Cortisol levels of caregivers in child care centers as related to the quality of their caregiving

The present study examined whether stress in professional caregivers – as reflected in salivary cortisol levels – is related to the quality of their caregiving behavior. The 221 professional female caregivers in 64 child care centers were observed in three different situations and saliva samples were taken three times during the morning. Results showed that higher levels of cortisol, particularly at the beginning of the workday, predicted lower-quality caregiver behavior beyond the contribution of three other predictors, namely a higher self-reported physical workload, more children under age two in the care group, and lower caregiver age. Contrary to the expectation, higher cortisol levels did not mediate the relation between higher self-reported physical workload and more children under age two on the one hand and lower-quality caregiving behavior on the other.     

Social competence in internationally adopted and institutionalized children

A growing, sizable proportion of school children do not live in conventional family environments. Among these, internationally adopted children have gained increasing visibility in recent years. While other areas of their behavior have been widely explored, little is known about adopted children's social competence and their integration into peer groups. This study, involving 148 children between 4 and 8 years of age, compared 40 internationally adopted children with 50 children who were residing in institutions for children and 58 community comparison children. Social competence, problems with peers and friendship relationships were assessed using SSRS and SDQ, with both parents/caretakers and teachers as the informants. The sociometric status of the children and their friendship relationships were obtained through their teachers’ reports. The results showed statistically significant differences between children living in institutions (more problems with peers, poorer social skills and sociometric status) and those in family environments, whether adopted and non-adopted. Also, the results suggest some minor differences between the adopted and the comparison children, the former with greater visibility and the latter with higher sociometric status in the peer group.     

Jerome S. Bruner: una teoría de la educación

RESUMEN

En este artículo se examinan las ideas sobre educación de Jerome Bruner a dos niveles distintos. Por una parte, puesto que Bruner es un Psicólogo cognitivo, el énfasis de esas ideas recae fundamentalmente sobre las implicaciones que, las aportaciones de la psicología evolutiva en lo relativo a la evolución de la inteligencia, tienen para la educación. Por otra parte, se hace una revisión de los problemas implícitos en la formulación de una teoría de la educación, tal y como Bruner los ve, problemas que abarcan desde la necesidad de que los contenidos de la enseñanza sean significativos hasta las implicaciones sociales de una teoría de la educación. Se resalta la necesidad de colaboración entre Psicología y Pedagogía y se señalan los aspectos en que esa colaboración puede ser efectiva.     

Estudio de los efectos de la estimulación precoz en bebés con el síndrome de Down

RESUMEN

Existe una relación positiva entre la estimulación precoz regular y continuada y la maduración del sistema nervioso central. De cara a conseguir el máximo rendimiento de las posibilidades físicas e intelectuales de niños con lesiones y/o anomalías genéticas, se propone un trabajo experimental para comprobar los efectos de la estimulación precoz (control postural, coordinación sensomotora, sociabilidad y lenguaje) en grupos de bebés con síndrome de Down a los que se trató desde la primera semana de vida hasta los seis meses de edad. Aparte de las mejoras evidentes en estas tres áreas, a la vista de los resultados se concluye que la estimulación precoz parece ser un método válido para disminuir los déficits del desarrollo. El cociente de desarrollo en el grupo estimulado según la escala de Brunet-Lezine es significativamente más elevado que en el grupo de control. Además, los niños del grupo estimulado se mostraron más vivaces, activos y con más curiosidad hacia lo que les rodeaba.     

Ideas,interacción,ambiente educativo y desarrollo: informe preliminar

Resumen

Se presenta en este trabajo un informe preliminar de una investigación longitudinal en la que las ideas evolutivo-educativas son evaluadas a lo largo del tiempo y se ponen en relación con las interacciones que 70 parejas (maridos y esposas) desarrollan con sus hijos de alrededor de 22 meses en situaciones diversas; se analiza también la relación con la estructuración del entorno físico y social del hogar, así como con el desarrollo del niño. Se han encontrado relaciones positivas entre las diferentes clases de padres definidos por sus ideas y las variables dependientes examinadas (contenidos de las interacciones, estimulación del hogar, desarrollo del niño).     

"I'm Not a Feminist...I Only Defend Women as Human Beings": The Production,Representation, and Consumption of Feminism in a Telenovela

This study examines a successful Latin American media product - the Venezuelan telenovela El País de las Mujeres [The Country of Women] - and analyzes how feminism and feminists are represented in it. Through interviews with the head writer and actors, the study also explores the production of these portrayals. In addition, consumption of the serial's representation of feminism is analyzed through individual and group interviews with audience members. The study highlights the paradoxes involved in the production and consumption of a media text that simultaneously delivers a critique of Venezuelan patriarchy, an empowering message for women, and a sharp rejection of feminism.     

Strategic knowledge management, innovation and performance

Our aim is to shed light on the consequences of knowledge management (KM) strategies on firm's innovation and corporate performance. Organisations are not aware of the real implications that KM may have. Based on an empirical study consisted of 310 Spanish organisations and structural equations modelling, results show that both KM strategies (codification and personalisation) impacts on innovation and organisational performance directly and indirectly (through an increase on innovation capability). Also, findings demonstrate a different effect of KM strategies on diverse dimensions of organisational performance. Our conclusions may help academics and managers in designing KM strategic programs in order to achieve higher innovation, effectiveness, efficiency and profitability.     

Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2): Evaluating the Swedish version by confirmatory factor analyses

The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) is one of the most frequently used instruments when assessing competitive state anxiety in sport psychology research. However, doubts have been expressed about the factorial validity of both the English and the Greek versions of the scale. Hence, a revised version of the inventory (CSAI-2R) has recently been suggested to be more psychometrically sound (Cox et al., ). In the present study, the aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the CSAI-2 using confirmatory factor analyses. A total of 969 athletes (571 men and 398 women) competing in 26 different sports completed the Swedish version of the CSAI-2. Three different factor structures were evaluated: the original three-factor model (with cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence), a two-factor model in which self-confidence was excluded, and a three-factor model containing 17 items (CSAI-2R). The results revealed that only the 17-item model displayed an acceptable fit to the data. Although some doubts remain about the amount of variance that can be attributed to error variance in the subscales, the results suggest that it is better to use the CSAI-2R rather than the original CSAI-2.     

Modelling the dynamics of children’s gross motor coordination

ABSTRACT

This study modelled children’s gross motor coordination, investigated sex-differences and identified the effects of fixed and dynamic correlates on motor coordination development. A total of 344 Portuguese children (170 girls), from 6 age cohorts (5 to 9 years of age), were followed consecutively for three years (age range 5 to 11 years) using a mixed-longitudinal cohort design. Birth weight, hand dominance and socioeconomic status (SES) were identified. Gross motor coordination, body mass index, physical fitness (PF) and physical activity (PA) were assessed annually. A sequence of multilevel hierarchical linear models were developed. Model 1 found that age, age², sex, sex-by-age and sex-by-age² were significant predictors (p < 0.05) of gross motor coordination. Boys outperformed girls from 6 years of age onwards. Model 2 found a cohort effect (p < 0.05). Model 3 found that right handers were more coordinated (p < 0.05). When the confounders of body mass index, PF and PA were added to the model (Model 4) it was found that boys and girls had parallel trajectories in their gross motor coordination development. In conclusion children with increasing body mass index were less coordinated, while those who were stronger and more agile had steeper trajectories of gross motor coordination with age.