The affective lives of doubled-up Latinx youth: Influences of school experiences,familism, and ethnic identity exploration

Doubled-up Latinx youth experience many daily challenges associated with ethnic minority status and residential instability. Doubled-up youth share housing with noncustodial caregivers such as friends and/or extended family members primarily because of economic hardship and a breakdown in available parental support. Using data from baseline and 10 days of twice-a-day surveys, this study examined how in-school positive experiences, familism (i.e., a perspective that gives precedence to the family), and ethnic identity (i.e., affirmation, exploration, and resolution) influence after school positive (e.g., feeling joyful/happy) and negative (e.g., feeling stressed/anxious) affect among doubled-up Latinx youth (70% female; M_age = 16.5). Results indicate that in-school positive experiences were associated with more after school positive affect and less after school negative affect. In addition, youth with higher levels of familism reported experiencing less after school negative affect. However, gender moderated the relation of ethnic identity exploration and experiences of after school positive affect. Specifically, females with higher levels of ethnic identity exploration reported relatively lower levels of after school positive affect compared with males. Overall, study findings highlight the importance of both person-level and varying contextual influences on the affective lives of doubled-up Latinx youth.     

The Relations of Children's Dispositional Prosocial Behavior to Emotionality, Regulation, and Social Functioning

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of a measure of children's dispositional prosocial behavior (i.e., peer nominations) to individual differences in children's negative emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Children with prosocial reputations tended to be high in constructive social skills (i.e., socially appropriate behavior and constructive coping) and attentional regulation, and low in negative emotionality. The relations of children's negative emotionality to prosocial reputation were moderated by level of dispositional attentional regulation. In addition, the relations of prosocial reputation to constructive social skills and parent-reported negative emotionality (for girls) increased with age. Vagal tone, a marker of physiological regulation, was negatively related to girls' prosocial reputation.     

“You look like them”: Drawing on Counselling Theory and Practice to Reflexively Negotiate Cultural Difference in Research Relationships

Located within a context of intercultural counselling research, this paper highlights the pertinence of the researcher’s reflexivity and cultural awareness in relation to research relationships. It draws on an excerpt between a white European interviewer and an Asian trainee counsellor discussing the latter’s experience of intercultural counselling practice. A reflexive analysis of a short passage aims to demonstrate how explicit negotiation of cultural difference within the interview setting advanced the researcher’s understanding of the participant’s experience, which was being investigated. The interrelated challenges, but also the importance of the interviewer’s preparedness to explore power imbalances in the research relationship are also examined, as are some key limitations of such endeavours. This paper underlines the usefulness of counselling skills in qualitative research, hoping to function as an invitation for more practitioner involvement in therapeutic inquiry.     

Building and Supporting a Validity Argument for a Standards‐Based Classroom Assessment of English Proficiency Based on Teacher Judgments

Using an argument‐based approach to validation, this study examines the quality of teacher judgments in the context of a standards‐based classroom assessment of English proficiency. Using Bachman's (2005) assessment use argument (AUA) as a framework for the investigation, this paper first articulates the claims, warrants, rebuttals, and backing needed to justify the link between teachers' scores on the English Language Development (ELD) Classroom Assessment and the interpretations made about students' language ability. Then the paper summarizes the findings of two studies—one quantitative and one qualitative—conducted to gather the necessary backing to support the warrants and, in particular, address the rebuttals about teacher judgments in the argument. The quantitative study examined the assessment in relation to another measure of the same ability—the California English Language Development Test—using confirmatory factor analysis of multitrait‐multimethod data and provided evidence in support of the warrant that states that the ELD Classroom Assessment measures English proficiency as defined by the California ELD Standards. The qualitative study examined the processes teachers engaged in while scoring the classroom assessment using verbal protocol analysis. The findings of this study serve to support the rebuttals in the validity argument that state that there are inconsistencies in teachers' scoring. The paper concludes by providing an explanation for these seemingly contradictory findings using the AUA as a framework and discusses the implications of the findings for the use of standards‐based classroom assessments based on teacher judgments.     

How to access the conceptions and theories that underlie teaching practices? A theoretical-methodological reflection based on dialogic discourse analysis / ¿Cómo acceder a las concepciones y teorías que subyacen a las prácticas docentes? Una reflexión teórico-metodológica desde el Análisis dialógico de los discursos

Abstract

This article discusses the methodologies used to access the implicit theories and conceptions that underlie teachers’ teaching practices, as well as the theoretical-methodological assumptions behind these approaches. The study was planned stressing the importance of inquiring into both subjectivity as a polyphonic construct and the practices inherent to different discursive genres, bearing in mind the theoretical and methodological potential of dialogic discourse analysis.     

Students’ conceptions of work and the understanding of the economic value of labor: a developmental study of unemployment and job precarity in times of an economic crisis

In the aftermath of the financial and economic recession of 2008, 130 Spanish students of five age groups (8 to 17 years) and two socioeconomic backgrounds were individually interviewed about unemployment and lower wages. The participants were presented with two hypothetical situations, and their responses were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The results indicated that children bring their conceptions of work when attempting to explain those phenomena. Specifically, it was found that the explanations were closely associated with the comprehension of the notion of surplus value (i.e., the idea that workers create more value than the cost of their salaries), and that the development of this notion proceeds in three levels. Younger children were simply unaware of the capacity of workers to create value (Level 1), which gave rise to some alternative conceptions (e.g., the idea that money for salaries comes from external sources). The children within the age range of 12–13 began to understand that workers create some value (Level 2). At this level, however, the notion of surplus value was not fully understood, and the idea that money for salaries comes from external sources persisted in a variety of ways. From the ages of 13–14, the children begin to understand that a wage is the price of labor and that the employer earns a profit because workers create more value than the cost of their wages (Level 3). The article presents a discussion of the possible reasons behind the slow progress observed and highlights some suggestions for educational practice.

     

Laboratory diagnostics of chronic kidney disease in Croatia: state of the art: On behalf of the joint working group of Croatian society of medical biochemistry and laboratory medicine and Croatian chamber for medical biochemists for laboratory diagnostics in chronic kidney disease

Introduction

Early identification and management of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is highly cost-effective and can reduce the risk of kidney failure progression and cardiovascular disease. In 2014, the Joint Croatian Working Group (JCWG) for laboratory diagnostic of CKD on the behalf of Croatian society of medical biochemistry and laboratory medicine (CSMBLM) and Croatian chamber of medical biochemists (CCMB) conducted a survey across Croatian medical-biochemistry laboratories to assess the current practice in this area of laboratory medicine. The aim of this study was to present the data collected through the survey and to give insight about laboratory diagnostics of chronic kidney disease in Croatia.

Materials and methods

An invitation to participate in the survey was sent to all Croatian medical-biochemistry laboratories (N = 196). The questionnaire was designed in a form of questions and statements, with possible multiple answers, comprising 24 questions.

Results

The response rate was 80/196 (40.8%). 39 answers were from primary medical-biochemistry laboratories. 31/78 (0.40) laboratories measure creatinine with non-standardized method (uncompensated Jaffe method). 58/78 (0.74) of laboratories that measure creatinine do not report eGFR values. Similar number of laboratories (58/80, 0.73) do not measure urine albumin or protein.

Conclusions

There is a large heterogeneity among Croatian laboratories regarding measuring methods, reporting units and reference intervals (cut-off values), both for creatinine and urine albumin or protein. The two key prerequisites for CKD screening, automatic reporting of eGFR and albuminuria or proteinuria assessment, are not implemented nationwide. There is a need for harmonization in laboratory diagnostics of CKD in Croatia.Key words: survey, chronic kidney disease, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albuminuria, proteinuria, creatinine, harmonization