Longitudinal Relations of Intrusive Parenting and Effortful Control to Ego‐Resiliency During Early Childhood

Longitudinal relations among ego‐resiliency (ER), effortful control (EC), and observed intrusive parenting were examined at 18, 30, and 42 months of age (Ns = 256, 230, and 210) using structural equation modeling. Intrusive parenting at 18 and 30 months negatively predicted EC a year later, over and above earlier levels. EC at 30 months mediated the negative relation between 18‐month intrusive parenting and ER at 42 months when controlling for stability of the variables. ER did not predict EC. The findings suggest that intrusive parenting may have a negative effect on children's ego‐resiliency through its effects on children's abilities to regulate attention and behavior.     

Self-Regulation and Academic Measures Across the Early Elementary School Grades: Examining Longitudinal and Bidirectional Associations

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the association between children’s (N = 301) self-regulation and math and reading achievement in kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Children’s self-regulation was assessed using the Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders (HTKS) task (involving control of gross body movements) and a computerized continuous performance task (CPT; assessing primarily inhibitory control) in kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Research Findings: Based on cross-lagged structural equation panel models, HTKS task performance positively predicted later math and reading achievement. Math achievement significantly and positively predicted later HTKS and CPT scores. Earlier math and reading achievement moderated the association between CPT scores and later math and reading achievement; inhibitory control–based self-regulation assessed with the CPT predicted higher math or reading achievement in subsequent grades for children with lower math or reading achievement in prior grades. Performance on the CPT moderated the paths from HTKS scores to later reading achievement; behavioral self-regulation assessed with the HTKS task predicted higher reading achievement in subsequent grades for children with low or average CPT performance in prior grades. Practice or Policy: Results from this study have the potential to inform targeted academic interventions focused on enhancing self-regulation in school contexts. The findings highlight the utility of assessing multiple measures of self-regulation.     

Academic Motherhood for Counselor Educators: Navigating Through the Academic Pipeline

Recent research has suggested that children are a hindrance for female faculty members in making tenure, due partially to reproduction and the quest for tenure timelines being incompatible (Mason and Goulden 2004; Young and Wright 2001). This article presents an emerging profile of 70 counselor educator mothers as they navigate their way through the academic pipeline towards tenure. Results indicate a significant difference between non-tenured and tenured faculty’s perceptions of balance between work and family life. Implications for educators and future research are presented.     

Teacher expertise and the development of a problem representation

This study examined ways in which expert and novice teachers mentally represent classroom problems in matters of instruction, assessment, and curriculum planning. A triad judgement task was administered to expert teachers (n=20) and novice teachers (n=98) to determine whether deep, structural features (i.e. the theoretical underpinnings associated with the problem) and/or surface features (narrative characteristics of the problem including grade level and subject) were used to interpret and represent a problem situation presented in a classroom context. Findings were consistent with results from previous studies examining problem representation among experts and novices in other domains. That is, the experts in this study primarily relied on the deep features to form a mental representation of a problem situation whereas the novices tended to rely on surface structures to do so. However, findings also revealed that novice teachers relied on the deep, structural features of the problem under certain conditions.     

Career Narratives of African American Female College Students: Insights for College Counselors

The authors collected narrative data from 11 African American female college students at a predominantly White institution using the Career Construction Interview (Savickas & Hartung, 2012 ), the Future Career Autobiography (Rehfuss, 2009 ), and a qualitative career experiences questionnaire. Using the constant comparison method (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 ), the authors uncovered 4 overarching themes based on the unique experiences of participants. The authors present insights for college counselors providing career development services.     

The Discourse of Crisis in Public Meetings: Case Study of a School District's Multimillion Dollar Error

School districts are both big businesses and a form of local governance that is part of American democracy. When a crisis makes a district's democratic face relevant, the organization will experience a dilemma that does not occur in business-only organizations. This study examines the public meetings of a school board in the western United States as it confronted a multimillion dollar error. After reviewing the organizational crisis literature, background is provided on the district, the crisis, and the method—action-implicative discourse analysis. The district's crisis, the paper shows, was constructed through six discursive practices. Each is identified and illustrated. Because school boards are democratic bodies, they depend on having citizens willing to attend and speak out in public meetings, and they depend on a smaller set of citizens willing to run for and serve in these elected, unpaid school board positions. In crises, these two groups of citizens will have partially competing needs. As a result, local governance organizations will experience a dilemma regarding how to design their public participation. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on organizational crisis and public meetings, and practical implications for citizens and elected officials.     

The psychological significance of play with imaginary companions in early childhood

Although social play is common to many species, humans are unique in their ability to extract some of the benefits of social play through imagination. For example, in play with imaginary companions (ICs), children often practice skills that might be useful for later adaptive social, relational, and emotional functioning. While play with ICs does not provide the same immediate feedback that play with real others affords, this imagined, quasisocial context allows children to experiment with or rehearse events that might occur in real relationships. This symbolic enactment of social relationships might afford opportunities to experience not just social situations but all manner of positive and negative emotions in a risk-free way. In addition, children’s interactions with real others around their ICs allow for negotiation of social roles in real relationships. ICs also provide a forum for psychological distance that might help young children manage their real relationships and engage in processes such as negotiation and cooperation, which are needed for successful social adaptation. Although play with ICs is clearly not of adaptive value in an evolutionary sense, for the children who create them, ICs might hold psychological significance for adaptive social development.