Reviews

Moyle, Donald (compiler) (1979) Teaching Reading. Peddie, W. S. & White, G. R. (1978). Testing in Practice–a guide to the preparation and marking of tests, formal examinations and informal assessments. Drummond, Don and Wignell, Edna (Editors), 1979. Reading: A Source Book. Roswell, Florence G. and Chall Jeanne S., (1979). Roswell Chall Diagnostic Reading Test of Word Analysis Skills.     

A Model of the Effects of Perceived Parent and Peer Support on Adolescent False Self Behavior

A model linking 3 perceived support variables, namely, level of support, quality of support (unconditional or conditional), and hope about future support, to false self behavior (acting in ways that are not the "real me") was hypothesized. Both parent and peer support were examined. The best fitting model for the parent and peer data revealed that perceived quality and level of parent support predict hope about future parent support, which in turn predicts false self behavior. Adolescents' motives for engaging in false self behavior were also examined. Those whose reported motives were hypothesized to be the most clinically debilitating (devaluation of the self) reported the most negative outcomes (depressed affect, low self-worth, hopelessness, and less knowledge of the true self). In contrast, adolescents citing the developmentally normative motive of role experimentation reported the most positive affect, highest self-worth, greatest hopefulness, and most knowledge of true self. Those reporting that they engaged in false self behavior to please, impress, or win the approval of parents and peers had intermediate scores on the depression, self-worth, hope, and knowledge of true self measures. Discussion focused on the potential causes and consequences of false self behavior.     

Further studies on serum arginase as indicator of hepatocellular damage

Studies on serum arginase have shown that it is having the least unexplained variation and its activity is closely related with the severity of jaundice. Arginase is thus stable, consistent, efficient, specific and sensitive to changes. It is a better indicator of hepatocellular damage.     

The subversion of healthy development and play: Teachers' reactions to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

In the spring of 1990, theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) movie was released to the biggest grossing box office sales of a spring release movie in history. The movie followed on the heels of more than a year of the TMNT television cartoon and its accompanying line of toys. After the movie's release, interest in the Turtles was kept high by the daily dose of the TV cartoon, TMNT home videos, video games, and the presence of more than 1,000 toys and other products marketed with the TMNT logo. And then, a year after the first movie, on March 22, 1991, the sequel,TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze, opened at cinemas around the country.Nancy Carlsson-Paige is Associate Professor of Education, Lesley College Graduate School, Cambridge, MA. Diane E. Levin is Associate Professor of Education, Wheelock College, Boston, MA.     

Parents do matter: trajectories of change in externalizing and internalizing problems in early adolescence

This study examined the relative influence of three parenting behaviors (support, behavioral control, and psychological control) and deviant peers on trajectories of externalizing and internalizing problems in early adolescence. A white, working-to-middle-class sample of adolescents and their mothers and fathers in two-earner families participated in a 32-year longitudinal study (N = 109 families). The study began when the adolescents were in sixth grade (M age = 11.5 years). Analyses showed that parents' firm behavioral control seemed to halt the upward trajectory in externalizing problems among adolescents with deviant peers. Initial levels of internalizing problems were higher among adolescents with parents who reported lower levels of behavioral control and among adolescents with deviant peers. This study suggests that parenting exerts an important influence in adolescents' lives and may do so even in the face of potentially negative peer influence.