The beneficial effect of sleep on behavioral health problems in youth is disrupted by prenatal cannabis exposure: A causal random forest analysis of Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development data

Studies suggest prenatal cannabis exposure is associated with mood/behavioral problems in children. However, it is unclear if targeting modifiable domains like sleep behaviors would improve outcomes in exposed youth. Using a causal inference framework, the effect of changing sleep-hours on changing internalizing/externalizing problems in children was examined using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development™ study baseline (ages 9–10; collected during 2016–2018) and year-1 follow-up data (N = 9825; 4663 female; 5196 white). Average treatment effects (ATE) indicated that more sleep predicted less internalizing (ATE = −.34, SE = .08, p < .001) and externalizing (ATE = −.29, SE = .07, p < .001) problems over time. However, prenatal cannabis exposure moderated the ATE on internalizing (conditional-ATE = .91, SE = .39, p = .019), whereby participants with exposure (n = 605) did not show any effect of changing sleep-hours on mood (B = .09, SE = .24).     

General Communication

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP edited by Donald Sexton and Raymond Smilor (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1986—$32.00)

MINORITIES AND MEDIA: DIVERSITY AND THE END OF MASS COMMUNICATION by Clint C. Wilson II, and Felix Gutierrez (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985—price not given, paper)

MEDIA GRATIFICATIONS RESEARCH: CURRENT PERSPECTIVES edited by Karl Erik Rosengren, et al. (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985—pricenot given, paper)

PROGRESS IN COMMUNICATIONS SCIENCES VII edited by Brenda Dervin and Melvin J. Voigt (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1986—$45 to institutions, $29.50 to individuals)

MASS MEDIA VS. ITALIAN AMERICANS by Adolph Caso (Brandon Publishing, 21 Station St., Box 843, Brookline Village MA 02147 $4.95, paper)     

Liberatory Public Education: A Framework for Centering Community and Democracy in Public Education

In this conceptual article, the authors argue that diversity is an invitation to educators, youth, families, and community members to work together—a goal accomplished only by centering the local community rather than the local school—to educate youth and create a more just society. Based upon liberatory and emancipatory education, liberatory public education, an intersectional conceptual framework, brings together recent and current justice-oriented scholarship focused on youth development, curriculum and pedagogy, schooling, and community liberation, making a parallel case for justice-oriented family engagement in public schooling. The authors conclude with implications for teacher education, education policy, and family engagement scholarship.     

Variations in Practice Reading Aloud: Ten Versus Twenty Minutes

In this study we compared effects of practice time reading aloud to an adult on improvement in reading rate and comprehension. Eighty-one poor readers in 2nd and 4th grade, including 38 English Learner students (ELs), served as their own controls by participating in two practice conditions, each 3 times per week for 7 weeks: (a) 10 min reading aloud one-to-one to an adult listener and (b) 20 min reading aloud one-to-one. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed that 20 min of practice was better than 10 min for 4th graders, but not for 2nd graders, and gains in rate accelerated across the 14 weeks of practice. We found no differences in rate gains across conditions between ELs and native English speakers. After controlling for pretests, reading rate at posttest, along with vocabulary, contributed significant variance to reading comprehension outcomes.     

Individualized Care in Practice: Communication Strategies of Nursing Aides and Residents in Nursing Homes

Individualizing care in nursing homes can be difficult and complex. The purpose of this study is to characterize the meaning of and experiences with individualized care from the perspectives of both nursing aides and nursing-home residents. Eight focus groups of nursing aides (N =17) and residents (N=15) from two nursing homes generated four dialectical themes related to communication strategies: (a) getting to know versus maintaining a protective distance, (b) mutual respect versus disrespect, (c) avoiding versus addressing conflict, and (d) equity versus perceived favoritism. These findings suggest dialectics in how interpersonal communication affects individualized care from the perspectives of both nursing aides and residents.     

Effects of Strategy Training and Incentives on Students’ Performance,Confidence, and Calibration

This study examined the effect of strategy instruction and incentives on performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy. Individuals (N = 107) in randomly assigned treatment groups received a multicomponent strategy instruction intervention, financial incentives for high performance, or both. The authors predicted that incentives would improve performance, while strategy instruction would improve performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy as a result of better monitoring and self-regulation of learning. The authors compared pre- and posttest items and 20 new posttest-only items. They found significant effects for strategy training on performance, confidence, and calibration accuracy, as well as the interaction between strategy training and time on calibration accuracy. Incentives improved performance and calibration accuracy, either directly, or through an interaction with strategy training. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The role of emotion in the learning process: Comparisons between online and face-to-face learning settings

As the presence of online and hybrid coursework at institutions of higher education has increased, so too has interest among educators and scholars in understanding personal and contextual factors that predict success in different types of learning environments. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations among temporally-ordered variables, including beginning-semester self-efficacy, utility value, and relevance of instruction, mid-semester emotions (hope, frustration, and anxiety), and end-of-semester learning strategies in a sample of 291 graduate students (N = 219 for the traditional education group and N = 72 for the distance education group) enrolled in an introductory research methods course. Multigroup path analyses were performed to test the equality of path coefficients among the two groups. Results demonstrate that the groups differed with respect to several paths, including the paths from: extrinsic utility value to anxiety and to hope; relevance to hope; and frustration and anxiety to learning strategies. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed.     

Service Learning and Criminal Justice Students: An Assessment of the Effects of Co-Curricular Pedagogy on Graduation Rates

Service learning courses provide meaningful community service for students in order to assist them with the integration of theory and practice. A partnership with local high schools allows students in a large criminal justice program on the west coast to serve as mentors for students who are referred to the program by school counselors and/or social workers. Data on student performance are used to assess whether the exposure to service learning improves matriculation. All criminal justice students who participated in the program were included in this analysis. The impact of this pedagogy is highlighted by using a randomized sample of criminal justice students who have not participated in this particular course. Findings from this program assessment indicate that race and gender are not strong predictors of graduation. Students with high GPAs and those taking service learning courses are more likely than their low GPA and no service learning course counterparts to obtain a degree.     

Children and traumatic events: Therapeutic techniques for psychologists working in the schools

It is clear that exposure to traumatic events is not uncommon in childhood and adolescence, and psychologists working in schools should have some training in meeting the needs of this segment of the population. One intervention that has been empirically supported in the trauma field is Trauma‐Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF‐CBT). This article seeks to provide an overview of research on the efficacy of TF‐CBT with children and adolescents who have experienced trauma with a primary focus on psychologists working in the schools. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Examining the Effects of Jyoti Meditation on Stress and the Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence

The authors examined whether Jyoti meditation (JM), a spiritually based meditation (Singh, 2012 ), influenced student counselors' (N = 60) level of stress and emotional intelligence (EI). Results from a randomized controlled trial and growth curve analysis provided a multilevel model in which JM reduced stress and EI moderated the effect.