Relations of Children's Effortful Control and Teacher-Child Relationship Quality to School Attitudes in a Low-Income Sample

RESEARCH FINDINGS: The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of children's effortful control and quality of relationships with teachers to school attitudes longitudinally in an ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged sample. Data were collected as part of a larger intervention project during mid-fall, winter, and late spring (ns = 823, 722, and 758, respectively) for 2 cohorts of 3- to 5-year-olds (collected during 2 different school years). Children's effortful control was assessed in the fall with parents' and teachers' reports and 2 behavioral measures. Teacher-child relationship quality was assessed mid-year with teachers' reports of closeness and conflict. Attitudes toward school were assessed in late spring using teachers' and students' reports of school avoidance and liking. Effortful control, in general, was positively correlated with teacher-child closeness and school liking and negatively correlated with conflict and school avoidance. Using structural equation modeling and controlling for sex and ethnicity, we found that effortful control was positively related to teacher-child relationship quality, which in turn was positively related to school attitudes. Furthermore, the relation of effortful control to school attitudes was mediated by teacher-child relationship quality. PRACTICE OR POLICY: Results provide evidence for the importance of relational processes that take place within the classroom context and have implications for teachers and clinicians working to increase school success in ethnic minority and low-income children.     

Factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding 2 to 4 weeks following discharge from a large, urban, academic medical center striving for baby-friendly designation

Substantial evidence documents the superiority of breastfeeding for mothers and breastmilk for babies. Although the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Healthy People 2010 initiative promote breastfeeding, current breastfeeding rates often fall short of recommendations. This study determined factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding 2 to 4 weeks following discharge from a large, urban, academic medical center striving for Baby-Friendly designation. Results indicated that mothers who breastfed within the first hour of birth (61%) were significantly more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding 2 to 4 weeks after discharge. Incorporating care practices that include a number of the "Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding," as recommended by the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, may increase the duration of exclusive breastfeeding after discharge.     

Development of deaf identity: an ethnographic study

This ethnographic study explores the identity development of 9 deaf participants through the narratives of their educational experiences in either mainstream or special schools for the Deaf. This exploration goes beyond a binary conceptualization of deaf identity that allows for only the medical and social models and proposes a bicultural "dialogue model." This postmodern theoretical framework is used to examine the diversity of identities of deaf learners. The inclusion of the researcher's own fluid cross-cultural identity as a bicultural "DeaF" participant in this study provides an auto-ethnographic gateway into exploring the lives of other deaf, Deaf, or bicultural DeaF persons. The findings suggest that deaf identity is not a static concept but a complex ongoing quest for belonging, a quest that is bound up with the acceptance of being deaf while "finding one's voice" in a hearing-dominant society. Through the use of dialogue and narrative tools, the study challenges educators, parents, and researchers to broaden their understanding of how deaf identity, and the dignity associated with being a deaf person is constructed.     

Theory of mind in dogs?: examining method and concept

In line with other research, Udell, Dorey, and Wynne’s (in press) finding that dogs and wolves pass on some trials of a putative theory-of-mind test and fail on others is as informative about the methods and concepts of the research as about the subjects. This commentary expands on these points. The intertrial differences in the target article demonstrate how critical the choice of cues is in experimental design; the intersubject-group differences demonstrate how life histories can interact with experimental design. Even the best-designed theory-of-mind tests have intractable logical problems. Finally, these and previous research results call for the introduction of an intermediate stage of ability, a rudimentary theory of mind, to describe subjects’ performance.     

Choice and goal-directed behavior in preschool children

Preschool children (3–4 years old) were trained to perform two actions to gain different outcomes, in the form of video clips from different cartoons, before one of these outcomes was devalued by noncontingent exposure. The effect of outcome devaluation was subsequently assessed in an extinction test by giving children the opportunity to perform both actions in the absence of any outcomes. When the two actions were trained concurrently, performance during the test was modulated by outcome value and children showed a preference for the action trained with the currently valued outcome. By contrast, when each action was trained separately on different trials, test performance was insensitive to outcome devaluation. These effects of the training schedules are interpreted in terms of dual-process theories of action control.     

我的吻在哪里

小女孩儿名叫辛迪。她有一个和睦的家,日子过得很不错。但这个家从一开始就缺少了一样东西,只不过辛迪还没有意识到。辛迪9岁那年,有一天到朋友德比家去玩儿,留在那儿过夜。睡觉时,德比的妈妈给两个女孩儿盖上被子,并亲吻了她们,祝她们晚安。"我爱你。"德比的妈妈说。"我也爱你。"德比说。辛迪惊奇得睡不着觉。因为在这之前从没人吻     

以90后视角写青春之作

我经常收到一些读者投稿,作文前面往往附着自我简介之类的资料,这些文字往往很有灵气,就是家常话也给人一种很亲切的感觉。比如,有个同学爆料她的家庭,说爸爸生意失败,一家人过得很苦,后来爸爸振作精神去跑运输,又出了车祸。妹妹不太听话,吃     

11大周星驰头号接班人 揪出来

周星驰了不得,一个人就能把千千万万男女老少逗得前仰后合稀里哗啦。不过,浩瀚搞笑天地,老是靠一人撑着顶着扛着玩着也实在难为他。偏偏他又喜欢孤身作战,老没下决心培养接班人,将周氏搞笑风采有计划有方向地传播延续下去。我等看在眼里,急在心里,特地为星爷苦心搜罗11位头号接班人,请无厘头掌门人尽早留心考察这些人选,争取在明年此时师徒并肩搞笑,星光DOUBLE灿烂!     

育人先育心

“我1966年毕业于师范学院。但教书的时间不长,因为我被选举为共青团区委第一书记。我记得区党委的一位同志当时对我说:你是教师,共青团工作嘛,跟学校工作是同一回事,主要的是育人。“我已经当了五个月的书记。我区地处农村,学生团员几乎占百分之七十。困难不少。我有时参加会,有时跟青年男女交谈,发现他们对讨论和决定的事情压根儿无所     

自学单元程序教材介绍:化学键(二)

伸展在晶格内的离子键很强,因此从晶格中移走离子是困难的。由于这个原因,离子型化合物具有较高的熔点和沸点。存在于共价型固体或液体中的分子间的作用力没有这样强(除1～2例外),使分子聚集在一起的作用力布遍于固体中也是不强的。考虑下列的气化热: