Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Conduct and Consequences and Their Behaviors Regarding the Use of Social Networking Sites

Cyberbullying and threats of Internet predators, not to mention the enduring consequences of postings, may lead to dangerous, unspeakable consequences. Cyberbullying and threats of Internet predators through social networking sites and instant messaging programs are initiating numerous problems for parents, school administrators, and law enforcement on a national level (McKenna 2007 McKenna, P. 2007. The rise of cyberbullying. New Scientist, 195(2613): 26–27.  [Google Scholar], 60). A 34 item survey was developed to assess Knowledge of appropriate behavior on social networking sites (alpha = .84), Bullying Behavior (alpha = .72), and Internet Use (alpha = .78) of social networking sites for N = 588 grade 7–8 students from an urban and a suburban school. Implications for educators and parents regarding Cyberbullying and Internet Predators are discussed.     

Multum in parvo: Paperbacks in speech

Women process information about support situations and messages more extensively than men, but little is known about whether these gender differences reflect underlying differences in processing ability, motivation, or both. Two studies examined information processing by men and women in both relatively less serious and more serious situations. Participants in Study 1 responded to more and less serious experimental scenarios, whereas participants in Study 2 reported on a recent bereavement situation. In both studies, the pattern of observed gender differences was most consistent with women possessing both greater ability and greater motivation to process information about support situations and messages.     

Real inflation of journal prices: medical journals, U.S. journals, and Brandon list journals

Increases in price during the last twenty years were studied for the journals listed in the 1983 Brandon list, and during the last fifteen years for all medical journals and for U.S. periodicals overall. When compared with increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prices in all three categories of publications have increased much more rapidly than have prices overall. Libraries whose journal-acquisition budgets increased merely at the same rate as the CPI during the periods examined today can purchase only 50% to 70% of the journals they purchased in 1963. This information should help librarians justify budget increases.     

The Development of Regional Dialect Locality Judgments and Language Attitudes Across the Life Span

The development of language attitudes and perception of talker regional background was investigated across the life span (N = 240, age range = 4–75 years). Participants rated 12 talkers on dimensions of geographic locality, status, and solidarity. Children could classify some dialects by locality by age 6–7 years and showed adult-like patterns by age 8 years. Children showed adult-like status ratings for some dialects by age 4–5 years but were not fully adult-like until age 12 years. Solidarity ratings were more variable and did not exhibit a clear developmental trajectory, although some adult-like patterns were in place by age 6–7 years. Locality ratings were a significant but modest predictor of attitude ratings, suggesting that geographic knowledge is one contributor to language attitudes throughout development.     

Assessing Knowledge and Attitudes of U.S. Healthcare Providers about Benefits and Risks of Consuming Seafood

An online needs assessment survey of healthcare providers was developed and implemented to determine knowledge and attitudes about the benefits and risks of consuming seafood along with how this might impact patient/clientele counseling. Only 6 of the 45 knowledge items queried (13%) met the 80% subject mastery or proficiency with a total knowledge score of 56 ± 18%. Based on this survey, it was found that healthcare providers were less than proficient regarding all knowledge areas for seafood. Understanding of seafood safety and contaminants was low. In addition, while the majority (76%) of healthcare respondents knew the correct recommendation for seafood meals per week, they failed to identify the groups that were targeted by the Food and Drug Administration/Environmental Protection Agency (FDA/EPA) advisory about seafood and mercury and therefore could be providing inaccurate information. Attitudinal responses for 18 items resulted in an overall average score of 3.28 ± 0.47 meaning slightly agree (based on a 5‐point Likert scale strongly disagree—strongly agree). While trends showed that it was important to the respondents to provide accurate information (3.78 ± 1.06) about seafood to their patients, they felt more comfortable recommending that their patients follow government advice (3.52 ± 0.91) about both seafood safety and which seafood to eat over other sources. Combined with a low knowledge base, attitudinal responses indicate that there could be a barrier to both outreach education to these healthcare providers and to their patient counseling regarding seafood consumption. Results also showed that a combination of online, science‐based, easy to access information with the capability to provide brochure‐formatted information would appear to be the best way to communicate seafood safety, nutrition, and health information.     

Boys' and girls' weight status and math performance from kindergarten entry through fifth grade: a mediated analysis

This study tests a mediated model of boys’ and girls’ weight status and math performance with 6,250 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. Five data points spanning kindergarten entry (mean age = 68.46 months) through fifth grade (mean age = 134.60 months) were analyzed. Three weight status groups were identified: persistent obesity, later onset obesity, and never obese. Multilevel models tested relations between weight status and math performance, weight status and interpersonal skills and internalizing behaviors, and interpersonal skills and internalizing behaviors and math performance. Interpersonal skills mediated the association between weight status and math performance for girls, and internalizing behaviors mediated the association between weight status and math performance for both sexes, with effects varying by group and time.     

Students prenatally exposed to drugs and alcohol: A survey of school personnel preparation

Abstract

The authors surveyed university faculty regarding preparation of general educators, special educators, and speech‐language pathologists to work with students prenatally exposed to drugs and alcohol. The results confirm that, in general, teacher education and speech‐language pathology programs provide limited information on these students to either preservice or inservice teachers and speech‐language pathologists. The authors also compared the responses of the three groups of faculty and the responses of faculty within their specialization areas. Significant differences were found among the three groups and within the general education faculty group, differences that have significant implications for teacher and speech‐language pathologist preparation programs.     

A Phrase Well Turned: Creative Facility in Narrative Production

It is commonly recognized that messages are simultaneously patterned and creative, but studies of message production have tended to focus on repetitive features of messages, to the relative exclusion of examination of their novel characteristics. This study is concerned with creative facility—the ability readily to construct novel, appropriate messages. In order to investigate this phenomenon, subjects produced a series of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives and also completed measures of speed of information processing (Digit-Symbol Substitution Test, DSST), cognitive tempo (Matching Familiar Figures Test, MFFT), and need for cognitive structure (Personal Need for Structure scale, PNS). Results indicate each of these measures was related to the speed with which participants were able to formulate their narratives. Moreover, the impact of both cognitive tempo, assessed as number of errors on the MFFT, and need for cognitive structure was heightened under more cognitively demanding message-production conditions. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The Creative Character of Talk: Individual Differences in Narrative Production Ability

The creative character of human message behavior is at once ubiquitous and elusive. Our talk is routinely novel, and yet our understanding of the processes that give rise to such creativity is in its infancy. Moreover, everyday experience suggests that some people are simply better at “thinking on their feet” than are others. The current studies sought to ascertain whether people do, indeed, differ in their ability to produce novel messages or whether our impression of individual differences is more perceived than actual. Two studies involving examination of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives are reported. The results of Study 1 suggest that people do differ in their message-production abilities. Additional analyses suggest that this individual difference in message-production ability is distinct from extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. EPQ lie-scale scores were, however, related to narrative-production performance, and this may reflect differences in social knowledge and skill. Study 2 replicated the finding of an individual difference in narrative-production ability and again indicated that performance in the experimental paradigm is related to lie-scale scores, but not extraversion or neuroticism (as those dimensions are assessed by the EPI). Additional findings in both studies relate message fluency to the cognitive demands of narrative production. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.