Psychosocial and behavioral factors related to the post-partum placements of infants born to cocaine-using women

OBJECTIVE: One objective was to determine if cocaine-using women who did not maintain infant custody (NMC) would report more psychological distress, domestic violence, negative coping skills, lower social support and more childhood trauma than cocaine-using women who maintained custody (MC) of their infant. A second objective was to evaluate the relative contribution of psychosocial factors to infant placement. METHODS: Psychosocial profiles of MC women (n=144) were compared with NMC (n=66) cocaine-using women. Subjects were low income, urban, African-American women who delivered an infant at a county teaching hospital. The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), an assessment of coping strategies (COPE), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) were administered. The associations of infant placement status to demographic factors, drug use and psychosocial measures were evaluated. RESULTS: The NMC group reported greater overall psychological distress, psychoticism, somatization, anxiety and hostility than the MC group. The NMC group had more childhood neglect and physical abuse and used more negative coping strategies than the MC group. Lack of prenatal care [OR=.83, CI (.75-.91), p<.0001], heavier prenatal cocaine use [OR=2.55, CI (1.13-4.34), p<.007], greater psychological distress [OR=2.21, CI (1.13-4.34), p<.02] and a childhood history of emotional neglect [OR=1.10, CI (1.02-1.19), p<.02] were associated with increased likelihood of loss of infant custody after control for other substance use and demographic variables. CONCLUSIONS: NMC women have more negative psychological and behavioral functioning post-partum than MC women. Less prenatal care and greater cocaine use, psychological distress and maternal childhood emotional neglect are associated with the post-partum placement of infants born to cocaine-using women. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Results of this study indicate that poor, urban women who use cocaine prenatally display several measurable differences on psychosocial and behavioral risk factors based on child placement status. Among these risk factors heavier cocaine use, lack of prenatal care, more severe psychological symptoms and early childhood experiences of emotional neglect increase the likelihood of loss of infant custody. Routine, objective assessments of psychosocial and behavioral characteristics of women who use cocaine during pregnancy can aid Child Protective Service workers and clinicians by providing baseline data from which to tailor interventions and set improvement criteria for mother-child reunification.     

Temporal comparator rules and responding in multiple schedules

Three response rules for explaining the role of temporal factors in the control of responding were examined. These were the cycle-to-trial comparator rule from scalar expectancy theory (SET; Gibbon & Balsam, 1981), the “deletion” comparator rule proposed by Cooper, Aronson, Balsam, and Gibbon (1990), and a “bad/good” comparator rule—a type of ITI-to-trial comparator. Two of these rules were designed to explain the acquisition of responding in simple associative learning paradigms (i.e., autoshaping). Here, their generality as predictors of response levels in response-dependent multiple schedules was examined. SET’s overall cycle-to-trial comparator rule was the best predictor of the pattern of responding. Contrary to previous findings regarding contrast in multiple schedules, which show greater contrast with shorter component durations, there was no effect of absolute component duration. As predicted by SET, relative, not absolute, component durations controlled response levels.     

SPARK,与健康有关的体育课程

现如今,肥胖已经发展成为美国新一代的流行性疾病。为了应对这一危机,与健康有关的体育课程（以下简称健康体育课程）应运而生（McCullick,2007）,其中发展得最好的可以说是SPARK课程（sport,Play,and Active Recreation for Kids,即儿童运动,游戏和娱乐活动）。SPARK课程最初是为“防止儿童的身体活动和体能发展水平降低”这一社会需求而设计的课程（McKenzie,2009 pp115）。1989年,圣地亚哥州立大学的一个研究团队获得美国国立卫生研究院一项为期7年、拥有数百万元拨款的研究项目,旨在设计、实施和评价小学健康体育课程的有效性。     

Cognitive Mechanisms in Children''s Gender Stereotyping: Theoretical and Educational Implications of a Cognitive-based Intervention

The study was designed to test the hypothesis derived from cognitive-developmental theory that multiple classification skill plays an important role in children's gender stereotyping and in their processing of counterstereotypic gender information. Children (N = 75; 5-10 years) were matched on pretest measures of gender stereotyping and multiple classification skill and then assigned to: (1) multiple classification training using nonsocial stimuli, (2) multiple classification training using social stimuli, (3) a rule training intervention, or (4) a control intervention. Children who had acquired multiple classification skill via training with social stimuli and those children trained on rules for occupational sorting showed significantly more egalitarian responding on a subsequent measure of gender stereotyping and superior memory for counterstereotypic information embedded in stories. Additionally, children who had acquired multiple classification skill via training with nonsocial stimuli showed superior memory for counterstereotypic information, despite demonstrating no greater flexibility on the gender stereotyping measure. Both theoretical and educational implications of results are discussed.     

Applying Diversity Management Concepts to Improve the Minority Educational Pipeline

The objective of this conceptual article is to investigate existing diversity management paradigms and extend their implications toward the goal of increasing minority representation in management education. We suggest that the existing learning‐and‐effectiveness diversity management paradigm (Thomas & Ely, 1996, Harvard Business Review, 74(5), 79–90), which integrates contributions from diverse individuals, can be utilized in addressing the underrepresented minority shortage at each progressive stage of the education pipeline, beginning with the high school level. We propose and discuss a complex set of solutions that highlight the students’ educational experience, motivation, awareness, and social environment. These solutions target minority underrepresentation with the goal of ultimately increasing the proportion of minorities in the PhD pool and subsequently within the management professoriate.     

Collaborative research in contexts of inequality: the role of social reflexivity

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants’ home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.     

Antisocial Boys and Their Friends in Early Adolescence: Relationship Characteristics, Quality, and Interactional Process

This study examines the close friendships of early adolescent boys in relation to antisocial behavior. 186 13–14-year-old boys and their close friends were interviewed, assessed at school, and videotaped in a problem-solving task. Similarity was observed between the demographic characteristics and antisocial behavior of the boys and their close friends. There was a tendency for the close friends of antisocial boys to live within the same neighborhood block and to have met in unstructured, unsupervised activities. Direct observations of interactions with close friends revealed a reliable correlation between antisocial behavior, directives, and negative reciprocity. Positive interactions within the friendship were uncorrelated with antisocial behavior and relationship quality. Implications of these findings for clinical and developmental theory are discussed.     

Getting along: How teachers can support children's peer relationships

Peer relationships provide an important context for the young child's social development. Teachers can influence children's developing social competence in a variety of ways. This article describes how teachers can support children's peer relationships by intentionally shaping the classroom's physical and emotional context. With these basic supports in place, teachers can effectively use planned activities and on-the-spot guidance to help children learn to interact competently and form satisfying relationships.     

Text Comprehension and Oral Language as Predictors of Word-Problem Solving: Insights into Word-Problem Solving as a Form of Text Comprehension

This study was designed to deepen insights on whether word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension (TC) and on the role of language in WPs. A sample of 325 second graders, representing high, average, and low reading and math performance, was assessed on (a) start-of-year TC, WP skill, language, nonlinguistic reasoning, working memory, and foundational skill (word identification, arithmetic) and (b) year-end WP solving, WP-language processing (understanding WP statements, without calculation demands), and calculations. Multivariate, multilevel path analysis, accounting for classroom and school effects, indicated that TC was a significant and comparably strong predictor of all outcomes. Start-of-year language was a significantly stronger predictor of both year-end WP outcomes than of calculations, whereas start-of-year arithmetic was a significantly stronger predictor of calculations than of either WP measure. Implications are discussed in terms of WP solving as a form of TC and a theoretically coordinated approach, focused on language, for addressing TC and WP-solving instruction.