Family of origin environments in two clinical samples of survivors of intra-familial, extra-familial, and both types of sexual abuse

OBJECTIVE: It has been suggested that survivors of ongoing childhood sexual abuse (CSA) tend to have been reared in ineffective family environments that render them particularly vulnerable to maltreatment and which foster psychological difficulties beyond those accounted for solely by their abuse. If this conjecture is valid, one would expect that the family of origin environments of CSA survivors would be disturbed whether their abuser was intra-familial or extra-familial. To assess this hypothesis, two studies compared the childhood family of origin environments and supportive parenting characteristics of a clinical sample of women sexually abused by family members only (the intra-familial group), by non-family members only (the extra-familial group), and by both family and non-family members (the "both" group). METHOD: Study 1 compared the three groups (total N = 213) using the Family Environment Scale (FES). Study 2 compared groups (total N = 86) on the positive parenting scales of the Exposure to Abusive and Supportive Environments Parenting Inventory (EASE-PI). RESULTS: In Study 1, multivariate analyses indicated significant differences on the independence, cohesion, and conflict subscales of the FES. Pairwise comparisons revealed that the extra-familial group reported significantly higher levels of family independence and lower levels of conflict than the other two groups. In addition, the extra-familial group reported higher levels of cohesion than the intra-familial group. However, the effect sizes of these comparisons were extremely small. In Study 2, multivariate analyses revealed no group differences on the EASE-PI scales. CONCLUSIONS: Low effect sizes on the three significant FES scales, non-significance on the remaining seven FES scales, and non-significance on the EASE-PI scales suggest that there is considerable similarity in the family of origin environments of adult female CSA survivors seeking therapy regardless of whether their perpetrators were family members, non-family members, or both family and non-family members.     

Factors influencing teachers’ adoption of AR inquiry games to foster skills for Responsible Research and Innovation

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a contemporary approach to promote science with and for society for aligning scientific innovations with societal needs. Literature about education for RRI is limited because it is not a widespread practice at the moment. To explore this gap, this study examines teachers’ views about a novel inquiry game with Augmented Reality to foster inquiry skills for RRI. This game about Genetic-Modified food was used by 18 educators from Secondary and Higher Education who engaged 390 students to form opinions about risks and benefits of GM cereal. The thematic analysis of qualitative data: semi-structured questionnaires, teaching reports and focus groups, revealed motivations and practices that influence teachers’ adoption of OER created with new technologies. Findings revealed that the 3-phase-model approach used in the game engaged students to “CARE” about global issues, “KNOW” science concepts and “DO” actions through an active open schooling network. The key drivers for educators’ adoption of AR inquiry games are to make learning more meaningful and engaging through students-centred approaches and topical resources for them to develop scientific knowledge and skills. However, the key requirements for that are easy-to-use technologies and pedagogical strategies for identifying learner’s achievements and difficulties.     

Games for the very young baby

The very young infant who enters into any day care setting is more dependent on the caregiver than he or she ever will be again. The infant has not yet developed the physical and social skills with which older babies can manage to call attention to their needs. Caregivers (and parents) of young babies understand that there are several important sets of abilities an infant needs to develop before he or she evolves into the busy, sitting-up, smiling, babbling 6-month-old. The adults can, and should, provide assistance. A loving and attentive caregiver can both protect and enhance the infant's natural development by regularly engaging in the “interaction games” described here. They are designed to be fun, to combine gentle rhymes and song, and to be conducted in a cheerful, relaxed fashion. Don't “teach”—DO create a warm, friendly playtime. The best time for interaction games is when the baby and caregiver are both rested, attentive, and in good spirits. After you try it a few times, use your own judgment to determine if a particular game is successful or not. Just as you will have your favorites, different babies like different things too! Once baby and caregiver use the first games in each set, once they enjoy them and make them their own, they can go on to the next, more difficult activities. Christine Z. Cataldo coordinates research projects and teaches courses on infant education, parent programs, early intervention, and atypical young children. She consults with day care centers, nursery schools, and special programs for the very young.     

How Computer-Assisted Learning Influences Medical Students' Performance in Anatomy Courses

Anatomy is an essential subject of the medical curriculum. Despite its relevance, the curricular time and logistical resources devoted to teaching anatomy are in decline, favoring the introduction of new pedagogical approaches based on computer-assisted learning (CAL). This new pedagogical approach provides an insight into students' learning profiles and features, which are correlated with knowledge acquisition. The aim of this study was to understand how training with CAL platforms can influence medical students' anatomy performance. A total of 611 medical students attending Musculoskeletal Anatomy (MA) and Cardiovascular Anatomy (CA) courses were allocated to one of three groups (MA Group, CA Group, and MA + CA Group). An association between the performance in these anatomy courses and the number of CAL training sessions was detected. In the MA Group (r = 0.761, P < 0.001) and the MA + CA Group (r = 0.786, P < 0.001), a large positive correlation was observed between musculoskeletal anatomy performance and the number of CAL training sessions. Similarly, in the CA Group (r = 0.670, P < 0.001) and the MA + CA Group (r = 0.772, P < 0.001), a large positive correlation was observed between cardiovascular anatomy performance and the number of CAL training sessions. Multiple linear regression models were performed, considering either musculoskeletal or cardiovascular anatomy performance as the dependent variable. The results suggest that using CAL platforms to study has a positive dose-dependent effect on anatomy performance. Understanding students' individual features and academic background may contribute to the optimization of the learning process.     

The long-term effects of strategy-focussed writing instruction for grade six students

We compared 56 eighth-grade students who 28 months previously had received instruction in strategies for planning and revising their writing, with 21 students of similar academic ability from the same school who had not experienced the intervention. Both groups wrote an expository essay whilst logging their writing activities and completed writing metaknowledge and self-efficacy questionnaires. Students who had received the intervention showed a greater tendency to pre-plan (but not to revise) their texts, produced better quality and more reader-focused writing, and were more likely to show an awareness of the importance of text structure. These findings suggest persistent benefits for strategy-focused writing instruction.     

Lending a helping hand for English-Chinese bilingual children’s idiom comprehension and retention: implications for early childhood educators

Idiom comprehension and production reflect a child’s language competence. Research suggests that there is a positive relationship between children’s reading comprehension skills and their idiom understanding. This study examines whether adult verbal scaffolding, in conjunction with the deliberate use of iconic gestures, can facilitate young bilingual children’s comprehension and retention of idiomatic expressions in their different languages. Twenty-three five-year-old English-Chinese bilingual children learned novel idioms across two experimental conditions. In Experiment 1, a native Chinese-speaking adult and a native English-speaking adult, respectively, taught children a set of Chinese and English idioms via speech only. In Experiment 2, the same adults, respectively, taught a different set of Chinese and English idioms via speech–gesture combinations. The results suggest that children could comprehend more idioms in both languages after being taught via the speech–gesture modality than the speech-only modality. They also tended to retain more idioms taught in the speech–gesture modality than in the speech-only modality in both languages. Moreover, those children who scored high in their idiom comprehension and retention also scored high both in their recast of the gestures used by the adults and in their rate of speech–gesture mismatches. Educational implications for early childhood settings are discussed.     

Is music downloading the new prohibition? What students reveal through an ethical dilemma

Although downloading music through unapproved channels is illegal, statistics indicate that it is widespread. The following study examines the attitudes and perceptions of college students that are potentially engaged in music downloading. The methodology includes a content analysis of the recommendations written to answer an ethical vignette. The vignette presented the case of a subject who faces the dilemma of whether or not to download music illegally. Analyses of the final reports indicate that there is a vast and inconsistent array of actions and underlying feelings toward digital music downloading. The findings reveal inconsistencies between participants’ recommendations (what the subject should do) and their attitudes and opinions on the matter (what they would do in a similar situation). These inconsistencies support the notion that as technology evolves, it creates discrepancies between the way things are and the way the law expects them to be, leaving society in a muddle, trying to reconcile the two. What remains to be seen is whether the discrepancy in the case of music downloading becomes extreme enough that the law changes to accommodate an increasingly prevalent behavior, or whether new business models will emerge to bridge the gap between legality and reality.     

A methodological approach to short-term tracking of youth physical fitness: the Oporto Growth,Health and Performance Study

In this paper, three different statistical approaches were used to investigate short-term tracking of cardiorespiratory and performance-related physical fitness among adolescents. Data were obtained from the Oporto Growth, Health and Performance Study and comprised 1203 adolescents (549 girls) divided into two age cohorts (10–12 and 12–14 years) followed for three consecutive years, with annual assessment. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed with 1-mile run/walk test; 50-yard dash, standing long jump, handgrip, and shuttle run test were used to rate performance-related physical fitness. Tracking was expressed in three different ways: auto-correlations, multilevel modelling with crude and adjusted model (for biological maturation, body mass index, and physical activity), and Cohen’s Kappa (κ) computed in IBM SPSS 20.0, HLM 7.01 and Longitudinal Data Analysis software, respectively. Tracking of physical fitness components was (1) moderate-to-high when described by auto-correlations; (2) low-to-moderate when crude and adjusted models were used; and (3) low according to Cohen’s Kappa (κ). These results demonstrate that when describing tracking, different methods should be considered since they provide distinct and more comprehensive views about physical fitness stability patterns.     

Interactions in the development of spelling,reading and phonological skills

Early interactive processes of development in reading, spelling and implicit and explicit phonological awareness were assessed in a group of children at four time-points as they progressed through their first three years in school. Exploratory causal path analyses were used to investigate the contribution of each ability to the subsequent growth of skill in reading, spelling and phonological awareness. The resultant structural models demonstrate a role of spelling in the early stages of reading acquisition, as well as differential contributions of implicit and explicit phonological awareness to both reading and spelling. They also suggest a developmental cascade from implicit to explicit phonemic awareness in the normal acquisition of phonological knowledge and associated skills. In the early formulative stages of reading implicit phonemic awareness and reading act reciprocally to build skill in each other. But, as ability in word recognition improves, implicit phonemic awareness plays a diminished role in reading. This pattern of initial reciprocal influence and later dissociation is repeated in the relationship between implicit phoneme awareness and spelling. Explicit phonemic awareness is an important factor in the first stages of spelling development but only emerges later as a significant contributor to reading. The early influence of explicit phoneme awareness on spelling, in conjunction with the major contribution of spelling to beginning reading, indicates that experience in spelling promotes the use of a phonological strategy in reading. Within a developmental context, explicit phoneme awareness initially appears to grow out of an implicit appreciation of the overall sound properties of words. Thereafter, ability to identify and segment phonemes develops independently of implicit phonemic awareness and plays an increasingly important role in the further growth of reading and spelling.