Intervention for maltreating fathers: Statistically and clinically significant change

ObjectiveFathers are seldom the focus of efforts to address child maltreatment and little is currently known about the effectiveness of intervention for this population. To address this gap, we examined the efficacy of a community-based group treatment program for fathers who had abused or neglected their children or exposed their children to domestic violence.MethodsUsing a sample of 98 group participants, we examined the magnitude and clinical significance of pre- to post-intervention changes in parenting, co-parenting and generalized aggression.ResultsIntervention led to considerable changes in fathers’ over-reactivity to children's misbehavior and respect for their partner's commitment and judgment, with results being statistically significant, medium in size, moving mean scores into the normative range and with 36–43% of men who initially scored in the clinical range recovering by the end of intervention. Changes in other domains were also evident though of lesser magnitude.ConclusionsAlthough this study is limited in length of follow-up and the lack of a control group, results are promising for continued development of fathering interventions for this population of high-risk men.     

A psychosocial approach to shame,embarrassment and melancholia amongst unemployed young men and their fathers

This paper uses a psychosocial approach to explore young unemployed men’s resistance to work they describe as ‘embarrassing’ and ‘feminine’, in the context of the closure of a steelworks in a town in the South Wales valleys. In our psychosocial interview‐based study, with young men as well as their mothers and (where possible) their fathers, we found a community riven with complex feelings about masculinity and femininity, projected on to the young men in such a way as to almost scapegoat them. The experience of the young men was marked by embarrassment and shame. They feel bullied and shamed by their families, peers and others in the community for not being able to find gender‐appropriate work.     

Leadership and Leader Behavior in Counseling: Neglected Skills

Leadership and leader behavior are important topics for any professional discipline. However, these issues have been neglected throughout the entire short history of counseling. Despite the fact that many counselors attain various leadership positions, little attention has been paid to training for leadership. While much has been written about the various roles of counselors, leadership and the behavior of leaders are rarely the focus. It is our contention that counselors, because of their unique training, can be effective leaders in a wide variety of settings. This article argues for a greater emphasis by counselor education on the role of counselor as leader.     

局限与超越并存:谈《月照不幸人》

"局限与超越并存"一文,以尤金·奥尼尔《月照不幸人》中吉米·蒂龙的形象为主要研究对象,重点探讨剧作家在女性问题上的局限和超越。虽然奥尼尔在女性问题上存在着保守的一面,但他通过客观再现吉米对母亲和其他女性的畸形态度,揭示了一种扭曲的女性观及其危害,表现了艺术家对这种错误观念及其危害的清醒认识,以及在艺术创作中努力超越自身狭隘和局限的伟大之处。     

Neglected Potential in the Secondary School: implications for the National Curriculum

This study is an account of a curriculum innovation in an inner city school, which resulted in a revival of motivation and a successful educational experience for a group of 4th and 5th year children who had been written off as failures.

It's lunacy, but it works. (A teacher)     

被忽略的复仇者：《呼啸山庄》中凯瑟琳

希刺克厉夫是艾米莉.勃郎特小说《呼啸山庄》中众所周知的一位复仇者。人们因此往往忽略甚至漠视小说女主人公凯瑟琳身上所隐含的报复情结。凯瑟琳其实也是小说里一位重要而独特的复仇者。她选择了最极端的方式——死亡，以此对爱她的人进行了一生一世的报复，让他们一直生活在痛苦中。据此可以认定，凯瑟琳堪称相当高明的报复者。     

Multi-criminal and violent groups among child sex offenders: a heuristic typology in a 2-year cohort of 374 men in two English counties

OBJECTIVE: To determine the lifetime criminality of men charged with a sexual offence against a child and to identify any heuristic typologies. METHOD: The police files of a 2-year cohort of 462 men charged with a sexual offence against a minor (<17) in two English counties were analyzed; 374 were convicted. The patterns of their convictions produced a typology based upon judicially substantiated parameters. RESULTS: Half the guilty men had prior convictions for non-sexual crimes, including 24% with convictions for violent offences. Three heuristic groups emerged: "Sex-Only" offenders (S.O., n = 186); "Sex And Other" offenders (S.A.O., n = 97); and "Sex and Violent" offenders (S.V., n = 91), averaging three sex convictions each. However, the S.A.O. and S.V. men had more non-sexual than sex convictions, averaging 5.1 versus 10.5, justifying the designation of "multi-criminal" child sex abusers. However, the patterns of these men's sexual offending did not differ, except that the S.O. men's victims were significantly more often intra-family, 36%, 31%, and 13%, respectively; indicating that the majority of these men's victims were extra-familial (71%). Significantly, 19% of the convicted men had at least one "not guilty" verdict for a sex charge, as opposed to 4% for non-sexual crimes. CONCLUSIONS: While the S.O. group appear to consist of traditional types of fixated and regressed offenders, in men charged with offences, they are atypical of most sex abusers since their victims are mainly extra-familial. These "multi-criminal" men present particular challenges for custodial and therapeutic settings, and the potential dangerousness of these offenders should not be underestimated.     

School leadership during violent conflict: rethinking education for peace in Nepal and beyond

This paper outlines the impact and professional tensions created by the decade-long armed conflict (1996–2006) on school leadership in Nepal. Drawing on qualitative interviews and discussions with school heads and teachers (n?=?92), the study reveals that the onerous pressure of pupils’ safety during crisis ultimately fell upon teachers and school leaders who faced direct violence on school grounds and communities they lived in. It was found that school heads were traumatised by consistent pressures, as manifested in the form of financial extortion, physical threats and abductions by the Maoists while the security forces frequently harassed them as Maoist sympathisers or confederates. Maintaining relational equilibrium with warring parties in order to ensure their personal and school survival was a traumatic experience. Despite the enormity of effects on education during conflict, the post-conflict educational debates largely undermine the voice of those who were at the frontlines during crisis. These findings provide useful insights into the ‘experiential dimension’ of civil conflict at schools in conflict zones and implications for educational programming.     

Social referencing in infancy: a glance at fathers and marriage

Social referencing refers to the tendency of a person to look to a significant other in an ambiguous situation in order to obtain clarifying information. The aims of the study were to assess the extent to which infants use fathers as referencing targets, and to assess the familial context that might mediate referencing to both parents. 40 11-month-old infants were observed once with their mothers and once with their fathers in a 15-min social referencing situation that involved entrance of a female stranger as the ambiguous stimulus. Infants used their fathers and mothers as referencing targets to an equal extent. Additionally, marital satisfaction was found to be a significant modifier of referencing. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that paternal marital satisfaction predicted social referencing to fathers as well as to mothers; no effect was found for maternal marital satisfaction alone. This suggests that in order to better understand early socioemotional development, it is necessary to consider the interdependence among various relationships within the family.     

All-male discussion forums for expectant fathers: evaluation of a model

This paper describes an all-male discussion forum for expectant fathers led by a male facilitator. The 617 participants completed an evaluation form and were unanimous in their agreement about the benefits of the forum, in particular the opportunity to discuss issues of importance to them with others in a similar situation. The results should encourage those developing antenatal education programs to be more inclusive of expectant fathers and to acknowledge their feelings, unique role, and contribution.     

People,Products and Raw Materials: Neglected Opportunities for Chemical Education in Higher Education

A number of strengths and weaknesses have been detected in the background knowledge and skill of chemistry teachers. Two weaknesses, knowledge of the persons of chemistry and familiarity with socially useful chemicals and their origins, have been recently identified. The trends in chemical curricula for general education are such that a remedy for these weaknesses is necessary. A number of suggestions that have been used occasionally in teaching chemistry at the universities and CAEs, are made for regular inclusion in undergraduate courses. School teaching is a major outlet for chemistry graduates and this fact should be recognised in designing these curricula in higher education.     

Spatial Ability: A Neglected Talent in Educational and Occupational Settings

For over 60 years, longitudinal research on tens of thousands of high ability and intellectually precocious youth has consistently revealed the importance of spatial ability for hands-on creative accomplishments and the development of expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) disciplines. Yet, individual differences in spatial ability are seldom assessed for educational counseling and selection. Students especially talented in spatial visualization relative to their status on mathematical and verbal reasoning are particularly likely to be underserved by our educational institutions. Evidence for the importance of assessing spatial ability is reviewed and ways to utilize information about individual differences in this attribute in learning and work settings are offered. The literature reviewed stresses the importance of spatial ability in real-world settings and constitutes a rare instance in the social sciences where more research is not needed. What is needed is the incorporation of spatial ability into talent identification procedures and research on curriculum development and training, along with other cognitive abilities harboring differential—and incremental—validity for socially valued outcomes beyond IQ (or, g, general intelligence).     

Situated assessment: Limitations and promise

We present some key findings of a four-year, two-phase writing assessment project at Central Michigan University: Phase One (2002), a survey of faculty members (n = 115) and subsequent focus groups (n = 14) and Phase Two (2005), an evaluation of two samples of student writing (n = 635 and 632). Major findings of Phase One reported here include the amounts and types of writing assigned by faculty members and their perceptions about the quality of their students’ writing. Phase Two revealed some surprising results about our students’ critical reading and writing abilities, confirmed the limitations of a timed-writing assessment methodology, and exposed an intriguing artifact of the data set. We reflect on the process of developing and conducting the assessment project, examine its strengths and weaknesses, and share our thoughts about the next phase of our assessment odyssey.     

教育爱——一个被忽略了的教育学核心范畴

“教育爱”在教育实践过程中具有相当的重要性,也理应是教育学中的一个核心性范畴,但在当今的教育学理论中却鲜少对此的直接探讨。“教育爱”是教师在教育过程中对学生所施予的一种爱,因其明确的教育性意向而具有相对独特的内涵。结合一些经典的爱的理论论述,可以使我们进一步明确爱的实质内涵及“教育爱”的独特特征。     

Islamic religion teacher training in Spain: Implications for preventing islamic-inspired violent radicalism

In this study, the views of Islamic religion teachers, especially on broaching the subject of terrorism in the classroom, were analysed by administering a questionnaire and by conducting interviews. It was found that most of the respondents and interviewees had not received any training in this regard, were unfamiliar with the current regulations and did not feel fully prepared to address this issue in class. Accordingly, it is essential to warn against the dangers of implementing measures to prevent Islamic-inspired violent radicalism, without having first maintained a dialogue with the stakeholders. Otherwise, the results may be counterproductive.     

Emotion recognition in fathers and mothers at high-risk for child physical abuse

Objective

The present study was designed to determine whether parents at high risk for physical child abuse, in comparison with parents at low risk, show deficits in emotion recognition, as well as to examine the moderator effect of gender and stress on the relationship between risk for physical child abuse and emotion recognition.

Methods

Based on their scores on the Abuse Scale of the CAP Inventory (Milner, 1986), 64 parents at high risk (24 fathers and 40 mothers) and 80 parents at low risk (40 fathers and 40 mothers) for physical child abuse were selected. The Subtle Expression Training Tool/Micro Expression Training Tool ( [Ekman, 2004a] and [Ekman, 2004b]) and the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy II (Nowicki & Carton, 1993) were used to assess emotion recognition.

Results

As expected, parents at high risk, in contrast to parents at low risk, showed deficits in emotion recognition. However, differences between high- and low-risk participants were observed only for fathers, but not for mothers. Whereas fathers at high risk for physical child abuse made more errors than mothers at high risk, no differences between mothers at low risk and fathers at low risk were found. No interaction between stress, gender, and risk status was observed for errors in emotion recognition.

Conclusions and practice implications

The present findings, if confirmed with physical abusers, could be helpful to further our understanding of deficits in processing information of physically abusive parents and to develop treatment strategies specifically focused on emotion recognition. Moreover, if gender differences can be confirmed, the findings could be helpful to develop specific treatment programs for abusive fathers.     

Mothers,fathers and daughters: Intergenerational transmission of education in Greece

This study explores the role of intergenerational mobility in the educational attainments of Greek women. We use data from the most recent Greek Household Budget Survey and the last three Greek censuses (1981, 1991 and 2001). For analytical and estimation purposes we utilize mobility indicators, regression analysis, decomposition techniques and conventional discrete choice models. Overall, our results point to the presence of substantial educational mobility across generations over the last 30 years. However, daughters’ educational attainment still depends, albeit to a lesser extent, on parental education and especially on mothers’ education. To address the remaining inequalities, policy needs to target families with poor parental educational and income backgrounds.     

Mighty mouse and MX missiles: Children in a violent society

Ours is a society in which violence, or the threat of violence, is a common experience for many children. Children's fears of the dark, the boogie man, and the headless Horseman have evolved to include fears of Darth Vadar, meltdown, and nuclear war.     

First-time fathers and stressors in the postpartum period

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the everyday stressors of first-time fathers during the postpartum period and to begin the process of establishing reliability and validity for the use of the Everyday Stressors Index with a sample of first-time fathers. A convenience sample of 19 participants included first-time fathers ranging in age from 18 to 45 years and mostly living in medium-sized cities. The results indicated that factors such as a feeling of not having enough time for too many responsibilities, financial issues, and concerns about the health of the child and other family member(s) were sources of stress. However, with the exception of slight differences in the ranking, everyday stressors among first-time fathers closely resembled previously reported stressors of first-time mothers. Although the sample was small and the results nongeneralizable, these findings suggest that educational efforts by health-care professionals could beneficially be directed toward fathers as well as mothers throughout the prenatal and postpartum periods. Policy implications for nursing and new directions for future research are discussed.