Coping with distance learning during COVID-19 and its impact on students' emotional experiences: Differences between students with and without special education needs

Given the almost 2-year COVID-19 school-related closure in Mexico, children and adolescents have experienced a negative impact not only on their learning, but as well as on their mental health and well-being. Although international research has shown that distant learning as a response to the COVID-19 school-related closures has severely affected students with special education needs, there is still a lack of studies conducted in Mexico. Thus, this study attempts to tackle this gap by exploring how Mexican students with and without special education needs coped with distance learning as well as its impact on their emotional experiences. A total of 293 Mexican lower secondary students participated in the study. Independent sample t-tests indicated that, in comparison with students without special needs, students with special needs coped significantly worse during distance learning as well as had higher levels of negative activation. Additionally, multiple linear regression analyses revealed that students' self-efficacy functioned as an important coping mechanism. Implications of the results, as well as further lines of research are discussed.     

How teams learn to regulate collaborative processes with technological support

We examined the utility of a technologically enhanced collective regulation system for improving students’ collaborative sense-making processes, i.e., discussion quality, over time. Participants were 27 online undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory information science course. Students were divided into teams tasked with carrying out five online synchronous discussions and collective reflection activities in the system focusing on improving their processes over a ten-week period. Discussion quality was evaluated by a trained graduate student, using the same assessment rubric used by teams. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques were used to examine teams’ collaborative discussion quality and socio-metacognitive processes over time. Findings suggest teams significantly improved discussion quality and used the features in the system to do so. The results also suggested that while individuals were generally inaccurate in assessing their team’s discussion quality, group assessment accuracy and identification of team’s weaknesses improved over time in select areas.

     

The innovation potential of new infrastructure development: An empirical study of Heathrow airport's T5 project

We propose a conceptual framework to analyze technology adoption in mega infrastructure projects, and assess their potential to innovating large socio-technical systems. Drawing on an in-depth empirical analysis of Heathrow airport's Terminal 5 project, we find that innovation hinges on technology adoption decisions that are governed systematically by two intertwined determinants - assessment of expected profitability and development of absorptive capacity, both of which are distributed across various interdependent actors. On an ad hoc basis, technological decisions are also affected by other factors, namely attitudes toward risk, politics, and (lack of) established standards. We reveal how a schedule-driven project framing creates an underlying boundary condition that constrains the longitudinal process of building a ‘whole collective’ with capacity to absorb new technologies. The innovation potential of mega projects is thus subjected to a fundamental, unifying tension: on the one hand, they offer a one-off opportunity to invest in cutting-edge technologies and innovate socio-technical systems; on the other hand, project stakeholders have limited time to develop capacity to absorb novel technologies and negotiate differences on assessments of profitability and risk. Stakeholders may therefore be compelled to agree to adopt proven technologies upfront to reduce uncertainty and mitigate risks, thus limiting the innovation potential of new infrastructure development.     

Childhood emotional maltreatment and later psychological distress among college students: The mediating role of maladaptive schemas

ObjectiveTheoretically, exposure to experiences of emotional abuse (EA) and emotional neglect (EN) in childhood may threaten the security of attachment relationships and result in maladaptive models of self and self-in-relation to others. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which EA and EN treatment by parents contributed uniquely to young adult maladaptive long-term outcome with respect to symptoms of anxiety, depression, and dissociation. The extent to which the relationships between EA and EN and later symptoms were mediated by specific internalized maladaptive interpersonal schemas was also explored.MethodsQuestionnaires completed by 301 college men and women (52% female) assessed perceptions of experiences of childhood abuse and neglect, exposure to parental alcoholism, current symptoms of psychological distress, and endorsement of maladaptive interpersonal schemas.ResultsHierarchical regression analyses revealed that perceptions of childhood EA and EN each continued to exert an influence on later symptoms after controlling for gender, income, parental alcoholism, and other child abuse experiences. Both EA and EN were associated with later symptoms of anxiety and depression and were mediated by schemas of vulnerability to harm, shame, and self-sacrifice. Only EN was related to later symptoms of dissociation; this relationship was mediated by the schemas of shame and vulnerability to harm.ConclusionThe findings are discussed from an attachment perspective, focusing on how early interactions with parents contribute to the development of internal working models of self and self-in-relation to others that influence later cognitive schemas and psychological adjustment.Practice implicationsAlthough emotional abuse and emotional neglect are the least studied of all forms of child maltreatment, they may be the most prevalent. The current findings suggest that how college students have evaluated and internalized these experiences may be even more important than the events themselves in determining the extent to which these experiences exert a long-term impact. For this reason, early intervention might be particularly important in helping to modify internal working models of the self as worthless, others as abusive, or the world as threatening and dangerous as a result of past abuse experiences. This study underscores the need for counselors to actively elicit and explore experiences of emotional abuse and neglect in clients, in addition to inquiring about other abuse experiences and types of family dysfunction.The results of this study also support existing data suggesting that internalized representational models of self and others are a key mechanism underlying the relationship between emotional maltreatment and later psychopathology. Young's schema questionnaire proved to be quite sensitive in detecting specific maladaptive schemas that mediated later difficulties with depression, anxiety, and dissociation. Targeting these negative schemas in therapy may help to ameliorate such symptoms. The therapeutic relationship provides a particularly effective context for developing more positive models of self and others, as well as providing a context to explore core relationship themes across different relationship contexts (e.g., intimate partner, parent, friend, and work relationships). In particular, if the assessment of the client reveals that dissociative symptoms are present, counselors can acknowledge the adaptive function that this strategy once served, while also addressing potential limitations to over-reliance on this coping strategy.     

Evolutionary learning of document categories

This paper deals with a supervised learning method devoted to producing categorization models of text documents. The goal of the method is to use a suitable numerical measurement of example similarity to find centroids describing different categories of examples. The centroids are not abstract or statistical models, but rather consist of bits of examples. The centroid-learning method is based on a Genetic Algorithm for Texts (GAT). The categorization system using this genetic algorithm infers a model by applying the genetic algorithm to each set of preclassified documents belonging to a category. The models thus obtained are the category centroids that are used to predict the category of a test document. The experimental results validate the utility of this approach for classifying incoming documents.     

Modularity and innovation in knowledge-intensive business services: IT outsourcing in Germany and the UK

Drawing on an empirical study of IT outsourcing in the UK and Germany, this paper explores the lessons for modularity that can be drawn from the outsourcing of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Because of the inseparability of information and production technologies, IT outsourcing is frequently accompanied by wider transformations in clients’ production technologies. This results in the need for knowledge and organisational coordination in the form of the transfer of staff from the client and the retained IT organisation. Modularity is often presented as a design strategy that stimulates innovation. Our research findings challenge the generalisability of this claim when examining KIBS outsourcing. We show that intangibility of services exacerbates the conflicts between clients and suppliers, which may present obstacles to innovation.     

Adaptation of the Multidimensional Trauma Recovery and Resilience (MTRR) questionnaire in a sample of Chilean mothers with a history of child abuse

OBJECTIVE: Adaptation of the Multidimensional Trauma Recovery and Resilience (MTRR) in a Chilean sample. METHOD: Participants were 80 mothers drawn from two large metropolitan areas (Santiago and Temuco). Sample participants (in a case control design) were redivided in two groups: 40 mothers identified as physical abusers with history of physical child abuse and 40 mothers identified as nonabusers with history of physical child abuse. Groups were matched on 5 sociodemographic variables. Reliability analysis, item analysis, and group comparisons on the 8 scales of the instrument were performed. RESULTS: Interrater agreement level was .79 (Kendall's W coefficient) and the internal consistency as measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .75. Twenty-five items (26.3%) significantly discriminated between the groups. Group comparison tests (Wilcoxon Rank-sum Test) also indicated that six of the eight domains discriminated between the groups. CONCLUSION: In our sample, the instrument has reliable results which discriminate between the studied groups. These preliminary findings support future work toward the development of a Chilean version of this instrument.     

Environmental Education as Facilitator of the Use of Ecological Information: A case study in Mexico

Ecological research is expected to provide a scientific basis on which environmental management decisions can be taken. Environmental education is seen as raising environmental awareness among human populations and as a provider of the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills needed to protect the environment. This article proposes that in the context of developing countries such as Mexico, one role for environmental education is to facilitate the utilisation of ecological information in the solution of problems. In order to outline how this can work in practice, a case study is used to outline the role of environmental education as the linkage between science (its institutions, actors and products) and different sectors of society involved in the management of ecosystems, their resources and the services they provide.     

Reciprocal effects between fluid and crystallized intelligence and their dependence on parents' socioeconomic status and education

The investment theory of Cattell supposes an influence of fluid on crystallized intelligence. The development of fluid intelligence largely depends on biological factors, of crystallized intelligence on fluid intelligence and environmental stimulation. To test this theory two contrasting samples representing a broad ability range were chosen, a Brazilian sample (ages 7 to 15, N = 833, mean IQ 92) and a sample with a higher ability level in Germany (ages 11 to 19, N = 722, IQ 118). Analyses of cross-lagged effects across two year intervals show similar effects of fluid intelligence on crystallized and vice versa (around β = .17). Parental socioeconomic status and parental education have in both samples a slightly stronger effect on crystallized than on fluid intelligence. The first result refutes Cattell's theory, the second gives some support. The development of fluid intelligence also seems to be influenced by non-biological environmental factors resulting in a concept of intelligence as a malleable ability.     

The Role of Intragroup Marginalization in Latino College Student Adjustment

The purpose of this article is to examine how intragroup marginalization has a potential impact on Latino college students’ psychological adjustment. The concept of intragroup marginalization in this context relates to the perceived rejection of students by persons of their heritage culture group in response to the students’ acculturation efforts in regard to the college culture. Counselors can facilitate college success of Latino students by addressing acculturative stressors. Intragroup marginalization and its relationship to Latino college student adjustment is illustrated and discussed through a vignette.