Forming, Losing, Renewing, and Replacing Friendships: Applying Temporal Parameters to the Assessment of Children's Friendship Experiences

Friendship formation and dissolution were tracked over time in a summer camp to examine whether such events are valid indicators of individual differences in children's friendship adjustment. Subjects were 216 children ages 8–15 years. Sociometric nominations were used to determine the identities of reciprocal friends. Loneliness at camp was also tracked over time. In addition, data on group acceptance, behavioral reputations, social competence, and behavioral problems were gathered from peers and counselors. Analyses suggested that friendship formation and duration were coherent, independent dimensions of individual differences and distinct from the overall extensivity of involvement in friendships. Regression analyses indicated that the temporal parameters of participation in friendship enhanced the prediction of changes in loneliness at camp. Age and sex differences in temporal parameters were explored, and 4 discrete trajectories for friendship involvement were identified. Children with different trajectories differed in their behavioral profiles from one another and from children who were chronically friendless.     

Developing an overseas counsellor education program: Problems, issues, and educational implications

This article describes an example of an overseas counsellor education program. The problems, issues, and educational implications of the program are detailed.     

ANALYSIS OF FOURTH GRADE TESTING

Three hundred and ninety‐nine Grade 4 Brisbane children were given a battery o1 general ability and achievement tests. Means and standard deviations allowed construction of 15‐point scales for a Queensland Grade 4. A correlation matrix included indices concerning sub‐tests of general ability and achievement tests. Comparisons with original A.C.E.R. co‐efficients were made. The matrix was factor sub‐tests of general ability and achievement tests. Comparisons with analysed and rotated, three factors emerging ‐‐ verbal, performance and computational. A canonical correlation was performed and three significant elements emerged ‐‐ a verbal, a computational (or integrative or automatic sequential) and a problem‐solving element.     

Adoption losses: naturally occurring or socially constructed?

The American definition of kinship based on biological ties, the practice of closed adoption, and stigmas associated with adoption may decisively influence adoption-related losses. Cross-cultural and historical accounts of adoption that do not apply to these contemporary American constructs of parenthood and practices of adoption suggest outcomes that are not as integrally based on loss. Adoption in infancy is defined as parenting a child with one set of (adoptive) parents and two (adoptive and birth) families. Implications for adoption research, policy, and practice are discussed.     

The second year of life as a developmental turning point: Implications for «sensitive» caretaking

In the context of the transactional view on development, important changes in the second year of life are highlighted which demand parental adaptations in caregiving practice. The discontinuous growth of enriched cognitive functions in the toddler, as exemplified by Piagetian theory on development of intentionality and symbolic thinking and by recent findings about the emergence of self-awareness and mastery-motivation, meshes with changes in caregiving dimensions. The caregiver, seen as a catalyst for the development of cognitive and social competence must adjust himself to the developmental tasks the infant is coping with. The concept of sensitivity is examined in terms of two important aspects: the social and the didactic. From a Vygotskian standpoint, didactic strategies are very important for cognitive competence. Parents have to facilitate self-initiated learning and to adjust to the infant’s increasing cognitive functions. The influence of a didactic «matching» on overall parent-infant interaction quality, and especially on the quality of attachment, is stressed.     

Educational Inequity from the Perspectives of Those Who Live It: Urban Middle School Students’ Perspectives on the Quality of their Education

In interviews with over 250 urban young adolescents, many students make it clear that they are acutely aware of the educational inequities that exist in their schools and that these inequities are having a negative impact on their education. Student voice is used to highlight urban middle school students’ perspectives on the quality of their education particularly in terms of curricular issues, teacher quality, and lack of resources.