How Assigned Faculty Mentors View their Mentoring Relationships: An Interview Study of Mentors in Medical Education

This qualitative study of 29 physician mentors reports their perspectives on mentoring medical students in a well‐respected medical school’s formal, assigned, longitudinal mentoring program that has a curricular component in the second year. Using a phenomenologic inductive approach, common themes identified centered on mentors’ relationships with their students and the characteristics of the relationships. Most mentors said their relationships solidified in the second year, where curricular responsibilities included teaching and evaluation. Mentors saw their roles change, yet relationships continued to develop as mentees advanced through medical school. They were surprised when students sought contact, support, and advice in years three and four of their programs. Mentors worried whether they “did enough” for their students, yet described their experiences and relationships as rewarding. Mentors subsequently found satisfaction in the continuing relationship during the clinical training years. The researchers note the importance of the curricular component for providing a purpose and structure for relationship development and in facilitating relationship development in this assigned mentoring program.     

Dialogic identities: the experiences of women who are headteachers and mothers in English primary schools

Twenty women who are mothers and primary school headteachers were interviewed regarding their understanding of the self and how this interacts with the role of parent and professional. The data are read as an illustration of dialogic identities where the self is in constant negotiation regarding how to position as mother and as headteacher, and how they are being positioned by organisational and social structures. Training and preparation for headship does not engage with the person as subject outside the organisation, and this paper provides an opportunity to examine how professional and personal positioning are interrelated, dynamic and vital to how practitioners do and value their work.     

‘It was as useful as a chocolate kettle’: sex education in the lives of same‐sex‐attracted young people in Australia

Sex education is a contested site in the school curriculum as communities grapple with who should teach young people about sex and how it should be taught. In this paper we ask whether same‐sex‐attracted young people are being exposed to appropriate and relevant sex education at school, and if they are not whether it is necessary that sex education be inclusive of sexual difference. In the second Australian survey of 1749 same‐sex‐attracted youth of 14–21 years old, we ask young people about sex education classes at school, how useful they were for them, their sources of information regarding gay and lesbian relationships and safe sex, sexual behaviours and incidence of sexually transmissible infections and pregnancy. We find from the data that most of these young people found sex education to be useless because it was not inclusive. In comparison with normative studies, these young people were, on average, sexually active earlier, had higher rates of diagnosed sexually transmissible infections and at least as high an incidence of pregnancy. We conclude from the data that there is a need for sex education in schools to be inclusive of the sexuality of all students, not just those who are attracted to the opposite sex.     

The Relationship Between Personality Temperament,Communication Reticence,and Fear of Negative Evaluation

This study examined the influence and relationships of the Big Five personality variables of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability (neuroticism), and openness to experience on communication reticence and fear of negative evaluation (FNE). Undergraduates from (N = 336) basic communication or psychology courses completed self-report measures for these variables. Structural equation modeling indicated that only one personality dimension, extraversion, directly predicted reticence, whereas neuroticism was positively related to FNE, and openness was a negatively associated predictor of FNE. The model also showed a strong relationship between FNE and reticence, indicating that FNE moderated the relationship between two of the five personality variables (i.e., openness and neuroticism) and reticence.     

International Communications

Lawrence W. Lichty's (ed.) World and International droadcasting: A Bibliography (Association for Professional Broadcasting Education, 1771 N St. Washington, D. C.) $15.00 ($10.00 to APBE individual members) paperbound)

William A. Hachten's Muffled Drums: The News Media in Africa (Iowa State University Press, $9.50)

Lynne Svenning's Modernization Among Peasants: Impact of Communications (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, $8.00)

Will A. Boelke's The Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels: The Nazi Propaganda War 1939-43.

James W. Markham's (ed.) International Commnication as a Field of Study (University of Iowa Department of Publications, $3.00)     

Culture,Creativity, and Research

This article charts the increasing importance of the creative industries to the UK economy and to ways of meeting the information needs of those industries. The role of libraries is examined, particularly that of the British Library and its support services for business and enterprise. Related issues are discussed, such as those relating to the measurement of the value of services like the British Library, the preservation of digital documentation, and heritage and intellectual property rights.     

Investigating Factorial Invariance of Latent Variables Across Populations When Manifest Variables Are Missing Completely

Difficulties arise in multiple-group evaluations of factorial invariance if particular manifest variables are missing completely in certain groups. Ad hoc analytic alternatives can be used in such situations (e.g., deleting manifest variables), but some common approaches, such as multiple imputation, are not viable. At least 3 solutions to this problem are viable: analyzing differing sets of variables across groups, using pattern mixture approaches, and a new method using random number generation. The latter solution, proposed in this article, is to generate pseudo-random normal deviates for all observations for manifest variables that are missing completely in a given sample and then to specify multiple-group models in a way that respects the random nature of these values. An empirical example is presented in detail comparing the 3 approaches. The proposed solution can enable quantitative comparisons at the latent variable level between groups using programs that require the same number of manifest variables in each group.     

The Quest for Gender Equity in America's Schools: From Preschool and Beyond

"Nothing can be more absurd than the practice which prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus the state instead of being whole, is reduced to half.” Plato, 24 B. C.     

Factors associated with physical activity referral completion and health outcomes

Abstract

Participant socio-demographic characteristics and referral reason were investigated in relation to completion and health outcomes in a Primary Care Physical Activity Referral Scheme using a prospective population-based longitudinal design. Participants (n = 1735) were recruited over a 2-year period. A three-stage binary logistic regression analysis identified the factors associated with the outcomes of completion (model 1), body mass reduction (model 2) and blood pressure reduction (model 3). Participant's age, gender, ethnicity, occupation and referral reason were the independent variables for model 1, with the variables of completion added in model 2 and completion and body mass reduction added in model 3. Logistic regression analysis revealed that increasing age is associated with the likelihood of completion (Odds Ratio, OR = 1.019; Confidence Interval, CI = 1.008–1.030; P = 0.001). Participants with a pulmonary condition are less likely to complete (OR = 0.546; CI = 0.346–0.860; P < 0.01) compared to those referred for cardiovascular conditions. For ethnicity, in comparison to the white category, patients in the mixed category are significantly more likely to achieve a reduction in body mass (OR = 3.991; CI = 1.191–13.373; P < 0.05). Those who complete are more likely to achieve a reduction in body mass (OR = 3.541; CI = 2.721–4.608; P < 0.001). When compared to the unemployed category, the skilled manual category had an increased likelihood of achieving a reduction in blood pressure (OR = 1.875; CI = 1.044–3.227; P < 0.05). Participants who completed also demonstrated an increased likelihood of a reduction in blood pressure (OR = 1.680; CI = 1.250–2.003; P < 0.001). Furthermore, those participants who achieved a reduction in body mass had an increased likelihood of achieving a reduction in blood pressure (OR = 1.292; CI = 1.008–1.641; P < 0.05). Completion is associated with health outcomes of reduced body mass and blood pressure.     

Executive function mediates socio-economic and racial differences in early academic achievement

Although associations between socio-economic status, race, and academic achievement are well established, the specific mechanisms that underlie the relation remain incompletely understood. This longitudinal investigation, involving a sample of 206 children from economically and racially diverse backgrounds, examined the influence of executive function and expressive vocabulary assessed in kindergarten on academic achievement in Grade 1. The use of structural equation modeling revealed that both SES and race had indirect effects on achievement test scores through their effects on executive function, even when accounting for differences in expressive vocabulary. As expected, executive function was more strongly related to math than literacy achievement. The results provide support for the importance of targeting executive skills and intervening early in efforts to improve academic performance in young children. Moreover, the findings suggest that improving executive function may mitigate the impact of social risk factors on academic achievement.