Severe Violence During Adolescence and Early Adulthood and Its Relation to Anticipated Rewards and Costs

This report compares the effects (concurrent and lagged) of the anticipated rewards and costs of violent crime on engagement in severe violence in a sample of male juvenile offenders (N = 1,170; 42.1% black, 34.0% Hispanic, 19.2% white, and 4.6% other; ages 14–18 at baseline). Anticipated rewards (social approval, thrill) are more predictive of concurrent severe violence than are anticipated costs (social disapproval, risk of punishment). The analysis finds no evidence that perceptions of the rewards and costs of violent crime influence engagement in severe violence 6 months later. The results support the view that adolescence is a time of heightened reward salience but raise doubt about the longitudinal predictive validity of perceptions about crime during this time of life.     

Childhood Experience, Interpersonal Development, and Reproductive Strategy: An Evolutionary Theory of Socialization

The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite. The relation between this theory and prevailing theories of socialization, specifically, attachment, social-learning, and discrete-emotions theory, is considered and research consistent with our evolutionary theory is reviewed. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.     

Building electronic cooperation in the 1990s- the Maryland, Georgia, and Texas experiences

Large scale statewide library cooperation using information technology and wide area networks dates back to the early 1980s with efforts such as the Florida Center for Library Automation and, more recently, the LOUIS Project in Louisiana (see JAL January 1994) and OhioLink (see JAL September 1995). Early efforts were usually focused on the implementation of library information management systems and the provision of shared access to locally held collections, and they often still are. In the 1990s, though, we are witnessing a shift in statewide cooperative use of networks to provide principally access to bibliographic and full-text resources not held locally and usually provided by commercial vendors for use by libraries. As the case studies in this column illustrate the development of funding sources, the technical implementations and support, and the management organization differ from state to state. They reflect, though, the incremental shift in the information landscape towards “electronic libraries”. I choose the word incremental intentionally to reflect that this change has not (at least so far) been anywhere near as rapid or revolutionary as many expected. Nevertheless, what has happened in about 15 years is quite dramatic. It portends a different kind of academic library.—CBL, University of Maryland, College Park.     

Designing Reading Comprehension Assessments for Reading Interventions: How a Theoretically Motivated Assessment Can Serve as an Outcome Measure

When designing a reading intervention, researchers and educators face a number of challenges related to the focus, intensity, and duration of the intervention. In this paper, we argue there is another fundamental challenge—the nature of the reading outcome measures used to evaluate the intervention. Many interventions fail to demonstrate significant improvements on standardized measures of reading comprehension. Although there are a number of reasons to explain this phenomenon, an important one to consider is misalignment between the nature of the outcome assessment and the targets of the intervention. In this study, we present data on three theoretically driven summative reading assessments that were developed in consultation with a research and evaluation team conducting an intervention study. The reading intervention, Reading Apprenticeship, involved instructing teachers to use disciplinary strategies in three domains: literature, history, and science. Factor analyses and other psychometric analyses on data from over 12,000 high school students revealed the assessments had adequate reliability, moderate correlations with state reading test scores and measures of background knowledge, a large general reading factor, and some preliminary evidence for separate, smaller factors specific to each form. In this paper, we describe the empirical work that motivated the assessments, the aims of the intervention, and the process used to develop the new assessments. Implications for intervention and assessment are discussed.     

Further Reflections on an Evolutionary Theory of Socialization

In response to Maccoby's and Hinde's thoughtful commentaries, we highlight points of concurrence and disagreement. In particular, we note that mating and reproduction are affected by many factors beyond those to which our theory draws immediate attention; that the data linking socialization experiences and social structural conditions with pubertal timing are not restricted to either correlational studies or investigations of contemporaneous associations; that there may be more reason to question the theory's applicability to males than to females; that the question of whether male behave and develop the way we propose and Maccoby doubts is an empirically testable one; and that the data on relations between antecedent socialization conditions and pubertal timing and on variation in parental investment in the case of females run counter to Maccoby's doubts about the theory's applicability to females. Attention is drawn to the potential benefits of asking questions about proximal and ultimate causation simultaneously, and thus the need for child developmentalists to think both about the how and why of development.     

Supply issues for science academics in Australia: now and in the future

Australia, like the rest of the developed world, is in the midst of dealing with notable issues related to the age structure of its academic workforce. These issues are widespread and have been articulated in the Australian context most comprehensively by Hugo (2008). This paper investigates issues with demographic change and other key factors related to the desirability of a science or mathematics academic career within Australian universities. It draws on the findings of a research project undertaken in 2008 for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The findings show that while demographic issues are not as dire for science academics compared to the entire sector, issues relating to tenure, workload and retaining young science academics in Australia are a threat to the long-term sustainability of science faculties in Australian universities.