Family Communication Patterns,Parental Modeling,and Confirmation in Romantic Relationships

This study explored family communication patterns (FCPs) (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and interparental confirmation as predictors of young adults’ confirmation in their romantic relationships (i.e., acceptance and challenge). Participants included 181 young adults from intact families. Results revealed conditional and interaction effects of family conversation and conformity orientations on the degree to which young adults confirmed their romantic partner. More importantly, FCPs and interparental confirmation were predictive of self-to-partner confirmation after controlling for reciprocity of confirmation within the romantic relationship.     

Autistic spectrum disorders: a challenge and a model for inclusion in education

Rita Jordan, Professor in Autism Studies at the School of Education, University of Birmingham, gave last year's Gulliford Lecture at the University of Birmingham on 4 October 2007. This article is based upon that lecture. In it, Professor Jordan discusses the role of education in the lives of people with autistic spectrum disorders. She traces the growth in our knowledge about autistic spectrum disorders and the development of a variety of ways of responding to autism, from the highly specialised, and frequently strictly segregated, to the explicitly inclusive. She uses her analysis to draw distinctions between 'therapeutic' models of education and education as 'entitlement'– and identifies problems with either paradigm. Professor Jordan closes her article by setting out her vision for a future in which there is greater flexibility and diversity and in which specialisation has a key role to play in making inclusion a working reality. The challenge of teaching pupils with autistic spectrum disorders will, argues Professor Jordan, help us all to imagine a truly inclusive model for education in which equity is achieved by treating all learners differently.     

#3: continuous labor support

In this position paper-one of six care practice papers published by Lamaze International and reprinted here with permission-the benefit of continuous labor support is discussed and presented as an evidence-based practice that helps promote, protect, and support normal birth. The paper is written for childbearing women and their families. Women with continuous support are less likely to have a cesarean, an instrument delivery, and regional anesthesia. They are also less likely to report dissatisfaction with or negatively rate their childbirth experience. The value of the doula for both the laboring woman and her labor partner is discussed. The accompanying commentary-written by a leading proponent of maternity care practices-supports evidence that promotes continuous labor support. Lamaze International encourages women to plan for a supportive birth environment that includes continuous support.     

The Feasibility of Single-Item Measures for Organizational Justice

Researchers in a number of disciplines have examined the utility of single-item measures for both affective and cognitive constructs. While these authors have indicated that, under certain circumstances, the use of single-item measures is appropriate, there remains concern regarding the reliability and validity of single-item measures. This study attempts to address these concerns by comparing the reliability and validity of single-item and full-scale measures for three dimensions of organizational justice. There are an increasing number of studies in organizational behavior, as well as sport management, that have explored the importance of justice and its influence on various attitudes and behaviors. However, to date there have been no attempts to develop single-item measures for each of the dimensions of organizational justice. The development of single-item measures for organizational justice could provide researchers with practical and psychometric advantages compared with full-scale measures. Two separate methods were used to test the reliability of single-item measures while concurrent validity was measured with a global measure of job satisfaction. Single-item measures demonstrated comparable concurrent validity, and, with one exception, the reliability estimates were all above .70.     

Applied utility and the auto-ethnographic short story: persuasions for,and illustrations of,writing critical social science

In some quarters it is argued that, narrative researchers might be classified as being either story-analysts or storytellers. They go on to suggest that one feature of storytellers is that they undertake a form of analysis as the process of writing unfolds. With these sentiments in mind, in the present paper, we consider how auto-ethnographical accounts of traumatic and challenging life events might, through the analysis contained within, demonstrate value within the realm of applied pedagogy. In making our case we embrace and adapt the literary genre of storytelling, more specifically, the short story. The story presented here, ‘Travel Writer’, offers an opaque, multi-contextualised and lifelong view of career transition. The present paper, in more general terms, considers the capacity of auto-ethnography and, more specifically, the short storied version of it, to engender critical reader engagement, to encourage personal reflection in others, and to act as a point of stimulus for the enactment of applied debate through the lens of critical social science. With regards to the assumptions of critical social science, the final discussion also considers how the auto-ethnographic text, as a pedagogic tool, might help others to contest and challenge the meta-narratives that, we argue, risk stagnating established thinking.     

Sources of Individual Differences in Children's Understanding of Fractions

Longitudinal associations of domain‐general and numerical competencies with individual differences in children's understanding of fractions were investigated. Children (n = 163) were assessed at 6 years of age on domain‐general (nonverbal reasoning, language, attentive behavior, executive control, visual‐spatial memory) and numerical (number knowledge) competencies; at 7 years on whole‐number arithmetic computations and number line estimation; and at 10 years on fraction concepts. Mediation analyses controlling for general mathematics ability and general academic ability revealed that numerical and mathematical competencies were direct predictors of fraction concepts, whereas domain‐general competencies supported the acquisition of fraction concepts via whole‐number arithmetic computations or number line estimation. Results indicate multiple pathways to fraction competence.     

Reasons for student dropout in an online course in a rural K–12 setting

Rural schools in the USA use online courses to overcome problems such as attracting and retaining teachers, geographic isolation, low student enrollment, and financial constraints. This paper reports on the reasons that 39% of rural high school students who enrolled in an online Advanced Placement course subsequently dropped the course. Students who dropped the course were asked to provide an email statement detailing their reasons for doing so. On-site facilitators—local staff members situated in the small rural schools where students were enrolled—also provided reasons whenever one of their students dropped the course. Results indicate that the reasons given by students and on-site facilitators for dropping the course often agreed, and tended to fall within the following five categories: scheduling and time constraints, academic rigor and motivation, technology problems, problems with online medium and lack of teacher immediacy, and parental influences.     

#1: labor begins on its own

In this position paper-one of six care practice papers published by Lamaze International and reprinted here with permission-the benefit of allowing labor to begin on its own is discussed and presented as an evidence-based practice that helps promote, protect, and support normal birth. The paper is written for childbearing women and their families. The accompanying commentary-written by a leading home-birth midwife and prominent national and international speaker on maternity care-describes further evidence of the disadvantages of inducing labor. The indications for and risks of induction are also explored. Lamaze International recommends that, unless there is a medical indication for induction, labor should be allowed to begin on its own.     

Educating Without Overwhelming: Authorial Strategies in Children's Holocaust Literature

This article reviews a number of works of fiction about the Holocaust intended for children and young adult readers and discusses the strategies used by their authors to educate their readers without overwhelming them with highly emotional information. Several popular and effective strategies are highlighted, along with examples of works of literature in this genre employing such strategies. The use of sensitive and age-appropriate literature as an important component in educating children about the Holocaust is emphasized.