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Background Choosing a major involves the interplay of personal characteristics and contextual variables, two key elements of academic selection. The relationships between major choice (MC) and academic expectations (AEs) can highlight the processes evolved in the transition to higher education. We examined, across genders, the relationships between factors influencing MC and AEs among students pursuing social sciences (SocSci) and STEM careers. Methods With a sample of first-year Spanish ( n  = 750) and Portuguese ( n  = 594) university students ( Mdn  = 18 years), we tested a model with two factors of a scale of determinants of career choice, named Perceived Personal Characteristics Influences (PPCIs) and Perceived Mediating Agent Influences (PMAIs), as predictors of five from an AEs questionnaire. The model invariance testing across gender and fields of study followed the examination of its factorial structure counterpart invariance across countries, fields of study, and gender. Results Factor means tests revealed negligible differences between women and men regarding PPCIs and PMAIs in STEM, while in SoSci, women displayed higher PPCIs than men. In STEM, they had lower expectations for training benefits to employability. In addition, women expressed higher expectations for political participation and citizenship than men, with a discrepancy that was higher in SoSci than in STEM. The regression model showed similar slopes between genders in both fields of study, with PPCIs being better predictors of AEs than PMAIs in SoSci, but not in STEM. PPCIs predicted better Training for Employment in STEM than in SoSci, and also Political Engagement and Citizenship in SoSci than in STEM. Conclusions Results showed that women value personal characteristics more than men in SoSci, and their STEM choice is driven, possibly, by individual characteristics that foster greater self-determination and self-concept, non-differentiating them from men. Gender indifferentiation on PMAIs contradicts the belief that women attribute more relevance to others in their vocational choices. According to gender stereotypes, women have greater political and civic engagement, especially in SoSci, while men have higher AEs for job training. Contrary to previous results, no gender differences in career choices and educational expectations were found among STEM students. Furthermore, in STEM, PPCIs were weaker predictors of political engagement and citizenship, possibly due to the stereotypical portrayal of professional activities in this field.

The main goal of this investigation was to determine the influence of the family contextual variables on children's basic learning skills. Basic abilities tests for children's academic learning were administered to a sample of 447 children aged three, four, and five years in preschool education. The parents completed the questionnaire, which collected data about the structural variables of the family context: family structure, educational level, occupational activity, cultural resources available in the home, and monthly family income. Univariate analyses of variance were performed. The parents' educational level and some of the variables of cultural resources, such as access to the Internet, influence the basic abilities of the participants. This study indicates that structural variables condition family resources of a dynamic nature, and these are significant variables for academic achievement.

The goal of the present study is to analyze the influence of training in initiation to learning reading. Participants in the study were 144 preschool children from four public schools of Galicia, from a rural area of the Region of Paradanta. Out of the total sample, 72 were assigned to the experimental groups and 72 to the control groups. The design was pretest-posttest with randomized participants. Reading skills were measured with the Visual Recognition and Grapheme-Phoneme Conversion Test (TECOL).The data was analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance. Training significantly increased the reading skill scores of the experimental groups, compared to the control groups. The program has shown a triple interaction between Measure Training × Level School. This means that there was significant variation in mean scores of reading skills as a result of training and according to the different school levels. It is concluded that the basic reading skill to develop in early childhood education is the identification and naming of letters.

We examined the relationships among gender, planning, and academic expectations through the testing of two alternative models with latent variables tested with LISREL 8.80: one model considered planning as a mediator of the relationship between gender and academic expectations, and the other model considered academic expectations as mediators of the relationship between gender and planning. Participants were 662 first-year higher-education students from two academic years, predominantly female (60%) and mainly with majors in the juridical-social field (66.2%). The Inventario sobre Estrategias Metacognitivas ( IEM ; Inventory of Metacognitive Strategies) and the Academic Perceptions Questionnaire (APQ) were applied at the beginning of the first semester to assess planning and academic expectations, respectively. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the IEM ’s structure after examining its psychometric properties with the sample from the first academic year ( N = 338). The test of the alternative mediation models with the full sample indicates that the best model was that with planning as a mediator. In this model, gender directly predicted only two APQ academic expectations, but with the mediation of planning, gender predicted all seven academic expectations. Women showed higher levels of academic expectations and planning than did men. The results are discussed at both the theoretical and practical levels.

The main goal of this investigation was to determine the influence of the family contextual variables on children's basic learning skills. Basic abilities tests for children's academic learning were administered to a sample of 447 children aged three, four, and five years in preschool education. The parents completed the questionnaire, which collected data about the structural variables of the family context: family structure, educational level, occupational activity, cultural resources available in the home, and monthly family income. Univariate analyses of variance were performed. The parents' educational level and some of the variables of cultural resources, such as access to the Internet, influence the basic abilities of the participants. This study indicates that structural variables condition family resources of a dynamic nature, and these are significant variables for academic achievement.

Self-instruction strategy has been recognized as a relevant strategy in cognitive and behavioural regulation as a way of improving attention skills, namely in subjects with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This paper aims at demonstrating the effectiveness of this strategy regarding this disorder in subjects with and without ADHD as a mean of promoting attention skills, particularly selective and sustained attention. The results showed that subjects who performed the verbal self-instruction strategy presented better results in both attention processes assessed, than those who did not do it. Keywords: Self-instructions; Regulation; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); Attention Processes. A estrategia de auto-instrucoes tem vindo a ser reconhecida como uma relevante forma de regulacao cognitivo-comportamental no incremento das capacidades atencionais, nomeadamente em sujeitos com Transtorno do Deficit de Atencao com Hiperatividade (TDAH). Neste artigo foi avaliada a atencao seletiva e a atencao sustentada em 2 grupos, ambos formados por pessoas com e sem TDAH, sendo que a um deles foi solicitada a realizacao de auto-instrucao, com o objetivo de verificar se o uso desta estrategia promove as capacidades da atencao. Os resultados demonstraram que os sujeitos que realizam a estrategia de auto-instrucoes, quer apresentem ou nao TDAH, manifestam melhores resultados do que os sujeitos que nao a realizaram. Palavras-chave: Auto-instrucoes; Regulacao; Transtorno do Deficit de Atencao com Hiperatividade (TDAH); Processos da Atencao.

Self-instruction strategy has been recognized as a relevant strategy in cognitive and behavioural regulation as a way of improving attention skills, namely in subjects with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This paper aims at demonstrating the effectiveness of this strategy regarding this disorder in subjects with and without ADHD as a mean of promoting attention skills, particularly selective and sustained attention. The results showed that subjects who performed the verbal self-instruction strategy presented better results in both attention processes assessed, than those who did not do it.

El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar los efectos del entrenamiento en la iniciación al aprendizaje lector. Los participantes en el estudio fueron 144 niños de Preescolar de cuatro escuelas públicas de Galicia, pertenecientes a la zona rural de la Comarca del Paradanta. Del total, 72 formaron los tres grupos experimentales y otros 72 los tres grupos de control. El diseño utilizado fue un pretest-postest con sujetos aleatorizados. La medida de las habilidades lectoras se hizo mediante el Test de Reconocimiento Visual y Conversión Grafema-Fonema (TECOL). Los datos recogidos se trataron a través de un análisis de varianza de medidas repetidas. El entrenamiento incrementó significativamente las puntuaciones de las habilidades lectoras de los grupos experimentales, comparado con los grupos controles. El programa ha mostrado una triple interacción entre Medida × Entrenamiento × Nivel Escolar. Ello significa que hubo variación significativa en las puntuaciones medias de las habilidades lectoras fruto del entrenamiento y según los distintos niveles escolares. Se concluyó que la habilidad de lectura básica a desarrollar en la Educación Infantil es la habilidad de identificación y nombramiento de letras. Facilitating alphabet knowledge in preschool through training in coding, graphomotor and reading. The goal of the present study is to analyze the influence of training in initiation to learning reading. Participants in the study were 144 preschool children from four public schools of Galicia, from a rural area of the Region of Paradanta. Out of the total sample, 72 were assigned to the experimental groups and 72 to the control groups. The design was pretest-posttest with randomized participants. Reading skills were measured with the Visual Recognition and Grapheme-Phoneme Conversion Test (TECOL).The data was analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance. Training significantly increased the reading skill scores of the experimental groups, compared to the control groups. The program has shown a triple interaction between Measure Training × Level School. This means that there was significant variation in mean scores of reading skills as a result of training and according to the different school levels. It is concluded that the basic reading skill to develop in early childhood education is the identification and naming of letters.

A estratégia de auto-instruções tem vindo a ser reconhecida como uma relevante forma de regulação cognitivo-comportamental no incremento das capacidades atencionais, nomeadamente em sujeitos com Transtorno do Deficit de Atenção com Hiperatividade (TDAH). Neste artigo foi avaliada a atenção seletiva e a atenção sustentada em 2 grupos, ambos formados por pessoas com e sem TDAH, sendo que a um deles foi solicitada a realização de auto-instrução, com o objetivo de verificar se o uso desta estratégia promove as capacidades da atenção. Os resultados demonstraram que os sujeitos que realizam a estratégia de auto-instruções, quer apresentem ou não TDAH, manifestam melhores resultados do que os sujeitos que não a realizaram.Self-instruction strategy has been recognized as a relevant strategy in cognitive and behavioural regulation as a way of improving attention skills, namely in subjects with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This paper aims at demonstrating the effectiveness of this strategy regarding this disorder in subjects with and without ADHD as a mean of promoting attention skills, particularly selective and sustained attention. The results showed that subjects who performed the verbal self-instruction strategy presented better results in both attention processes assessed, than those who did not do it.

Este artículo proporciona una revisión de los principales factores relacionados con el consumo de drogas en la adolescencia. Distinguimos entre variables individuales y sociales. A su vez, el entorno social es dividido en dos niveles: el macrosocial -que agrupa las influencias que operan en un contexto más amplio- y el microsocial -que hace referencia al entorno más inmediato del individuo-. Se plantea que el uso de drogas es un problema multifactorial. Por ello, la cuestión fundamental es precisar como interactúan dichos factores y determinar en qué medida una variable puede incidir sobre las demás desencadenando el proceso adictivo. Este es el problema más espinoso con el que nos encontramos en la actualidad. Drug use in adolescence. This article provides an overview of the most important variables related to the initiation and drug consumption among teenagers. We distinguish the individual and the social variables. We find two levels in the social factor: the macrosocial which assembles social influences to occur a higher level, and the microsocial who takes its references from his social environment near by. We expound that the use of drugs is in function to many factors. The main question is how to interact these factors, as far as to influence a variable on the others and how to produce the different combinations of variables implicated in the etiology of this conduct and who could bring all unchainment to it, this is the most thorny problem we find ourselves in.