Communicating love: Comparisons between American and East Asian university students

This study examined cultural differences in communicating love among 143 young adults from the US and East Asian countries of China, Japan, and South Korea. Through inductive analyses we examined similarities and differences in the activities and beliefs Americans and East Asians have about love in friendship and marriage, as well as the activities and ways in which love is expressed. Americans and East Asians reported that caring, trust, respect, and honesty were all important beliefs about love in friendship, and trust was an important belief about love in marriage. Love in marriage was seen as important and unconditional for Americans, while East Asians were more likely to report caring as an important belief. Sports, preparing food, and shopping were activities associated with expressing love for Americans, while talking and preparing food constituted activities for expressing love for East Asians. Finally, both US and East Asian students expressed love to a friend through acts of support, open discussion, and the sharing of common experiences, while they expressed love to a spouse through physical intimacy, acts of support, and expressions of love such as “I love you” and “I miss you.”     

Relational and Overt Aggression in Disruptive Adolescents: Prediction from Early Social Representations and Links with Concurrent Problems

Children's representations of conflict and distress situations at 7 years were examined as developmental precursors to relational aggression, overt aggression, and psychiatric symptoms in early adolescence. Children were identified in early adolescence. Children were identified in preschool as normally developing or with behavior problems. Overt, but not relational, aggression, was correlated with concurrent disruptive symptoms in adolescence. Childhood predictors of adolescent aggression were found only for girls: Early hostile themes predicted more relational and overt aggression, while prosocial themes predicted less relational aggression. Also for girls only, early emotions foretold later functioning: Sadness predicted a higher ratio of relational to overt aggression, while inexpressiveness predicted disruptive, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Relational and overt aggression are discussed with regard to sex differences in symptom changes over time.     

Market Forces and Strategic Adaptation: The Influence of Private Scholarships on Planning in Urban School Systems

While the current debate about the effects of vouchers focuses on the effects of private schools on achievement, it is also important to examine how the introduction of need-based scholarships influences change in school systems. This study uses a qualitative method to examine the influence of a privately funded scholarship program on strategic adaptations within urban public and private schools in a major metropolitan area. The study revealed that senior administrators in public and private schools rapidly adapted their strategies to contend with the new program: suburban public schools prevented scholarship students from enrolling; urban public schools increased choices for public school students; and private schools actively recruited students. However, the scholarships had little influence on the ways these administrators viewed school choice.     

Building and sustaining communities that prevent mental disorders: Lessons from the field of special education

Quietly, at least beyond the awareness of many psychologists, a relatively new technology based on school‐wide behavior management strategies has emerged in special education to answer the call to build healthy communities. The success of these strategies in changing the practices of school systems and creating positive school climates may offer insights for school psychologists interested in preventing mental disorders and promoting health on a broader scale. Spreading the influence of school‐wide behavior supports to ensure that all schools provide the nurturing environment needed to promote academic and life success for all children is an important and immediate goal. Beyond the school, the challenge will be to implement and evaluate the impact of positive behavior supports in other connected communities. The present article reviews the history and present state of school‐wide behavior supports and prevention research, limitations of current practice, and opportunities for integrating school‐wide programs with psychological science and practice. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 313–329, 2006.     

Using the Millon College Counseling Inventory to Assess Student Mental Health Needs

Students visiting college counseling centers experience a broad range of complex and sometimes severe concerns that are often not adequately addressed by existing clinical measures. In response, the Millon College Counseling Inventory (MCCI; T. Millon, S. N. Strack, C. Millon, & S. Grossman, 2006) was specifically designed for use with contemporary college populations. The authors introduce the MCCI, briefly explain its development, discuss its utility for everyday use in counseling centers, and offer a fictional case illustration.     

An evaluation of intensive intervention for students with persistent reading difficulties

To evaluate the effects of an intensive tertiary reading intervention, 27 students with severe reading difficulties and disabilities, 14 of whom had demonstrated an inadequate response to 1-2 tiers of prior reading instruction, received a 16-week intervention package involving decoding and fluency skills. The decoding intervention was provided for 2 hours per day for 8 weeks and was based on the Phono-Graphix program. The fluency intervention followed the decoding intervention and involved 1 hour of daily instruction for 8 weeks based on the Read Naturally program. The 16-week intervention resulted in significant improvement in reading decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Although individual responses to the intervention were variable, 12 of the 27 students showed a significant response to these interventions. Students who had participated in previous Tier 1 plus Tier 2 interventions but remained impaired had a stronger response to intervention in the current study than students who had previously participated only in Tier 1 intervention and students who had not received prior intervention outside of special education.     

Correlates of Sustained Volunteering: Advocacy for Students with Disabilities

Parents of students with disabilities often receive support from special education advocates, who may be trained through a variety of programs. Using a web-based survey, this study examined the postgraduation advocacy activities of 83 graduates of one such volunteer advocacy training program. In the one to four years after program graduation, 63.8% (53 of 83) of the graduates advocated for one or more families; these sustained advocates reported stable rates of advocacy over time, and advocates performed activities that were either family-focused or school-focused. For graduates who advocated post-training, amounts of advocacy were positively related to satisfaction with advocating and with higher levels of involvement with other advocates and with the broader disability community. Compared to those not advocating after graduating, sustained advocates reported greater advocacy-role identities, increased involvement in disability groups, and higher likelihood to advocate in the upcoming year. Future research and practice implications are discussed.