Multivariate Behavioral Genetic Analysis of Parenting in Early Childhood

Objective. Caregivers play an important role in child development; in addition to instilling their norms and values in their children through socialization, caregivers modify their parenting practices in response to children’s characteristics. Previous studies have documented child genetic effects on parenting behaviors, but multivariate behavioral genetic examinations of parenting are scarce. Design. The current study examined the multivariate structure of child genetic and environmental influences on parenting in a sample of 236 individual twins aged 0–5 years, providing a total of 542 observations. Results. “Shared environments” (between-family environmental differences that are shared by twins reared in the same home, including parental characteristics, family socioeconomic status, and neighborhood characteristics) account for the majority of variation in parenting practices, whereas child genetic effects are more modest and occur more on specific parenting practices. Conclusion. Caregivers generally engage in similar parenting across children reared together and, at the same time, adjust their broad parenting approach and particularly their specific practices in response to genetically driven child characteristics. Future research may benefit from using a multidimensional framework to examine the different components and age-related transformations in these parent-driven and child-driven processes.     

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.     

The Content of Educational Psychology: an Analysis of Top Ranked Journals from 2003 Through 2007

Educational psychology as a field of study has encountered a lack of distinction by overlapping with other fields of study or disciplines. Consequently, educational psychology continues to have difficulty claiming jurisdiction over bodies of research knowledge and has been encroached upon by other more crystallized disciplines. The purpose of this study is to examine the research literature published across top-ranked educational psychology journals to identify the common ground and current trends in research content and to identify those areas that can be reclaimed by the discipline as its own. Overall, 758 articles published in six journals from January 2003 through December 2007 were included in this study. A combination of statistics-based and linguistics-based methods were used to determine how frequently terms occur in the data and establishing a semantic network which created a probabilistic analysis of the co-occurrence of terms resulting in a constellation of terms showing the relationship and relative importance of the categories of terms. The results showed a consistency of research categories suggesting that in spite of reports to the contrary, there is a collective agreement among educational psychologists demonstrated by the empirical research in the field.     

The HPT model applied to a kayak company's registration process

This case study describes the step‐by‐step application of the traditional human performance technology (HPT) model at a premier kayak company located on the coast of North Carolina. The HPT model was applied to address lost revenues related to three specific business issues: misinformed customers, dissatisfied customers, and guides not showing up for tours or lessons at the kayak company. The case study includes problem statements, organizational analysis, environmental analysis, gap analysis, cause analysis, and proposed interventions.     

The growing (but still limited) importance of evidence in education policy and practice

The last decade of education change has been characterized by the rise of evidence-based policy and practice agendas. Internationally, we are witnessing efforts to increase and incorporate research use in public services. This article examines efforts in education to address the research–practice gap through an emerging field we term knowledge mobilization (KM). We explore some of the controversy surrounding the use of ‘evidence’, outline national and international KM initiatives and consider some of the issues and challenges that arise from the increased interest in evidence and research use in education. We also assess the current state and desirable future directions of efforts to strengthen the role of research and evidence in education.     

Participation,financial support and the marginal student

This paper examines differences between the decision-making of marginal and nonmarginal students about participation in higher education (HE). We distinguish between two kinds of marginality: being ‘borderline’ on account of prior achievements in school and being ‘unsure’ after taking prior achievement into account. We identify a significant minority of students in their final year of schooling who are unsure about participation in higher education even though they have prior school achievements typical of entrants to HE. Being ‘unsure’ is found to be unrelated to socioeconomic background, but it is associated with significantly different attitudes towards the potential benefits and risks of participation, different levels of knowledge about financial support that is available and different approaches to information search about participation in HE.

Grade retention: Current decision‐making practices and involvement of school psychologists working in public schools

Research examining student outcomes (e.g., achievement, adjustment) after grade retention reveals that it does not result in long‐term improvements for students; however, grade retention continues to be used as an intervention. The purpose of this study was to examine retention decision‐making practices, as well as school psychologists' knowledge, beliefs, and opinions regarding retention. Actual and ideal roles of school psychologists in grade retention decisions were also examined. Participants included 250 school psychologists randomly selected from the membership of the National Association of School Psychologists. Results revealed that the decision to retain is a subjective one, typically made by a team. Responding school psychologists did not support retention and found the research moderately applicable to practice. However, most school psychologists indicated that they were not centrally involved in decision making. Findings also revealed a desire among school psychologists for increased involvement in developing and/or implementing programs aimed at improving performance and consulting on the effects of retention. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Changes in children's peer interactions following a natural disaster: How predisaster bullying and victimization rates changed following Hurricane Katrina

Youth exposed to disasters experience stress and adjustment difficulties, which likely influence their interactions with peers. In this study, we examined changes in bullying and peer victimization in two cohorts of children. Youth from an area affected by Hurricane Katrina were assessed pre‐ and postdisaster (n = 96, mean [M] = 10.9 years old, 53% female), and a comparison group from a nearby area was assessed over the same time interval 1 year prior (n = 120, M = 10.2 years old, 52% female). Within the hurricane group, relations between symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with bullying and victimization also were examined. Following the hurricane, the hurricane group reported increased relational and overt bullying relative to the nonhurricane group, and PTSD symptoms predicted increased victimization. Thus, school personnel should be vigilant and prepared to respond to increased bullying following disasters and for increased victimization in youth experiencing PTSD symptoms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Capturing and Enhancing Science Teachers’ Professional Knowledge

This paper reports research from a three-year Australian science teacher professional learning project, the Science Teaching and Learning (STaL) Project, in which groups of science teacher participants (across years K – 12) worked with academics over a one-year period as teacher researchers. Through reflecting on their experiences within the STaL Project and collecting data from their classrooms related to specific science teaching concerns, teacher participants constructed cases around particular aspects of their professional learning. The cases that these participants developed elicited rich insights into their teaching and their students’ learning of science. This paper discusses how the cases were developed by the teacher researcher participants and uses exemplars as a way of illustrating the nature of the professional knowledge developed.