TY - JOUR A1 - Kretschmann, Julia A1 - Vock, Miriam A1 - Luedtke, Oliver A1 - Gronostaj, Anna T1 - psychosocial development after early acceleration JF - Contemporary educational psychology N2 - Whereas studies that have analyzed factors that affect academic achievement have predominantly revealed positive effects of skipping a grade, controversial results have been found for students’ social-emotional and motivational development. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of skipping a whole grade on students’ school satisfaction, peer relations, school anxiety, and academic self-concept. Moreover, we conducted moderation analyses to investigate whether skipping a grade affects boys and girls differently. Data were obtained from N = 4926 German students who were repeatedly surveyed once a year in Grades 4, 5, and 6. A total of N = 96 students from this sample had skipped a grade in elementary school. We applied full matching separately for male and female students in order to minimize selection bias. When analyzing motivational variables, we added class-mean achievement scores as covariates within the matching process. Equally for boys and girls, the results showed no significant effect of skipping on school satisfaction, yet we found a negative effect on peer relations that persisted across the 3 years of measurement. However, after skipping a grade girls were significantly disadvantaged compared to boys on some motivational dimensions. KW - Grade skipping KW - Psychosocial development KW - Propensity score matching KW - Acceleration KW - Moderation analysis Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.06.001 SN - 0361-476X SN - 1090-2384 VL - 46 SP - 195 EP - 207 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gronostaj, Anna A1 - Vock, Miriam A1 - Pant, Hans Anand T1 - Skip a grade, learn more? Estimating the effects of grade skipping on JF - Learning and individual differences N2 - Acceleration, defined as progressing through educational programs faster or at a younger age than peers (Pressey, 1949), is an educational practice that is used to support gifted and high-ability students whose cognitive and affective needs might not be met in age-based classrooms. The empirical results of grade skipping, one specific form of acceleration, have been supportive with respect to academic outcomes but have primarily been derived from U.S. samples. Less is known about German grade skippers. We reanalyzed the test and survey data of more than 40,000 students from five studies originally conducted to assess their skills in native and foreign languages in the context of the national educational standards in Germany. We identified 471 grade skippers and used propensity score matching on potential confounding variables (e.g., intelligence, gender, parental background) to construct comparable control groups. Two different comparison groups were realized (same-grade and same age groups). The findings showed that grade skippers performed (at least) as well on standardized tests as their older classmates who were matched on all covariates (same-grade comparison) and outperformed their same-aged peers who were matched on all covariates in most of the language skills that were assessed. Practical and methodological implications are also discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KW - Grade skipping KW - Acceleration KW - Academic achievement KW - Propensity score matching Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.05.022 SN - 1041-6080 SN - 1873-3425 VL - 49 SP - 278 EP - 286 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caliendo, Marco A1 - Clement, Michel A1 - Shehu, Edlira T1 - The effect of individual professional critics on books' sales: capturing selection biases from observable and unobservable factors JF - Marketing letters : a journal of research in marketing N2 - We propose a combined approach of propensity score matching with difference-in-differences methods for reducing selection biases of products being reviewed by critics. Critics' decision to review products may be driven by observable (e.g., star power) and unobservable (e.g., critics' individual preferences) factors, raising the question of reverse causality and selection biases. Our proposed approach enables to rigorously control for selection biases by observable and unobservable characteristics. We apply our methodological framework on data from the German book market and estimate the sales effect of a well-known TV critic. We identify substantial selection effects of individual critics, which result in serious underestimation of the short-term effect (up to 29 %) and the long-term effect (up to 37 %). The results emphasize the relevance of the proposed methodological framework by demonstrating that observable and unobservable factors drive selection effects. KW - Critics KW - Reviewer KW - Propensity score matching KW - Difference-in-difference KW - Selection effects Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-015-9391-9 SN - 0923-0645 SN - 1573-059X VL - 26 IS - 4 SP - 423 EP - 436 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER -