Validity of the parenting inventory: Young children

The Parenting Inventory: Young Children (PI) is a rating scale that measures the developmental expectations and behaviors of parents of children who are between the ages of 1 and 4 years, 11 months. Using a representative urban sample of 1,056 mothers, the PI was found to discriminate successfully between parents with children of different ages and to have substantial item-construct correlations (content validity). The PI was not strongly related to the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory, a measure of parenting attitudes (discriminant validity). Reasons for this latter finding are discussed. Potential uses of the PI for practitioners working with parents in the schools are described.     

Youth on the street: Abuse and neglect in the eighties

This paper discusses the findings of a study of runaways and homeless youth who were interviewed on the street the last week of every month on five week nights from late afternoon until 2 a.m. over a period of one year. The data derived from 489 interviews provided some interesting insights. Two distinct groups emerged from the analysis, generating a tentative hypothesis that the true "runners" tend to leave their homes with the intention of not returning and thus their runs are extended; the second group, designated "in and outers," use the run as a temporary coping mechanism. Their runs tend to be impulsive and of short duration. The study found that runaways (in particular the runners) are at great risk of being drawn into illegal activities. Major factors affecting this risk are distance from home and length of time on the run. A significant proportion of the youth interviewed had run from substitute care arrangements, and a disturbing implication emerging from the research is that adolescents in our society suffer from systemic abuse and neglect. One outcome of this piece of research was the opening of a safe house for early runners in January 1987. The operation of the house includes careful compilation of data to further advance understanding of the runaway population and its needs.     

DNA microarray wet lab simulation brings genomics into the high school curriculum

We have developed a wet lab DNA microarray simulation as part of a complete DNA microarray module for high school students. The wet lab simulation has been field tested with high school students in Illinois and Maryland as well as in workshops with high school teachers from across the nation. Instead of using DNA, our simulation is based on pH indicators, which offer many ideal teaching characteristics. The simulation requires no specialized equipment, is very inexpensive, is very reliable, and takes very little preparation time. Student and teacher assessment data indicate the simulation is popular with both groups, and students show significant learning gains. We include many resources with this publication, including all prelab introductory materials (e.g., a paper microarray activity), the student handouts, teachers notes, and pre- and postassessment tools. We did not test the simulation on other student populations, but based on teacher feedback, the simulation also may fit well in community college and in introductory and nonmajors' college biology curricula.     

Somersaulting techniques used in high-scoring and low-scoring Roche vaults performed by male Olympic gymnasts

The aim of this study was to compare the somersaulting techniques used in the 16 highest-scoring and 16 lowest-scoring Roche vaults. Our hypothesis was that the gymnasts performing the highest-scoring Roche vaults would demonstrate a better technique than those performing the lowest-scoring Roche vaults while on the horse (pushing off the horse more effectively), somersaulting (executing most of the required somersaults higher in flight), and landing (showing a greater control). A 16-mm motion picture camera, operating at 100 Hz, recorded the vaults during the official competition. The two-dimensional direct linear transformation was used for spatial reconstruction. The results of t-tests (P < 0.05) indicated that, compared with the low-scoring gymnasts, the high-scoring gymnasts had: (1) greater height of body centre of mass and a more fully extended body position at the horse take-off; (2) greater height of body centre of mass at the peak of post-flight, knee release, and touchdown on the mat; (3) greater horizontal and vertical displacements of body centre of mass, greater somersaulting rotation, and longer time from the knee release to mat touchdown; and (d) markedly smaller landing point deductions. In conclusion, a successful Roche vault is likely when the focus is on: (a) leaving the horse with a large vertical velocity in an extended body position to achieve a high trajectory of centre of mass by first extending the legs, then immediately pushing off the horse vigorously, using the muscles of the upper extremity; (b) grasping the knees immediately after the take-off from the horse, achieving the tightly tucked body position early during the ascent to the peak, and completing two-thirds of the required somersaults at a great height; (c) releasing the knees and extending the body above the top level of the horse; and (d) contacting the mat with a high body centre of mass position.     

Relationships between scores on Stanford-Binet IV and Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence

A kindergarten class of 9 boys and 11 girls took the 1986 Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Fourth Edition) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Of 6 correlations of total scores and subtest pairs, only the correlation of total scores was statistically significant (p<.01).     

Sexual dimorphism in bone–muscle relationship in young adults

The purpose of this study was to analyse associations between lean soft tissue (LST), a surrogate of skeletal muscle mass and key fracture-related geometric characteristics of the proximal femur. Moreover, we examined the role that muscle played on the proximal femur geometry in response to physical activity (PA). Participants were 83 young adults. Leg LST (exposure) was assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Proximal femur geometry was derived from a left hip DXA scan. Geometric variables (outcomes) included the femoral neck axis length (FNAL), the femoral neck width (FNW), the neck–shaft angle and FNW|FNAL (an index of robustness). PA was evaluated by accelerometry. Linear regression was used to analyse relationships. Additional exposure variables included body height and mass. In males, leg LST explained 17.4% of variation in FNAL (P < 0.001) and 15% in FNW (P = 0.015). In females, it explained 8.8% of the variance in FNAL (P = 0.020). Associations remained significant in males, but not in females, when vigorous PA was added to the models. These results suggest that public health approaches to promote PA may be particularly important in females since vigorous PA seems to convey advantages in femur geometry and consequently in bone strength.     

The Interplay of Psychology and Mathematics Education: From the Attraction of Psychology to the Discovery of the Social

It is a rather safe statement to claim that the social dimensions of the scientific process are accepted in a fair share of studies in the philosophy of science. It is a somewhat safe statement to claim that the social dimensions are now seen as an essential element in the understanding of what human cognition is and how it functions. But it would be a rather unsafe statement to claim that the social is fully accepted in the philosophy of mathematics. And we are not quite sure what kind of statement it is to claim that the social dimensions in theories of mathematics education are becoming more prominent, compared to the psychological dimensions. In our contribution we will focus, after a brief presentation of the above claims, on this particular domain to understand the successes and failures of the development of theories of mathematics education that focus on the social and not primarily on the psychological.