Mothers' and Fathers' Perceptions of Family Functioning in Families Having Children With Disabilities

The present research investigated the relationship between mothers' and fathers' perceptions of family functioning in a sample of parents having children with disabilities using the Family Support Scale, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, and the Comprehensive Evaluation of Family Functioning. Analyses were conducted at the subscale and item level using a multivariate framework. Results support previous research indicating that mothers and fathers have different perceptions of family functioning, identify different stressors, and report different sources of support as helpful. Additionally, internal consistency reliability analyses for mothers and fathers suggests that some subscales should be interpreted with caution for fathers. Implications for early intervention services and assessment with this population are discussed.     

The Relationship of Facilitative Functioning to Effective Peer Supervision

This study was conducted to investigate the process of peer supervision. The criterion used was counselor trainees' growth in facilitative functioning. The study sought to ascertain whether the facilitative counselor trainee was also the effective peer supervisor, to provide information on evaluating the peer-supervisory experience, and to shed light on the most effective techniques of supervision. Peer supervisors were found to be effective in improving the performance of counselor trainees in the core dimensions of empathy, respect, genuineness, and concreteness. A significant positive correlation was found between peer supervisors' level of empathy in the counseling relationship and the trainees' ratings of supervisors on the relationship questionnaire. No significant correlation was found, however, between the trainees' ratings of their supervisors and the improvement demonstrated by the trainees in the core conditions. In addition, no significant correlation was found between the extent of the trainees' improvement and the supervisors' level of functioning as counselors. The relationship between trainees' responses to the supervisor role-analysis form and their improvement in counseling skills suggested that the most effective supervisors were structured, didactic, and more technique oriented.     

Effects of Mexican Immigrant Parents’ Daily Workplace Discrimination on Child Behavior and Family Functioning

This study investigated Mexican immigrant parents’ reports of perceived workplace discrimination and their children's behavior, parents’ moods, and parent–child interactions. Parents of one hundred and thirty‐eight 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children were asked to complete one survey daily for 2 weeks (N = 1,592 days). On days when fathers perceived discrimination, fathers and mothers reported more externalizing child behaviors, and mothers reported fewer positive child behaviors. When mothers perceived discrimination, they reported more externalizing child behaviors; fathers reported more internalizing child behaviors. Parents reported worse mood on days with perceived discrimination. Perceived discrimination was not strongly related to parent–child interactions. For fathers, but less so for mothers, those whose psychological acculturation indicated separation had more negative relations between daily perceived workplace discrimination and child and family outcomes.     

Help‐Seeking and Non‐Help‐Seeking Students' Perceptions of Own and Peers' Mental Health Functioning

Help‐seeking (HS) students and non‐help‐seeking (NHS) students were compared on their perceptions of (a) their own level of mental health functioning and (b) the average level of mental health functioning of their (NHS or HS) peers. Results showed that NHS students' perceptions of HS students' self‐ratings were similar to HS students' self‐ratings of functioning but that HS students underestimated the level of functioning of their NHS peers. Implications of the findings for campus outreach and future research are discussed.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Perceptions of Family Functioning in Families Having Children With Disabilities

The present research investigated the relationship between mothers' and fathers' perceptions of family functioning in a sample of parents having children with disabilities using the Family Support Scale, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, and the Comprehensive Evaluation of Family Functioning. Analyses were conducted at the subscale and item level using a multivariate framework. Results support previous research indicating that mothers and fathers have different perceptions of family functioning, identify different stressors, and report different sources of support as helpful. Additionally, internal consistency reliability analyses for mothers and fathers suggests that some subscales should be interpreted with caution for fathers. Implications for early intervention services and assessment with this population are discussed.     

3-5岁流动儿童心理理论发展与家庭功能的关系

本研究以135名3-5岁流动儿童为被试,考察其心理理论发展与家庭功能的关系,研究发现:(1)3-5岁流动儿童心理理论发展水平存在显著的年龄差异,随着年龄的增长流动儿童心理理论发展水平也越稳固,且其发展具有一定的滞后性;(2)是否独生子女对3-5岁流动儿童心理理论发展影响显著,非独生子女被试心理理论水平显著高于独生子女;(3)母亲的文化水平对幼儿心理理论任务成绩影响显著,母亲文化程度越高,幼儿心理理论任务成绩越好;(4)家庭功能类型中,中间型与平衡型、中间型与极端型家庭儿童在心理理论发展水平上存在显著差异,中间型家庭流动儿童心理理论发展水平明显高于其他两种类型家庭,且家庭亲密度与流动儿童心理理论任务成绩呈显著正相关.为促进流动儿童心理理论的发展,流动儿童家长应加强对子女的精神关爱,经常与其交流、谈话;应鼓励子女更多地与他人交往,并为其提供假装游戏的机会;应努力营造家庭成员之间感情亲密、家庭功能健全的家庭氛围,多与子女进行情感层面的互动.     

Associations Between Family Structure Change and Child Behavior Problems: The Moderating Effect of Family Income

This study investigated conditions under which family structure matters most for child well‐being. Using data from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (n = 3,936), a national sample of U.S. families, it was estimated how changes in family structure related to changes in children's behavior between age 3 and 12 separately by household income level to determine whether associations depended on families' resources. Early changes in family structure, particularly from a two‐biological‐parent to single‐parent family, predicted increases in behavior problems more than later changes, and movements into single and stepparent families mattered more for children of higher versus lower income parents. Results suggest that for children of higher income parents, moving into a stepfamily may improve, not undermine, behavior.     

Minor Illnesses,Temperament, and Toddler Social Functioning

Research Findings: Minor illnesses, such as upper respiratory infections, stomachaches, and fevers, have been associated with children's decreased activity and increased irritability. This multi-method investigation of 110 day care–attending children examined whether experience with recurrent, minor illnesses and negative emotionality worked together to predict young children's social functioning. Minor illness experience was assessed via weekly health screenings conducted by nurses. Toddlers' negative emotionality and social behavior were assessed using mothers' and fathers' reports. The two dimensions of negative emotionality and minor illness experience operated in different ways to predict children's functioning. Toddlers rated as more temperamentally angry displayed less social competence, especially when they also experienced high proportions of minor illness. Temperamentally fearful children exhibited more externalizing problems when they experienced a higher frequency of illness, whereas fearfulness was not associated with externalizing problems for children who were not frequently ill. Practice or Policy: Children's frequent experience with minor illnesses combined with negative emotionality appears to place toddlers at a heightened risk for exhibiting behavior problems. These findings have implications for child and family well-being as well as interactions with child care providers and peers within child care settings. Interventions could be developed to target “at risk” children.     

Examining Differential Rater Functioning Using a Between‐Subgroup Outfit Approach

When practitioners use modern measurement models to evaluate rating quality, they commonly examine rater fit statistics that summarize how well each rater's ratings fit the expectations of the measurement model. Essentially, this approach involves examining the unexpected ratings that each misfitting rater assigned (i.e., carrying out analyses of standardized residuals). One can create plots of the standardized residuals, isolating those that resulted from raters’ ratings of particular subgroups. Practitioners can then examine the plots to identify raters who did not maintain a uniform level of severity when they assessed various subgroups (i.e., exhibited evidence of differential rater functioning). In this study, we analyzed simulated and real data to explore the utility of this between‐subgroup fit approach. We used standardized between‐subgroup outfit statistics to identify misfitting raters and the corresponding plots of their standardized residuals to determine whether there were any identifiable patterns in each rater's misfitting ratings related to subgroups.     

Family Structure and Parental Involvement in the Intergenerational Parallelism of School Adversity

Abstract

A theoretically informed model in which the effects of negative junior high school experiences of mothers on the junior high school experiences of their children were examined. The model was estimated with the LISREL VIII program using panel data from 1,144 mother–adolescent child pairs. Mothers were first tested in 1971 when they were 7th graders, and both mothers and their children were subsequently interviewed in the 1990s. Results reveal the existence of a significant relationship between mothers' negative junior high school experiences and those of their children, which is partially mediated by family structure, mothers' educational attainment, and level of mothers' involvement in their children's school activities and interest in their progress at school.     

Oxygen deprivation as a drive state in an aquatic insect: Family Dytiscidae

Thirty aquatic diving beetles,Rhantus atncolor, of the family Dytiscidae, were subjected to 1-, 5-, 10-, 15-, 20-, and 25-min levels of oxygen deprivation. The level of deprivation was procured by submerging the Ss under water for the allotted period of time. A control group receiving no oxygen deprivation was also tested. The results clearly established oxygen deprivation as a drive state capable of increasing the general level of activity in aquatic Coleoptera as measured by swimming speed in the runway. Significant differences were also found between these deprivation levels.     

A Holistic Model to Infer Mathematics Performance: The Interrelated Impact of Student,Family and School Context Variables

The present study aims at exploring predictors influencing mathematics performance. In particular, the study focuses on internal students' characteristics (gender, age, metacognitive experience, mathematics self-efficacy) and external contextual factors (GDP of school location, parents' educational level, teachers' educational level, and teacher beliefs). A sample of 1749 students and 91 teachers from Chinese primary schools were involved in the study. Path analysis was used to test the direct and indirect relations between the predictors and mathematics performance. Results reveal that a large proportion of mathematics performance can be directly predicted from students' metacognitive experiences. In addition, other student characteristics and contextual variables influence mathematics performance in direct or indirect ways.     

Chronic Absenteeism and Preschool Children's Executive Functioning Skills Development

ABSTRACT

Investments in preschool programs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds have historically been supported by research showing that these programs help children build school readiness skills and narrow the income-achievement gap. However, results from recent studies of the links between preschool participation and increases in school readiness skills are more mixed. Significant variation in regular preschool attendance and the availability of high-quality early learning environments could help explain mixed findings on preschool effectiveness. Using data from a preschool expansion demonstration project, we explored associations between children's attendance rates, classroom quality, and neighborhood poverty and children's fall to spring gains in a set of important school readiness skills in executive functioning. Children (N = 197) lived in neighborhoods where 26% of households (range = 0 – 92%) lived below the poverty line and attended 48 classrooms in public and private settings. Attendance rates, including chronic absenteeism, were significantly associated with children's gains in executive functioning skills, but only when children attended high-quality classrooms. Results suggest that efforts to increase attendance rates may benefit children's executive functioning skills among children living in higher poverty neighborhoods the most when communities also invest in increasing preschool classroom quality.     

Family resources and mid‐life level of education: a longitudinal study of the mediating influence of childhood parental involvement

This paper draws on the concept of parental involvement, popular among educators and policy‐makers, in investigating differences in level of attained education by family background. The question is if parental involvement in children's schooling at age 14 acts as a mediator between family resources and mid‐life level of attained education. Using structural equation modeling we analyze longitudinal survey and register data of a Swedish metropolitan cohort born in 1953 (n = 3300). Several of the commonly used indicators of involvement are investigated, distinguishing between parents' involvement beliefs, such as educational aspirations and agreement with school curriculum, and involvement practices, such as reading children's schoolbooks and helping with homework. We find that parents' educational aspirations are an important mediator between family resources and attained level of education, while other involvement forms are related to academic performance only. We also find that parental involvement is greater in families with more resources, which leads us to warn against developments turning more responsibility for children's schooling over to parents. Unless sensitive to the diverse family contexts this might increase the importance of family resources for children's educational outcomes.     

Developmental Changes in Executive Functioning

Although early studies of executive functioning in children supported Miyake et al.'s (2000) three‐factor model, more recent findings supported a variety of undifferentiated or two‐factor structures. Using a cohort‐sequential design, this study examined whether there were age‐related differences in the structure of executive functioning among 6‐ to 15‐year‐olds (N = 688). Children were tested annually on tasks designed to measure updating and working memory, inhibition, and switch efficiency. There was substantial task‐based variation in developmental patterns on the various tasks. Confirmatory factor analyses and tests for longitudinal factorial invariance showed that data from the 5‐ to 13‐year‐olds conformed to a two‐factor structure. For the 15‐year‐olds, a well‐separated three‐factor structure was found.     

Raju's Differential Functioning of Items and Tests (DFIT)

Nambury S. Raju (1937–2005) developed two model‐based indices for differential item functioning (DIF) during his prolific career in psychometrics. Both methods, Raju's area measures ( Raju, 1988 ) and Raju's DFIT ( Raju, van der Linden, & Fleer, 1995 ), are based on quantifying the gap between item characteristic functions (ICFs). This approach provides an intuitive and flexible methodology for assessing DIF. The purpose of this tutorial is to explain DFIT and show how this methodology can be utilized in a variety of DIF applications.     

新时代家庭教育现状及强化路径探析

家庭教育是提高国民素质和能力的重要途径.新时代强化家庭教育是培育时代新人的迫切需要,是适应家庭结构变化的现实要求,是实现人民美好生活的必然选择.当前我国家庭教育中存在家庭教育风气不够纯正、家长教育理念不够科学、家庭教育环境不够和谐等问题,要从根本上解决这些问题,就必须要有新时代强化家庭教育的有效途径,即在家庭中树立正确...     

The Origins of Parenting Stress During the Transition to Parenthood: A New Family Model

This paper describes the origins of parenting stress, defined both as tensions in the parent–child relationship and as broader changes in five family domains as men and women make the transition from couple to family life. Despite significant change in their average level of functioning, parents show continuity in their level of adaptation from pregnancy through the first five years of parenthood. Parenting stress emerges from the context of parents' individual and marital adaptation before the child is born. It is possible to identify expectant parents who are at risk for later parenting stress and lower well-being across employment and family domains. Path analyses show that men's and women's prior well-being and their involvement in paid work during pregnancy are associated with higher parenting stress—and lower self-esteem, marital satisfaction, family work satisfaction, and job satisfaction—two years later when their babies are 18months old. Stress in the parent–child relationship at 18 months postpartum compounds preexisting stress in other family domains to reduce well-being in other aspects of family life. Links among parenting stress, parenting quality, and children's adaptation to school lead to suggestions for preventive interventions early in the family life cycle.