Breaking Down the Coercive Cycle: How Parent and Child Risk Factors Influence Real-Time Variability in Parental Responses to Child Misbehavior

Objective. Parent–child coercive cycles have been associated with both rigidity and inconsistency in parenting behavior. To explain these mixed findings, we examined real-time variability in maternal responses to children’s off-task behavior to determine whether this common trigger of the coercive cycle (responding to child misbehavior) is associated with rigidity or inconsistency in parenting. We also examined the effects of risk factors for coercion (maternal hostility, maternal depressive symptoms, child externalizing problems, and dyadic negativity) on patterns of parenting. Design. Mother–child dyads (N = 96; M child age = 41 months) completed a difficult puzzle task, and observations were coded continuously for parent (e.g., directive, teaching) and child behavior (e.g., on-task, off-task). Results. Multilevel continuous-time survival analyses revealed that parenting behavior is less variable when children are off-task. However, when risk factors are higher, a different profile emerges. Combined maternal and child risk is associated with markedly lower variability in parenting behavior overall (i.e., rigidity) paired with shifts toward higher variability specifically when children are off-task (i.e., inconsistency). Dyadic negativity (i.e., episodes when children are off-task and parents engage in negative behavior) are also associated with higher parenting variability. Conclusions. Risk factors confer rigidity in parenting overall, but in moments when higher-risk parents must respond to child misbehavior, their parenting becomes more variable, suggesting inconsistency and ineffectiveness. This context-dependent shift in parenting behavior may help explain prior mixed findings and offer new directions for family interventions designed to reduce coercive processes.     

KEY INFORMANTS' PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHER LEARNING IN SCOTLAND

ABSTRACT:   This article outlines the policy context for teachers' learning and continuing professional development in Scotland and considers this in relation to the perspectives of key informants gained through interview. The analysis draws on a triple-lens conceptual framework and points to some interesting contradictions between the policy text and the expressed aspirations of the interviewees. Current policy and the associated structural arrangements are viewed as broadly positive, but interviewees express concerns that an unintended emphasis on contractual arrangements might inhibit the more transformative elements of professional learning.     

The organizational impact of university labor unions

The current review presents both postulated and empirically tested consequences of university unionization and labor strikes on the North American institution’s administration, faculty, and students. The review explores the impact of collective bargaining on employee working conditions including job security, academic freedom, university governance, and due process. More importantly, this review examines the much neglected issue of organizational work relationships in a unionized academic environment. The relationships discussed include those between faculty members, between the faculty and administration, between the faculty and the university as an institution, and between the faculty and their union. The threat of unionization and labor strikes to the professor–student or mentor–mentee relationship has been a central concern of those opposed to graduate student unions, and this issue is also addressed here. The text concludes with the identification of potential areas for future research.     

Challenges to university autonomy in initial teacher education programmes: The cases of England,Manitoba and British Columbia

Since the middle of the twentieth century in England and Canada responsibility for the design and delivery of pre-service teacher programmes has been located primarily in universities and their Faculties/Schools of Education. Operating within a tradition of university autonomy, the governance of these programmes is nonetheless constrained by the accreditation and certification requirements of the state and the profession and the pragmatic demands of teachers’ work. Over the last two decades, a variety of provisions have been made to regulate the pre-service preparation of teachers in both countries that have afforded quite different roles and authority to the state, the university, and the teaching profession. It is the interplay of these pressures on the governance of initial teacher preparation in three different jurisdictions—England, Manitoba and British Columbia—and the characterisation of teacher preparation associated with each, that is the focus of this article.     

Getting Started in Academia: A Guide for Educational Psychologists

We identify the major tasks facing pre-tenure faculty members and outline advice, based on a review of the literature and our experiences, for succeeding in academia. The challenges encountered by new faculty include learning the culture of the new academic institution, understanding the processes and policies for academic performance review, establishing meaningful and constructive mentoring relationships, creating a sustainable research agenda as well as fostering the writing attitudes and strategies that promote turning research projects into publications. Also included are recommendations for developing expertise in teaching, cultivating healthy and productive relationships with advisees, and fulfilling service responsibilities. Finally, we suggest strategies for balancing the multiple, and sometimes competing, demands and expectations.     

Strategic alignment of participant motivations in e-government collaborations: The Internet Payment Platform pilot

Large-scale information technology implementations are risky projects, and the challenges and risks multiply when multiple organizations are involved, as is often the case in e-government initiatives. Some of the risk can be addressed by carefully aligning the partners' motivations, which are affected by each organization's internal and external operational and information technology strategies. In this paper, we propose a strategic alignment framework and use it to examine the motivations of a set of collaborating government agencies and businesses in the pilot implementation of the Internet Payment Platform, an interorganizational, third-party hosted, e-procurement system. As we predict, the partners in this study had varied technical, political, economic, and operational motivations for participating in the project. Even so, the participating agencies reported positive outcomes from the project, and look forward to further collaboration on the next iteration of this e-procurement system.     

African American College Students,the Black Church,and Counseling

African American undergraduate students face numerous challenges during college; however, they are less likely to seek help from college counseling services. Often, African Americans seek support from spiritual resources. In the current phenomenological study, participants shared in a focus group interview. Overall, participants seemed to value the Black Church as an integral part of their lives and as an influence on their perceptions of counseling and proclivity to seek counseling services.     

The role of post-visit action resources in facilitating meaningful free-choice learning after a zoo visit

Places like zoos, where free-choice learning is encouraged, are important for conveying climate change and sustainability issues to the public. Free-choice learning that targets environmentally focused sustainable behavior changes must be meaningful in order to encourage actual behavior change post-visit. However, visitors often fail to translate their learning into behavior change after a visit. This research explores the role of post-visit action resources (PVARs) in facilitating long-term learning for individual environmental sustainability after a visit to the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo in Manitoba, Canada. An embedded mixed-methods research design used personal meaning maps and follow-up interviews to measure free-choice learning; data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings revealed that the PVARs positively affected free-choice learning after an on-site visit to the zoo. Recommendations and implications are discussed in relation to practical applications and implications for future research in environmental education.