Spatial Ability Mediates the Gender Difference in Middle School Students' Science Performance

Prior research has demonstrated a male advantage in spatial skills and science achievement. The present research integrated these findings by testing the potential role of spatial skills in gender differences in the science performance of eighth‐grade students (13–15 years old). In 2 (N = 113), the findings showed that mental rotation ability mediated gender differences in physical science and technology/engineering test scores. In 3 (N = 73,245), science performance was examined in a state population of eighth‐grade students. As in 2 , the results revealed larger gender differences on items that showed higher correlations with mental rotation. These findings underscore the importance of considering spatial training interventions aimed at reducing gender differences in the science performance of school‐aged children.     

Promoting Desirable Outcomes Among Culturally and Ethnically Diverse Children in Social Emotional Learning Programs: a Multilevel Heuristic Model

The primary goal of this article is to situate the findings from evidence-based studies of social emotional learning (SEL) interventions into a broader social context by reframing the discussion to consider how aspects of sociocultural competence impact the development and delivery of programs. The limitations of current SEL intervention efforts are discussed and a multilevel heuristic model that identifies and defines the theoretical constructs that we believe are culturally bound and associated with the content, implementation, and evaluation components of SEL intervention programs is presented. We point out constraints associated with this effort and offer specific strategies and activities by which school personnel involved in these activities can be encouraged to embrace socioculturally based SEL practices in their classrooms and offer guidance for future research.     

Emotion Labeling Among Young Children in Foster Care

Research Findings: Emotion knowledge is a core developmental process that has a documented relation to other aspects of social-emotional functioning, including social competence, emotion regulation, and behavior problems. Children who are maltreated have been found to have compromised emotion knowledge skills as well as higher levels of behavior problems. The current study was designed to add to the small literature on emotion knowledge in children who have been maltreated and are in foster care, with an examination of child and family processes that contributed to their emotion labeling skills. Young children in foster care were administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Affect Knowledge Task while their foster mothers completed a background questionnaire during a data collection home visit. Findings revealed that participant children's verbal ability contributed greatly to their capacity to accurately label emotions. Family processes also contributed to this skill above and beyond verbal ability. Practice or Policy: Parenting interventions for foster parents should be designed to address core developmental processes of early childhood, such as emotion knowledge.     

Magnetic compass orientation in C57BL/6J mice

We report evidence for a robust magnetic compass response in C57BL/6J mice. Mice were trained to build their nests in one of four magnetic directions by creating a light gradient along the long axis of a rectangular cage and positioning a nest box at the opposite (dark) end. The mice were then tested overnight in a circular, visually symmetrical arena in one of four magnetic field alignments. The positions of the nests built in the test arena showed strong unimodal orientation in the magnetic direction coinciding with the dark end of the training cage.     

Comparing Bachelor’s Degree Curricula at Three Groups of Colleges and Universities: Flexibility or Idiosyncrasy?*

Despite baccalaureates in criminal justice (BCJ) being among the most awarded degrees in this country, little published research has appeared in recent years on these programs or their curricula. Using 2015–2016 data collected from the population of BCJ-granting institutions (N = 670) in the U.S., we partially replicated Southerland’s 2002 Criminal justice curricula in the United States: A decade of Change and extended Sloan and Buchwalter’s 2016 The state of bachelor’s degree programs in the United States: Institutional, department, and curricula features analyses of BCJ curricula by comparing selected features of them across three groups of colleges/universities: public, private, not-for-profit, and private, for-profit. Results revealed significant differences existed in curricula by institutional locus of control, indicating a general lack of consensus on undergraduate curricula, including in such fundamental areas as total hours needed for the major. We discuss the implications of these results for the discipline, including revisiting accreditation as a mechanism for creating standardized curricula, and suggest further research on the status of undergraduate education to help insure the discipline offers the highest quality baccalaureate programs possible.