Aggression between peers in early childhood: individual continuity and developmental change

43 children were observed in play with "best available friends" at 2 and again at 5 years of age. An arousing stimulus, an angry interaction between adults, was introduced during play sessions to increase the likelihood of elicitation of aggressive patterns. Dimensions of physical aggression at age 2 (e.g., object-related aggression, bodily aggression) predicted dimensions of children's physical aggression at age 5. However, substantial sex differences in the stability of aggression were found. Among boys, the disposition to engage in physical aggression was highly stable, with correlations ranging as high as r = .76. Certain dimensions of physical aggression at age 2 were also positively associated with verbal aggression at age 5. Fewer and more modest correlations were found among girls. The frequency of aggression, particularly bodily aggression (e.g., hitting, pushing), initiations of aggression, and the average length of aggression episodes, decreased between 2 and 5 years of age. These results indicate that relative aggressiveness tends to remain stable despite declines in the frequency of aggressive behavior between 2 and 5 years of age.     

Editors'' rejoinder

This chapter critically reviews alternative funding and control strategies and examines some of their policy implications. The early sections of the chapter address the nature and origin of some proposals for alternative strategies and reflect on their theoretical underpinnings. The next section summarizes the empirical findings from both historical and other comparative studies. The final section presents the policy implications of the different patterns of educational funding and control in a variety of contexts.     

Emotional and Cardiovascular Responses to Adults' Angry Behavior and to Challenging Tasks in Children of Hypertensive and Normotensive Parents

Cardiovascular, overtmotor, and verbal-reported responses to interadult emotional expressions, including anger, and to challenging task situations were examined in a smaple of 49 10–14-year-old children of hypertensive (EH) and normotensive parents (NT). Sons of EH parents showed greater systolic blood pressure reactivity to interadult anger and to the digit span task than sons of NT parents. A consistent pattern was not found for girls. Marital distress and overt maternal anger expression predicted verbal-reported and overt-motor responses to interadult anger. Family history of EH and sex did not predict these responses. Implications include ( a ) heightened systolic blood pressure response to stress may be found in sons of EH parents before they are diagnosed to have EH disorders, ( b ) relations between family history of EH and cardiovascular response may be sex moderated, and ( c ) vulnerability to stress may be related to specific familial histories and backgrounds.     

Children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship and their school adjustment: the mediating role of attention difficulties

This study examined the role of attention difficulties as a mediator of associations between children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship and their school adjustment in a sample of two hundred and sixteen 6-year-old children. Consistent with hypotheses, findings from structural equation models indicated that observer ratings of children's insecure representations of interparental relationships in a story completion task predicted computerized task assessments and parent reports of children's attention difficulties 1 year later. Children's attention difficulties, in turn, were associated with concurrent levels of school problems and increases in school problems over a 1-year period as indexed by teacher reports. Attention difficulties accounted for an average of 34% of the association between insecure internal representations and school problems.     

The Medical Library Assistance Act: an analysis of the NLM extramural programs, 1965-1970

The imbalance between medical library resources and information needs of the health professional led to a reexamination of the mandate for the National Library of Medicine. Legislation known as the Medical Library Assistance Act (MLAA) was passed in 1965 which enabled the NLM to (1) initiate programs to assist the nation's medical libraries and (2) develop a medical library network with the establishment of regional medical libraries to link the NLM with local institutions.The National Library of Medicine, through the MLAA, has made available $40.8 million to the medical library community under a competitive grant and contract mechanism for the period July 1965-June 1970. A total of 604 projects has been executed in resources, research and development, training, construction, regional medical libraries, publications, and special scientific projects. An assessment is given of each of these programs and their impact on both the National Library of Medicine and individual medical libraries. In the aggregate, these programs have significantly improved library and information services to the professional health user. The principal limitation has been inadequate funding to accomplish the level of originally stated objectives.     

Television games preschool children play: Patterns,themes and uses

Preschool children were observed as they played in a day care center. Television was found to be an important source of content for play. The television facilitated games played by the children had a variety of scenarios.     

Coordination costs and project outcomes in multi-university collaborations

Multi-university collaborations draw on diverse resources and expertise, but they impose coordination costs for bridging institutional differences and geographic distance. We report a study of the coordination activities and project outcomes of 491 research collaborations funded by the US National Science Foundation. Coordination activities, especially division of responsibility for tasks and knowledge transfer among investigators, predicted project outcomes (e.g., producing new knowledge, creating new tools, and training students). However, more universities involved in a collaboration predicted fewer coordination activities and fewer project outcomes. A statistical mediation analysis showed that insufficient coordination explained the negative relationship between multi-university collaboration and project outcomes.     

Challenges and Accomplishments of Practicing Formative Assessment: a Case Study of College Biology Instructors’ Classrooms

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - This study presents a glimpse into the private classrooms of biology instructors and the way they practice formative assessments within...