Super-Girl: strength and sadness in Black girlhood

This paper complicates notions of Black girlhood by examining the dual experiences of gendered racism that result in both strength and sadness in Black girls’ educational experiences. I highlight the need for a curriculum of liberation to combat historical and current social conditions negatively impacting school-aged Black girls, such as harsh disciplinary practices, low academic expectations, and sexual objectification. The Super-Girl phenomenon serves as a metaphor illustrating the balance and imbalance of multiple social constructs. Utilising constructivist grounded theory [Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage], the key concepts in the research derived directly from the voices of 18 school-aged girls (8–13) as well as my observations, interpretations, and related experiences. Data collection utilising observation notes, interviews, written responses, and activity products provided from monthly sessions over the course of two years, offer critical insight into some of the complexities of Black girlhood. The most striking common themes abstracted from their voices were concepts related to ‘strength’ and ‘sadness’ in their lives. Thematic narratives were found to be most relevant to (1) negative teacher–student relationships, as well as, (2) policed bodies and sexual objectification. This work offers specific recommendations for future girl empowerment programming, curriculum, and evidence-based intervention development that can aide in liberating Black girls.     

A systematic review of self‐regulation strategies to improve academic outcomes of students with EBD

Self‐regulatory interventions have demonstrated numerous benefits for helping improve the academic performance of students. The purpose of this review was to report on the effectiveness and focus of academic self‐regulation interventions for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. Thirty‐six studies published in 35 papers and involving 189 participants met inclusionary criteria. Overall, self‐regulation interventions showed moderate/medium effect size gains [percentage of nonoverlapping data (PND) 75%; standard mean difference (SMD) 2.27; Tau‐U 0.81] across academic subject areas. When assessing the effectiveness of self‐regulation interventions for addressing specific academic content areas, the largest ES gains were observed in reading (PND 93%; SMD 2.13; Tau‐U 0.94), although medium/moderate ES gains were observed in math (PND 71%; SMD 2.08; Tau‐U 0.70) and writing (PND 83%; SMD 2.57; Tau‐U 0.91). Self‐regulated strategy development, self‐monitoring interventions and strategy instruction were the predominant types of self‐regulation techniques implemented by researchers. There was evidence to support a claim of the generalisation and maintenance of findings. Implications, limitations and areas for future research are discussed.     

Faculty and Male Football and Basketball Players on University Campuses

Abstract

Four experiments examined the influence of observing a correct model (CM), a learning sequence model (LSM), and an incorrect model (IM) on the performance of two motor skills. The results of experiment 1 showed that the CM and LSM conditions facilitated performance on the first 10 trails, but not thereafter when compared to the IM group and a control group. Experiment 2 showed that performance estimation was improved by observing the CM and LSM conditions, indicating that information was conveyed by observing these models. Experiment 3 revealed pronounced modeling effects on a difficult motor skill for the CM and LSM conditions which were sustained throughout the 60 practice trials. Experiment 4 showed no differences in performance between a live model demonstrating correctly and a filmed model demonstrating correctly. The findings from the 4 experiments were discussed in terms of the information conveyed through observation and its function in the development of the cognitive components of a motor skill.     

Validity of the New Lifestyles NL-1000 Accelerometer for Measuring Time Spent in Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity in School Settings

Current interest in promoting physical activity in the school environment necessitates an inexpensive, accurate method of measuring physical activity in such settings. Additionally, it is recognized that physical activity must be of at least moderate intensity in order to yield substantial health benefits. The purpose of the study, therefore, was to determine the validity of the New Lifestyles NL-1000 (New Lifestyles, Inc., Lee's Summit, Missouri, USA) accelerometer for measuring moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in school settings, using the Actigraph GT1M (ActiGraph, Pensacola, Florida, USA) as the criterion. Data were collected during a cross-country run (n = 12), physical education (n = 18), and classroom-based physical activities (n = 42). Significant and meaningful intraclass correlations between methods were found, and NL-1000 estimates of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were not meaningfully different from GT1M-estimated moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The NL-1000 therefore shows promising validity evidence as an inexpensive, convenient method of measuring moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in school settings.     

The Significance of Gender Boundaries in Preadolescence: Contemporary Correlates and Antecedents of Boundary Violation and Maintenance

Previous research has established the importance of gender boundaries as a normative aspect of development in middle childhood. Here, the nature and importance of gender boundaries as an individual differences construct was explored. Ratings of gender boundary violation and gender boundary maintenance were made of 47 10–11-year-old children participating in a series of summer day camps. These ratings were supported by videotape-based behavior codings of gender boundary violating behaviors and by live observations of sheer number of associations with members of the opposite gender. In addition, considerable external validation of these individual differences was obtained. Children low on gender boundary violation and (especially) children high on boundary maintenance were independently judged by camp counselors to be socially competent. They also were found to be higher on a friendship variable, based on observation. Those who violated boundary were especially unpopular with peers, based on a child interview. Finally, boundary violation and maintenance were related to attachment history and to early measures of parent-child generational boundary distortions.     

Vampires and Witches Go to School: Contemporary Young Adult Fiction,Gender, and the Gothic

In the twenty-first century, the Gothic has experienced a cultural resurgence in literature, film, and television for young adult audiences. Young adult readers, poised between childhood and adulthood, have proven especially receptive to the Gothic’s themes of liminality, monstrosity, transgression, romance, and sexuality (James, 2009, p. 116). As part of the Gothic’s incorporation into a broad range of texts for young people, the school story—a conventionally realist genre—has begun to include supernatural gothic characters including vampires, witches, angels, and zombies, and has once again become a popular genre for young readers. In the past decade, in particular, a large number of Gothic young adult series with female protagonists set in boarding schools have been published (These include Shadow Falls (2011–2013) by C.C. Hunter, Covenant (2011–2013) by Jennifer L. Armentrout, House of Night (2007–2014) by P.C. Cast, Mythos Academy (2011–2014) by Jennifer Estep, The Dragonian (2013–2015) by Adrienne Woods, The Morganville Vampires (2006–2014) by Rachel Caine, Blue Bloods (2006–2013) by Melissa de la Cruz, and Fallen (2009–2012) by Lauren Kate). In this article, we will consider the first books in three such supernatural Gothic series that feature vampires and witches: Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy (2007), Claudia Gray’s vampire romance Evernight (2008) and Rachel Hawkins’ Hex Hall (2010). These books are significant for the ways in which the traditional school story is adapted and transformed by the Gothic to define models of contemporary girlhood. Although Diane Long Hoeveler suggests that “the ‘body’ that emerges from female gothic textuality is a highly gendered one” (1998, p. 18), what we see in these texts is how the school story setting enables Gothic female protagonists who are unique, disruptive, and potentially transformative, despite the limitations enforced by the heterosexual romance plot. We argue that these novels, while conservative in some respects, rework the school story genre in that they foreground the sexual and romantic desires of girl protagonists regardless of the threat they constitute to the institution and the safety of others.     

Mothers' Beliefs about Feelings and Children's Emotional Understanding

We revised Hyson and Lee's (1996) Caregiver's Beliefs about Feelings questionnaire for use with parents. One hundred and fifteen mothers of 4- to 6- year-old children completed the Parents' Beliefs about Feelings questionnaire (PBAF). We assessed emotional understanding of 60 of the children using Denham's (1986) measure. Factor analysis supported a 2-factor solution for the PBAF. The first subscale (Emotion Language) reflected mothers' belief in socializing emotion language. The second subscale (Developmental Beliefs) assessed mothers' belief that their children were not developmentally ready to control or talk about emotions. Mothers' Developmental Beliefs scores were positively related to mothers' negative emotional expressiveness. Mothers' Emotion Language scores were positively related to children's knowledge of emotion terms. Results may help educators design intervention programs to teach children emotional and social skills.