Adolescent caregiving success as a predictor of social functioning from ages 13 to 33

Adolescent success providing satisfying support in response to a close friend's call in a caregiving task was examined as a potentially fundamental developmental competence likely to predict future social functioning, adult caregiving security, and physical health. Adolescents (86 males, 98 females; 58% White, 29% African American, 8% mixed race/ethnicity, 5% other) were followed from ages 13 to 33 (1998–2021) using multiple methods and reporters. Early caregiving success was found to predict greater self- and partner-reported caregiving security, lower negativity in adult relationships, and higher adult vagal tone. Results are interpreted as advancing our understanding beyond simply recognizing that adolescent friendships have long-term import, to now identifying specific capacities within friendships that are linked to longer-term outcomes.     

Results of a Pilot Study to Investigate Community College Student Perceptions of the Value of an Online Health-Risk Reduction Program

Health is associated with academic success. Universal, web-based interventions to reduce risks associated with alcohol and other drug use have been found to be effective at changing four-year college students’ health behaviors. An online health program may also be well-suited to a community college population, as it can reach students off campus and can be accessed at times that are convenient for students. The purpose of the current paper is to report the results of a community college student evaluation of a fully-developed, online health risk reduction program. One hundred and thirty four students evaluated the program. Students perceived the program to be successful at addressing college health and wellness issues, and they considered it a tool that could help students make a healthy adjustment to college. A universal, online, health-risk reduction program may have the potential to be a useful component of a community college's overall prevention strategy.     

Integrating Language,Literacy, and Academic Development: Alternatives to Traditional English as a Second Language and Remedial English for Language Minority Students in Community Colleges

This article argues for the importance of integrating a focus on language, literacy, and academic development for United States-educated language minority (US-LM) students, sometimes called Generation 1.5. It describes four initiatives at community colleges in California that aim to do so. US-LM students have completed some K–12 schooling in the United States, but their English is considered by community college faculty, staff, or assessment measures to be inadequate for college-level instruction. Although enacting effective language and literacy support for Generation 1.5 has centered on debates about whether these students belong in English as a Second Language (ESL) or remedial English courses, how they can best be identified and tested, or whether they should be taught in separate classes, we argue that more fundamental shifts are needed. Instead of conceiving of students’ language and literacy development solely in terms of progress through ESL or remedial English sequences, educators designing support for US-LM students must also consider larger contexts of students’ academic progress, promoting students’ development of language and literacy for success in academic and professional settings as well as progress toward completing credits required for associate degrees, certificates, and transfer to four-year institutions.     

Externalizing Problems in Two-Year-Olds: Implications for Patterns of Social Behavior and Peers' Responses to Aggression

A sample of 48 two-year-old children selected on the basis of parents' responses to two administrations of the Child Behavior Checklist for two to three-year-olds was observed in peer interactions. Twenty-four of these children displayed symptoms of aggressive/destructive (externalizing) problems that were in the borderline clinical range (labelled “high risk”) and 24 children displayed few such symptoms (“low risk”). The children were observed in matched dyads (one high risk and one low risk child) across four tasks designed to vary in the degree of social participation they would elicit from the children. Across all tasks, children in the high risk group displayed significantly and consistently more aggressive behavior than the children in the low risk group. However, these high risk children did not differ from other children in terms of several indices of social and nonsocial play. In addition, when children were classified as high aggressive versus average versus low aggressive on the basis of laboratory behavior, children who displayed high amounts of aggression during the play sessions did not differ from less aggressive children on these indices of social play. Finally, the responses of non-aggressive dyad partners to aggressive acts indicated that children are responsive, in relatively subtle ways, to aggression. These results are discussed in terms of the implications of early problematic behavior for later indices of maladjustment that include social competence and peer rejection.     

Examination of a Group Counseling Model of Career Decision Making With College Students

The authors examined the effectiveness of a group career counseling model (Pyle, 2007 ) on college students’ career decision‐making abilities. They used a Solomon 4‐group design and found that students who participated in the career counseling groups had significantly greater increases in career decision‐making abilities than those who did not participate in the groups. Implications for counseling and future research are discussed.     

Work–Life Balance Among Community College Faculty Members: Generational and Life Course Theory Lenses

Generational and life course theory lenses were placed upon one finding of a large-scale qualitative interview-based study focused on if and how community college faculty members construct work–life balance. Twenty-eight interviews with faculty members at a midwestern community college were conducted. Differences regarding to work-life balance approaches between Baby Boomer (n = 15) and Generation X (n = 13) faculty and as mediated by position within the life course are elucidated. We termed this finding tides of life, which is comprised of three subfindings: roles, tenure, and gender performance. Practical implications of this finding are put forward. Better understanding of the nuanced ways in which community college faculty construct work–life balance can inform policy decisions that impact faculty work. Moreover, better understanding of faculty life in a general sense is critical as community college leaders craft policies and refine practices related to faculty employment contracts, work environments, support mechanisms, professional development, and mentoring.     

A study of results overlap and uniqueness among major Web search engines

The performance and capabilities of Web search engines is an important and significant area of research. Millions of people world wide use Web search engines very day. This paper reports the results of a major study examining the overlap among results retrieved by multiple Web search engines for a large set of more than 10,000 queries. Previous smaller studies have discussed a lack of overlap in results returned by Web search engines for the same queries. The goal of the current study was to conduct a large-scale study to measure the overlap of search results on the first result page (both non-sponsored and sponsored) across the four most popular Web search engines, at specific points in time using a large number of queries. The Web search engines included in the study were MSN Search, Google, Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves. Our study then compares these results with the first page results retrieved for the same queries by the metasearch engine Dogpile.com. Two sets of randomly selected user-entered queries, one set was 10,316 queries and the other 12,570 queries, from Infospace’s Dogpile.com search engine (the first set was from Dogpile, the second was from across the Infospace Network of search properties were submitted to the four single Web search engines). Findings show that the percent of total results unique to only one of the four Web search engines was 84.9%, shared by two of the three Web search engines was 11.4%, shared by three of the Web search engines was 2.6%, and shared by all four Web search engines was 1.1%. This small degree of overlap shows the significant difference in the way major Web search engines retrieve and rank results in response to given queries. Results point to the value of metasearch engines in Web retrieval to overcome the biases of individual search engines.     

Information overload within the health care system: a literature review

There is a widespread view held by health clinicians that their work effectiveness is impaired by 'information overload.' Building upon a previous work by Wilson, a review of the literature was undertaken to look for the evidence of this. It was found that the literature, particularly in the context of the clinical environment, was limited. This review explores the diverse overarching theories of information overload, effects of the phenomenon that are perceived to occur and proposed solutions to this problem. Many of the papers noted an information explosion but only three authors explicitly attempted to measure both the quantity and the complexity of this information. It was also found that the typology of the information studied was severely limited with most studies exploring information such as guidelines, access to journals, research findings and other knowledge intensive areas. Solutions proposed seem to concentrate on technological means rather than exploring the use of humans either in management of information or as a step in the filtering process.     

“This Group of Difficult Kids”: The Discourse Preservice English Teachers Use to Label Students

This study attempts to understand how achievement gap Discourse might be present in preservice teachers' (PSTs) Discourse about students they found challenging to teach. Using a Discourse analytic approach, the project considers: How do PSTs describe challenging students in their written reflections? Do PSTs draw on students' multiple identities? Findings reveal PSTs are taking up a Discourse prevalent in today's educational environment in which students, particularly ethnically and linguistically diverse students, are discussed in terms of inadequacy. PSTs typically describe students in terms of a single label, rather than as having multiple identities. Implications include that PSTs might enter teaching with a limited view and incomplete understanding of students and that even a teacher-education program aimed at pushing PSTs to question their assumptions about students might be reifying a systemwide Discourse that identifies students based on labels—sometimes deficit-oriented labels—rather than fuller understandings of students.