How active coping influences school‐aged children's rapid automatized naming: A chain mediation model involving subjective vitality and aerobic fitness

Abstract

AbstractRapid automatized naming (RAN) has been proven to be important for students' academic performance, but it remains unclear whether and how dealing with stressors (e.g., active coping) is associated with children's development of RAN. To examine this question, this research views the growth of RAN as a cross‐stressor adaptation process and proposes that school‐aged children may build up adapted and modified stress response systems through active coping in dealing with stressors and cognitive tasks. Based on the broaden‐and‐build theory and the mind–body unity theory, we explored the impact of active coping on RAN and hypothesized that subjective vitality and aerobic fitness chain mediated the relationship between active coping and RAN. We used two Likert‐like scales to measure active coping and subjective vitality, used a number‐reading task to measure RAN, and used the progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run (PACER) test to measure aerobic fitness. We recruited 303 elementary students in grades 3–5 in China. Results showed that both subjective vitality and aerobic fitness mediated the impact of active coping on time for RAN. Further, the chain indirect effect of active coping→subjective vitality→aerobic fitness→time for RAN was significant, but the reversed chain mediation was not significant. General resources (e.g., subjective vitality) have been shown to be relatively more important than simple physical resources (e.g., aerobic fitness) for RAN. These preliminary findings may contribute to both the cross‐stressor‐adaptation and active coping literature and have potential implications for improving RAN in school‐aged children.