Peer victimization, poor academic achievement, and the link between childhood externalizing and internalizing problems

This study explored whether early elementary school aged children’s externalizing problems impede academic functioning and foster negative social experiences such as peer victimization, thereby making these children vulnerable for developing internalizing problems and possibly increasing their externalizing problems. It also explored whether early internalizing problems contributed to an increase in externalizing problems. The study examined 1,558 Canadian children from ages 6 to 8 years. Externalizing and internalizing problems, peer victimization, and school achievement were assessed annually. Externalizing problems lead to academic underachievement and experiences of peer victimization. Academic underachievement and peer victimization, in turn, predicted increases in internalizing problems and in externalizing problems. These pathways applied equally to boys and girls. No links from internalizing to externalizing problems were found.     

Meeting needs assessment challenges: Applying the performance pyramid in the U.S. Army

This article describes an application of the Performance Pyramid, a needs assessment framework that supports a holistic view of an organization allowing assessors to identify how organizational culture may affect performance. We illustrate use of the Performance Pyramid for a needs assessment with human systems integration practitioners in the U.S. Army. We describe how the Performance Pyramid guided our methods, data collection, and results interpretation and discuss advantages and disadvantages of the methodology.     

Book Publishing

The Oxford University Press and the Spread of Learning: An Illustrated History, by Nicolas Barker (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1978 —$25.00)

The Oxford University Press: An Informal History, by Peter Sutcliffe (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1978—$15.00)

Mary Hill and Wendell Cochran's Into Print: A Practical Guide to Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing (Los Altos, Calif.: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1977—$12.00/6.951)

Stanley Rice's Book Design: Systematic Aspects (274 pp., $17.50)

Stanley Rice's Book Design: Text Format Models (215 pp., $17.50)

John Y. Cole, ed. The Library of Congress in Perspective: A Volume Based on the Reports of the 1976 Librarian's Task Force and A visory Groups (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1978—$21.95)

Literary Market Place: 1978 Edition (New York: R.R. Bowker, 1978— $22.50, paper)     

School reform policy in England since 1988: relentless pursuit of the unattainable

There is growing concern that almost 20 years after the 1988 Education Act, top‐down, large‐scale reform has stalled. The policy mix of choice, competition, markets, regulation, accountability and leadership seems not to have closed the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged areas and individuals, while most variations in school performance can be explained in terms of intake differences. This paper reviews policy and progress since 1988 and assesses the extent to which central government has achieved its educational aims. Unacknowledged tensions and contradictions are identified in structures and practices that are supposed to constitute a reliable framework for sustainable improvement. The conclusion is drawn that since 1988 the national government apparatus has itself become an important obstacle to further progress. An independent review of policy‐making and implementation is recommended so that schools and colleges are enabled to contribute more effectively to improvements in the quality of education.     

Parents do matter: trajectories of change in externalizing and internalizing problems in early adolescence

This study examined the relative influence of three parenting behaviors (support, behavioral control, and psychological control) and deviant peers on trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems in early adolescence. A white, working-to-middle-class sample of adolescents and their mothers and fathers in two-earner families participated in a 32-year longitudinal study (N = 109 families). The study began when the adolescents were in sixth grade (M age = 11.5 years). Analyses showed that parents' firm behavioral control seemed to halt the upward trajectory in externalizing problems among adolescents with deviant peers. Initial levels of internalizing problems were higher among adolescents with parents who reported lower levels of behavioral control and among adolescents with deviant peers. This study suggests that parenting exerts an important influence in adolescents' lives and may do so even in the face of potentially negative peer influence.     

Accessing university education: perceptions, preferences, and expectations for interpreting by deaf students

This paper provides a brief review of the history of deaf education in Australia, Australian Sign Language (Auslan), and Auslan interpreting. A panel of Australian deaf university students from diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds provides insights into their perceptions of sign language interpreting provision in university lectures. They commented on their interpreting preferences after viewing two videotaped segments of university lecture interpretation, one demonstrating a predominantly free approach and the other a predominantly literal approach. Expectations of the deaf students were explored in relation to the educational backgrounds and qualifications of university interpreters; comprehension of interpreters is also discussed. Results suggest that the university students preferred interpreters to combine both interpretation styles, switching between literal and free approaches when appropriate. In doing so, students can access lecture content in Auslan while accessing subject-specific terminology or academic language in English. In terms of qualifications, the students advocated for interpreters to have a university qualification in general, especially if they are working in a university context. However, the students also acknowledged that interpreting did not provide them with full access in educational settings.     

A Methylome‐Wide Association Study of Trajectories of Oppositional Defiant Behaviors and Biological Overlap With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

In 671 mother–child (49% male) pairs from an epidemiological birth cohort, we investigated (a) prospective associations between DNA methylation (at birth) and trajectories (ages 7–13) of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and the ODD subdimensions of irritable and headstrong; (b) common biological pathways, indexed by DNA methylation, between ODD trajectories and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); (c) genetic influence on DNA methylation; and (d) prenatal risk exposure associations. Methylome‐wide significant associations were identified for the ODD and headstrong, but not for irritable. Overlap analysis indicated biological correlates between ODD, headstrong, and ADHD. DNA methylation in ODD and headstrong was (to a degree) genetically influenced. DNA methylation associated with prenatal risk exposures of maternal anxiety (headstrong) and cigarette smoking (ODD and headstrong).