Individual, family, and neighborhood factors distinguish resilient from non-resilient maltreated children: a cumulative stressors model

OBJECTIVE: Children who are physically maltreated are at risk of a range of adverse outcomes in childhood and adulthood, but some children who are maltreated manage to function well despite their history of adversity. Which individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics distinguish resilient from non-resilient maltreated children? Do children's individual strengths promote resilience even when children are exposed to multiple family and neighborhood stressors (cumulative stressors model)? METHODS: Data were from the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Study which describes a nationally representative sample of 1,116 twin pairs and their families. Families were home-visited when the twins were 5 and 7 years old, and teachers provided information about children's behavior at school. Interviewers rated the likelihood that children had been maltreated based on mothers' reports of harm to the child and child welfare involvement with the family. RESULTS: Resilient children were those who engaged in normative levels of antisocial behavior despite having been maltreated. Boys (but not girls) who had above-average intelligence and whose parents had relatively few symptoms of antisocial personality were more likely to be resilient versus non-resilient to maltreatment. Children whose parents had substance use problems and who lived in relatively high crime neighborhoods that were low on social cohesion and informal social control were less likely to be resilient versus non-resilient to maltreatment. Consistent with a cumulative stressors model of children's adaptation, individual strengths distinguished resilient from non-resilient children under conditions of low, but not high, family and neighborhood stress. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that for children residing in multi-problem families, personal resources may not be sufficient to promote their adaptive functioning.     

Strategic narrative in multi-academy trusts in England: Principal drivers for expansion

Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are now a common feature of the English educational landscape. Yet numerous high-profile failures indicate that they present substantial challenges in terms of leadership and governance. One of the areas that most exercises school leaders and boards is the setting of strategic direction for the MAT. This includes elements such as its expansion. This article draws on 30 interviews with school leaders and trustees from 6 MATs and 10 interviews with national leaders of governance in looking to respond to the research question: What are the principal drivers for strategic expansion in MATs? The article begins by contextualising the research in light of recent policy, then moves to consider why theory on strategy as narrative was chosen in preference to other strategic approaches, and how it was employed to analyse data. The article concludes that within this sample there are a number of drivers for MAT expansion and that these fall under six principal categories: opportunities, values, pressures, feelings, risks and resources. It also concludes that resources and business viability play a substantial part in decisions to expand, and that strategy appears to be an iterative learning process. As such, it contributes to theory on the governance of multi-level organisations and to practice in terms of the Department for Education's focus on MAT growth.     

Why do UK academics become Associate Deans and what are their future career plans?

The role and number of Associate Dean posts in UK universities has grown considerably in recent years. Despite this, relatively little is known about the reasons why individuals take on such roles and how it fits into their career trajectories. The purpose of this article is to explore these issues by drawing on data from the first national study of Associate Deans in the UK. Adopting a two-staged mixed methods approach, data were collected from semi-structured interviews (n = 15) and an online survey (n = 172). The findings suggest that academics take on the role for a number of reasons such as the challenge of working across the University, making a difference to staff and students, or being asked to take it on by a senior member of staff. It is argued that these Associate Dean roles are part of new and emerging academic career pathways within the higher education sector.     

Enacting Cultural Identities in Conversation: Managing Collaboration in Two Nonprofit Organizations

As they conduct the practical work of collaborating during meetings, nonprofit stakeholders construct, negotiate, and manage identities. In this article we use membership categorization analysis to explore how meeting participants avow and ascribe cultural identities during collaborative meetings in two nonprofit organizations. Examination of identification practices, including employing labels for ethnic categories and implicating cultural identities through category-relevant predicates—which are part of the practical work of collaborating in nonprofit organizations—can serve as an aid to understanding how stakeholders negotiate interorganizational collaboration in social interaction.     

A brief screening battery for predicting school achievement at ages seven and nine years

This article describes the development, utilization, and evaluation of an early screening battery for predicting school success or failure. The battery was administered to the pediatric population of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, Panorama City Medical Center, at the time of the routine five-year health examination. For 411 children whose school performance was assessed by the teacher at age seven years, the Caldwell Test was the best predictor, but it had significant value for girls only (p<0.0001). In 1,251 children evaluated at age nine years, the Beery-Butkenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) and the Caldwell Test were the best predictors (p⩽0.003). In 600 children for whom we had teacher ratings at ages seven and nine years, the VMI repeated at age seven years significantly predicted academic achievement and reading at age nine years for girls and boys (p = 0.007). Although combining the academic performance with VMI results at age seven years yielded 89% accuracy of prediction at age nine years, the false-positive rate represents a serious practical problem of mislabeling children as school failures.     

Assessing the severity of behavior disorders: Rankings based on clinical and empirical criteria

School psychologists need to assess the severity of behavior disorders accurately to facilitate comprehensive diagnosis, to provide appropriate intervention, to enlighten research efforts, and to be in compliance with state and federal guidelines. Although clinicians in fields such as mental retardation categorize severity of behavior to make diagnostic and general treatment decisions, school psychologists rarely attempt to assess severity in any systematic or comprehensive way. The primary purpose of this study is to see how 92 practicing school psychologists rank 11 variables in their assessments of SED in school-age children. A secondary purpose is to examine the extent of school psychologists' reliance upon clinical and empirical criteria in assessing the severity of SED. It is concluded that school psychologists agree in their rankings of variables from most to least important and that they do not consider empirical criteria more important than clinically based criteria when assessing SED. Implications for practice are presented.     

The ‘aggressive style’: genesis of an ambiguous resource for Swiss hockey and football players

In this study, we investigated what drives players to endorse an aggressive style in Swiss ice hockey and football. We selected a sample of 16 players on the basis of their penalty statistics. We used semi-directed retrospective interviews to collect players’; biographic narratives. The results show a socialization process into an aggressive style, supported by the dominant gender and socialization norms of the sport, which is under the influence of the structure of the sports organization. However, there are large differences between players, with only some of them adopting an aggressive style. Although many studies have underlined the influence of moral disengagement, the present results suggest that time also matters and that the diversity of career paths may explain the diversity in attitudes. Socialization differences in the sports field, bodily capital, a career path marked by thwarted reputation are the key factors that drive players to adopt an aggressive style.     

Key somatic variables in young backstroke swimmers

The purpose of this study was to estimate the optimal body size, limb-segment length, girth or breadth ratios for 100-m backstroke mean speed performance in young swimmers. Sixty-three young swimmers (boys [n = 30; age: 13.98 ± 0.58 years]; girls [n = 33; age: 13.02 ± 1.20 years]) participated in this study. To identify the optimal body size and body composition components associated with 100-m backstroke speed performance, we adopted a multiplicative allometric log-linear regression model, which was refined using backward elimination. The multiplicative allometric model exploring the association between 100-m backstroke mean speed performance and the different somatic measurements estimated that biological age, sitting height, leg length for the lower-limbs, and two girths (forearm and arm relaxed girth) are the key predictors. Stature and body mass did not contribute to the model, suggesting that the advantage of longer levers was limb-specific rather than a general whole-body advantage. In fact, it is only by adopting multiplicative allometric models that the abovementioned ratios could have been derived. These findings highlighted the importance of considering somatic characteristics of young backstroke swimmers and can help swimming coaches to classify their swimmers and enable them to suggest what might be the swimmers’ most appropriate stroke (talent identification).