Loneliness and Peer Relations in Young Children

Recent studies indicate that feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction can be reliably assessed with third- through sixth-grade children, and that children who are sociometrically rejected by their peers are significantly more lonely than other children. The present research was designed (a) to examine whether loneliness could be reliably assessed in a population younger than previously studied, (b) to learn whether young children who are poorly accepted by peers report elevated levels of loneliness and social dissatisfaction, (c) to assess whether young children understand the concept of loneliness, and (d) to examine the behavioral characteristics of lonely young children. Kindergarten and first-grade children (N = 440) responded to a questionnaire about feelings of loneliness and social dissatisfaction in school. A subset of children (N = 46) were individually interviewed to assess their understanding of loneliness. To assess sociometric status and behavior, peers were asked to respond to various sociometric measures and behavioral assessment items. Teachers also provided behavioral information about children using a newly developed instrument. Results indicated that nearly all children understood loneliness, that loneliness was reliably assessed in young children, and that poorly accepted children were more lonely than other children. In addition, children who reported the most loneliness were found to differ from others on several behavioral dimensions.     

Relationship between R&D expenditures and publication output for U.S. colleges and universities

Two large independent sources of data, NSF's University Science Statistics Program Integrated Data Base and CHI Research's bibliometric data base, are brought together in a comprehensive study of the relationships among research resources, as measured by R&D expenditures, and research output, as measured by the quantity and visibility of scientific journal articles. The study is based on approximately 500 U.S. colleges and universities. For each of 11 fields of science, there is strong indication of a linear relationship between R&D expenditures and number of papers. The evidence also indicates a positive relationship between number of cites received per paper and number of papers published, but only for papers published in the basic research journals of the fields of chemistry, physics, and biology.     

Impediments to communication in transition to terminal illness

Viewing themselves in two hypothetical roles-as terminal patients and as family members related to a terminal patient-48 adults were surveyed on their expectations and preferences about how information should be communicated when a terminal illness is first diagnosed. Identifying with the patient role, respondents believed patients should be told the truth immediately and unconditionally. In contrast, respondents indentifying with family members perceived conditions under which the rights of patients should be abridged. In this latter role, male respondents were significantly less likely than males to imagine themselves as able to inform a loved one about a terminal illness. Nevertheless, for both sexes, early childhood experiences communicating about death and dying were found to be a better predictor of the case with which respondents can imagine communicating with a terminally ill loved one than are current adult attitudes and experiences. Regardless of personal ease in discussing death, however, most respondents thought the physician, not family members or other health care professionals, should decide when and how the terminally ill adult should be informed--a noteworthy finding in light of the fact that 83 percent of all respondents consider physicians poorly equipped for this role.     

Disciplinary Literacies and Learning to Read for Understanding: A Conceptual Framework for Disciplinary Literacy

This article presents a framework and methodology for designing learning goals targeted at what students need to know and be able to do in order to attain high levels of literacy and achievement in three disciplinary areas—literature, science, and history. For each discipline, a team of researchers, teachers, and specialists in that discipline engaged in conceptual meta-analysis of theory and research on the reading, reasoning, and inquiry practices exhibited by disciplinary experts as contrasted with novices. Each team identified discipline-specific clusters of types of knowledge. Across teams, the clusters for each discipline were grouped into 5 higher order categories of core constructs: (a) epistemology; (b) inquiry practices/strategies of reasoning; (c) overarching concepts, themes, and frameworks; (d) forms of information representation/types of texts; and (e) discourse and language structures. The substance of the clusters gave rise to discipline-specific goals and tasks involved in reading across multiple texts, as well as reading, reasoning, and argumentation practices tailored to discipline-specific criteria for evidence-based knowledge claims. The framework of constructs and processes provides a valuable tool for researchers and classroom teachers' (re)conceptualizations of literacy and argumentation learning goals in their specific disciplines.     

Adolescents earlier diagnosed as dyslexic show major IQ declines on the WISC-III

Adolescents (n=43) previously diagnosed as dyslexic/reading disabled had markedly lower IQ scores on the newly standardized Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) than on the earlier administered WISC-R. The declines for Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs were 10, 12, and 11 points, respectively, which were twice as great as in a subset of the standardization sample given both versions of the WISC. The adolescents did not show a significant decline in standard scores from the Wide Range Achievement Test (Level I to Level II). However, only two subjects had current reading and spelling standard scores above the 25th percentile. The impact of lower WISC-III IQs on guidelines for classification of students as learning disabled is discussed.