The Role of Social Support in Moderating the Relationship Between Psychological Distress and Willingness to Seek Psychological Help Among Black and Latino College Students

This study examined the role of social support in moderating the relationship between psychological distress and willingness to seek psychological help in 158 Black and Latino college students from a large, predominantly White university. The authors found that a social support network served as a significant moderator for Black college students but not for their Latino counterparts. Implications of the findings are presented.     

Thought Experiments in the Theory of Relativity and in Quantum Mechanics: Their Presence in Textbooks and in Popular Science Books

This work investigates the presence of Thought Experiments (TEs) which refer to the theory of relativity and to quantum mechanics in physics textbooks and in books popularizing physics theories. A further point of investigation is whether TEs – as presented in popular physics books – can be used as an introduction to familiarize secondary school students with physics theories of the 20th century. The study of textbooks and popular physics books showed that authors of both types of books consider TEs as an important tool when presenting the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. Furthermore, a qualitative research conducted in secondary education revealed that the historical TEs which were transformed into forms accessible to the public could trigger students’ interest and act as educational material to familiarize them with concepts and principles of the 20th century physics.     

Racism Attitudes,White Racial Identity Attitudes,and Multicultural Counseling Competence in School Counselor Trainees

The author investigated the relative contributions of prior multicultural training, racism attitudes, and White racial identity attitudes to self‐reported multicultural counseling competence in 99 school counselor trainees. After accounting for the number of previous multicultural counseling courses taken, results revealed that racism attitudes and White racial identity attitudes together contributed to significant variance in self‐perceived multicultural counseling competence. In particular, higher levels of racism were correlated with lower levels of self‐reported multicultural counseling competence. Moreover, higher Disintegration racial identity attitudes held by Whites were associated with their lower levels of self‐perceived multicultural counseling competence. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Why Most Children Think Well of Themselves

This research aimed to examine whether and why children hold favorable self‐conceptions (total N = 882 Dutch children, ages 8–12). Surveys (Studies 1–2) showed that children report strongly favorable self‐conceptions. For example, when describing themselves on an open‐ended measure, children mainly provided positive self‐conceptions—about four times more than neutral self‐conceptions, and about 11 times more than negative self‐conceptions. Experiments (Studies 3–4) demonstrated that children report favorable self‐conceptions, in part, to live up to social norms idealizing such self‐conceptions, and to avoid seeing or presenting themselves negatively. These findings advance understanding of the developing self‐concept and its valence: In middle and late childhood, children's self‐conceptions are robustly favorable and influenced by both external (social norms) and internal (self‐motives) forces.     

Reliability and Validity of Behavior Problem Checklists as Measures of Stable Traits in Low Birth Weight, Premature Preschoolers

Mothers, teachers, and assistant teachers completed the Richman Behavior Checklist (BCL) at ages 2 and 3 years and the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 2-3 (CBCL 2-3) at 3 years for a large sample of low birth weight, premature children. Interinstrument correlations for total scores were moderate, higher for teachers and assistant teachers than for mothers, with moderate temporal stability for BCL scores. Interrater agreement for either total scores or classifications of clinically significant scores was moderately high between teachers and assistant teachers only, and children identified as disturbed by mothers versus teachers represent almost nonoverlapping groups. Furthermore, many more children were identified as disturbed using the BCL. The most powerful predictors of mothers' total CBCL 2-3 scores were HOME Inventory scores and self-reported depression. The use of these scales in clinical and research contexts is discussed.     

Teaching Air Pollution in an Authentic Context

This paper describes a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) about air pollution and the findings resulting from its implementation by pre-service elementary teachers (PET) currently undergraduate students of the Department of Primary Education in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. The TLS focused on the relation of air pollution with wind and topography in local conditions. An authentic context was provided to the students based on daily up-to-date meteorological data via the Internet in order to estimate air pollution. The results are encouraging given that PET can correlate wind and concentration of air pollutants through reading specialized angular diagrams and weather maps, can recognize the correlation of topography in the concentration of air pollutants, and can describe temperature inversion. However, the PET demonstrated clear difficulties in ability of orientation, in wind naming, and in interpretation of symbols on weather map. Finally, the implications on teaching air pollution are discussed.     

Child care quality matters: how conclusions may vary with context

Three studies examined associations between early child care and child outcomes among families different from those in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network study. Results suggest that quality is an important influence on children's development and may be an important moderator of the amount of time in care. Thus, the generalizability of the NICHD findings may hinge on the context in which those results were obtained. These studies, conducted in three national contexts, with different regulatory climates, ranges of child care quality, and a diversity of family characteristics, suggest a need for more complete estimates of how both quality and quantity of child care may influence a range of young children's developmental outcomes.     

Happy To Be “Me?” Authenticity,Psychological Need Satisfaction,and Subjective Well‐Being in Adolescence

Adolescents have a strong desire to “be themselves.” How does experiencing authenticity—the sense of being one's true self—influence subjective well‐being? What allows adolescents to experience authenticity? This research tests a working model of how authenticity is implicated in adolescents’ well‐being. Using survey, diary, and experimental methodologies, four studies (total N = 759, age range = 12–17) supported the main tenets of the model. Authenticity (a) enhances well‐being, (b) covaries with satisfaction of psychological needs for relatedness and competence; is caused by satisfaction of the need for autonomy; and (c) mediates the link between need satisfaction and well‐being. Authenticity is more than a powerful motive: It has robust, replicable effects on well‐being and may thus be a pervasive force in positive youth development.