Sharon Wolf
Biographic Data
| ID | 3583052 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sharon Wolf |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sharon |
| FAMILY NAME | Wolf |
| SIGNATURE | WOLF S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pennsylvania |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8076-8399 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 64 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 263 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 64 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1938 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Risk and protective factors associated with prosocial skills and behavioral difficulties among preschool children: Findings from rural Ghana.
Measuring school climate in majority world countries: A systematic review of concepts and constructs
Most school climate studies to date have focused on Minority World (i.e., high-income) countries. As such, there is limited understanding of the concepts and constructs that encompass school climate in Majority World (i.e., low- and middle-income) countries. We conducted a systematic review of empirical studies that assessed school climate quantitatively in Majority World countries. Out of 4372 initial articles, 172 met inclusion criteria. Of the…
Parents’ Views of Early Childhood Education: Predictors of Engagement in Ghana
“They knew I was not doing enough”: Parents’ experiences with an SMS-based parenting program in rural Ghana
Supporting early learning: An audio-video program for low-literate parents of young children in urban India
RCT of a mobile-based parenting program with low-income families in India. • Audio-video messages designed for low-literacy parents via mobile phones. • Small socioemotional effects, stronger for children over 5, attenuated after FDR. • No impacts on parent engagement, academics, or child behavior outcomes. • Findings inform scalable ECD interventions in low-resource urban settings. Mobile-based communication is an increasingly viable strategy fo…
Best practices for implementing equitable and just large-scale randomized trials in majority world countries
This article focuses on a widely used method in developmental and education research in majority world countries: large-scale impact evaluations and randomized controlled trials. We build on our experience implementing such programs in majority world countries, primarily in West Africa, and reflect on our experiences to propose a set of best practices in maintaining equity and justice in collaborations between majority and minority world countrie…
Factorial and cultural validity of a social and emotional behavior measure in Northern Ghana
In a large sample of children in northern Ghana ( N = 4,723), we investigated the factorial validity and reliability of the widely used parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated poor fit for the proposed 5-factor model. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we found a reliable and empirically sound 3-factor solution. The first factor reflected self-regulatory and prosocia…
Exploring multidimensional approaches to learning during early childhood in Ghana
Relative Contributions of Mothers, Fathers, and Other Caregivers’ Cognitive and Socioemotional Stimulation on Ghanaian Children’s School Readiness
This study examined the concurrent contributions of mothers, fathers, and other caregivers’ cognitive and socioemotional home stimulation to children’s school readiness skills in a sample of Ghanaian kindergartners measured at two time-points across one school year (N = 2,975; Mage = 5.2 years; 49% female). Research Findings: Multiple regression analyses showed that mothers and other caregivers’ stimulation – but not fathers – predicted child out…
Predictors of teacher turnover in public and private preprimary classrooms in Ghana
And then there are the realities of the field”: Teacher insights on the implementation of a targeted instruction program in rural Côte d’Ivoire
To better understand the implementation of a targeted instruction program in rural Côte d’Ivoire, we present qualitative insights from teachers ( N = 25). We interviewed teachers whose students' test scores did and did not improve (high and low change groups, respectively) after 2-years of program implementation. Our findings suggest teacher engagement with the program is related to student-level impacts; teachers with high student improvement ex…
Predictors of harsh discipline practices among rural households in Côte d'Ivoire
Harsh discipline is associated with adverse child outcomes across diverse contexts, but research is limited in sub–Saharan Africa. We assess the prevalence and identify predictors of harsh disciplinary practices at home in a sample of rural primary school-aged children in Côte d'Ivoire ( N = 1574). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to identify household and family characteristics associated with household harsh disciplinary practices. Ma…
The codevelopment of early social and cognitive skills in Ghana
Children's early skills are strong predictors of later learning outcomes. Research aiming to disentangle the causal effects of early skills from unmeasured, stable characteristics related to learning throughout development demonstrates that unmeasured confounders explain a large portion of the effects of early skills previously identified. To date, such research has been conducted exclusively in high-income Western countries, where education syst…
Parent psychological distress and beliefs about nurturing care: Associations with parent investments and early child development in Ethiopia
Parental engagement in stimulating activities and support in both formal and informal learning environments are important for early childhood development. However, little is known about how parental mental health and beliefs about early childhood development shape such investments. We draw on a sample of young children and their primary caregiver from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ( N = 3,000; M age = 34.1 months; 48.5% girls) and examine how parental di…
Impacts of the Preschool Safe Program on Marginalized Girls in Northern Nigeria
Quality early childhood education (ECE) can improve children's learning and development in low- and middle-income countries, but little evidence exists of programs targeting marginalized girls in vulnerable rural communities. This study used a matched-pair mixed-methods community-randomized trial to evaluate a preschool program for marginalized girls (N = 466, M age = 5-years; W1 = 2022; W2 = 2023) from 16 rural Hausa-ethnic communities in Nigeri…
Variability in the age of schooling contributes to the link between literacy and numeracy in Côte d'Ivoire
Literacy and numeracy are correlated throughout development, however, our understanding of this relation is limited. We explored the predictors of literacy and numeracy covariance (i.e., shared fluency between literacy and numeracy) in children (N = 1167, girls = 563) in rural Côte d'Ivoire, with specific focus on how developmental timing of instruction may relate to covariance. Many Ivorian children experience late enrollment and grade repetitio…
Caregiver mental health and school-aged children’s academic and socioemotional outcomes: Examining associations and mediators in Northern Ghana
While there is a strong link between caregiver mental health, caregiver engagement, and child development, limited research has examined the underlying mechanisms of these associations in Africa. We examined the mediating role of dimensions of caregiver engagement in the association of caregiver psychological distress with children’s academic and socioemotional outcomes in Ghana. Data came from 4,714 children (aged 5–17 years) and their caregiver…
Impacts of Targeted Instruction with Mobile-Based Support on Teachers and Students in Rural Côte d’Ivoire
We report results from a school-randomized trial examining the impacts of a targeted-instruction program (“Teaching at the Right Level”) in Côte d’Ivoire implemented by teachers (N=167 schools, 303 teachers, 3,808 students). The program increased literacy and numeracy outcomes measured by learning levels (d=0.16 and 0.28) and had smaller marginally statistically significant impacts on functional literacy and numeracy skills (d=0.10 and 0.08). Imp…
Duration of poverty and Ghanaian children’s learning and executive function outcomes
This study investigated whether transitory and persistent poverty spells were associated with children’s learning (literacy and numeracy scores) and executive function outcomes in Ghana. Children resided in the Greater Accra region (N = 2,154; 49% female; Mage = 5.2 years at wave-1) and were followed at four-time points over three years. Multivariate regression models were used to test whether exposure to transitory poverty (1–2 times) or persist…
Is the development of diversification in executive functioning universal? Longitudinal evidence from Ghana
The component structure of executive functioning (EF) has been shown to change across development. Empirical research examining this in Sub‐Saharan Africa is limited. We report the development of EF component structure with a large sample of Ghanaian children ( n = 2,979) followed longitudinally from ages 3 through 12 across six waves. Existing literature suggests unitary models of EF (components loading onto a single factor) early in childhood, …
Patterns of cognitive and social-emotional parental stimulation practices among Ghanaian kindergarteners
Cultural Considerations in Defining Classroom Quality: Ghanaian Preschool Teachers’ Agreements and Disagreements with Standards-Based Instruments
Early childhood education (ECE) programs are expanding across sub-Saharan Africa. But the quality of these programs, and their effectiveness when implemented at scale, remains unclear. Defining quality is not simple, as learning environments are shaped by cultural values and societal sociodemographics. Framed within sociocultural theory, this study broadens understanding of ECE classroom quality by examining whether and how Ghanaian educators fos…
Teacher depressive symptoms and children's school readiness in Ghana
This study investigated associations between kindergarten teachers' (N = 208) depressive symptoms and students' (Ghanaian nationals, N = 1490, M age = 5.8) school-readiness skills (early literacy, early numeracy, social–emotional skills, and executive function) across 208 schools in Ghana over one school year. Teachers' depressive symptoms in the fall negatively predicted students' overall school-readiness skills in the spring, controlling for sc…
Teacher Beliefs and Student Learning
Bringing together research from several lines of inquiry in psychology and education, we propose a conceptual model for understanding how entrenched inequalities embedded within ecological macrosystems play out in the classroom to affect student learning. We consider how implicit teacher beliefs and belief expressions affect teacher-student interactions and relationships, student learning-related processes, and student learning outcomes. First, w…
Parental engagement in Ghanaian pre-primary schools: A mixed-methods study
The social impact of majorities and minorities
Developing critical consciousness or justifying the system? A qualitative analysis of attributions for poverty and wealth among low-income racial/ethnic minority and immigrant women
Our analysis sheds new light on how and why individuals simultaneously hold individual and structural attributions and highlights key links between system justification and critical consciousness. It shows that critical consciousness and system justification do not represent opposite stances along a single underlying continuum, but are distinct belief systems and motivations. It also suggests that the motive to justify the system is a key psychol…
Intrayear Household Income Dynamics and Adolescent School Behavior
Economic life for most American households is quite dynamic. Such income instability is an understudied aspect of households’ economic contexts that may have distinct consequences for children. We examine the empirical relationship between household income instability, as measured by intrayear income change, and adolescent school behavior outcomes using a nationally representative sample of households with adolescents from the Survey of Income an…
Effects of urban residence on interpersonal trust and helping behavior
Economic Instability, Food Insecurity, and Child Health in the Wake of the Great Recession
Although there is a wealth of research on the relationship between income level and employment status and child well-being, the relationship between economic instability and health during early childhood is understudied. We examine the associations between the incidence, accumulation, and timing of intrayear employment and income instability with household and child food insecurity and child health using a nationally representative sample of hous…
Behavioural style and group cohesiveness as sources of minority influence
Behavioural style and group cohesiveness were tested as sources of minority influence under conditions in which rejection of the minority from the group was possible and under conditions in which it was not. Female subjects (N = 120) were led to believe that they were interacting as a group and that they held a majority position on a relevant issue. The influence agent, ostensibly one of the group members, advocated a minority position throughout…
Measuring early learning and development across cultures: Invariance of the Idela across five countries
Relatively little research has addressed whether conceptual frameworks of early learning generalize across different national contexts. This article reports on a cross-country measurement invariance analysis of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA). The IDELA is a direct assessment tool for 3- to 6-year-old children, intended to measure Early Literacy, Early Numeracy, Motor, and Social-Emotional development. Its gene…
So that his mind will open”: Parental perceptions of early childhood education in urbanizing Ghana
Measuring school readiness globally: Assessing the construct validity and measurement invariance of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (Idela) in Ethiopia
Family poverty and neighborhood poverty: Links with children's school readiness before and after the Great Recession
Measuring and predicting process quality in Ghanaian pre-primary classrooms using the Teacher Instructional Practices and Processes System (TIPPS)
Measuring and predicting burnout among early childhood educators in Ghana
Changes in classroom quality predict Ghanaian preschoolers’ gains in academic and social-emotional skills
Rates of participation in early childhood education (ECE) programs are on the rise globally, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet little evidence exists on the quality of these programs and on the role of classroom quality in predicting learning for young children across diverse contexts. This study uses data from the Greater Accra Region of Ghana (N = 3,407; M age = 5.8 years; 49.5% female) to examine how changes in four culturally validated dim…
Household economic instability: Constructs, measurement, and implications
Drawing on psychological theory to understand and improve antipoverty policies: The case of conditional cash transfers
Increasingly, psychological theory and research are used to help design and guide social policy efforts. One particular antipoverty policy that is gaining popularity is conditional cash transfers (CCTs), where cash is transferred to needy households, conditioned on their making prestipulated investments in their children’s health and education. CCTs have been rigorously evaluated and implemented as policy by governments in several countries. Outs…
Executive function mediates the association between cumulative risk and learning in Ghanaian schoolchildren
Research on the associations among adversity, executive function (EF), and academic outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, where developmental risk factors are more prevalent and impoverished environments are more widespread than in high income countries, is sparse. This study examines the relations among cumulative risk, EF, and learning outcomes measured 2-years later in Ghanaian third- and fourth-graders ( N = 371; 49% female), shedding…
Predictors of anxiety and depressive symptoms among teachers in Ghana: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial
Examining sustained impacts of two teacher professional development programs on professional well-being and classroom practices
Early Childhood Teachers’ Lives in Context: Implications for Professional Development in Under‐Resourced Areas
This study explores the personal, professional, and contextual conditions faced by early childhood education ( ECE ) teachers in under‐resourced settings and how these relate to teacher responsiveness to professional development ( PD ): namely, teacher attrition (a sign of PD failure when occurring shortly after PD ), take‐up of offered PD , adherence to PD training/materials, and quality of implementation. We use data from six disadvantaged dist…
Year 3 follow-up of the ‘Quality Preschool for Ghana’ interventions on child development
Governments around the world are increasing investments in early childhood education as a way to promote children's learning and development. As research grows on the longer-term effects of early educational programs, some have hypothesized that sustained impacts may depend on the quality of children's subsequent classroom environments and may be more likely to occur in certain nonacademic domains. This study is the first to examine these questio…
Preliminary impacts of the “Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom” intervention on teacher well-being in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Manifest and latent influence of majorities and minorities
Patterns of Time Use Among Low-Income Urban Minority Adolescents and Associations with Academic Outcomes and Problem Behaviors
Cross-national measurement of school learning environments: Creating indicators for evaluating Unicef's Child Friendly Schools Initiative
Predictors of parental disciplinary practices and associations with child outcomes among Ghanaian preschoolers
Historic Background of the Study of Personality as it Relates to Success or Failure in Academic Achievement
Effects of urban residence on interpersonal trust and helping behavior
Behavioural style and group cohesiveness as sources of minority influence
Behavioural style and group cohesiveness were tested as sources of minority influence under conditions in which rejection of the minority from the group was possible and under conditions in which it was not. Female subjects (N = 120) were led to believe that they were interacting as a group and that they held a majority position on a relevant issue. The influence agent, ostensibly one of the group members, advocated a minority position throughout…
The social impact of majorities and minorities
Majority and minority influences on restaurant preferences
Manifest and latent influence of majorities and minorities
Drawing on psychological theory to understand and improve antipoverty policies: The case of conditional cash transfers
Increasingly, psychological theory and research are used to help design and guide social policy efforts. One particular antipoverty policy that is gaining popularity is conditional cash transfers (CCTs), where cash is transferred to needy households, conditioned on their making prestipulated investments in their children’s health and education. CCTs have been rigorously evaluated and implemented as policy by governments in several countries. Outs…
Cross-national measurement of school learning environments: Creating indicators for evaluating Unicef's Child Friendly Schools Initiative
The Consequences of Income Instability for Children's Well-Being
Income instability is an important and understudied dimension of the established empirical relation between family income and children's healthy development. Frequent fluctuations in income may influence daily processes and routines of family life, but the nature of such effects also may vary by specific patterns of income instability, parents' responses, and children's characteristics. In this article, we review existing theory and research on i…
Developing critical consciousness or justifying the system? A qualitative analysis of attributions for poverty and wealth among low-income racial/ethnic minority and immigrant women
Our analysis sheds new light on how and why individuals simultaneously hold individual and structural attributions and highlights key links between system justification and critical consciousness. It shows that critical consciousness and system justification do not represent opposite stances along a single underlying continuum, but are distinct belief systems and motivations. It also suggests that the motive to justify the system is a key psychol…
Preliminary impacts of the “Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom” intervention on teacher well-being in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Intrayear Household Income Dynamics and Adolescent School Behavior
Economic life for most American households is quite dynamic. Such income instability is an understudied aspect of households’ economic contexts that may have distinct consequences for children. We examine the empirical relationship between household income instability, as measured by intrayear income change, and adolescent school behavior outcomes using a nationally representative sample of households with adolescents from the Survey of Income an…
Patterns of Time Use Among Low-Income Urban Minority Adolescents and Associations with Academic Outcomes and Problem Behaviors
Measuring school readiness globally: Assessing the construct validity and measurement invariance of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (Idela) in Ethiopia
So that his mind will open”: Parental perceptions of early childhood education in urbanizing Ghana
Family poverty and neighborhood poverty: Links with children's school readiness before and after the Great Recession
Economic Instability, Food Insecurity, and Child Health in the Wake of the Great Recession
Although there is a wealth of research on the relationship between income level and employment status and child well-being, the relationship between economic instability and health during early childhood is understudied. We examine the associations between the incidence, accumulation, and timing of intrayear employment and income instability with household and child food insecurity and child health using a nationally representative sample of hous…
Impacts of Pre-Service Training and Coaching on Kindergarten Quality and Student Learning Outcomes in Ghana
Measuring and predicting process quality in Ghanaian pre-primary classrooms using the Teacher Instructional Practices and Processes System (TIPPS)
Measuring and predicting burnout among early childhood educators in Ghana
Changing literacy instruction in Kenyan classrooms: Assessing pathways of influence to improved early literacy outcomes in the Hali intervention
Changes in classroom quality predict Ghanaian preschoolers’ gains in academic and social-emotional skills
Rates of participation in early childhood education (ECE) programs are on the rise globally, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet little evidence exists on the quality of these programs and on the role of classroom quality in predicting learning for young children across diverse contexts. This study uses data from the Greater Accra Region of Ghana (N = 3,407; M age = 5.8 years; 49.5% female) to examine how changes in four culturally validated dim…
Household Socioeconomic Status and Parental Investments: Direct and Indirect Relations With School Readiness in Ghana
This study examines how parent socioeconomic status (SES) directly and indirectly predicts children's school readiness through pathways of parental investment. Data come from direct assessments with preschool children and surveys with their primary caregivers in Ghana at the start of the 2015–2016 school year (N = 2,137; Mage = 5.2 years). Results revealed SES-related gaps in all parental investment characteristics and child school readiness skil…
Examining sustained impacts of two teacher professional development programs on professional well-being and classroom practices
Early Childhood Teachers’ Lives in Context: Implications for Professional Development in Under‐Resourced Areas
This study explores the personal, professional, and contextual conditions faced by early childhood education ( ECE ) teachers in under‐resourced settings and how these relate to teacher responsiveness to professional development ( PD ): namely, teacher attrition (a sign of PD failure when occurring shortly after PD ), take‐up of offered PD , adherence to PD training/materials, and quality of implementation. We use data from six disadvantaged dist…
Psychology (57 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (40 works) · Developmental psychology (38 works) · Parental Involvement in Education (23 works) · Pedagogy (20 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (15 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Literacy (14 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (14 works)