Are there implications for prevention research from studies of resilience?

In this commentary, the question is raised whether prevention research can benefit from resilience research in designing interventions. Although many areas in the investigative interests of prevention and resilience researchers overlap, Luthar, Cicchetti, and Becker may have set the bar too high for defining resilience in the context of varying levels of adversity.     

For a revival of feminist consciousness-raising: horizontal transformation of epistemologies and transgression of neoliberal TimeSpace

ABSTRACT

This paper looks back on the methodology and experience of feminist consciousness-raising (CR) in the 1970s, in relation to the current re-emergence of feminism. It constructs an argument that a new wave of CR is desirable so as to construct new forms of feminist pedagogy and activism. The paper will argue that contemporary feminism in the UK and USA would benefit from this kind of methodology, through which a standpoint is constructed. The core of the paper is an analysis of how CR works as an affective and social process. Drawing on academic studies and participant accounts, the paper reconstructs the mechanisms through which participants’ subjectivities and narratives are expressed and transformed. It suggests that these mechanisms express different non-homogeneous temporalities. The paper invites feminist pedagogy to get back to the base level of experience and unfold new theories and strategies to address the current context.     

In Defense of Change Processes

Nativist and constructivist approaches to the study of development share a common emphasis on characterizing beginning and end states in development. This focus has highlighted the question of preservation and transformation—whether core aspects of the adult end state are present in the earliest manifestations during infancy. In contrast, a developmental systems approach emphasizes the process of developmental change. This perspective eschews the notions of objective starting and ending points in a developmental progression and rejects the idea that any particular factor should enjoy a privileged status in explaining developmental change. Using examples from motor development and animal behavior, we show how a developmental systems framework can avoid the pitfalls of the long and contentious debate about continuity versus qualitative change.     

Graphic organizers or graphic overviews? Presentation order effects with computer-based text

It has long been assumed that graphic organizers (GOs) should be presented to students following text as an organizer, rather than preceding text as an overview. Robinson et al. (Educational Technology Research & Development, 51(4), 25?C41, 2003) challenged this assumption by finding support for GOs as an overview. The present study further examined this issue by having 111 undergraduates view three GOs before (overview) or after (organizer) reading or listening to a narration of a 3,400-word text, followed by measures of retention and transfer. Students who received GOs as organizers transferred knowledge better than those who received GOs as overviews. Whether GOs should also be used as overviews, as prescribed by Robinson et al., is unclear and in need of further investigation.     

Online Resources for New Mothers: Opportunities and Challenges for Perinatal Health Professionals

Studies have shown increasing Internet use for health information and service facilities. After consulting a convenience sample of new mothers, this study applied select terms and phrases to a widely accepted search engine and investigated its potential for providing resources for new mothers. Results of this quantitative content analysis showed that only four of the 13 phrases used in the search generated 50% or more websites containing content relevant to new mothers. Findings indicate that informational support by way of electronic fact sheets is available using the Google search engine. However, functional support (e.g., social networks, consultation phone details, and mother–infant activities) configured limited data resources using the Google search engine. In addition, because websites can be difficult to navigate, users’ technical proficiency needs to be taken into consideration as well as the sites’ up-to-date information. With Internet technology rapidly expanding, perinatal educators and other perinatal health-care professionals need to be informed about current online resources to help direct consumers to useful online resources and mitigate the often overwhelming and confusing information.     

Children's thinking about counterfactuals and future hypotheticals as possibilities

Two experiments explored whether children's correct answers to counterfactual and future hypothetical questions were based on an understanding of possibilities. Children played a game in which a toy mouse could run down either 1 of 2 slides. Children found it difficult to mark physically both possible outcomes, compared to reporting a single hypothetical future event, "What if next time he goes the other way ..." (Experiment 1: 3-4-year-olds and 4-5-year-olds), or a single counterfactual event, "What if he had gone the other way ...?" (Experiment 2: 3-4-year-olds and 5-6-year-olds). An open counterfactual question, "Could he have gone anywhere else?," which required thinking about the counterfactual as an alternative possibility, was also relatively difficult.     

Are mobile phone ownership and age of acquisition associated with child adjustment? A 5-year prospective study among low-income Latinx children

This prospective, longitudinal study examined associations between whether and when children first acquire a mobile phone and their adjustment measures, among low-income Latinx children. Children (N = 263; 55% female; baseline M_age = 9.5) and their parents were assessed annually for 5 years from 2012. Children first acquired a mobile phone at a mean (SD) age of 11.62 (1.41) years. Pre-registered multilevel models tested associations linking phone ownership, phone acquisition age, and the interaction between ownership and acquisition age to levels and changing trends of depressive symptoms, school grades, and reported and objectively assessed sleep. Results showed no statistically significant associations, controlling the False Discovery Rate. Findings suggest an absence of meaningful links from mobile phone ownership and acquisition age to child adjustment.