美人鱼踏上世博园

被视为丹麦象征的"小美人鱼"铜像从哥本哈根港口吊起并装箱,开始她的上海世博之旅。这将是"小美人鱼"铜像自落成以来第一次离开家乡,10月31日之前,她将暂时在上海世博会丹麦馆安家。"小美人鱼"铜像是丹麦雕塑家埃里克森根据丹麦童话大师安徒生作品中的主人公形象在1913年铸造的,近一百     

Perfectionism and depressive symptoms in early adolescence

The Adaptive/Maladaptive Perfectionism Scale (AMPS; K.G. Rice & K.J. Preusser, 2002) was developed on samples of 9‐ to 11‐year‐old children. A primary purpose of the current research was to examine whether the AMPS could be useful in studies of adolescents, and in particular, studies of adolescent depression. This study of 145 early adolescents revealed (1) a somewhat different AMPS factor structure than has been evident in studies of younger children; (2) no significant mean differences between boys and girls on perfectionism, although girls were significantly more depressed than boys; (3) a pattern of perfectionism‐depression correlations that differed somewhat between boys and girls; and (4) several interactions of different dimensions of perfectionism in accounting for depression. Results are discussed by addressing differences between children and adolescents in school cultures, physical and psychological changes from childhood to adolescence, and the importance of considering the positive as well as the negative aspects of perfectionism among school‐age children. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 139–156, 2007.     

Improving the quality of home visitation: an exploratory study of difficult situations

OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this study was to use an ecological assessment model to obtain a better understanding of difficult situations that home visitors confront when implementing home visitation services. METHOD: A mixed method study was used which included conducting focus groups to identify specific situations faced by home visitors who implement the Healthy Families America model of child abuse and neglect prevention. The results of the focus groups were used to design a survey. The survey had 91 Healthy Families home visitors rate situations according to frequency and difficulty. RESULTS: The results revealed that situations that were ranked most difficult included working with families where there are limited resources, where family mental illness is present (e.g., threatening suicide), where there is substance use in the home, and where families are unmotivated. A factor analysis of the situations produced five factors that reflect the difficulty of doing home visitation: having a lack of clinical skill, addressing family difficulties, addressing parenting difficulties, resolving personal difficulties, and having a lack of experience. CONCLUSION: The situations identified in this study can assist in developing the competencies needed by home visitors. The factor analysis results can be conceptualized into an inventory for staff supervision, with workers completing the inventory to identify individual areas of training needs.     

Predictors of depressive symptoms among foster caregivers

OBJECTIVES: The main purposes of this study were to determine (1) the prevalence of depressive symptoms among foster caregivers, (2) the social-demographics, risk factors, and social support predicting depressive symptoms, and (3) whether social support buffered the effects of the risk factors in the Illinois Foster Caregivers Study. METHOD: Telephone interviews were used to collect data from a sample of 189 foster caregivers in the State of Illinois. Interviewers pretested the survey instrument, which included valid and reliable instruments on depressive symptoms and adult report of childhood maltreatment, an important risk factor for depression. Multivariate ordered logistic regression models were estimated. RESULTS: The foster caregivers exhibited few depressive symptoms, with only one respondent scoring in the clinical range. Contrary to past research on the general population, caregivers reporting higher income were at an increased risk of exhibiting depressive symptoms. The three risk factors-experiencing less than excellent or very good health, childhood maltreatment, and insufficient time to carry out responsibilities-were related to higher levels of depressive symptoms. Foster caregivers who perceived their support group as helpful had a decreased risk of reporting depressive symptoms. We found no evidence that social support buffered the effects of the risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that foster caregivers were adequately screened for depression, but suggest that assessing and providing assistance for health problems, trauma from childhood maltreatment, and insufficient time to meet responsibilities might decrease depressive symptoms. Facilitating and enhancing the helpfulness of foster caregiver support groups also might decrease development of depressive symptoms.     

Bullying,depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts

Bullies, victims and pupils neutral to bullyingwere compared on depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts.The sample included 2,088 Norwegian boys and girls in grade 8. The results revealed that both bullies and victims had significantly higher mean scores than neutral pupils on both depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. Victims had a significantly higher mean score on depressive thoughts than the bullies. On suicidal thoughts, the mean score for bullies was above that of the victims, but this differencewas not significant. Girls had significantly higher mean scores than boys on both depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. This was the case for all pupils, and for victims, bullies and the neutral pupils. Questions of causality between depressive symptoms, suicidal thoughts and involvement in bullying are discussed and research on this issue is suggested.     

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 school-readiness skills in the fall. These results were primarily driven by social–emotional skills (r = .1–.3). There was evidence of heterogeneity by students' fall skill levels; teacher depressive symptoms predicted more negative spring overall school readiness for children who had higher fall school-readiness skills. Findings underscore the importance of teachers' mental health in early childhood education globally, with implications for policy and practice.     

The effect of Alaska's home visitation program for high-risk families on trends in abuse and neglect

OBJECTIVES: At 6 sites serving 21 communities, Alaska implemented Healthy Families Alaska, a home visitation program using paraprofessionals designed to decrease child abuse and neglect. The primary study objective was to compare changes over time in Child Protective Services outcomes by Healthy Families Alaska enrollment status. METHODS: Enrollment status was linked to birth certificates for birth years 1996-2002 which in turn was linked to the Alaska Child Protective Services database for outcome years 1996-2004. All children were followed through the study databases until age 2 years. RESULTS: There were 40,099 children born during 1996-2002 to residents of Healthy Families Alaska communities and 985 were enrolled in the program. Physical abuse referrals among enrolled children decreased from 73 to 42 per 1000 child-years of follow-up from 1996-1998 to 2000-2002 (p=.005); all of this decrease occurred among children who received 20 or more home visitations. This decrease may have been unrelated to program impact as a similar decrease in referral was seen among unenrolled high-risk children. Compared to unenrolled high-risk children, enrolled children had a modest decrease in the proportion with substantiated neglect but no difference in the proportion with neglect referral or physical abuse referral or substantiation. CONCLUSIONS: Little evidence exists that Alaska's home visitation program had a measurable impact on child maltreatment outcomes. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Within Alaskan communities that had a home visitation program targeting families at high risk for child abuse, changes in Child Protective Services outcomes among children less than 2 years of age were followed over time by program enrollment status. Enrollment was associated with a substantial decrease in physical abuse referrals, but a similar decrease was seen among unenrolled high-risk children. No improvement was seen in physical abuse substantiation. A greater number of home visitations was not associated with fewer abuse outcomes. This work supports most of the recent literature, which questions the field effectiveness of home visitation programs. In combination with other studies, the current work may lead decision-makers and funding agencies to re-examine the usefulness of home visitation programs, particularly those using a methodology similar to that implemented in Alaska.     

Childhood psychological maltreatment subtypes and adolescent depressive symptoms

The aim of this study was to understand how subtypes and the timing of psychological maltreatment contribute to adolescent depressive symptoms at age 14. The sample included 638 youth from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). At age 12, youth reported experiences of psychological maltreatment (degradation, isolating, and terrorizing), physical abuse (endangerment and physical injury), and sexual abuse that occurred before and during elementary school/last year. Multivariable regression models were conducted separately for females and males at each of the two time periods and accounted for demographics, primary caregiver depressive symptoms, other maltreatment subtypes, and youth-reported age 12 depressive symptoms. For girls, caregiver degradation was the only maltreatment subtype that contributed unique variance to depressive symptoms. Degradation before elementary school and chronic degradation had a stronger impact on depression symptoms. Only caregiver isolating behaviors during elementary school/last year and chronic isolation predicted depressive symptoms in boys. These results suggest that childhood psychological maltreatment is multi-dimensional and is implicated in the etiology of adolescent depressive symptoms. Future prevention efforts should consider parental psychological maltreatment in reducing risk for adolescent depression.     

Interpersonal trauma and suicide attempts in low-income depressed mothers in home visiting

BackgroundRisk of suicide is a major concern for depressed mothers in the perinatal period. The strongest predictor of completing suicide is having made a previous attempt. Little is known about the clinical features of low-income, depressed mothers who have attempted suicide in contrast to those who have not.ObjectiveThis study examined clinical and psychosocial features of 170 low-income, young, depressed mothers with and without previous suicide attempts who were enrolled in an early childhood home visiting program.MethodMothers were identified via screening at three months postpartum and diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) using a semi-structured interview. Psychiatric history and presentation, child maltreatment history, intimate partner violence, and social functioning were measured.Results31.8% of mothers had previous suicide attempts. Mean age of first attempt was 14.38 years (SD = 2.55) and the median number of lifetime attempts was 2. In contrast to no attempts, those who had attempted suicide had more MDD symptoms, earlier age of first MDD episode, and more episodes. A previous attempt was associated with greater childhood trauma, more current MDD symptoms and PTSD diagnosis. No differences were found on intimate partner violence. Mothers who made an attempt reported lower levels of tangible social support and smaller social networks.ConclusionsHistory of suicide attempts is associated with childhood trauma history and later psychosocial impairments in low income, depressed mothers in home visiting. Implications for addressing the needs of depressed mothers with suicide attempt histories in the context of early childhood programs are discussed.     

Reducing maltreatment recurrence through home visitation: A promising intervention for child welfare involved families

Maltreatment of children is a key predictor of a range of problematic health and developmental outcomes. Not only are affected children at high risk for recurrence of maltreatment, but effective interventions with known long term impact are few and limited. While home visiting is one of the most tested secondary prevention models for improving parenting, its primary focus on young primiparous mothers underemphasizes one of the most important risk groups: child welfare involved multiparous mothers. This study's focus is a randomized controlled trial of Healthy Families New York that included a subgroup of mothers (n = 104) who had at least one substantiated child protective services (CPS) report before enrolling in the program. By the child’s seventh birthday, mothers in the home visited group were as half as likely as mothers in the control group to be confirmed subjects for physical abuse or neglect (AOR = .46, p = .08). The number of substantiated reports for mothers in the control group was twice as high as for those in the home visited group (1.59 vs. 79 p = .02, ES = .44). Group differences were only observed after the child's third birthday, suggesting the possible effect of surveillance in early years. Post-hoc analyses indicate that home visited mothers had fewer subsequent births that may have contributed to less parenting stress and improved life course development for mothers. In light of our findings, we suggest considering and further testing home visiting programs as a tertiary prevention strategy for child welfare-involved mothers.     

Characteristics of volunteers and families in a neonatal home visitation project: the Kempe Community Caring Program

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to review literature related to home visitation support for new families using volunteer visitors and to describe characteristics of volunteers of the Kempe Community Caring Program, a home visitor support program for first time parents. Suggestions for effectively utilizing volunteers in family support programs are made. METHOD: Program data was collected and reviewed on 592 volunteer home visitors and the 1,144 families they served. Several evaluations and assessments were performed in order to attempt to measure the success of the intervention. Motivation for volunteering, longevity with program, and the extent of sociodemographic match between visitor and client were reviewed and discussed. RESULTS: Information on matched volunteer-client pairs was limited; however, speculations were made that neither motivation to participate nor sociodemographic match were critical factors in determining success of the intervention. Duration of volunteer participation was influenced by marital status, but not by age. Married volunteers stayed with the program significantly longer than unmarried volunteers. Low risk families demonstrated slightly improved confidence in parental function after receiving home visitation by a volunteer. CONCLUSION: This program suggests that new mothers may benefit from receiving the services of a volunteer home visitor; specifically, their confidence as parents and ability to establish positive relationships show slight improvement. Likewise, volunteers and families felt satisfied with the supportive relationships generated. In addition, a volunteer profile emerged which may be beneficial to similar programs' recruiting efforts.     

The prevalence of depressive symptoms in children with learning disabilities.

Learning difficulties have been considered to be a symptom of childhood depression by some authors, whereas others have examined depression as a cause of cognitive difficulties, including learning disabilities (LD). This study examined the prevalence of depressive symptoms in a sample of public school elementary children aged 8 through 11, 37 boys and 16 girls, identified as LD by state standards. Of the sample of 53 children, 35.85% scored in the depressed range on the Children's Depression Inventory. Comparison of the children's self-reports and parents' reports of depressive symptoms in their children was not significant. Implications of the results are discussed relative to the role of school personnel and the assessment process in recognizing depressive symptoms in students with LD.     

A study of migrant mothers: Return home and role change

For migrant groups moving from one place to another usually means dealing with contradictions between home and host countries and with different cultural norms. Taking into consideration migrant women's previous status in the village and their new one in the host country, it can be said that migration is a turning point in women's lives. Research findings show that increased employability of women in the host country increases their independence and leads to sex role changes and changes within the family.Return migration is the last stage in the migration cycle and it is a rather neglected and little researched topic as yet. The purpose of this paper is to report on research on role changes within the family.Three groups of migrant mothers (two groups living in West Germany and one group repatriated) were compared with a control group in the District of Drama, Macedonia, on work employment and types of responsibilities concerning their children's upbringing.Results showed that mothers who live in West Germany are equally responsible with fathers for the child's social behavior, school performance and expenses and were significantly different from the control group. Return mothers were as much as fathers responsible for the child's school performance in contrast to the control group. More mothers than fathers, however, were responsible for the child's relationships and fewer mothers than fathers were responsible for the child's expenses; in this respect both parents resembled those of the control group. It seems therefore, that migrant mothers take over different roles in the host country than those of the controls, whereas return mothers adopt to a large extent the stereotyped role of control mothers.     

Effect of exercise on depressive symptoms and body balance in the elderly

Exercise systematically improves physical and psychological performances on a wide range of measures, but the links between them are rarely examined for the high homogeneous group of institutionalized veterans. This study aims to investigate the exercise intervention effects on both depressive symptoms and body-balance. Samples were divided into experimental-group (N = 11, mean age = 80.67) and the control-group (N = 10, mean-age = 82.54). The experimental-group received 10 sessions of exercise intervention, including aerobic cycling and leg stretching (muscular endurance), while the control-group attended lecture sessions on health education. Depressive symptoms: the findings show the intervention has no significant intragroup effect on either the experimental-group or the control-group; but a high and median effect-size (EF with Cohen’s d) was found for both the experimental and the control group (d = .916 and .504, respectively). The intergroup difference was small (p = .748; d = .136). Balance-ability: the findings show no statistically significant intragroup effect on the 5-stage balance test within the experimental-group, and the EF is low. In the control-group, health education intervention had no improvement on the 5-stage balance test, but there was a moderate decrease in balance Stage-4 (d = ?.626). Additionally, the strong intergroup effect (d = 1.621, p = .003) indicated that the experimental-group is superior to the control-group at Stage-4, and there was a moderate effect at stage-3 and stage-5 (d = .567 and .495, respectively). The current study shows that exercise can help adults older than 80 to ameliorate depressive symptoms and enhance body balance ability, and the findings deserve more attention.     

Teenage childbearing,marital status,and depressive symptoms in later life

This study examined the role of prechildbearing characteristics in later-life depressive symptomatology among 990 married and unmarried teenage childbearers. Data from teenagers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) were used to test the relative contribution of age and marital status at first birth to depressive symptomatology measured during young adulthood (ages 27-29). Unmarried teenage childbearers displayed higher levels of depressive symptoms in young adulthood than did women who first give birth as married adults. However, the psychological health of married teenage mothers in later life was as good as that of married adult mothers, whereas unmarried adult mothers and unmarried teenage mothers had similarly poor outcomes. The findings of this study suggest that marital status, rather than age at first birth, may be more relevant for later-life psychological health.     

初试CECL

传统的精读课采取的是填鸭式教学方式 ,老师们想尽办法提高教学效果 ,无奈 ,学生的口语能力还是不理想。教材本身限制了教学方法的变化。 1999年 3月 ,外语系实行精读教学改革 ,采用CECL教材 ,笔者参加其中 ,感到教学效果很好 ,学生的口语水平同过去相比大有提高     

The role of co-occurring intimate partner violence,alcohol use,drug use,and depressive symptoms on disciplinary practices of mothers involved with child welfare

BackgroundEvidence suggests intimate partner violence (IPV), substance use, and depression adversely affect the disciplinary practices of caregivers involved with child welfare; however, it remains uncertain whether the combined effects of these conditions are syndemic.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to examine the (1) associations between IPV, problematic drug use, problematic alcohol use, and depressive symptoms and self-reported disciplinary practices among a sample of mothers with child welfare contact; and (2) effect of co-occurrence of these conditions on child disciplinary practices.Participants and settingWe used data from the second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II). The analysis focused on 965 biological mothers with children who were subjects of child abuse/neglect investigations between February 2008 and April 2009 in the United States.MethodWe conducted multiple linear regression analyses.ResultsOur findings showed that IPV (B = .28; 95% CI = [.04, .53]) and depressive symptoms (B = .27; 95% CI = [.03, .52]) were independently associated with psychologically aggressive disciplinary practices. Also, IPV was independently associated with physically aggressive disciplinary practices (B = .64; 95% CI = [.18, 1.11]); and IPV (B = .21; 95% CI = [.06, .35]) and depressive symptoms (B = .22; 95% CI = [.07, .37]) were independently associated with neglectful parenting strategies. A significant effect was found for the interaction between problematic drug use and depressive symptoms with physically aggressive practices as the outcome. As the number of conditions caregivers had increased, so did their propensity for self-reporting each of the disciplinary practices (p < .05).ConclusionsThe findings highlight the need for using a more holistic/multidisciplinary approach to child maltreatment prevention research, policy, and intervention.