A review of instruments used to predict early breastfeeding attrition

Few women breastfeed for 6 months or longer, and many who stop breastfeeding do so in the early postpartum period. To increase the number of breastfeeding mothers, health-care providers need to identify women at greatest risk for early breastfeeding attrition. This integrative review describes instruments used to assess breastfeeding in the early postpartum period and reports the results of studies using these tools. The instruments are then evaluated for similarities in variables and usefulness for clinical practice.     

The Politics of Dissertation Advising: How Early Career Women Faculty Negotiate Access and Participation

Dissertation committees are complex social arenas that underscore expertise, image, and peer relationships—all of which affect professional identity and advancement. This study presents a sampling of how early career women faculty members learn about and negotiate their participation on dissertation committees. Research questions focused on participants’ concerns about the social and political aspects of participation viz à viz peer relationships and faculty rewards. We analyzed interview data using both holistic and constant comparative methods, resulting in a working model of active participation across three domains: knowledge, access, and membership. We also identified developmental trends of dissertation committee engagement across the early career.     

Supporting children with Down syndrome within mainstream education settings: parental reflections

This study draws upon data gathered from five parents who have children with Down syndrome (DS), being educated in mainstream settings in England. The parental perspective of practices, both inclusive and otherwise, is explored through a qualitative lens. Findings suggest that early intervention, such as portage, is important. However, access to services varied across authorities. Additionally, some participants highlighted issues around the Education, Health Care Plan and subsequent annual reviews. Overall, this study offers examples of inclusive practice in the areas of supporting language and communication needs, parental partnership and transition between educational phases for children with DS. However, there are inconsistencies across providers and there is a need for more research into these areas in the future.     

School Governing Bodies: the lay‐professional relationship

This article is an abridged and edited version of the chapter entitled ‘Discussion ‐‐ the Lay‐Professional Relationship’ from a thesis submitted by Lynne Field for the degree of Master of Philosophy in 1991. The research, based at Bristol Polytechnic, centred on the study of the governing body of a secondary school from October 1988 to February 1990 and sought to establish how far the aims of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986 and the Education Act 1988 were being achieved in terms of governing body activity. One of the most significant aspects of the research to emerge was the relationship between lay and professional interests.     

Associations Between First‐Time Expectant Women's Representations of Attachment and Their Physiological Reactivity to Infant Cry

Associations among 53 primiparous women's Adult Attachment Interview classifications (secure–autonomous vs. insecure–dismissing) and physiological and self‐reported responses to infant crying were explored. Heart rate, skin conductance levels, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded continuously. In response to the cry, secure–autonomous women demonstrated RSA declines, consistent with approach‐oriented responses. Insecure–dismissing women displayed RSA and electrodermal increases, consistent with behavioral inhibition. Furthermore, insecure–dismissing women rated the cries as more aversive than secure–autonomous women. Nine months postpartum, secure–autonomous women, who prenatally manifested an approach‐oriented response to the unfamiliar cry stimulus, were observed as more sensitive when responding to their own distressed infant, whereas women classified prenatally as insecure–dismissing were observed as less sensitive with their own infants.     

Infant and Toddler Child-Care Quality and Stability in Relation to Proximal and Distal Academic and Social Outcomes

This study considered the quality and stability of infant and toddler nonparental child care from 6 to 36 months in relation to language, social, and academic skills measured proximally at 36 months and distally at kindergarten. Quality was measured separately as caregiver–child verbal interactions and caregiver sensitivity, and stability was measured as having fewer sequential child-care caregivers. This longitudinal examination involved a subsample (N = 1,055) from the Family Life Project, a representative sample of families living in rural counties in the United States. Structural equation modeling revealed that children who experienced more positive caregiver–child verbal interactions had higher 36-month language skills, which indirectly led to higher kindergarten academic and social skills. Children who experienced more caregiver stability had higher kindergarten social skills.     

Information Acceleration and Visual Trends in Print, Television, and Web News Sources

In 2002, cable television news programs adopted modular presentation styles visually similar to the design of news website home pages and newspaper front pages. This design convergence of print, television, and the Web is the result of a dynamic media context in which information acceleration is a catalyst for the formation of visual trends across media. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to information design and using grounded theory methodology, this article examines the visual evolution of the news and discusses the study's relevance to technical communication.