Early Attachment Organization Moderates the Parent–Child Mutually Coercive Pathway to Children's Antisocial Conduct

This multimethod study of 101 mothers, fathers, and children elucidates poorly understood role of children's attachment security as moderating a common maladaptive trajectory: from parental power assertion, to child resentful opposition, to child antisocial conduct. Children's security was assessed at 15 months, parents' power assertion observed at 25 and 38 months, children's resentful opposition to parents observed at 52 months, and antisocial conduct rated by parents at 67 months. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that in insecure dyads, parental power assertion predicted children's resentful opposition, which then predicted antisocial conduct. This mechanism was absent in secure dyads. Early insecurity acts as a catalyst for a dyad embarking on mutually adversarial path toward antisocial outcomes, whereas early security defuses this maladaptive trajectory.     

The Determinants of Web Use Within an Economics Principles Course

This article considers the determinants of student access of a specific course Web site from a Principles of Macroeconomics course. As they prepare for the course's in-class exams, students may choose either or both of two Web resource types, a dynamic resource (interactive multiple choice practice exams) or various static resources. The article addresses two related questions. First, we ask whether a given set of characteristics affects the access of these different Web site resources similarly. Second, we explore the influence of certain student characteristics on the student decision to access a given Web resource. In general terms, our findings suggest results that are consistent with existing studies of how students learn. Our results also suggest that a greater diversity of resources will, in fact, elicit wider use of one's course Web site.     

Target students in year 8 science classrooms: A comparison with and extension of existing research

Conclusion The aims of this study were to replicate existing target student research and to investigate the possible contribution student perceptions of their classroom environment could add to existing research findings. Although target students of the types previously identified were found to exist, and found in similar numbers, there the similarity with previous findings ceased. They were not dominantly male and there was a cross-gender relationship with the teacher. The inclusion of student perceptions of their classroom environment did add to the personal characteristics in helping to describe target students. However, their characteristics were not consistent across classes, and although a rationale could be developed to explain the existence of the different types of target students in classrooms, these explanations were idiosyncratic to particular classrooms. The findings in this study would suggest caution in making generalizations about the characteristics of, and rationales for, target students in Year 8 science classrooms.     

Appraising appraisal: Some tensions and some possibilities

Appraisal of academic staff is now a formal part of university procedures. Prior to its introduction there was much exhortation as to the beneficial effects appraisal would bring, and equally forceful arguments about the harmful effects of imposing it as a means of exercising tighter managerial control. The paper presents the findings of an investigation of the academic appraisal programme in the University of Ulster. Consideration of two forms of appraisal, manageralist and developmental, with their associated perspectives on the nature of professional practice, its assessment and improvement, provide the context within which the University of Ulster's programme can be considered. The evidence reveals inconsistency, tension and uncertainty about the programme and its effects: the reader is invited to judge the virtues of the different perspectives and the degree to which the programme's intents and operations meet, or fit, with any of them.     

Toddlers' Attention to the Distress of Peers in a Daycare Setting

The present study examines in toddlers one of the most crucial components of empathy—attention to distress, and, in particular, attention to distress in a daycare setting where others' distress is a frequent occurrence. Characteristics of the child such as age, gender, and frequency of self-distress, and characteristics of the distress incident itself such as type of cry, intensity, cause of distress, and caregiver response were examined in relation to level of responsiveness of the group and level of attending in the individual child. 45 toddlers from 4 daycare centers served as subjects. An ANOVA using 345 distress incidents and level of group responsiveness as the dependent variable revealed that crying and screaming, greater intensity, caregiver responding in general, and “moral” (Turiel, 1983) causes of distress were related to higher levels of attending by the group. An interesting secondary finding was that only 11 of the 345 incidents of distress were responded to with prosocial behavior. Results are discussed in terms of the future of moral education at the preschool level.