Relations Among the Home Language and Literacy Environment and Children’s Language Abilities: A Study of Head Start Dual Language Learners and Their Mothers

Research Findings: This study explored the relations between Spanish–English dual language learner (DLL) children’s home language and literacy experiences and their expressive vocabulary and oral comprehension abilities in Spanish and in English. Data from Spanish–English mothers of 93 preschool-age Head Start children who resided in central Pennsylvania were analyzed. Children completed the Picture Vocabulary and Oral Comprehension subtests of the Batería III Woodcock–Muñoz and the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Results revealed that the language spoken by mothers and children and the frequency of mother–child reading at home influenced children’s Spanish language abilities. In addition, the frequency with which children told a story was positively related to children’s performance on English oral language measures. Practice or Policy: The findings suggest that language and literacy experiences at home have a differential impact on DLLs’ language abilities in their 2 languages. Specific components of the home environment that benefit and support DLL children’s language abilities are discussed.     

Counselling patients with infertility problems

The present biomedical model of health care fails to consider the psychosocial aspects of problems of health and illness. Nevertheless, guidance and support through appropriate treatment remains a necessity, especially for patients with chronic and complex diseases. Moreover, information about the disease and its treatment is important with regard to a successful outcome. Health care providers should also pay attention to the psychosocial impact of the disease on the patient, on his or her family and on the wider social context. Counselling infertility patients adds a new dimension to this process: new reproductive technologies offer infertile patients the possibility of setting up a family, but at the cost of turning the parenting wish into a very stressful event. Fertility problems and the fertility treatment itself tend to place a lot of stress on the emotional and sexual relationship of the infertile couple. Although infertile patients focus on such treatments as providing a means to become parents, they should also be able to cope with possible failure. On the other hand, if the treatment succeeds patients should not only be guided through the treatment but also informed about possible psychological and social consequences that might affect them as future parents, their parent-child relationship and the family dynamics. If it is considered that this kind of treatment involves a new life, one might expect psychological counselling to be an essential part of it.     

Financial Feeling: An Investigation of Emotion and Communication in the Workplace

There is growing interest in the role of emotion when considering communication in the workplace. This work has most often considered workers in front-line service positions in investigations of emotional labor, and human service workers in investigations of empathy and emotional work. In this study, we consider processes of both emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. Financial planners occupy a role requiring ongoing relationships with clients, conversations about the often emotional topic of money, and a need to manage emotion in a variety of interaction contexts. Thus, from extant theory and literature regarding emotion and communication, we proposed research questions regarding the roles of emotional labor and emotional work in the financial planning profession. These questions were investigated in a web-based survey study of almost 300 professional financial planners and supporting interviews with 14 financial planners. Results indicate support for existing theory on emotional work, extensions to current research regarding emotional labor, and important implications for the role of emotion and communication in a range of professional service roles.     

健康——不可忽视的人力资本投资

健康作为一种人力资本投资对提高生产力、促进经济发展和个人发展有着重要的作用。它可以提高劳动者的生产效率，刺激教育方面的投资，使人具有更多的时间和能力利用其他资本要素，具有更大的财力（因减少医疗费用）用于其他方面的投资。所以进行人力资本投资时，不可忽视健康这一要素，它也是人力资本形成的重要途径，也对经济增长起着有力的推动作用。     

NEW TRENDS IN BULGARIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

The process of reform in higher education in post‐1990 Bulgaria is briefly presented. The first step was a law in 1990 mandating academic freedom and university autonomy. Other legislation led to the creation of private higher education institutions and the charging of tuition fees for certain course programmes offered by the state institutions. A serious problem has been the decline in the quality of higher education and research, this due to the economic difficulties resulting from the period of transition and to too much laissez‐faire in higher education in general. In reaction, the state has taken steps to lay down basic requirements for admission to higher education; nationally mandated standards for state certification in certain subjects including medicine, economics, and engineering; and the development of a national quality assessment system for higher education. There has also been the influence of certain international programmes, most notably, TEMPUS. Everyone understands that higher education has a major role to play in order to guarantee the success of the transition process.