Moral Development,HIV/AIDS Knowledge,and Attitude toward HIV/AIDS among Counseling Students in the United States

People living with HIV/AIDS will likely require services from mental health professionals to address the complex psychosocial effects of the illness. In the United States, counseling students are not likely to be well prepared to serve clients affected by HIV/AIDS, and little is known about their HIV-related knowledge and attitudes. The present study assessed the moral development, HIV/AIDS knowledge, and attitudes toward HIV/AIDS among a national sample of counseling students in the United States. Results indicated that students held biases toward people living with HIV/AIDS and that their attitudes toward HIV/AIDS were inversely related to their level of moral development.     

Directors and Writers

Eric Sherman's Directing the Film: Film Directors on Their Art (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976---$15.00)

Donald Spoto's The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures (New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1976---$13.00/8.95)

Kemp R. Niver's D.W. Griffith: His Biograph Films in Perspective (Historical Films, P.O. Box 46505, Los Angeles, Calif. 90046---$12.00)

Stephen Pendo's Raymond Chandler on Screen: His Novels into Film (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976---$10.00)

Ronald Lloyd's American Film Directors: The World as They See It (New York: New Viewpoints/Franklin Watts, 1976---price not given, paper)

Maureen Lambray's The American Film Directors (New York: Whirlwind/Pathe Press, 1976---$22.50)

Bob Thomas' Walt Disney: An American Original (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976---$9.95)

Richard Koszarski's Hollywood Directors, 1914-1940 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976---$13.95/3.95)

Philip Cecchettini and Don Whittemore's Passport to Hollywood: Film Immigramts (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976---413.50)

Beatriz Reyes Nevares' The Mexican Cinema: Interviews with Thirteen Directors (Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1976---$9.95/4.50)

Francisco Aranda's Luis Bunuel: A Critical Biography (New York: Da Capo Press, 1976---44.95, paper)

Glenn B. Infield's Leni Riefenstahl: The Fallen Film Goddess (New York: Crowell, 1976---$9.95)

Stuart Rosenthal's The Cinema of Federico Fellini (Cranbury, N.J.: A.S. Barnes, 1976---$9.95)

Edward Murray's Fellini the Artist (New York: Ungar, 1976---$10.00)     

Early Education Essentials: Validation of Surveys Measuring Early Education Organizational Conditions

Research Findings: The Early Education Essentials surveys use teacher and parent perceptions to measure 6 organizational conditions of early childhood education programs, extending and complementing existing measures of early childhood care and education (ECE) quality constructs. This study tests the reliability and concurrent validity of the Early Education Essentials in 81 school- and community-based ECE sites in a large Midwestern city selected using a stratified random sampling method. Using a Rasch item response theory model, scales were created; theory and exploratory factor analyses combined scales into higher level constructs called essentials. Multilevel models took into account individual measurement error to create site-level essential scores and assessed relationships between programs’ essential scores and site-level teacher–child interactions scores and student attendance. Findings suggest that the Early Education Essentials is reliable in multiple ECE settings; it is sensitive to site-level differences; and some, but not all, organizational conditions measured are associated in expected directions with site-level metrics indicative of center-based ECE quality. Practice or Policy: The Early Education Essentials has the potential to provide leaders and practitioners with actionable data about organizational supports that enable ECE practitioners to be more effective in their daily work with children and families.     

Academic engagement: A review of the literature 2011-2019

We provide a systematic review of the literature on academic engagement from 2011 onwards, which was the cut-off year of a previous review article published in Research Policy. Academic engagement refers to knowledge-related interactions of academic scientists with external organisations. It includes activities such as collaborative research with industry, contract research, consulting and informal ties. We consolidate what is known about the individual, organisational and institutional antecedents of academic engagement, and its consequences for research, commercialisation, and society at large. Our results suggest that individual characteristics associated with academic engagement include being scientifically productive, senior, male, locally trained, and commercially experienced. Academic engagement is also socially conditioned by peer effects and disciplinary characteristics. In terms of consequences, academic engagement is positively associated with academics’ subsequent scientific productivity. We propose new areas of investigation where evidence remains inconclusive, including individual life cycle effects, the role of organisational contexts and incentives, cross-national comparisons, and the impact of academic engagement on the quality of subsequent research as well as the educational, commercial and society-wide impact.     

Fathers’ and mothers’ home learning environments and children’s early academic outcomes

The home learning environment (HLE) that children experience early on is highly predictive of their later academic competencies; however, the bulk of this work is operationalized from mothers’ perspectives. This study investigates the HLE provided by both mothers and fathers to their preschoolers (n = 767), with consideration for how parents’ practices relate to one another as well as how these practices predict children’s early academic outcomes. Using an SEM framework, results indicate that while, overall, mothers provide HLE activities more frequently than fathers do, both mothers (β = .18, p < .05) and fathers (β = .22, p < .05) make unique contributions to their preschooler’s early academic skills, but only for families where mother has less than a bachelor’s degree. For families where mother has a bachelor’s degree or higher, the effect of father’s HLE practices is not a significant predictor of children’s academics when considering mother’s HLE. For all families, fathers are providing a variety of HLE activities to their young children; and, although these may occur less frequently than mothers’ practices, they are particularly important for the academic development of children whose mothers have less than a bachelor’s degree. Practical implications are discussed.     

Sport commitment among competitive female gymnasts: a developmental perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine age and competitive level differences in the relationship between determinants and level of sport commitment. Gymnasts (N = 304) comprised three age groups (8-11, 11-14.5, and 14.5-18 years) and two competitive levels (Levels 5-6 and 8-10). Multiple regression analyses revealed: (a) perceived costs and social constraints from parents and best friends were the strongest predictors of commitment for the youngest gymnasts, (b) perceived costs, personal investments, and parent social constraints predicted commitment for 11-14.5-year-old gymnasts, and (c) perceived competence and costs predicted commitment for the oldest gymnasts. Competitive level differences also emerged; for Level 5-6 gymnasts, personal investments, perceived costs, coach social support, and social constraints by coach, best friend, and teammates were predictors of commitment. Personal investments and teammate social constraints were significant predictors for Level 8-10 gymnasts. Developmental factors and additional determinants are important to consider in further studies of the sport commitment model.     

Reading fluency: The whole is more than the parts

This study examined the relative contributions of phonological awareness, orthographic pattern recognition, and rapid letter naming to fluent word and connected-text reading within a dyslexic sample of 123 children in second and third grades. Participants were assessed on a variety of fluency measures and reading subskills. Correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out to explore these relationships. The results demonstrate that phonological awareness, rapid letter naming, and orthographic pattern recognition contribute to word-reading skills. Furthermore, rapid naming, orthographic pattern recognition, and word reading fluency moderately predict different dimensions of connected-text reading (i.e., rate, accuracy, and comprehension) whereas phonological awareness contributes only to the comprehension dimension of connected-text reading. The findings support the multidimensional nature of fluency in which the whole is more than its parts.