Child Effects on Parental Negativity: The Role of Heritable and Prenatal Factors

This study examined two possible mechanisms, evocative gene–environment correlation and prenatal factors, in accounting for child effects on parental negativity. Participants included 561 children adopted at birth, and their adoptive parents and birth parents within a prospective longitudinal adoption study. Findings indicated child effects on parental negativity, such that toddlers’ negative reactivity at 18 months was positively associated with adoptive parents’ over-reactive and hostile parenting at 27 months. Furthermore, we found that child effects on parental negativity were partially due to heritable (e.g., birth mother [BM] internalizing problems and substance use) and prenatal factors (e.g., BM illicit drug use during pregnancy) that influence children’s negative reactivity at 18 months. This study provides critical evidence for “child on parent” effects.     

Threats to the validity of science performance assessments for English language learners

In recent years, at the same time that performance assessments in science have become more popular, the number of English language learners (ELLs) (i.e., students whose native language is other than English) served by the U.S. educational system has also increased rapidly. While the research base is growing in each of these areas independently, little attention has been paid to their intersection. This case study of the use of a science performance assessment with 96 ELLs in five high school science classes investigated the face, construct, and consequential validity of this intersection. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses showed that both teachers and students had an overall favorable response to the assessment, although students' English comprehension and expression skills were determining factors for certain items. While most responses were reliably scored, ELL spelling and syntax on certain responses were significant sources of error. The degree of specificity of teachers' guidance also significantly affected students' scores. Recommendations from this study include increasing the clarity of an assessment's design, allowing ELLs more time to complete assessments, and scoring by raters who are knowledgeable about typical patterns in written English for this student population. Furthermore, it is recommended that the use of performance assessments with ELLs be exploratory until such time as their validity and reliability with this population can be more adequately established. J Res Sci Teach 34: 721–743, 1997.     

Trajectories of Physical Discipline: Early Childhood Antecedents and Developmental Outcomes

This study examined childhood antecedents and developmental outcomes associated with trajectories of mild and harsh parental physical discipline. Interview, questionnaire, and observational data were available from 499 children followed from ages 5 to 16 and from 258 children in an independent sample followed from ages 5 to 15. Analyses indicated distinct physical discipline trajectory groups that varied in frequency of physical discipline and rate of change. In both samples, family ecological disadvantage differentiated the trajectory groups; in the first sample, early child externalizing also differentiated the groups. Controlling for early childhood externalizing, the minimal/ceasing trajectory groups were associated with the lowest levels of subsequent adolescent antisocial behavior in both samples and with parent–adolescent positive relationship quality in the second sample.     

Infant Pathways to Externalizing Behavior: Evidence of Genotype × Environment Interaction

To further the understanding of the effects of early experiences, 9-month-old infants were observed during a frustration task. The analytical sample was composed of 348 linked triads of participants (adoptive parents, adopted child, and birth parent[s]) from a prospective adoption study. It was hypothesized that genetic risk for externalizing problems and affect dysregulation in the adoptive parents would independently and interactively predict a known precursor to externalizing problems: heightened infant attention to frustrating events. Results supported the moderation hypotheses involving adoptive mother affect dysregulation: Infants at genetic risk showed heightened attention to frustrating events only when the adoptive mother had higher levels of anxious and depressive symptoms. The Genotype × Environment interaction pattern held when substance use during pregnancy was considered.     

eSport: Construct specifications and implications for sport management

The purpose of this article is to add to the conceptual discussion on eSport, analyze the role of eSport within sport management, and suggest avenues for future eSport research. The authors suggest that debates surround the degree to which eSport represents formal sport, and disagreements likely stem from conceptualizations of sport and context. Irrespective of one’s notion of eSport as formal sport, the authors suggest the topic has a place in sport management scholarship and discourse. Such a position is consistent with the broad view of sport adopted by Sport Management Review, the perspective that eSport represents a form of sportification, and the association among eSport and various outcomes, including physical and psychological health, social well-being, sport consumption outcomes, and diversity and inclusion. Finally, the authors conclude that eSport scholarship can advance through the study of its governance, marketing, and management as well as by theorizing about eSport.     

The effects of outcome imagery on golf-putting performance

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of positive and negative outcome imagery on golf-putting performance. Players of both high and low ability performed a golf-putting task in three imagery conditions: (a) a positive outcome imagery condition, (b) a negative outcome imagery condition and (c) a no-imagery control condition. The task was conducted in a competitive setting, reducing the possibility of demand characteristics. We found that negative outcome imagery was detrimental to putting performance; however, performance in the positive outcome imagery condition was no better than performance in the control condition. There was also evidence to suggest that outcome imagery operated through the mechanism of confidence, as negative outcome imagery was detrimental to both confidence and performance. The results of the present study suggest that golfers should avoid visualizing negative images, as this could damage both confidence and performance.     

Accessing and Browsing Information and Communication,by Ronald E. Rice,Maureen McCreadie,and Shan-Ju L. Chang. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press, 2001. xiii + 357 pp., $45.00. ISBN 0-262-18214-9.

Critics have argued that information and communication technologies (ICTs) disconnect people from their social networks and reduce public participation. Research in support of this perspective has been biased by two assumptions. The first is a tendency to privilege the Internet as a social system removed from the other ways people communicate. The second is a tendency to favor broadly supportive strong social ties. Survey and ethnographic observations from Netville, a 2-year community networking experiment, suggest that weak, not strong ties experience growth as a result of ICTs. By examining a unique and underexplored stage in the life cycle of a community networking project, the end of a networking trial, this article demonstrates how ICTs facilitate community participation and collective action (a) by creating large, dense networks of relatively weak social ties and (b) through the use of ICTs as an organizing tool.     

Peer assessment of oral presentations: effects of student gender,university affiliation and participation in the development of assessment criteria

Peer assessment provides a useful mechanism to develop many positive qualities in students studying in higher education (HE). Potential influences on peer‐awarded marks include student qualities such as gender, HE background (e.g. university affiliation) and participation in the development of the assessment criteria. Many studies that have investigated peer assessment have placed great emphasis on marks from a single tutor, or very few tutors, from a single university. This study examined grades awarded by 11 tutors (affiliated with four universities) to oral presentations delivered on a residential field course by second‐year undergraduate students from two universities studying environmental or biological disciplines. Student assessors awarded marks of fairly high precision (correlating strongly with tutor grades) but averaged 5% higher than their tutors (i.e. of only moderate accuracy). Marginally higher marks (circa 1.6%) were awarded by student assessors to speakers studying at the same university. Gender influences were detected as males tended to grade other male speakers very slightly more highly than female speakers. Marks from females were unaffected by speaker gender. Students who participated in the development of the assessment criteria did not achieve higher grades for their presentations. However, when these ‘participants’ were assessing, they awarded lower marks than their peers (i.e. closer to, but not as low as, those awarded by tutors). Lower marks were also awarded during the middle of sessions, possibly resulting from factors associated with motivation and attention of speakers and markers. Overall, the potential biases in marking by naive assessors examined in this study may influence the validity of marks generated by peer assessment schemes, but the experience of this type of assessment had positive effects on those involved.     

Questioning techniques to promote thinking

Research has shown that children as young as three and four can think on many different levels if they are encouraged to do so (Pepler & Ross, 1981; Turner & Durrett, 1975). Educators can promote young children's thinking by asking appropriate questions and by providing learning activities that require children to think beyond the recall or memorization level (What Works, 1986). Asking good questions is an art — an art that can be learned and refined with practice and with conscious effort.Jean M. Shaw and Mary Jo Puckett Cliatt are associate professors in the School of Education at the University of Mississippi in University, MS.