Television images of mental illness: Results of a metropolitan Washington media watch

One third of prime‐time television programs involved information about mental illness. Negative stereotyping of mentally ill persons was found to be prevalent in these programs.     

FUNDAMENTAL DELIBERATIONS ON THE DETERMINATION OF EQUIVALENCES BASED ON THE AUSTRIAN EXPERIENCE

International university co‐operation which serves to Internationalize science and knowledge requires that students, teachers, and scientists be internationally mobile. For mobility to occur on a wide scale, it must be the object of inter‐university and international bilateral and multilateral agreements. The various sorts of agreement which have been negotiated and enacted since the 1950's have been very successful. Recognition and equivalence must be based on qualitative rather than on quantitative factors, and above all on trust Recognition procedures could be further perfected by such actions as the preparation of a set of harmonizable recommendations, on the determination of equivalences, greater co‐operation among the various European information networks on equivalence, and publication of a manual on recognized universities in Europe.     

Experimental work at Hellerup Seminarium,Denmark

Sloth, O. “Experimental work at Hellerup Seminarium, Denmark,” Revue ATEE Journal 3 (1980) 37‐42.

The author describes the approach of one Danish College of Education to a problem which is by now internationally known: in this age of integration into the normal class of all but the demonstrably and severely educationally subnormal or handicapped, how can we equip student teachers, during their initial training, to cope with these problems of Special Education. He outlines the attempt at Hellerup Seminarium, Copenhagen, to solve the problem by integrating and restructuring the compulsory pedagogic subjects and educational specialisms and so build up within the legal framework what he calls a Special Education Teacher Education (SPECTE).     

Culture-specific views of child maltreatment and parenting styles in a Pacific-Island community

OBJECTIVE: Providing culturally sensitive definitions of child abuse is difficult as perceptions of what constitutes abuse can vary around the world. This study was undertaken to assess how teachers in the Republic of Palau perceived the severity of potentially abusive incidents and what types of recommendations, if any, they would have for situations judged as severely abusive. Attitudes about child rearing practices were also evaluated. METHODS: Teachers (n = 141 ) were given: (1) a questionnaire consisting of 25 vignettes describing parent/child interactions that were potentially abusive and asked to rate the severity of abuse and recommended interventions for each vignette; and (2) a 40-item parenting styles questionnaires to evaluate attitudes about child-rearing practices. RESULTS: Teachers identified and recommended interventions for more severe forms of abuse at rates similar to other international samples. For less severe parental misconduct, teachers were reluctant to involve nonfamily and outside agencies. Sexual abuse was rated as the most serious type of abuse and when identified, intervention was highly recommended. Some traditional Palauan parenting practices that might be considered maltreatment by other cultures were not considered abusive. For parenting styles, older individuals were more likely to use guilt induction and less likely to use methods of acceptance. Aggressive parenting styles were negatively correlated with all forms of abuse, suggesting that teachers who used aggressive disciplinary styles were less likely to perceive abusive situations as harmful. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that cultural values and practices play important roles in shaping the definition and interpretation of child maltreatment.     

Infants’ Social Experiences in Three African Sociocultural Contexts

This study introduces a peri‐urban context of poverty to the study of child development in Africa in contrast to the more typical assessments in middle‐class and rural contexts. Spot observations were used to assess universal caregiving behaviors toward seventy‐six 3‐month‐old infants. Results show that middle‐class infants experienced distal parenting behaviors instantiated by mothers, whereas rural children experienced proximal parenting practices in interactions with others. Infants growing up in poverty had mothers and other caretakers involved at mostly low levels. They experienced low levels of body contact, body stimulation, and object stimulation, and high levels of face‐to‐face positions. The study indicates that caregiving in the context of poverty does not necessarily follow familiar pathways and needs to be contextualized accordingly.