Interparental discord and child adjustment: prospective investigations of emotional security as an explanatory mechanism

Advancing the process-oriented study of links between interparental discord and child adjustment, 2 multimethod prospective tests of emotional security as an explanatory mechanism are reported. On the basis of community samples, with waves spaced 2 years apart, Study 1 (113 boys and 113 girls, ages 9-18) identified emotional security as a mediator in a 2-wave test, whereas Study 2 (105 boys and 127 girls, ages 5-7) indicated emotional security as an intervening mechanism in a 3-wave test. Relations between discord and emotional security increased as children moved into adolescence in Study 1. Emotional security was identified as an explanatory mechanism for both internalizing and externalizing problems in children.     

A prospective investigation of appraisals as mediators of the link between interparental conflict and child adjustment

This longitudinal study tested the role of children's appraisals of threat and self-blame as mediators of the association between interparental conflict and child adjustment in a sample of 298 Welsh children ages 11 to 12 years. Exposure to higher levels of interparental conflict at Time 1 predicted greater perceived threat and self-blame at Time 2, after accounting for the effects of Time 1 adjustment and appraisals on later appraisals. Perceived threat in turn was associated with increased internalizing problems at Tune 2, and self-blame was associated with higher externalizing problems. The pattern of results was largely consistent for child and parent reports of conflict and for boys and girls, though some gender differences were found in associations between appraisals and adjustment.     

Interparental discord and adolescent adjustment trajectories: the potentiating and protective role of intrapersonal attributes

This prospective study of 360 adolescent-mother dyads examined whether associations between marital discord and trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms and delinquency varied as a function of three intrapersonal attributes: temperament, childhood behavior problems, and perceived family support. Difficult temperament (i.e., dysrhythmicity, poor task orientation) potentiated the effects of marital discord on adolescent trajectories of adjustment, whereas heightened perceptions of family support protected adolescents from the adverse effects of marital discord. Adolescents with behavior problem histories were initially less vulnerable to marital discord; however, the high levels of depressive symptoms exhibited by adolescents with childhood behavior problems persisted over time only when they were exposed to elevated marital discord. The effects of the moderators differed in terms of duration and course.     

Assessing children's emotional security in the interparental relationship: the Security in the Interparental Subsystem Scales

Guided by the emotional security hypothesis, this study reports on the development of a new self-report measure that assesses children's strategies for preserving emotional security in the context of interparental conflict. Participants were 924 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders and a subset of their mothers, fathers, and teachers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the Security in the Interparental Subsystem (SIS) Scale supported a seven-factor solution, corresponding well to the three component processes (i.e., emotional reactivity, regulation of exposure to parent affect, and internal representations) outlined in the emotional security hypothesis. The SIS subscales demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Support for the validity of the SIS Scale is evidenced by its significant links with parent reports of children's overt reactivity to conflict, children's responses to interparental conflict simulations 6 months later, and children's psychological maladjustment and experiential histories with interparental conflict across multiple informants (i.e., child, mother, father, and teacher). Results are discussed in the context of developing recommendations for use of the SIS and advancing the emotional security hypothesis.     

Political violence and child adjustment: longitudinal tests of sectarian antisocial behavior, family conflict, and insecurity as explanatory pathways

Understanding the impact of political violence on child maladjustment is a matter of international concern. Recent research has advanced a social ecological explanation for relations between political violence and child adjustment. However, conclusions are qualified by the lack of longitudinal tests. Toward examining pathways longitudinally, mothers and their adolescents (M = 12.33, SD = 1.78, at Time 1) from 2-parent families in Catholic and Protestant working class neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, completed measures assessing multiple levels of a social ecological model. Utilizing autoregressive controls, a 3-wave longitudinal model test (T1, n = 299; T2, n = 248; T3, n = 197) supported a specific pathway linking sectarian community violence, family conflict, children's insecurity about family relationships, and adjustment problems.     

Impact of hostility and withdrawal in interparental conflict on parental emotional unavailability and children's adjustment difficulties

This multimethod, prospective study examined the nature of pathways between interparental hostility and withdrawal, parental emotional unavailability, and subsequent changes in children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and school adjustment difficulties over a 3-year period in a sample of 210 mothers, fathers, and 6-year-old children. The results of autoregressive structural equation models indicated that interparental withdrawal had a detrimental impact on all areas of children's adjustment, whereas interparental hostility had an indirect effect on subsequent changes in child adjustment. An intermediary role of parental emotional unavailability in links between interparental withdrawal and hostility and child outcomes was indicated, with specific, differential effects observed for fathers and mothers.     

Reporter discrepancies among parents, adolescents, and peers: adolescent attachment and informant depressive symptoms as explanatory factors

The issue of informant discrepancies about child and adolescent functioning is an important concern for clinicians, developmental psychologists, and others who must consider ways of handling discrepant reports of information, but reasons for discrepancies in reports have been poorly understood. Adolescent attachment and informant depressive symptoms were examined as 2 explanations for absolute and directional discrepancies about adolescent symptoms, relationships, and social behavior in a sample of 189 eleventh-grade students (mean age=16.5 years). Adolescent attachment predicted absolute discrepancies, with greater attachment coherence associated with fewer discrepancies in reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, parent-adolescent conflict, and adolescent externalizing behavior. Parents' but not adolescents' depressive symptoms sometimes predicted absolute discrepancies. Mothers' depressive symptoms and adolescent attachment predicted the direction of discrepancies for mother-peer reports only.     

幼儿园混龄教育:理论演绎及其作用机制探析

现代成长取向的儿童教育观确立的同时确立了现代儿童教育的基本范式.并以同样的方式确定了现代幼儿园教育的基本范畴.在现代幼儿园教育中,既要求幼儿园生活是一种即时的真实生活,同时又要保证幼儿成长的自由、自然和充分.这种要求下只有幼儿园混龄教育与其存在着完全的无条件耦合性.在幼儿园混龄教育中,幼儿的需要和兴趣是原初动力,各种主体之间的互动是教育发生的基本机制,同时也是幼儿园混龄教育的最基本单位.     

Ways of Meaning,Ways of Learning: Code as an explanatory concept

The aim of this paper is to offer further empirical evidence in support of Bernstein's concept of code from the social semiotic perspective of systemic functional linguistics. When the concept of code was first introduced in the 1960s, it was severely criticised by many famous socio-linguists. It will be argued that these socio-linguists failed to understand the significance of language as a meaning potential, and so they also failed to appreciate the inherent relation between meaning and mental development (Halliday, 1975; Vygotsky, 1978). The concept of code is important in any viable theory of mental development which does not hide behind a mythical homogeneity. Human beings develop different forms of consciousness, and code theory offers a detailed and coherent account of both the social origin and the nature of this variation. In fact, the panoramic scope of Bernstein's sociological theory clarifies the relations of social positioning, coding orientation, communication, and consciousness to learning in official pedagogic sites. In presenting some of the results of my investigation in variant forms of communication between mothers and their young children, I will show that: (a) the variation is systematic, (b) the nature of the variation needs Bernstein's code theory for its interpretation, and (c) the fact of variation can only be accounted for by its relation to social positioning.     

Race and gender influences on adjustment in early adolescence: investigation of an integrative model

This research investigated an integrative model of race- and gender-related influences on adjustment during early adolescence using a sample of 350 Black and White youth. In the proposed model, prejudice/discrimination events, as well as race and gender daily hassles, contribute to a general stress context. The stress context, in turn, influences levels of emotional and behavioral problems in adjustment, with these associations mediated (in part) by intervening effects on self-esteem. Racial and gender identity similarly have positive effects on adjustment via their intermediary linkages with self-esteem. Structural equation modeling analyses provided support for all of these aspects of the model. Findings also revealed theoretically predicted differences in model parameters across race by gender subgroups. These include a direct effect of prejudice/discrimination events on emotional problems specific to Black youth and an effect of gender identity on self-esteem specific to girls. Black girls appeared to be most vulnerable to exhibiting significant adjustment difficulties as a result of the processes under investigation.     

Sticky care and conference travel: unpacking care as an explanatory factor for gendered academic immobility

Higher Education - While there is increasing awareness of the contributing effect of the academic mobility imperative on gendered inequalities in the academic profession at large, there is a...     

'I just sit there': shyness as an emotional and behavioural problem in school

Shyness is not unlike many psychological constructs in that it connotes a rich cluster of behaviours, cognitions, feelings and bodily reactions. But when adolescents' shyness creates keen sensitivity to cues of being rejected, preventing them from speaking up for their rights and expressing their own opinions, thereby encouraging self-consciousness and excessive preoccupation with their emotions, it becomes a problem for both these adolescents and their surroundings. This paper presents 10 adolescents' experiences of being shy in a school context to such a degree that it is regarded as being a behavioural and emotional problem. In light of elements from an existential-phenomenological understanding, challenges and remedial measures for these adolescents as well as their peers and teachers are discussed. Finally, focus will be placed on how teachers can promote good relationships and working environments and in this manner prevent shyness from becoming a behavioural and emotional problem in school.     

Handwriting automaticity and writing instruction in Australian kindergarten: an exploratory study

Accumulating evidence indicates handwriting automaticity is related to the development of effective writing skills. The present study examined the levels of handwriting automaticity of Australian children at the end of kindergarten and the amount and type of writing instruction they experienced before entering first grade. The current study involved 177 kindergarten children enrolled in 23 classrooms from seven government-funded primary schools in Western Australia. Individual child level data (e.g., handwriting automaticity and word-reading skills) were collected and teachers were asked to complete a survey assessing the amount of time and types of writing activities developed in their classrooms (e.g., teaching basic skills and teaching writing processes). Hierarchical linear models were conducted to examine total variance attributable to child and classroom levels. Results showed a total variance of approximately 20% in children’s handwriting automaticity attributable to differences among classrooms when gender and word-reading skills were controlled for. Large variability was noted in the amount and type of writing instruction reported by a subset of participating teachers. Handwriting automaticity was associated with the teaching of revising strategies but not with the teaching of handwriting. Implications for writing development and writing instruction are discussed.     

Genetic and environmental components of adolescent adjustment and parental behavior: a multivariate analysis

Adolescent adjustment measures may be related to each other and to the social environment in various ways. Are these relationships similar in genetic and environmental sources of covariation, or different? A multivariate behavior-genetic analysis was made of 6 adjustment and 3 treatment composites from the study Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development, using 674 same-sex adolescent sibling pairs aged 9-11. Cholesky decompositions of the total covariance matrix yielded additive and nonadditive genetic, and shared and nonshared environmental matrices. Factor analyses led to 3 factors for all but shared environment. The first 2 factors resembled Neuroticism and Extraversion factors typically found for personality; the third factor, parental monitoring and control, appeared to have different associations in different matrices.     

初中生情绪调节与学习自控力论析

情绪是影响学习的重要因素,文章应用自编的《初中生情绪调节能力问卷》、《学生学习自控问卷》对康桥中学、福州十八中、福建师大附中、永定高陂中学四所不同类型中学的初中三个年级的466名学生进行调查。结果发现：1）初中生的情绪调节能力在年级、性别、是否是独生孩子等方面没有显著的差异,但在城市重点中学和农村普通中学上有显著差异;2）高低情绪调节能力组在学习自控力及各维度上都有显著差异;3）情绪调节能力及各维度与学习自控力及各维度有高正相关。     

Number sense growth in kindergarten: a longitudinal investigation of children at risk for mathematics difficulties

Number sense development of 411 middle- and low-income kindergartners (mean age 5.8 years) was examined over 4 time points while controlling for gender, age, and reading skill. Although low-income children performed significantly worse than middle-income children at the end of kindergarten on all tasks, both groups progressed at about the same rate. An exception was story problems, on which the low-income group achieved at a slower rate; both income groups made comparable progress when the same problems were presented nonverbally with visual referents. Holding other predictors constant, there were small but reliable gender effects favoring boys on overall number sense performance as well as on nonverbal calculation. Using growth mixture modeling, 3 classes of growth trajectories in number sense emerged.