失败的意义

失败并不代表你是个失败者, 它只表明你尚未成功。 失败并不代表你一无所获, 它只表明你吸取了一次教训。     

饮食中的致癌物

同普遍的看法恰好相反,癌症产生的起因并不都是由于人类工业和农业活动的结果。一些诱发这种疾病的物质就存在于自然界中,并通过人们每日的饮食,即所消耗的食物和饮料而被人体吸收。所以,社会上的每一个成员都要谨慎地选择食品。     

科学与宗教中的逻辑性与非确定性

科学与宗教代表了人类理解的不同层面和人类的不同直觉,它们一般看来似乎相当不同,但却紧密地相联系。科学以实验和逻辑试图理解宇宙的秩序或结构。宗教以神学启迪和反思试图理解宇宙的目的或意义。这两者是交织相联的,目的蕴涵着结构,而结构在某种程度上可以根据目的来解说。     

植物的生活

为了获得丰收,植物需要些什么呢?这是每个男女集体农庄庄员最关心的问题。创造苏维埃农业生物科学的著名科学家们-齐米里亚捷夫、米丘林、B.P.威廉士、李森科-经常教导说:为了获得丰收,首先应该知道植物本身的需要,并善於适时地满足它的需要。植物和围绕着它的自然界有着非常密切的联系,它是自然界的组成部分。只要一破坏这种联系,植物的生活就立刻终止。对植物活着的时候,它不断从周围环境中吸取它所需要的物质-化学元素碳、氧、氮、磷、钾、钙等,还吸收光和水分。同     

Changes in early adolescents' sense of responsibility to their parents in the United States and China: implications for academic functioning

This research examined American and Chinese children's sense of responsibility to their parents during early adolescence, with a focus on its implications for children's academic functioning. Four times over the seventh and eighth grades, 825 children (mean age = 12.73 years) in the United States and China reported on their sense of responsibility to their parents. Information on children's academic functioning was also collected from children as well as school records. Although children's sense of responsibility to their parents declined over the seventh and eighth grades in the United States, this was not the case in China. In both countries, children's sense of responsibility was predictive of enhanced academic functioning among children over time.     

Memory skills of deaf learners: implications and applications

The author reviews research on working memory and short-term memory abilities of deaf individuals, delineating strengths and weaknesses. Among the areas of weakness that are reviewed are sequential recall, processing speed, attention, and memory load. Areas of strengths include free recall, visuospatial recall, imagery, and dual encoding. Phonological encoding and rehearsal appear to be strengths when these strategies are employed. The implications of the strengths and weaknesses for language learning and educational achievement are discussed. Research questions are posed, and remedial and compensatory classroom applications are suggested.     

Dynamic testing, working memory, and reading comprehension growth in children with reading disabilities

This longitudinal study assessed (a) whether performance changes in working memory (WM) as a function of dynamic testing were related to growth in reading comprehension and (b) whether WM performance among subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD; children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal IQ readers) varied as a function of dynamic testing. A battery of memory and reading measures was administered to 78 children (11.6 years) across three testing waves spaced 1 year apart. WM tasks were presented under initial and dynamic testing conditions (referred to as gain and maintenance testing). The important results were that (a) WM performance as a function of maintenance testing was a significant moderator of growth in reading comprehension and (b) WM performance of children with RD was statistically comparable within subgroups of RD but inferior to that of skilled readers across all testing conditions. The results support the notion that children's WM performance under dynamic testing conditions was related to the rate of growth in reading comprehension but unrelated to subgroup differences in reading.     

Identifying children at high risk for a child maltreatment report

Objective

To help professionals identify factors that place families at risk for future child maltreatment, to facilitate necessary services and to potentially help prevent abuse and neglect.

Method

The data are from a prospective, longitudinal study of 332 low-income families recruited from urban pediatric primary care clinics, followed for over 10 years, until the children were approximately 12 years old. Children with prior child protective services involvement (CPS) were excluded. The initial assessment included sociodemographic, child, parent and family level variables. Child maltreatment was assessed via CPS reports. Risk ratios (RRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox regression models.

Results

Of the 224 children without a prior CPS report and with complete data who were followed for an average of 10 years, 97 (43%) later had a CPS report. In a multivariate survival analysis, 5 risk factors predicted CPS reports: child's low performance on a standardized developmental assessment (RR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.01-1.49, p = .04), maternal education ≤ high school (RR = 1.55, CI = 1.01-2.38, p = .04), maternal drug use (RR = 1.71, CI = 1.01-2.90, p < .05), maternal depressive symptoms (RR per one standard deviation higher score = 1.28, CI = 1.09-1.51, p < .01), and more children in the family (RR per additional child = 1.26, CI = 1.07-1.47, p < .01).

Conclusions

Five risk factors were associated with an increased risk for later maltreatment. Child health care and other professionals can identify these risk factors and facilitate necessary services to strengthen families, support parents and potentially help prevent child maltreatment.     

Psychometric properties of a youth self-report measure of neglectful behavior by parents

Objective

This study aimed to empirically assess psychometric properties of a multi-dimensional youth self-report measure of neglectful behavior by parents.

Method

Data were gathered from 593 12-year-old youth participating in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) consortium; 272 also had data at age 14. Youth responded to a 25-item measure of their experiences of neglect. Expert raters classified items into 4 factors, followed by confirmatory factor analyses. We evaluated cross group measurement equivalence by gender and longitudinal measurement equivalence from age 12 to age 14. Validity was assessed by the relationships between factor scores and (1) neglect reports to child protective services (CPS), (2) quality of parent-child interactions, and (3) parental monitoring.

Results

A 3-factor model (Physical Needs, Emotional Support, and Parental Monitoring) of neglect was obtained, with equivalence across gender and longitudinally (age 12-14). The pattern of correlations between the factor scores, CPS reports, and measures of the parent-child relationship offered modest to moderate support for convergent validity.

Conclusions

The findings suggest a promising and relatively brief youth self-report measure of neglect to help advance research in this area.