Economic stress, parenting, and child adjustment in Mexican American and European American families

To assess the impact of economic hardship on 111 European American and 167 Mexican American families and their 5th-grade (M age=11.4 years) children, a family stress model was evaluated. Structural equation analyses revealed that economic hardship was linked to indexes of economic pressure that were related to depressive symptoms for mothers and fathers of both ethnicities. Depressive symptoms were linked to marital problems and hostile parenting. Paternal hostile parenting was related to child adjustment problems for European Americans, whereas marital problems were linked to child adjustment problems for Mexican Americans. Maternal acculturation was associated with both higher marital problems and lower hostile parenting. The utility of the model for describing the effects of economic hardship in Mexican Americans is noted.     

以表演活动带动大学英语教学的互动过程

本文以课堂戏剧表演的形式，探讨在大学英语教学中创设一个生动的学习环境，使学生积极、自然地习得英语。文章介绍了在《新编大学英语》主题式的教学模式下，运用已有教学素材，在学生经过阅读、听、说训练并获得一定量的语言输入的基础上，指导学生开展更高层次的角色扮演(mleplay)，在表演中巩固所学知识，从而达到运用英语进行交际的最终目的，同时也带动了互动式的大学英语课堂教学。     

基于多种通讯机制下的网络教学模式的研究

网络环境是一种集丰富资源及多种通讯工具的多媒体环境 ,该文分析了网络教学中常采用的通讯工具 ,从通讯机制的角度探讨了适用于网络教学的多种教学模式。     

试论美国华裔文学阅读视角问题

美国华裔文学。由于其特殊文化地位以及复杂的文化渊源，既是国内学术界文学研究的热点，同时也是文学阅读和接受中的盲点之一。本文结合当代后殖民及文化研究理论，试图从探讨国内外学者阅读视角问题出发，重新考虑美国华裔文学的定位及其意义：美国华裔文学，作为一种杂体文化的文学形式，是华裔作家坚持自我身份认同、表征自我杂体文化以及抵抗中关两种文化压力的有效途径。     

Engineering design processes in seventh-grade classrooms: bridging the engineering education gap

This paper reports on some findings from the first year of a three-year longitudinal study, in which seventh- to ninth-graders were introduced to engineering education. Specifically, the paper addresses students’ responses to an initial design activity involving bridge construction, which was implemented at the end of seventh grade. This paper also addresses how students created their bridge designs and applied these in their bridge constructions; their reflections on their designs; their reflections on why the bridge failed to support increased weights during the testing process; and their suggestions on ways in which they would improve their bridge designs. The present findings include identification of six, increasingly sophisticated levels of illustrated bridge designs, with designs improving between the classroom and homework activities of two focus groups of students. Students’ responses to the classroom activity revealed a number of iterative design processes, where the problem goals, including constraints, served as monitoring factors for students’ generation of ideas, design thinking and construction of an effective bridge.     

Parent–youth discordance about youth-witnessed violence: Associations with trauma symptoms and service use in an at-risk sample

ObjectiveStudies have consistently demonstrated a lack of agreement between youth and parent reports regarding youth-witnessed violence. However, little is known about whether disagreement is associated with poorer outcomes and less utilization of mental health services. The purpose of the current study was to examine disagreement among youth and parents about youth witnessed violence, and determine whether concordance predicted trauma symptoms and recognition of need and receipt of counseling services.MethodsConcordance about youth-witnessed violence was examined in 766 dyads from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Youth participants self-reported trauma symptoms, caregivers indicated youth need for and receipt of services. Both youth and parents provided information about youth-witnessed violence exposure in the last year.ResultsResults showed youth and caregivers differed significantly about youth-witnessed violence. Specifically, 42% of youth reported youth-witnessed violence, compared to only 15% of parents. For those parents who reported youth-witnessed violence, only 29% reported an identified need for services and only 17% reported the youth had received any mental health services. Concordance between parent–youth dyads was associated with greater identified need for services but was not associated with the use of counseling services or trauma symptoms.ConclusionsYouth who reported witnessing violence reported more frequent trauma symptoms regardless of concordance. Parents from dyads in which both informants reported youth-witnessed violence were more likely to endorse need for, but not receipt of counseling services. Given this association between youth-witnessed violence and mental health problems, more work is needed to identify barriers to concordance as well as service utilization.     

Data modelling with first-grade students

This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the beginning school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modelling. Results are reported from the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study in which three classes of first-grade children (6-year-olds) and their teachers engaged in data modelling activities. The theme of Looking after our Environment, part of the children’s science curriculum, provided the task context. The goals for the two activities addressed here included engaging children in core components of data modelling, namely, selecting attributes, structuring and representing data, identifying variation in data, and making predictions from given data. Results include the various ways in which children represented and re-represented collected data, including attribute selection, and the metarepresentational competence they displayed in doing so. The “data lenses” through which the children dealt with informal inference (variation and prediction) are also reported.     

Factors influencing school connectedness: Chinese adolescents’ perspectives

This study explored the concept of school connectedness and the factors that may influence its development with a sample of Chinese adolescents. Six focus groups involving 52 high school students were conducted using a set of predetermined discussion topics. Results indicated that the students fully understood the notion of school connectedness and could identify a number of key influences affecting its development. These factors could be grouped under several domains including teacher care, peer relations, broader school relationships, school disciplinary policies and practices, activities within the school’s guidance and counseling program, and opportunities for talent development. The students were also able to suggest practical strategies that schools might introduce to enhance and strengthen students’ acquisition of connectedness to school. The implications from the findings are discussed with particular reference to implementing comprehensive school guidance and counseling program in Hong Kong.     

Mass Media

Robert C. Toll's On with the Show: The First Century of Show Business in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976---$19.95)

Edwin Fisher, et al., eds. The Art in Cartooning: Seventy-five Years of American Magazine Cartoons (New York : Scribner's, 1975---$14.95)

Vaughncille Molden's Telecommunications and Black Americans: A Survey of Ownership, Participation and Control (Center for Development Technology and Program in Technology and Human Affairs, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. 63130-48.50, paper)

Working Papers in Culture and Communication (Department of Anthropology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa. 19122-- $2.00, paper)     

Journalism

Michael Wynn Jones' A Newspaper History of the World (New York: Morrow, 1974—$15.95)

Problems of Journalism: Proceedings of the 1974 Convention, American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE, Box 551, 1350 Sullivan Trail, Easton, Pa. 18042—$6.25)

M.L. Stein's Shaping the News: How the Media Function in Today's World (New York: Pocket Books, 1974—$1.25, paper)

Raymond A. Schroth S.J., The Eagle and Brooklyn: A Community Newspaper, 1341-1955 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974— $12.95)

American Newspaper Publishers Association News Research Bulletin (write to Mr. William Schabacker, Manager, Information Services, American Newspaper Publishers Association, P.O. Box 17407, Dulles International Airport, Washington, D.C. 20041)