Stability in Mother-Child Interactions from Infancy through Adolescence

OBJECTIVE: The current study examines homotypic stability in mother-child interactions, applying similar rating scales of mother-child interactions at 1 and 4.5 years, and heterotypic stability from 1 to 13 years and 4.5 to 13 years, using conceptually similar but not identical rating scales at age 13. DESIGN: We coded videotaped mother-child interactions in 202 families when children were 1, 4.5, and 13 years of age during age-appropriate and developmentally salient structured tasks for relationship quality. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses controlled for the effects of child birth order and gender as well as maternal age and education. Maternal and dyadic, but not child, mother-child interaction qualities at 1 year significantly predicted similar or equivalent constructs at 4.5 and 13 years. Heterotypic stability from 1 to 13 years was partially or fully mediated by the same constructs at 4.5 years. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal behaviors showed a pattern of homotypic and heterotypic stability, whereas dyadic behaviors were somewhat less stable. Child behaviors showed evidence of both homotypic and heterotypic instability.     

Prevalence,School Progress and Referral of Mildly Retarded Children in Regular Classes

This study sought to determine the prevalence of mildly retarded children in a sample of 312 primary school classes (N (pupils) = 8,967). Schools were chosen at random from each of the eight Psychological Service districts of metropolitan Auckland; all Grade 2‐5 classes in the sample schools were included in the investigation. Eighty percent of the teachers surveyed believed they had one or more mildly retarded children in their classes, yielding an overall prevalence rate of 8.04 percent (N = 721). Approximately one‐third of the children designated as mildly retarded were considered by their teachers to be not coping academically as well as socially, but of these 75 percent had not been referred for special educational consideration. Comparisons among the eight districts revealed that prevalence/referral rates and characteristics of identified/referred children did not differ significantly across districts. Results are discussed in terms of their policy implications for the identification and referral of mildly retarded children in need of special educational services.     

Who Studies Women's Studies?

ABSTRACT This article reports the initial findings of a study of the cohort of students who entered Liverpool John Moores University, England, to study women's studies in the autumn of 1994, basing its focus on the survey carried out as soon as the students entered the University and the in-depth interviews carried out later in that semester. The work proceeded within the tradition of grounded theory research and endeavoured to avoid prepared hypotheses in order to allow the themes to emerge from the students' answers. From the initial findings, the very strong emphasis on the salience of the students' choice of women's studies and the experiential importance of identity as a concept was striking. The article debates the theoretical difficulties in the theorising of identity in relation to the empirical, existential project of the students.     

Safe Schools for LGBTQI Students: How Do Teachers View Their Role in Promoting Safe Schools?

This literature review presents insights from existing research on how teachers view their role in creating safe schools for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) students. Analysis of the literature shows that there are concerns for LGBTQI students’ safety in schools, that educational settings operate from a position of heteronormativity, and that heterosexual teachers are uniquely positioned as part of the dominant group in which they help to define what is normal and what is deviant in school culture. Research findings on the ways heterosexual teachers respond to institutional heteronormativity are summarized and compared. This review of research provides considerations for and recommendations to school administrators and teacher educators to address needs of teachers. Areas for future research also are identified.     

Dimensions of coping and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of young children

Coping style plays an important role in children’s wellbeing. This paper describes the patterns of associations between children’s self-reported coping styles and symptoms of anxiety in order to determine whether particular dimensions are associated with better adjustment. Participants were 2566 children (1268 girls, 1298 boys) aged 7–11 years attending 15 schools in the South East of England. Results showed that aspects of coping were differentially associated with children’s self-reported anxiety. Patterns of association also varied by age and gender. Dimensions of coping were shown to form distinct adaptive and maladaptive coping styles which were also differentially associated with anxiety. Analysis of these styles indicated that it is the absence of maladaptive coping strategies, rather than the presence of adaptive strategies, that is significant in emotional wellbeing. These findings suggest that interventions designed to reduce or extinguish maladaptive coping styles may be of particular benefit in facilitating emotional wellbeing.