An ecological analysis of infant neglect by adolescent mothers

To inform efforts to prevent child neglect, we investigated a wide range of risk factors that have been largely unexamined in relation to infant neglect, the most commonly occurring form of child maltreatment. Using an ecological model of child neglect, we assessed the influence of characteristics at the level of the child, the mother, the family, and broader childrearing contexts on adolescent mothers’ likelihood of being a perpetrator in a substantiated case of neglect against their firstborn infants (n = 383, M = 12 months). Several factors were associated with infant neglect by young mothers: median block income, low infant birth weight, maternal smoking, maternal childhood history of neglect and of positive care, intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated by either the mother or her partner, and maternal use of mental health services. In multivariate models, income, a maternal childhood history of positive care, IPV by either a mother or her partner, and mental health service usage made significant contributions to the odds that a mother neglected her infant. Our findings suggest that these factors have particular salience to policymakers’ and practitioners’ efforts to identify high risk families and to intervene during the earliest months of life to prevent child neglect.     

Quality of infants' attachments to professional caregivers: relation to infant-parent attachment and day-care characteristics

75 infants (mean age 15 months) were observed 3 times in the Strange Situation with their professional caregivers, mothers, and fathers. Sensitivity of these attachment figures to the infant's signals during free play, as well as a number of day-care characteristics, were assessed. Attachment classification distribution of infant-caregiver dyads did not differ significantly from infant-mother or infant-father attachment classification distributions. The quality of infant-caregiver attachment was independent of both infant-mother and infant-father attachments. About 10% of the infants had 3 insecure attachments. Professional caregivers observed with more than 1 infant did not have similar types of attachment classifications to all infants with whom they were observed. Infants who were securely attached to their professional caregivers spent more hours per week in day-care, and came from a middle-class background. Their caregivers appeared to be younger and more sensitive during free play than caregivers with whom the infants developed an insecure relationship.     

Melancholic mothering: mothers,daughters and family violence

Through selected theories of melancholia, this paper seeks to shed some fresh interpretive light on the reproduction and disruption of gender, violence and family turmoil across generations of mothers and daughters. The originality of the paper lies in its exploratory deployment of theories of melancholia to consider issues of women, violence and generation. It addresses these matters through a discussion of the intergenerational emotional archives accumulated by two mother–daughter pairs in relation to their different experiences of sexual and other violence. It shares the mothers’ experiences of violence in their childhood and shows how these help to shape the ways in which they raise their daughters and address the troubles that their daughters experience. Different theories of melancholia assist us to explain the dissimilar emotional dynamics between these mother and daughter pairs. But equally their stories suggest the analytical potential of different theories of melancholia for understanding women’s and girls’ diverse responses to violence. Freud’s, Irigaray’s and Silverman’s constructions of melancholia, which are to some extent based on notions of emptiness, lack and insufficiency, are deployed alongside Eng and Kazanjian’s interpretation of a melancholic state of being which focuses on the creative potential of animating the remains of loss; an interpretation that invokes an agential relationship to the losses that violence provokes. The former help to explain what Eng and Kazanjian might see as the ‘hopeless politics’ associated with certain melancholic responses to violence and the latter help to explain what they might consider more ‘hopeful politics’ associated with responses that mobilise a more agential relationship to loss. Although not subscribing to such a stark binary interpretation, we nonetheless argue for an analysis that acknowledges the different ways that the remains of loss are animated. The paper arises from a wider cross‐generational study in Australia of the lives of educationally, economically and culturally marginalised young women and their mothers.     

Effects of public day-care: a longitudinal study

119 Swedish children were followed from their first year of life up to the age of 8. Most could be classified according to (a) type of day-care they had experienced during their first 7 years of life and (b) time of first entrance into day-care. At 8 years, the children were tested with aptitude tests and rated by their teachers on school performance and social and personal development. Hierarchical regression analyses and MANCOVAs were used in the statistical treatment. Time of entrance into day-care predicted children's cognitive and socioemotional development, controlling for sex and home background. Children with early day-care (entrance before the age of 1) were generally rated more favorably and performed better than children with late entrance or home care. There was a tendency for early center care to predict a more favorable outcome than other care.     

Early childhood education and care regulation: a comparative perspective

Although all industrialized countries regulate early childhood education and care establishaments, regulatory regimes differ substantially. Early childhood education and care regulation is provider-focused in France and Germany, child-focused in Sweden, and facility-focused in the United States. Regulatory enforcement also varies sharply, with France, Germany, and Sweden stressing technical assistance, while the United States stresses compliance. A review of controversies reveals opportunities for cross-national learning and for regulatory reform.     

失独家庭养老模式的比较分析

失独家庭是我国实行计划生育政策与法律后出现的新现象、新问题,并且我国现行失独家庭已经呈现出群体性、规模性的特征。根据卫生部发布的《2010年中国卫生统计年鉴》,我国15³0岁年龄段的死亡率至少为万分之四。由此估算,目前我国每年1530岁年龄段的死亡率至少为万分之四。由此估算,目前我国每年15³0岁独生子女死亡人数至少7.6万人,这也意味着我国每年将有约7.6万个失独家庭的出现。而根据2012年2月全国老龄办发布的《中国老龄事业发展报告(2013)》显示,在2012年,我国存在至少100万个失独家庭。人口学专家、《大国空巢》的作者易富贤推测:中国现有2.18亿独生子女,会有1 009万独生子女在或将在25岁之前离世。这意味着不久的将来,中国将有超过1 000万家庭成为失独家庭。[2]目前失独家庭面临着诸多问题,养老就是突出问题之一。本文主要就保障失独家庭养老进行探讨和分析。     

Teacher policy: a framework for comparative analysis

This article outlines a framework for analysis of teacher focused policy studies within an international and comparative perspective. Using the notion of the professional life cycle of teachers, the article examines examples of key empirical studies that illustrate the impact of policy on addressing such issues as teacher recruitment, education, selection, retention and development. The article concludes that the framework is useful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses in the conceptualization and design of teacher focused policy and studies, and gives recommendations for the design of rigorous studies to inform future policy in this area.

Effects of a prenatal care intervention on the self-concept and self-efficacy of adolescent mothers

The objective of this study was to examine changes in self-concept and self-efficacy during the childbearing year among adolescent mothers (defined as young mothers up to age 20) who were involved in a behavioral intervention. Subjects included a sample of 282 urban, pregnant adolescents (94% African American, 4% white, 2% other). The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) was used to measure self-concept. A scale to measure the self-efficacy of the adolescent mother during the childbearing year was developed and evaluated. Questionnaires were administered during intake for prenatal care and in the postpartum period. In the larger study, the intervention was a peer-centered, mastery modeling intervention designed to increase self-efficacy, improve self-concept, and improve long- and short-term perinatal outcomes. The results in this portion of the data showed that self-concept increased significantly for young women in the experimental group but did not change significantly for young women in the control group. Changes were noted in the TSCS for overall self-concept as well as for several subscores, including identity, self-satisfaction, behavior, the personal self, the family self, and the social self. However, differences between groups did not reach significance once age, parity, site, and time were accounted for, except on TSCS subscales of identity and personal self. Between intake for prenatal care and postpartum, self-efficacy changed significantly for both the experimental and the control groups. Both groups increased in self-efficacy for labor and delivery and decreased in self-efficacy for infant care. In this group of mostly African American teens, peer support and small group care demonstrated positive effects on self-concept. Professional and peer interactions were equally associated in intervention and nonintervention groups with regard to self-efficacy.     

Curriculum capacity and citizenship education: a comparative analysis of four democracies

Governments, international organizations and academics have, in recent decades, expressed a sense of crisis in the practice of democracy based largely upon increasing levels of disengagement by citizens from even the most basic elements of civic life. One response has been to devise civics and citizenship education curricula for schools with the concomitant expectations of enhanced civic practice. Our examination of citizenship education programs has revealed considerable variation from country to country in the degree of success achieved in the design, development and implementation of programs. This paper examines recent developments in citizenship education in four leading Western democracies – Australia, Canada, England and the USA; each one with its own particular successes and shortcomings. It identifies several factors associated with the successful building of curriculum capacity for citizenship education and argues that these are fundamental for countries wishing to move beyond rhetoric and toward substance in citizenship education.     

赫尔巴特课程思想的再解读:一种比较分析的视角

赫尔巴特通常被看成是"传统教育"的代表人物,其课程思想特征一般被概括为"三中心"——课堂中心、教材中心和教师中心。这种概括实际上是对赫尔巴特课程思想原旨的误解,其根源在于将赫尔巴特本人的课程思想与赫尔巴特学派的课程思想以及传统课程思想混为一谈。通过分析比较三者的异同,可以发现:赫尔巴特学派课程思想是对赫尔巴特课程思想原旨的背离;杜威课程思想是对赫尔巴特课程思想的复归与超越;赫尔巴特课程思想与传统课程思想并非等同,他的某些具体课程主张超出了传统课程思想的藩篱,具有现代课程思想的意蕴。     

Parenting and family socialization strategies and children's mental health: low-income Mexican-American and Euro-American mothers and children

The extent to which current theories on family-related factors associated with children's depression and conduct problems are applicable to Mexican American children was examined among demographically comparable samples of low-income Mexican American (English and Spanish speaking) and Euro-American mothers and children. There were ethnic differences in mean levels of children's depression, maternal inconsistent discipline, and hostile control. In addition, there were differences across language within the Mexican American sample on levels of reported maternal inconsistent discipline and hostile control. The vast majority of relations between parenting and mental health were similar between Mexican Americans and Euro-Americans, suggesting that current theories do apply across ethnic groups. However, analyses across language within the Mexican American sample showed that language preference moderated the relation between maternal acceptance and children's conduct problems. Moreover, the relation between acceptance and hostile control differed across groups. These results are discussed in light of the relative influence of ethnicity and other contextual variables on parenting and children's mental health.     

Obstetrics and the family: Identification of mothers at risk for parenting failure,and methods of support

The nurturing of a child has been termed the “Irrational commitment” [1]—“the enduring, irrational commitment of one or more adults in care and joint activity with the child.” The paper examines ways of facilitating this kind of caring. It is not enough to utilise the extensive technology and skills now available in obstetrics and paediatrics if there is a failure to ensure that the parents are able to nurture and enjoy their new infant. Success can only be claimed if parents are assisted in establishing a mutually satisfying relationship with their infants, i.e. they make an irrational commitment to the nurturing of their children. Results from a study of early identification and prediction of major parenting difficulty within the maternity hospital [7] are given and some of the various methods of early intervention and support now being undertaken to assist in the establishment of good nurturing between mothers and infants are described.     

Scientific concept development in Solomon Island students: a comparative analysis

Abstract

This paper summarises the results of an investigation of Solomon Islands secondary school students’ interpretations of three concepts: vision, animals and burning. Internal comparisons among the three areas and external comparisons with findings reported from other societies are made. While some support is given to the idea that children from different cultures may develop similar conceptions, this support is qualified and is shown to be dependent on the type of phenomenon investigated. The degree to which there is immediate personal experience of phenomena may be important, as may the presence or absence of culturally supported explanations. The commonly reported resistance of children's conceptions to school science teaching is also shown not to be universally true. The article ends with a plea for caution in the cross‐cultural extrapolation of research into children's conceptions.     

Sense of coherence and academic achievement of domestic and international students: a comparative analysis

Traditional models of educational outcomes relate academic achievement to university experiences controlling for background characteristics, like former levels of achievement. In these models, most of the variance in the outcome under consideration is explained not by experiences inside the university but by background characteristics, such as prior levels of academic achievement. In many instances the contribution of institutional experiences to outcomes under consideration is small. To date, researchers have not included sense of coherence (SOC) among background characteristics. In the current study traditional models are modified to include SOC as a possible contributor to first year academic achievement among domestic and international students with English and other first languages at four Canadian universities. It is found that a model including SOC better fits data for commuter and residence students than a model in which SOC is omitted. Although the effect of SOC on first year academic achievement is small, it is larger than the effects of some institutional experiences. As a result, SOC should be included in attempts to explain first year academic achievement.     

Amount,content and context of infant media exposure: a parental questionnaire and diary analysis

Recent research has indicated that there are long‐term consequences of early media exposure. This study examined the amount, content and context of television exposure across the infancy period in the USA. Parents of 308 infants aged 6–18 months completed questionnaires detailing parental attitudes regarding their children’s television use and 24‐hour television diaries to provide an accurate measurement of household television usage. Television exposure during infancy varied as a function of infant age, sibling status, socio‐economic status and parental attitudes toward television. Regression analyses indicated that parental attitudes were not associated with the amount of television exposure, but were associated with the content of television exposure. These findings indicate that television exposure changes rapidly across infancy and is associated with parental attitudes.