Moving an Evidence‐Based Parenting Program Into the Community

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch‐up (ABC) is a parenting program developed to enhance sensitivity among parents of infants who experience early adversity. In several randomized clinical trials, the intervention's efficacy has been demonstrated. Moving interventions into the community with adequate fidelity is challenging, though, and intervention effects are often much smaller than when tested in randomized clinical trials. To enhance the likelihood that ABC is delivered with high fidelity, a microanalytic fidelity assessment was developed. Using this fidelity tool as a central component of training, supervision, and certification, changes in parent sensitivity for 108 families with children ages 6 months to 2 years were as large as those seen in laboratory settings. These findings are discussed with regard to implications for moving other evidence‐based interventions into the community.     

The tail end of the moth: clarifying species boundaries

The search by naturalists for good characters upon which to base both classifications and determinations of species led some 19th century entomologists to put their faith in insect genitalia as a criteria by which they could differentiate between and classify forms. Karl Jordan was such an entomologist, who turned to these tiny structures as an aid to his work as a museum curator to identify, describe and classify moths and butterflies. In his writings on the subject he also demonstrated how the attempts of systematists to order the diversity of nature had profound implications for the efforts of biologists to explain the origin of that diversity. However, Jordan's plan of how to do systematics well required much more than convincing biologists of the importance of museum work. It also depended on refining the priorities of a natural history community that worked according to diverse means, priorities and methods during a tumultuous century.     

Choice? Factors That Influence Women’s Decision Making for Childbirth

This article reports the findings from a mixed-methods study on factors that influence women’s decisions about birth, with the view that women’s decision making about birth can affect the use of cesarean surgery. Data was collected from focus groups and structured postpartum interviews and was analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research method. The findings relate specifically to the factors reported as influential in making decisions about birth including how the women categorized, prioritized, and/or favored certain types of knowledge about modes of birth. Four major information categories were identified but only stories about birth and/or attending a birth appeared to have a lasting effect on birth choices. These findings have implications for prenatal and perinatal education and nursing practice.     

Education reform for the expansion of mother-tongue education in Ghana

In 1957 Ghana was the first sub-Saharan colonial nation-state to achieve independence from British rule. The language of literacy instruction, however, remained English throughout most of Ghana’s independence, effectively thwarting reading and writing in 11 major and 67 minor indigenous languages in use today. After years of policy shifts, including the intermittent of mother tongue in early childhood schooling to facilitate English language and literacy instruction, prospects for a bold move towards multilingual education have emerged from a coalescence of forces inside and outside of Ghanaian education policy circles. This article discusses how the inertia of a dated language policy and a historic disregard for Ghana’s multilingual landscape by the country’s own policy makers are being overcome, at least partially, by progressive powers of change, albeit not without challenge. It undertakes an analysis of how a policy environment that supports bilingual education was created in order to implement a comprehensive and innovative multilingual programme, the National Literacy Acceleration Program (NALAP), which was rolled out across the nation’s schools in early 2010. Having been involved in the process of designing NALAP, the authors describe the development of standards of learning and materials, as well as innovative aspects of a constructivist teacher education approach. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research, including combining a change process for key stakeholders and randomised language and literacy assessment with social marketing research in a unified approach.     

Young Children's Reasoning About the Effects of Emotional and Physiological States on Academic Performance

This study assessed young children's understanding of the effects of emotional and physiological states on cognitive performance. Five, 6-, 7-year-olds, and adults ( N = 96) predicted and explained how children experiencing a variety of physiological and emotional states would perform on academic tasks. Scenarios included: (a) negative and positive emotions, (b) negative and positive physiological states, and (c) control conditions. All age groups understood the impairing effects of negative emotions and physiological states. Only 7-year-olds, however, showed adult-like reasoning about the potential enhancing effects of positive internal states and routinely cited cognitive mechanisms to explain how internal states affect performance. These results shed light on theory-of-mind development and also have significance for children's everyday school success.     

Teachers' attitudes toward and frequency of engagement in reading aloud in the primary classroom

Reading aloud to children is considered one of the most highly effective strategies for fostering a range of literacy skills, both at home and within contemporary classrooms. However, little is known about teachers' attitudes toward reading aloud, their self‐reported frequency of engagement in the practice and what may pose as contemporary barriers to the practice. The 2016 Western Australian Study in Reading Aloud (WASRA) collected data from over 100 teachers at 14 Australian schools. The WASRA reveals tensions in translating reading aloud practices into daily practice due to reported lack of time and high curriculum demands. The findings suggest that primary school teachers typically enjoy reading aloud to children, though fewer enjoyed reading themselves. Recommendations are provided to address time and curriculum demands purported as being inhibitors of daily reading practices. These recommendations go some way to help mitigate against literacy inequities within our primary classrooms and in so doing encourage provision of daily reading opportunities for teachers and reading aloud practices.     

Commentary: Positive Youth Development Goes Mainstream

Evidence has accumulated that confirms the success of a positive youth development (PYD) approach. Importantly, a positive development approach is just that—an approach. It is not a particular program or curriculum but a set of practices designed to achieve one or more positive outcomes. As such, PYD practices can be added onto other programs to make positive outcomes more likely. For example, a tutoring program can work hard to hire and train staff to work with students in a trusting, respectful relationship. Camp counselors can be encouraged to build rapport and positive bonds among the campers.     

Investigating geographic variation in use of psychotropic medications among youth in child welfare

Objectives

Public Law (P.L.) 110-351, the “Fostering Connections to Success Act,” calls for state child welfare agencies to partner with Medicaid and pediatric experts to provide planning and oversight regarding the provision of health and mental health services, including medication, to children in state custody. Recent reports, media cases, and class action lawsuits suggest over-use of psychotropic medications to address the behavioral needs of children in the child welfare system. We examined geographic variability in psychotropic medication use across US child welfare agency catchment areas to determine how rates of psychotropic medication use vary in relation to child, community, child welfare, and health system-level factors.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of Wave 1 data for the 92 child welfare catchment areas participating in the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being, a random probability sample of 2,504 children ages 2-15 years undergoing investigation for abuse and neglect. We employed multilevel regression modeling to examine the impact of catchment-level variables on medication use, controlling for child-level variables.

Results

Fifteen percent of children reported taking psychotropic medications. Rates of medication use across catchment areas ranged widely from 0 to 40%, a 40-fold difference. On multi-level logistic regression modeling, older age (p < .001), male gender (p < .001), emotional and behavioral problems (p < .001), and insurance (p = .05) were associated with psychotropic medication use at the child-level. At the catchment-level, stressful environment within the child welfare system was negatively associated with medication use. No other catchment-level variables examined were found to explain use.

Conclusions

Striking disparities in medication use exist across catchment areas in this national sample. Of the catchment variables examined, only stressful environment was related to medication use.

Practice implications

These findings highlight significant geographic variation in medication use that most likely reflect both under-use and over-reliance on psychotropic medication. The link between child welfare environment and medication use suggests the influence of systemic, as opposed to clinical, causes of variation in medication use. This requires greater implementation of organizational processes governing quality of care for this highly vulnerable population.