THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ENGAGEMENT IN MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS AND SELF‐ESTEEM AMONG AFFLUENT ADOLESCENT GIRLS

This study examined the influence of growth‐fostering mentoring relationships on the self‐esteem of adolescent female students from affluent communities. Studies have demonstrated that this population of students is susceptible to psychological distress and self‐esteem problems, due to perfectionistic strivings and achievement pressures. Specifically, we hypothesized that growth‐fostering mentoring relationships (e.g., with teachers and school staff) would be positively associated with self‐esteem. Moreover, we expected that this association would be mediated by engagement in purposeful activities. The authors surveyed 207 girls from two independent secondary schools and found support for the mediation hypothesis. Using an ordinary least squares regression approach, the association between growth‐fostering mentoring relationships and self‐esteem was mediated by youth engagement in purposeful activities. Implications for future research and practice in schools are discussed.     

CORRELATES OF CONDUCT PROBLEMS AND DEPRESSION COMORBIDITY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BOYS AND GIRLS RECEIVING SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

There is limited empirical research on the correlates of conduct problems (CP) and depression comorbidity during childhood. This study investigated 479 elementary school children (48.2% girls). It compared children with comorbidity to children with CP only, depression only, and control children on individual, academic, social, and family characteristics. The study also analyzed gender differences in the associations between correlates and comorbidity. Multinomial logistic regression results revealed that children with CP and depression had higher levels of anxiety and more school difficulties than children with CP only, more social difficulties and more severe attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms than children with depression only, and more difficulties in all domains than control children. Girls with CP and depression presented a particularly negative profile, including lower school abilities than CP and control girls, and lower social skills and more severe ADHD symptoms than control girls.  Implications for evaluation and intervention planning are discussed.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN MATHEMATICAL ACHIEVEMENT RELATED TO THE RATIO OF GIRLS TO BOYS IN SCHOOL CLASSES

The relationship between mathematical achievement and the ratio of boys to girls in school classes was investigated in a sample of third-grade Norwegian elementary school students (440 girls and 480 boys). Belonging to classes with a numerical majority of boys or girls did not affect the achievement of either of the sexes. The results from the study do not support the single-sexing of mathematics teaching.     

INFLUENCE OF ASCRIBED AND ACHIEVED SOCIAL STATUSES,VALUES, AND REWARDS ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE FACULTY

Research on job satisfaction among community college faculty has been largely atheoretical. The present study examined the contribution of four sets of factors to explaining faculty job satisfaction in the community college. According to Kalleberg's (1977) theory of job satisfaction, employee's affective reactions to their jobs are largely determined by ascribed social statuses, achieved social statuses, job values, and job rewards. A random sample was drawn of 371 full‐time faculty from a multi‐campus community college district located in a metropolitan area in the Southwest. Nonresponses and partial responses resulted in an effective sample size of 261. A correlation analysis revealed that institutional age and physical safety job value were significantly, inversely related to job satisfaction and that all job rewards were significantly, positively related to job satisfaction. A simultaneous multiple regression analysis indicated that institutional age was a significant, inverse predictor of job satisfaction and that chronological age, and the good supervision and work itself job rewards were significant, positive predictors of job satisfaction. Of the variation in job satisfaction scores accounted for by all predictors, approximately 5% may be attributed to ascribed and achieved social statuses and to job values, and 48% to job rewards. For faculty in the district we surveyed, the keys to promoting job satisfaction would be to enhance the satisfying aspects of the work itself and good supervision. Programs which afford faculty who are less than satisfied with their jobs opportunities to be “origins” rather than “pawns” may be beneficial.     

ACADEMIC VALUES AND SERVICE CONFLICTS

This article examines relationships among the values of service, truth, freedom, justice, and community. Service is the most important purpose of higher education. Other academic values can cloud or clarify this purpose. The article is based on the premise that clarification is preferable to confusion and that congruence is better than conflict. If a professor's values and actions are in conflict with service, then he might be ineffective and unethical. The author concludes that professors should value truth as a means for service to society, not as an end in itself. Freedom, too, is not an end. It protects the search for truth, not individual enterprise. Justice eliminates the excesses of freedom; it protects everyone with fairness. If justice is the guide for resolving individual conflicts, then community is the glue that bonds the academy together. Community makes fair service more imperative than selfishness.     

论人的劳动和劳动价值论

人的劳动具有重大作用及发展,劳动价值论包含着丰富的内容。马克思把商品的概念由物质产品扩大为劳动力、运输业和服务,并提出运输业和劳务部门的劳动也创造价值的理论,这是马克思劳动价值论的深化和发展。人的劳动和劳动价值论之间存在密切关系。     

PREFERENCES AND ASSESSMENT OF MATHEMATICALLY HIGHLY ABLE YOUNG STUDENTS

Giftedness is commonly regarded as potential for extraordinary performance within a given area, e.g. academic, artistic, or manual, that develops in a field of interacting internal and external factors and unfolds in individual stages. Gender related and culturally dependent influences affect the dynamic processes through which a child acquires and expands its competence. Admittedly, a particular talent for a special intellectual activity, e.g. mathematics and sciences, is essential, but such a talent alone is not necessarily sufficient to explain why young students devote themselves to particular subject matter, thereby acquiring a high level of ability.

     

Y. W. C. A. AND GIRLS

This design experiment in prayer education for Jewish students was motivated by a current educational concern: educating for spirituality and religious practice. Educators are tasked with formally nurturing spirituality (Wright 2001). It is known that attitude to religious observance may change during adolescence (Hyde 1963), thus attitude to prayer needs attention. The effects/consequences of prayer understanding reach beyond religious practice itself, to encompass issues of faith, identity, spiritual development and well-being (Sigel 2009). Here quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to measure the effects of a tefillah (prayer and its understanding) course on student attitudes to prayer.     

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SOCIO‐MOTIVATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE INTERPLAY OF PERCEIVED STRESS,NEUROTICISM, AND TEST ANXIETY AMONG ADOLESCENT STUDENTS

In this study, we examined whether socio‐motivational relationships, such as student–student relationships (SSR) and teacher–student relationships (TSR), as well as peers as positive motivators (PPM) and teachers as positive motivators (TPM), would mediate the association of both perceived stress and neuroticism with test anxiety in 1,088 German students from grades seven and eight. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that a high quality of SSR mediated the relationship between neuroticism and test anxiety, which was not the case for TSR. Furthermore, both PPM and TPM acted as mediators in all hypothesized associations. Interestingly, although a high quality of SSR mitigated feelings of test anxiety, PPM and TPM intensified test anxiety in neurotic students. The role of social relationships as protective factors as well as risk factors is discussed, as are the implications of the findings for educators, school psychologists, and teachers.     

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS’ CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PREFERENCES AND PRACTICES

This study investigated school psychologists’ continuing professional development (CPD) activities, topics, needs, motivations, financial expenditures, and opinions, as well as relationships between select demographic characteristics and certain CPD practices and preferences. A survey was mailed to 1,000 randomly selected Regular Members of the National Association of School Psychologists, resulting in the return of 510 completed surveys, a 51% response rate. Respondents expressed opinions about CPD that were positive, optimistic, and consistent with their high levels of engagement and investments of both time and financial resources. Most respondents reported engaging in 25 or more hours of CPD during the previous year. CPD topics in which they engaged most frequently were response to intervention and academic, behavioral, and social–emotional interventions, and academic screening and progress monitoring. Respondents reported a high level of need for more CPD in those same topic areas, but a low level of need for offerings in standardized assessment. Older school psychologists were less likely to have engaged in CPD relating to contemporary assessment practices and interventions and more likely to have engaged in activities related to standardized assessment. Almost half of the respondents had engaged in CPD through an online activity and reported a desire for more online opportunities. No relationship was found between age and usage of, or positive opinions about, online CPD.