Current Tobacco-Smoking and Neural Responses to Infant Cues in Mothers

Objective. Smoking has a detrimental impact on maternal physical health and exposes children to secondhand smoke, but the extent to which it affects maternal brain and behavior is not well-known and may have implications for parent and child development. We examined how current smoking status might relate to maternal neural responses to infant cues using event-related potentials. Design. Current smoking (n = 35) and non-smoking (n = 35) mothers viewed photographs of emotional infant faces while electroencephalography was simultaneously recorded. Results. The latency of the face-specific N170 event-related potential component was delayed in smoking mothers compared to non-smoking mothers, and the P300 was differentiated by smoking status. Conclusions. Postpartum smoking is associated with event-related potential measures that may reflect modulation of infant face perception in motherhood.     

Infant Crying and Adults'' Anticipated Caregiving Responses: Acoustic and Contextual Influences

These studies assessed adults' latencies to signal that they would respond to infant crying as functions of (1) the degree of infant distress they perceived in the cry, and (2) contextual information relevant to caregiving. In the first study (N = 34), listeners waited longer to respond to cries that they had earlier rated as sounding less distressed than when they heard cries of higher distress. Further, those who had been told that the infant needed sleep waited longer to respond than those without this information. This effect of context information, however, was limited to the latencies; in another study (N = 50), listeners' ratings of distress were not affected. Several acoustic features of the cries correlated with distress ratings and with latencies to signal a caregiving response. Taken together, the results suggest that adults' responses to crying are influenced both by acoustic gradations in the cry itself and by the caregiving context. Ratings of degree of distress manifest in the cry, in other words, may be highly predictive of caregiving behavior but not wholly so. Finally, although certain acoustic variations related to greater perceived distress and speed of response, differences were apparent between infants in the magnitude of these variations. The implication that the general process of cry perception may be calibrated, or fine tuned, to the range of acoustic variation provided by individual infants is discussed.     

Pupillary and Attentional Responses to Infant Facial Expressions in Mothers Across Socioeconomic Variations

Maternal responses to infant facial expressions were examined in two socioeconomically diverse samples of South African mothers (Study I, N = 111; and Study II, N = 214; age: 17–44 years) using pupil and gaze tracking. Study I showed increased pupil response to infant distress expressions in groups recruited from private as compared to public maternity clinics, possibly reflecting underlying differences in socioeconomic status (SES) across the groups. Study II, sampling uniformly low-SES neighborhoods, found increased pupil dilation and faster orientation to expressions of infant distress, but only in the highest income group. These results are consistent with maternal physiological and attentional sensitivity to infant distress cues but challenge the universality of this sensitivity across socioeconomic diversity.     

Infant Attachment Security and Early Childhood Behavioral Inhibition Interact to Predict Adolescent Social Anxiety Symptoms

Insecure attachment and behavioral inhibition (BI) increase risk for internalizing problems, but few longitudinal studies have examined their interaction in predicting adolescent anxiety. This study included 165 adolescents (ages 14–17 years) selected based on their reactivity to novelty at 4 months. Infant attachment was assessed with the Strange Situation. Multimethod BI assessments were conducted across childhood. Adolescents and their parents independently reported on anxiety. The interaction of attachment and BI significantly predicted adolescent anxiety symptoms, such that BI and anxiety were only associated among adolescents with histories of insecure attachment. Exploratory analyses revealed that this effect was driven by insecure‐resistant attachment and that the association between BI and social anxiety was significant only for insecure males. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Linking Employment to Attachment: The Mediating Effects of Maternal Separation Anxiety and Interactive Behavior

This study examined the effects of maternal employment and separation anxiety on maternal interactive behavior and infant attachment. 73 mother-infant pairs participated in a laboratory free-play session when infants were 5 and 10 months of age and in the Strange Situation when the infants were 18 months of age. Maternal feelings about being separated from her infant were assessed by questionnaire at 5 months. Employed mothers returned to work before the infants' fifth month, and nonemployed mothers did not work outside the home through their infants' tenth month. Employed mothers who reported high levels of separation anxiety were more likely to exhibit intrusive behaviors at 10 months. While employment was not directly related to attachment, we found infants of high-anxiety employed mothers to develop anxious-avoidant attachments. The results suggest that maternal separation anxiety and interactive style may be important mediators between employment and later infant outcome.     

古今通变，古为今用—论古代文论思想方法在“大学语文”教学中的继承

教学改革的根本目的不是将传统与现代对立起来,更不是改革掉传统,而是一种“通变”,即把传统中优秀的文化继承下来,并发扬光大地为现实生活服务。中国古代文论对作家、作品分析评论的思想方法对我们极富启发性,把它运用到“大学语文”教学中去,不失为一种有效的教改手段。     

Prenatal and Postnatal Diagnosis of Infant Disability: Breaking the News to Mothers

The birth of an infant with a disability is often perceived as the loss of a “perfect” baby and is typically an unanticipated event for the mother and family. Mothers may experience self-blame for the disability; therefore, sensitive communication is crucial. A private setting is recommended, with a minimum of health-care professionals in attendance when the diagnosis is revealed. The perinatal educator can guide the mother through the early emotional phases of processing and accepting the new information by offering support and incorporating timely information and interventions. The perinatal educator can also inform and prepare other expectant couples in the childbirth class and encourage them to support the mother and father in celebrating the forthcoming birth. The objective of nursing care for a mother whose infant is newly diagnosed with a disability is to facilitate a positive outcome for her and to promote optimal infant bonding. In all communication and information, replacing the term “disabled infant” with “infant with a disability” is emphasized in order to recognize the infant first and the disability second.     

A Glimpse into the Minds of Mothers: The Default Mode Network and Responsiveness to Infant Cries

SYNOPSIS

The authors comment on a paper reporting differences between mothers and non-mothers in neural responses to infant cries and other emotive sounds while engaging in self- or goal-oriented tasks. The value of examining deactivation of the default mode network (DMN) as a means of understanding differential attention patterns in both typical and atypical populations is discussed, as is the generalizability of the experimental paradigm to ecologically relevant contexts. The role of an individual’s age, parental status, and experience in shaping responses to infant crying is considered, and future avenues of research are suggested. An argument is made for coupling neuroimaging techniques with behavioral assays to better understand the determinants of maternal behavior.     

Counseling Psychology in China: Past and Present

Ancient Chinese philosophers were interested in ways to promote psychological development and they made significant contributions, particularly in the area of mental testing. In the twentieth century the Chinese focused on behavioral psychology, and the field suffered a great setback during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. However, more recently, psychology has received governmental support, and psychologists in China today are rapidly developing the field of counseling psychology. This paper puts Chinese psychology in historical context and describes many current practices and needs regarding counseling psychology.     

俄罗斯的教师教育:过去与现在

本文对俄罗斯历史中的教师教育、师范人才培养体制、教师培养标准、教师业务进修和再培训体系进行研究,阐明了俄罗斯师范教育的传统和俄罗斯师范体系改革的现状及其问题。     

Maternal Responses to Infant Distress: Linkages Between Specific Emotions and Neurophysiological Processes

Objective. The goals of the current article were to test the presence of an association between mothers’ neural activity (measured by frontal cortical alpha asymmetry) and their specific emotions (measured by observed facial expressions) in response to infant distress and the moderation of this relation by mothers’ appraisal processes (measured by sense of parenting efficacy). Design. Mothers of 5- to 8-month-olds (n = 26) watched videos of their own infants expressing distress while their brain activity was recorded via electroencephalogram and their facial expressions were videotaped for later microcoding. Mothers also completed a questionnaire measure of parenting efficacy. Results. Greater neurophysiological withdrawal in response to infant distress videos, indexed by frontal alpha asymmetry, was associated with longer sad and tense expressions in mothers with average or below average parenting efficacy, but not in those with above average efficacy. Conclusions. Previous research showing that patterns of parents’ brain activity in response to child stimuli are associated with parenting behavior often interpret results in relation to parental emotion, but rarely measure specific concurrent emotions. The current study helps fill this gap in the literature by showing that maternal neurophysiological withdrawal (together with parenting efficacy) was associated with simultaneously measured facial expressions of negative emotion in response to infant distress stimuli.     

中国大学教育科学发展观的历时与共时思考

构建大学教育科学发展观必须以大学教育的历史和所面临的现实为背景,从历时与共时两个维度加以把握。通过总结中国大学教育文化导向的外源性、价值取向的社会性、功能定位的实用性、存在主题的多变性、动力资源的单一性、发展道路的曲折性等特点,分析了目前所面临的新的处境,以此寻求构建大学教育科学发展观的有效资源。     

Survey of Gross Anatomy Education in China: The Past and the Present

Medical education in mainland China has undergone massive expansion and reforms in the past decades. A nation-wide survey of the five-year clinical medicine programs aimed to examine the course hours, pedagogies, learning resources and teaching staff of anatomy both at present and over the past three decades (1990–1999, 2000–2009, and 2010–2018). The directors or senior teachers from 90 out of the 130 five-year clinical medicine programs were invited to fill out a factual questionnaire by email. Ultimately, sixty-five completed questionnaires were received from 65 different schools. It was found that the total number of gross anatomy course hours has decreased by 11% in the past 30 years and that systematic and regional anatomy have been increasingly taught separately among the surveyed medical schools. Problem-based learning has been adopted in thirty-five (54%) of the surveyed schools, and team-based learning is used in ten (15%) of the surveyed schools. The surveyed schools reported receiving more donated cadavers in recent years, with the average number increasing from 20.67 ± 20.29 in 2000–2009 to 36.10 ± 47.26 in 2010–2018. However, this has not resulted in a decrease in the number of students who needed to share one cadaver (11.85 ± 5.03 in 1990–1999 to 14.22 ± 5.0 in 2010–2018). A decreasing trend regarding the teacher-student ratio (1:25.5 in 2000–2009 to 1:33.2 in 2010–2018) was also reported. The survey demonstrated the historical changes in gross anatomy education in China over the past thirty years.     

初中生数学学习策略 、数学焦虑对数学成绩的影响研究

目的 :通过调查研究,探讨初中生数学学习策略、数学焦虑对数学成绩的影响.方法 :采用数学学习策略问卷、数学焦虑问卷对1650名初中生进行施测.结果 :初中生数学学习资源管理策略运用水平显著高于认知策略、元认知策略(F=52.55,P<0.01);男生的数学焦虑、数学成绩显著低于女生(t=-3.35、-2.69,P<0.01);数学学习策略、数学焦虑与数学成绩之间显著相关(r=0.18~0.39,P<0.01);数学学习策略可以正向显著预测数学成绩(β=0.19,P<0.01);数学焦虑可以负向显著预测数学成绩(β=-0.36,P<0.01);数学学习策略对数学成绩不仅具有直接预测作用,而且可以通过数学焦虑的中介作用间接预测数学成绩(中介效应比例为35.5%).结论 :初中生数学学习策略掌握程度越好,数学焦虑水平越低,其数学成绩就会越高.