developmental stages.”

2. 2

   Linking Maternal Educational Involvement to Early Adolescent Academic Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Maternal Authoritativeness.

   Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) (Lam & Lam)Published Jul 8, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Students also rated their own academic adjustment (i.e., motivation, skills, and competence). Hierarchical regressions indicated that maternal support and encouragement were uniquely linked to early adolescent academic skills, whereas maternal rules and monitoring were uniquely linked to early adolescent academic motivation and competence. Moreover, especially for students with authoritative mothers, maternal expectations and attitudes were uniquely linked to academic motivation, skills, and competence, and maternal communication with teachers was uniquely linked to early adolescent academic skills and competence. Findings highlighted the importance of conceptualizing parental educational involvement and adolescent academic adjustment as multidimensional constructs and differentiating between parenting practices versus parenting styles. Practically, interventionists and policy makers may consider targeting both maternal educational involvement and maternal authoritativeness as possible ways to promote early adolescent academic adjustment.”

3. 3

   Parental academic involvement and academic buoyancy among junior high school students: cross-sectional indirect associations involving peer relations and academic emotions.

   Frontiers in psychology (Wang et al.)Published Aug 7, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Parallel statistical indirect-association analyses showed significant total indirect-association patterns in both models (maternal academic involvement: effect = 0.0380, 95% CI [0.0290, 0.0485]; paternal academic involvement: effect = 0.0283, 95% CI [0.0196, 0.0379]). In both models, significant specific statistical indirect associations were observed in the patterns involving peer fear and inferiority, negative academic emotions, and positive academic emotions, with the largest statistical indirect association involving positive academic emotions. By contrast, the indirect association involving peer acceptance was not significant in either model.ConclusionIn this cross-sectional sample, academic buoyancy was concurrently associated with parental academic involvement, peer relational experiences, and academic emotions, particularly positive academic emotions.”

4. 4

   Promoting resilience with social-emotional learning: Young adult follow-up of a preschool randomized-controlled trial.

   The American psychologist (Bierman et al.)Published Sep 17, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Significant benefits favoring the intervention group emerged on seven of 11 measures of young adult well-being, including conduct problems, depressive symptoms, loneliness, empathy, emotional support, healthy days, and overall life satisfaction. Latent profile analyses showed the preschool intervention increased the likelihood of displaying a profile reflecting higher (rather than lower) young adult well-being. Greater exposure to adverse childhood experiences predicted diminished adult well-being, but intervention buffered the impact of adverse childhood experiences on social adjustment. Findings suggest that enriching preschool with intensive evidence-based social-emotional learning and language support can leverage public investments in early education and enhance the long-term well-being of vulnerable children growing up in poverty. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).”

5. 5

   Achievement gaps in the United States (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaPublished Oct 1, 2026Checked Oct 4, 2026

   “Achievement gaps in the United States are observed, persistent disparities in measures of educational performance among subgroups of U.S. students, especially groups defined by socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity and gender. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures, including standardized test scores, grade point average, dropout rates, college enrollment, and college completion rates. The gap in achievement between lower income students and higher income students exists in all nations and it has been studied extensively in the U.S. and other countries, including the U.K. Various other gaps between groups exist around the globe as well. Research into the causes of the disparity in academic achievement between students from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds has been ongoing since the 1966 publication of the Coleman Report (officially titled "Equality of Educational Opportunity"), commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education. The report found that a combination of home, community, and in-school factors affect academic performance and contribute to the achievement gap.”