Effortful Control Predicts Adolescent Antisocial‐Aggressive Behaviors and Depressive Symptoms: Co‐Occurrence and Moderation by Impulsivity

Effortful control is associated with fewer aggressive‐antisocial behaviors (AAB) and depressive symptoms (DEP), but impulsivity may moderate these relations. However, few researchers have considered the effects of AAB‐DEP co‐occurrence. A multi‐informant, multimethod approach assessed 5‐ to 10‐year‐olds’ effortful control and impulsivity and, 5–6 years later, their AAB and DEP (N = 474). Participants were non‐Hispanic Caucasian (59.2%) or Hispanic (27.9%) from a Southwestern U.S. metropolitan area. Low effortful control predicted pure AAB. Low effortful control and low impulsivity predicted pure DEP and co‐occurring AAB‐DEP. An effortful Control × Impulsivity × Age interaction predicted pure AAB and co‐occurring AAB‐DEP. For older adolescents, lower effortful control predicted more symptoms only at average and high impulsivity. Results highlight multiple pathways to pure DEP versus pure AAB or co‐occurring AAB‐DEP.     

Knowledge and Skills of the Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator: Results of a Job Task Analysis

Content validity of certification examinations is demonstrated over time with comprehensive job analyses conducted and analyzed by experts, with data gathered from stakeholders. In November 2011, the Lamaze International Certification Council conducted a job analysis update of the 2002 job analysis survey. This article presents the background, methodology, and findings of the job analysis. Changes in the test blueprint based on these findings are presented.     

The Year 2000 Problem and Ethical Responsibility: A Call to Action

Many organizations have made substantial progress in solving the year 2000 computer problem, while many others lag perilously behind. With the year 2000 deadline looming ever closer, this article examines several key issues, including the nature of the year 2000 problem itself, its potential to do harm, the progress that organizations have made to date on this issue, and factors that have worked to inhibit or facilitate organizational responses to this problem. An ethical analysis of the year 2000 problem is presented that reveals that both top management and IS professionals have an ethical responsibility to act on this issue. Organizations are urged to make the completion of their year 2000 problem efforts a top priority, because it is their responsibility and it serves as an investment for the future.     

Individual differences in navigation between sharable content objects—an evaluation study of a learning module prototype

In this article, we report the design and evaluation of a prototype for learning modules compliant to the SCORM standard. This prototype is especially developed for the subject matter of process systems engineering and features a novel process control display for the navigation between Sharable Content Objects. In a controlled field study, N=18 undergraduate students interacted with the module for a period of 40 minutes. The relations between individual differences in learner characteristics, navigation, and learning outcome were considered. Interaction with the module had a strong positive effect on learning outcome. Individual differences in learning outcome were significantly affected by individual differences in intrinsic motivation, computer experience and navigation behaviour.     

Reality Therapy: A Global Perspective

Based on universal principles, reality therapy is practiced and taught in many cultures and countries. The underlying theoretical basis, choice theory, states that all human beings are motivated by five current genetic instructions: survival or self-preservation, belonging, power or achievement, freedom or independence, fun or enjoyment. The effective reality therapist learns to adapt the methodology to individuals and groups from many cultures. The delivery system employs specific tools for helping clients identify and clarify their wants and desires, their hopes and their dreams. Clients are led to examine specific actions, cognition, and feelings which are seen in reality therapy as behaviors chosen to impact the external world of clients for the purpose of satisfying their needs. The cornerstone in the practice of reality therapy is the self-evaluation by clients. Counselors ask clients to examine the effectiveness of their choices especially as they impact their relationships with people important to them. Clients also examine the attainability of their wants, as well as their degree of commitment in attaining their wants. Included in the process is realistic planning for need satisfaction especially for enhancing the clients' interpersonal relationships. Multiethnic research has shown the multicultural efficacy of reality therapy.     

The relations of parenting,effortful control,and ego control to children's emotional expressivity

The relations of observed parental warmth and positive expressivity and children's effortful control and ego control with children's high versus low emotional expressivity were examined in a 2-wave study of 180 children (M age = 112.8 months). There were quadratic relations between adults' reports of children's emotional expressivity and effortful control; moderate expressivity was associated with high effortful control. Structural equation models supported the hypothesis that children's ego overcontrol (versus undercontrol) mediated the relation between parental warmth or positive expressivity and children's emotional expressivity, although parenting at the follow-up did not uniquely predict in children's expressivity after controlling for the relations in these constructs over time. The alternative hypothesis that children's ego overcontrol elicited positive parenting and expressivity also was supported.     

Intergenerational programs for young children: Organizational procedures

Bringing together groups of preschoolers with older people is a concept that is gaining in popularity. Commonly referred to asintergenerational, these experiences — when carefully planned — have been shown to provide children with positive experiences. More specifically, the National Council on Aging defines intergenerational programs as planned activities that increase cooperation and exchange between any two generations for their mutual benefit.I never seen my great grandpa — I seen some old people in Minnesota.Brandon, age fourAlfred James is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, Department of Education, Washburn University, Topeka, KS. Kathy Leon is Director of Menninger Child Care Center, Menninger, Topeka, KS.     

Reading disorders: Strategies for recognition and management

Conclusion My emphasis on linguistic factors and sense of competence as exciting areas for clinical research reflects personal interest and in no way is intended to demean paradigms based on information processing or hemispheric specialization, which are equally promising models. Indeed, I would hope a number of models would be pursued in parallel, best of all in the same patients so that we might better establish whether they cluster together or identify diverse groups. There will, of course, be practical limits, both to the competence of any team of examiners and to the durability of any group of subjects in tolerating extended test sessions. In my view, the most meaningful research will be tied to clinical trials of the remedial methods suggested by research findings, first in the hope of benefitting the child, second in order to provide a further test of hypotheses. There is no other way of beginning the task of developing new linguistic and psychological assessment tools than by exploring their utility with clinical and control groups. But once reliable and valid methods are at hand, it is essential that they be employed epidemiologically and longitudinally on stratified samples of a school population reappraised at appropriate intervals. Referred patients and cross-sectional studies simply will not suffice to provide a valid analysis of the distribution of reading problems, of their natural history, and of their response to remediation. It is high time that we began to think in these terms and to pool efforts to make such studies possible. Presented at the 29th Annual Conference of the Orton Society, Minneapolis, November 1978.     

Comparison of two methods of estimation of low density lipoprotein cholesterol, the direct versus friedewald estimation

Current recommendations of the Adult Treatment Panel and Adolescents Treatment Panel of National Cholesterol Education Program make the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels in serum the basis of classification and management of hypercholesterolemia. A number of direct homogenous assays based on surfactant/solubility principles have evolved in the recent past. This has made LDL-C estimation less cumbersome than the earlier used methods. Here we compared one of the direct homogenous assays with the widely used Friedewald’s method of estimation of LDL-C to see the differences and correlation. We used direct homogenous assay kit to estimate serum LDL-C and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Serum Triglyceride (TG) and Total Cholesterol (TC) was estimated and using Friedewald’s formula LDL-C was calculated. The LDL-C level obtained by both methods in 893 fasting serum samples were compared. The statistical methods used were paired t-test and Pearson’s correlation. There was significant difference in the mean LDL-C levels obtained by the two methods at the TG levels <200 mg/dl (p<0.02) and TC levels >150 mg% (p<0.001). The correlation coefficient (r) between Friedewald’s and direct assay estimation was 0.88. Friedewald’s method classified 23.5 % of patients as high cardiac risk whereas there were 17.58% by direct assay. Both had good correlation even though the serum triglyceride and total cholesterol levels affect the difference in LDL-C estimated by both methods. Taking into account the cost and performance, Friedewald’s method is as good or even better for classifying and managing patients.