Early Parenting and the Development of Externalizing Behavior Problems: Longitudinal Mediation Through Children's Executive Function

Path analysis was used to investigate the longitudinal associations among parenting and children's executive function and externalizing behavior problems from 36 to 90 months of age in the Family Life Project (N = 1,115), a study of child development in the context of rural poverty. While controlling for stability in the constructs, semistructured observations of parenting prospectively predicted performance on a battery of executive function tasks and primary caregivers' reports of externalizing behavior. Furthermore, the association between early parenting and later externalizing behavior was longitudinally mediated by executive function, providing support for a process model in which sensitive parenting promotes children's self‐regulation, which in turn reduces children's externalizing behavior.     

Relationships with teachers and bonds with school: Social emotional adjustment correlates for children with and without disabilities

In this investigation, fifth‐ and sixth‐grade children (N= 289) completed a measure to assess aspects of their relationships with teachers and bonds with schools. Children and teachers also completed measures related to children's social and emotional adjustment. Analyses of responses to these measures indicated that students with disabilities had greater dissatisfaction with their relationships with teachers, poorer bonds with school, and perceived higher school danger than did students without disabilities. Comparisons involving students who were receiving services for emotional disturbance (ED), learning disabilities (LD), mild mental retardation (MMR), other health impairments (OHI), and no disabilities indicated that students with ED and students with MMR had poorer affiliation with teachers and greater dissatisfaction with teachers than students without disabilities. Students with ED also had poorer bonds with school than did students without disabilities. Students with LD and students with MMR had significantly higher ratings of perceived school danger than did students without disabilities. Results of correlational analyses indicated that student‐teacher relationship and school bonding variables were associated with social and emotional adjustment variables for students with and without disabilities. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Persisters and nonpersisters: Identifying the characteristics of who stays and who leaves from adult literacy interventions

Adult literacy programs are characterized by high attrition rates. Rigorous exploration of student persistence in adult reading classes is lacking. This study was an attempt to understand the profiles of adults who completed reading classes compared to a group of adults who made it to the midpoint and a group of adults who did not make it to the midpoint. Students were offered 100 h of instruction. Of the 395 students who attended the first day of class, only 198 completed the program. Results indicated that English language status, age, some reading related skills, class assignment, avoidance of reading, previous adult education experience, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefit receipt variables significantly predicted persistence. The significance of some of these predictors varied based on analyzing midpoint completion or full completion. To further explore the characteristics of the sample, the most representative participants were selected from the group that did not make it to midpoint and from the group that completed the program. Results indicated that the most representative members of these two groups differed in English language status, gender, age, some reading related skills, and information access.     

Patterns of Early Reading and Social Skills Associated With Academic Success in Elementary School

Research Findings: Researchers and policymakers emphasize that early childhood is a critical developmental stage with the potential to impact academic and social-emotional outcomes (G. Conti &; J. J. Heckman, 2012 Conti , G. , &; Heckman , J. J. ( 2012 ). The economics of child well-being (No. w18466) . Washington , DC : National Bureau of Economic Research .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; J. J. Heckman, 2012 Heckman , J. J. ( 2012 ). The case for investing in young children . In B. Falk (Ed.), Defending childhood: Keeping the promise of early education (pp. 235 – 242 ). New York , NY : Teachers College Press . [Google Scholar]; R. Murnane, I. Sawhill, &; C. Snow, 2012 Murnane , R. , Sawhill , I. , &; Snow , C. ( 2012 ). Literacy challenges for the twenty-first century: Introducing the issue . The Future of Children , 22 ( 2 ), 3 – 15 .[Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]). Although there is substantial evidence that children's early prereading skills predict later academic achievement (K. M. La Paro &; R. C. Pianta, 2000 La Paro , K. M. , &; Pianta , R. C. ( 2000 ). Predicting children's competence in the early school years: A meta-analytic review . Review of Educational Research , 70 , 443 – 484 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), there have been mixed findings regarding the contribution of early social skills to later achievement (e.g., G. J. Duncan et al., 2007 Duncan , G. J. , Dowsett , C. J. , Claessens , A. , Magnuson , K. , Huston , A. C. , Klebanov , P. , … Brooks-Gunn , J. ( 2007 ). School readiness and later achievement . Developmental Psychology , 43 , 1428 – 1446 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Using data from the national Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort, we found that subgroups of children with a combination of low/average reading skills and higher levels of social skills (86% of the sample) in kindergarten performed better on later academic assessments than children with similar reading skills but lower levels of social skills during kindergarten. In contrast, children who were very strong early readers (14% of the sample), regardless of their level of social skills, performed similarly on the 5th-grade academic outcomes. Practice or Policy: Implications for early education and policy are discussed.     

6. FOREIGN/INTERNATIONAL

The following essay updates my TABLOID JOURNALISM: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ENGLISH‐LANGUAGE SOURCES (Westport, CT: Greenwood “Bibliographies and Indexes in Mass Media and Communications, Number 10,”; 1996—$65.00, ISBN 0–313–29544–1, 187 pp.)

A. U.S. print journalism

IT'S ALIVE! HOW AMERICA'S OLDEST PAPER CHEATED DEATH AND WHY IT MATTERS by Steven Cuozzo (New York: Times Books, 1996—$25.00, ISBN 0–8129–2286–7, 342 pp.)

“Reversing the Romance: Class and Gender in the Supermarket Tabloids,” by Theron Britt (Prospect, 21: 435–451 [1996])

“Virgins, Vamps and the Tabloid Mentality,” by Linda Fairstein (Media Studies Journal, 12: 92–99 [Winter 1998])

SCOOPED! MEDIA MISS REAL STORY ON CRIME WHILE CHASING SEX, SLEAZE, AND CELEBRITIES by David J. Krajicek (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998—$24.95, ISBN 0–2311–0292–5, 230 pp., bibliographical references)

B. U.S. television

“The World Outside: Local TV News Treatment of Imported News,” by Raymond L. Carroll and C. A. Tuggle (Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 74: 123–133 [1997])

“Tabloid TV, Courtesy of the Education Department,” by Steven Drummond (Teacher Magazine 9: 14–15 [April 1998])

THE JOURNALISM OF OUTRAGEOUSNESS: TABLOID TELEVISION NEWS VS. INVESTIGATIVE NEWS by Matthew C. Ehrlich (Journalism and Mass Communication Monographs, No.155 [1996])

“Presumed Innocent? A Comparative Analysis of Network News, ‘Newsmagazines’ and Tabloid TV's Pretrial Coverage of the O. J. Simpson Criminal Case,” by Steven A. Esposito (Communications and the Law, 18: 49–72 [December 1996])

“Tabloid and Traditional Television News Magazine Crime Stories: Crime Lessons and Reaffirmation of Social Class Distinctions,” by Maria Elizabeth Grabe (Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 73: 926–946 [1996])

TABLOID TELEVISION: POPULAR JOURNALISM AND THE “OTHER NEWS” by John Langer (London: Routledge “Communication and Society,”; 1998—$24.99, ISBN 0–4150–6636–0, 192 pp., appendix, bibliographical references)

“Human Nature and Crime Control: Improving the Feasibility of Nurturant Strategies,”; by Bryan Vila (Politics and the Life Sciences, 16: 3–21 [1997])

C. Legal implications

‘Get That Camera Out of My Face!”: An Examination of the Viability of Suing ‘Tabloid Television’ for Invasion of Privacy,” by Eduardo W. Gonzalez (University of Miami Law Review 51: 935–953 [1997])

“Punishing the Press: Using Contempt of Court to Secure the Right to a Fair Trial,” by Stephen J. Krause (Boston University Law Review 76: 537–574 [1996])

“The Confluence of Sensationalism and News: Media Access to Criminal Investigations and the Public's Right to Know,” by Jimmy R. Moye (CommLaw Conspectus, 6: 89–99 [1998])

D. International perspectives

“Public Discourse/Private Fascination: Hybridization in ‘True‐Life‐Story’ Genres,” by Ib Bondebjerg (Media Culture &; Society 18: 27–45 [1996])

“Anthropology in the Body Shop: Lords of the Garden, Cannibalism, and the Consuming Desires of Televisual Anthropology,” by Rosalind C. Morris (American Anthropologist, 98: 137–146 [1996])

“The Media's Impact on International Affairs, Then and Now,” by Johanna Neuman (SAIS Review, 16: 109–123 [Winter/Spring 1996])

“Core of the Problem: Newspaper's Fate Will Gauge More Than Press Freedom,”; by Andrew Sherry (Far Eastern Economic Review, 160: 61–63 [3 July 1997])     

LEARNING RESOURCES

An extensive body of research exists that examines the effects of interventions aimed at maintaining or improving memory function among older adults. Slowing the pace of learning, encouragement to organize learning materials, training in the use of imagery, loci mnemonics, and face‐name mnemonics, as well as supportive environments and information about normal age‐related memory changes, have resulted in improved memory performance. This paper reviews the findings of memory intervention research and explicates the ways in which findings of laboratory research can be incorporated into educational activities among older adults.