Predictors of foster parents' satisfaction and intent to continue to foster

OBJECTIVE: The United States General Accounting Office (United States General Accounting Office [USGAO], 1989) report on out-of-home care affirmed that the foster care system is in crisis. To shed light on some factors that influence retention, the study reported here asked "What factors influence the satisfaction of foster parents?" and "What factors influence the intent of licensed foster parents to continue to foster?" METHOD: A sample of 539 foster parents in eight urban counties in a large Midwestern state completed questionnaires aimed at addressing these questions. RESULTS: Some of the factors exerting the strongest influence on satisfaction were: feeling competent to handle the children who were placed; wanting to take in children who needed loving parents; no regrets about investment in foster children; foster mother's age; and agency social worker providing information and showing approval for a job well done. An example of factors exerting influence on intent to continue to foster include overall satisfaction, readiness to phone the social worker, number of foster boys in the home, being treated like one needed help oneself, and agency affiliation (private). CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to increase the supply of foster homes through recruitment is not enough. The support, training, and professional regard given to parents after they have begun the fostering task is of greater need. Based on analysis of the findings, implications for practice, programming, and policy are offered.     

Reported hyperphagia in foster children

In evaluating a large group of foster children from biological families with a high incidence of alcohol and/or drug abuse, there emerges a subsample of children with both atypical eating patterns as well as atypical behavior patterns. Their physical and behavioral characteristics are described. These children are neither obese nor "failure to thrive." They display an excessive appetite for food, a driven quality to their eating, an apparent lack of satiety, and frequent eating to the point of vomiting or gastric pain if food intake is not limited externally. All of these children have psychiatric disorders. Hyperphagia appears to be a marker for significant psychopathology.     

Faith dialogues foster identity development

The author shares the results of her research with focus groups of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and atheist students and introduces the concept of faith frames to consider the previously overlooked factor of faith affiliation.     

Teacher behaviors that foster creativity

The literature on teacher behaviors that influence the development of creative abilities in children was reviewed. A historical overview of the concept of creativity within an educational context served to highlight the importance of the role of the teacher in providing the type of classroom environment that is conductive to creative learning. Teachers who show a humanistic philosophical orientation, have developed their own creative competencies, and implement specific creative methods and techniques in their classroom are more effective in enhancing students' creative abilities than teachers who follow more traditional instructional approaches.     

调动学生情感 促进自主学习

介绍了自主学习的概念,分析了情感与自主学习的关系,重点探讨在外语教学中教师如何实施情感教学以建立教师与学生之间相互信任和良好合作的关系,增强学生的责任感和自尊心,从而提高他们的自主学习能力。     

城镇化应培植农村法律意识

城镇化是社会生产力、科学技术发展到一定程度后引起传统乡村型社会向以工业、服务业等非农产业为主的城镇型社会的转变过程。当下,城镇化进程中出现一些不良的现象,呈现出城镇化无序发展的情况,究其根源,与立法、司法、执法、守法休戚相关,所以培植农村法律意识,对城镇化进程具有重要意义。     

Children's participation in foster care hearings

Purpose

Empirical research regarding potential risks and benefits of children's participation in the legal system generally, and in the child dependency legal system in particular, is sparse and mostly characterized by small studies without comparison groups. The current study was designed to address the following questions regarding children's participation in dependency court hearings: (1) Is attending court harmful to children? (2) Is attending court beneficial to children? (3) Is judicial behavior with the child in the courtroom related to potential harms or benefits? and (4) Are there age differences in children's reactions?

Method

The authors measured children's reactions to attending dependency review hearings (n = 43) and compared them to a sample of children who did not attend their hearings (n = 50). One to 2 weeks following review hearings, both groups of children were interviewed about their reactions to the court process.

Results

Children who attended their hearings reported more positive feelings about the dependency process (e.g., trust in judge, perceived fairness, and more comfort with their guardians ad litem and caseworkers). For children who attended, there was no evidence of high distress immediately preceding or following their hearings. Court observations revealed that more active engagement by judges was related to positive responses from the children. Most children, including both children who attended hearings and those who did not, believed that all children should be able to attend their hearings.

Conclusion

Overall, the findings suggest that policies encouraging children's attendance at dependency hearings are viewed positively by and not harmful to children.     

Using collaboration to foster academic integrity

Abstract

For students new to higher education, the task of developing their academic writing skills, and particularly the principles and practices of source-referencing, can be daunting. Although institutions and teachers can and do provide positive guidance on this score, all too often students veer into inadvertent plagiarism through lack of confidence and confusion. This case study identifies opportunities through collaborative work to help students approach referencing with greater clarity and confidence. A project with first-year Arts students engaged in collaborative writing encouraged them to attend to their recording and writing-up of source references using individual ‘reading and referencing’ logs and then passing on completed references to their group’s designated bibliographer. Checks on later, solo, assignments by these students indicated that they were less likely to stray into inadvertent plagiarism, whilst feedback from the students themselves pointed towards improved confidence in their academic writing skills and development of study habits conducive to effective self-monitoring.     

Placement disruption in foster care: Children’s behavior,foster parent support,and parenting experiences

BackgroundThe majority of children in foster care 24 months or longer experience three or more placements. Children’s behavior problems are a primary contributor to multiple moves, but little is known about how behavior problems and other stressors lead to disruptions. This study focused on foster parents’ experiences of parenting a child at risk for moves using the determinants of parenting model (Belsky, 1984) to identify potential correlates of difficult parenting experiences and placement disruption.ObjectiveTo identify factors associated with difficult parenting experiences and placement disruption.ParticipantsFoster parents (N = 139) caring for children age 8–14 in long term foster care with a history of two or more moves were randomly selected in a large Midwestern state in the U.S.MethodsParticipants completed a 90-minute telephone interview (86% response rate). Placement moves were tracked prospectively for two years. Parenting experiences and disruption were analyzed using multiple and logistic regression.ResultsResults support aspects of the determinants of parenting model. Behavior problems, children’s risk to others, low support, and stress were significantly associated with more difficult parenting experiences (βs = .28, .22, .18, .19, respectively, ps < .05), and more difficult parenting experiences strongly predicted placement disruption (p < .01). Risk to others also predicted disruption before including parenting experiences, with this association becoming nonsignificant after including parenting experiences. Unexpectedly, African American foster parents had a higher risk for disruption, despite more positive parenting experiences.ConclusionsThese findings support attending to foster parents’ parenting experiences, children’s risk to others, social support and stress to better support placements of children at risk for disruption.     

Day care homes can foster children's health

Conclusion Because so many infants and young children are cared for in family day care homes, these can play a very important role in the promotion of children's health. Parents and family day care home caregivers should work closely to provide adequate child health supervision, emergency care, nutrition education, mental health services, and sick care services. Further documentation of the health-service needs in this area would be useful in indicating where in-service training and health education for parents and caregivers should be concentrated. Health professionals from both private and public agencies should begin to direct their efforts on behalf of the many children who are cared for in family day care homes and to utilize these as resources for health promotion and disease prevention.     

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.     

How analogies foster learning from science texts

This article provides an introduction to extended text-based analogies used for instructional purposes in science textbooks. A theoretical framework for understanding learning via extended analogies is discussed, and examples of extended textual analogies are provided. Research which provides direction in how to optimally use analogies in science instruction is reviewed. Characteristics of good analogies, types of learners who might benefit from the use of analogies, and kinds of learning which might be facilitated are discussed. The issue of possible misconceptions generated via instructional analogies is addressed, in conjunction with suggestions for remediation. Finally, recommendations for effective use of analogies in text are made, suggestions for instructional practices accompanying textual science analogies are provided and directions for future research are suggested.     

怎样保护培养你的人才

为了延揽人才，发达国家一方面加强国内的人才培养，另一方面到世界各地特别是发展中国家去“抢人”。据有关资料反映，日本计划在本世纪初使外籍研究人员达到三分之一，美国新经济的兴起是注重人才开发也是美国大肆掠夺全球人才的结果。近来，美国在移民方面大大放宽了对高技术人才的限制，从1998年开始，美国每年向11．5万具有数学和电脑技术才能的外国人发放居住证，2000年5月，     

核心员工快速培养的十五步骤

企业的培训工作在向深化发展。企业对培训的需求从原来的对什么课程感兴趣就引入什么课程，发展到系统、持续的人力资源开发过程。在这个过程中要求我们培训工作的从业人员不断地提高自身的素质，向顾问式培训发展。另一方面也要求企业的培训工作者加强和有实力培训公司的长期合作，使培训工作系统化，长期化，从原来的“头疼医头，脚疼医脚”发展到对核心员工的长期性的培养。下面的案例是西三角咨询公司为企业做的一个成功的核心员工培训案例，她的关键之处是将人才选拔与人才培训工作有机地结合在一起。这是企业培训工作者应当注意的一个新动向。许多企业在发展过程中都遇到了人才的问题：尤其是核心人才的问题。如何解决这些问题呢?有许多企业采用了“空降兵”的办法．但有数据显示有70％的“空降兵”由于无法适应新的工作环境，往往很快会离开企业。事实证明企业必须采用以自我培养为主的人才培养策略解决自身的人才需求问题。这是一种有效的探索和尝试，现将我们在这方面做的工作做一个小结，以供各位企业的人事经理参考。     

论中学生成熟情绪的培养

一个全面发展的学生内含着成熟情绪的特征。培养中学生的成熟情绪,有利于学生的全面发展,同时也是素质教育的具体体现。为此,学校应当从提供良好的校园环境、转变教育观念、加强对学生的认知教育和提高学生情绪管理技能等方面培养中学生的成熟情绪。