Interplay between childhood maltreatment, parental bonding, and gender effects: impact on quality of life

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine associations between childhood adversity, parental bonding, gender, depressive symptoms, and quality of life in non-treatment-seeking adults from the community. METHOD: Effects of differential parental rearing were compared in adults who reported a high degree of childhood maltreatment (n=72) and those who reported no significant adverse events in childhood (n=69). Subjects completed retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment and perceived parenting style, as well as measures of current depressive symptoms and quality of life. RESULTS: The subjects without childhood maltreatment were younger and endorsed less current depressive symptomatology than did subjects with childhood maltreatment. While the subjects without a history of maltreatment reported more "optimal" bonding experiences with their parents, the maltreatment group members were more likely to characterize their early parental bonding experiences in terms of "affectionless control" (p<.001 for both maternal and paternal parenting), "affectionate constraint" (p=.025 for maternal parenting and p=.004 for paternal parenting), or "weak or absent" bonding (p<.001 for both maternal and paternal parenting). Results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that overall quality of paternal care (p=.015) and current level of depressive symptoms (p<.001) were significant independent predictors of adult quality of life. Gender effects between subjects providing parental bonding data were limited to the group with childhood maltreatment. CONCLUSION: These findings extend previous work documenting a relationship between early life maltreatment and suboptimal parental bonding, suggesting gender-specific effects of maternal and paternal care. Effects of childhood maltreatment on quality of life in adulthood appear to be linked with the quality of childhood paternal care and the occurrence of depressive symptomatology in adulthood, suggesting possible targets for primary or secondary prevention.     

Spanish Teachers' Epistemological and Scientific Conceptions: Implications for teacher education1

We present the theoretical framework, the central issues, bibliographic antecedents, and most relevant results of three studies concerning Spanish teachers' epistemological and scientific conceptions. The samples analysed present a majority tendency towards an absolutist view of knowledge and an empiricist conception of science. In our view, this represents a real obstacle to constructive and active professional development. Finally, we argue the need for an epistemological education of teachers that is closely linked to the design and development of the school curriculum, and that does not reproduce the traditional academicist-type models.     

Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Program: Examining Black Girls’ Experiences at a Predominately White School

The Urban Review - A plethora of research on voluntary school choice programs and the impact on student’s outcomes have been documented. However, lacking are the experiences of students of...     

Using body donor demographics to assist the implementation of donation programs in Brazil

The use of human material in anatomy education depends upon the generosity of body donors. However, little is known regarding the demographics of body donors in Brazil, where voluntary body donation is a relatively rare phenomenon. Hence, the aim of the present study was to elucidate the demographic profile of applicants to the Body Donation Program (BDP) at the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre in Brazil, as well as to assess whether the observed characteristics of body donors are unique to that sample, or if they merely reflect the characteristics of the regional population. Information derived from the specific forms filled out by donors between January 2008 and June 2016 at the time of registration were collected. Data from 416 forms were analyzed. Based on this study, the typical applicant in Brazil is typically a white female (67.4%), over 60 years of age (60.3%), unmarried or single (70.6%), affiliated with a religious group (89.1%), of middle class background (40.4%), who has completed high school and/or holds a university degree (93.8%). The motivation of donors was, in most cases, an altruistic gesture, represented by the desire to help society and science. Elucidating these demographic characteristics of potential donors may help identify the target public to which information regarding body donation campaigns could be directed. Anat Sci Educ 10: 475–486. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Developing conceptual understanding in ray optics via learning with multiple representations

A particular difficulty in physics learning is the fact that pupils’ “intuitive” concepts are often resistant to instruction. This article reports empirical results from two related studies within an interdisciplinary project of physics education and educational psychology in ray optics. Two different kinds of treatment groups (TG A and TG B), both targeted at widespread pupils’ intuitive concepts (N?=?511), were compared with the results of a control group (CG C) learning with conventional tasks (N?=?218) provided by a related study II. Pupils in TG A) of study I worked on cognitively activating tasks related to widespread intuitive concepts in ray optics explicitly requiring them to deal with multiple representations. Pupils in the TG B) of study I worked on the same intuitive concepts, but without the cognitively activating representational component. TG A) and B) were compared with each other and with CG C) learning with conventional tasks. The results indicated that tasks addressing widespread intuitive pupils’ concepts improved conceptual understanding significantly more than conventional tasks. There was evidence of a significant intermediate effect showing medium-term stability.     

Critical Community-Engaged Scholarship: Communities and Universities Striving for Racial Justice

The goal of this article is to clarify how current dominant understandings of community-engaged scholarship (CES) can be strengthened to incorporate lessons from critical theory and to focus on justice more explicitly. A prior analysis of how CES is defined across multiple disciplinary literatures revealed that scholars define CES as partnerships between universities and communities that collaboratively develop and apply knowledge to address public issues. Six components of CES were frequently recommended for practice within this scholarship as well. However, neither the goal of CES—to support the “public good”—nor the six recommended CES components consistently included an explicit focus on justice and critical theory. By explicitly naming and defining the goal of justice—as opposed to the “public good” —I aim to highlight the importance of conducting routine analyses in CES of whose interests motivate conceptions of the public good and how dominant cultural structures, values, and traditions negatively impact minoritized community members' lives. Thus, this article employs teachings from critical theory—such as race-conscious analyses, asset-based understandings of community, and privileging subaltern experiences—to envision how critical CES could support university and community partnerships in producing knowledge that more effectively dismantles systemic sources of racial and social injustice.     

Mathematics education and learning disabilities in Spain

In the first part of this article, we describe the basic objectives of the math curriculum in Spain as well as the basic contents, teacher resources, and obstacles perceived in mathematics instruction. Second, we briefly describe the concept of learning disabilities (LD) as they are currently defined in Spain. As stated in the recent educational reform, a student with LD is any student with special educational needs. The emphasis is placed on the educational resources that these students need in order to achieve the curricular objectives that correspond to their age group or grade. Third, we comment specifically on the educational services model and the evaluation and instructional procedures for students with math learning disabilities. Finally, we describe some lines of research that have appeared in the last few years in Spain that have led to the development of new evaluation and intervention procedures for students with LD in computation and problem solving.     

Temperament Predicts Processing Speed in Low Socioeconomic Status Rural Preschoolers

Extreme poverty all over the world is concentrated in rural settings. However, studies about cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part conducted in urban populations. This paper investigates, in a poor rural sample, what are the individual and socioenvironmental variables that make the difference in performance in a processing speed task. Forty four 5‐year‐old children were evaluated with a processing speed task; individual and socioenvironmental information was obtained from parents' interviews. Higher scores in the effortful control dimension of temperament were associated with higher performance in the processing speed task. No other individual or socioenvironmental variable predicted the performance. These results showed that effortful control is important in processing speed and suggest that in low SES rural contexts, low effortful control children would require stronger interventions.     

A Critique of the external product evaluation of the brazilian system of undergraduate education

International Review of Education -     

宁波市部分大学生体育与健康教育现状调查及对策

对宁波市部分大学生健康教育认识程度及教育现状进行的调查表明 :大学生对体育与健康教育的认识程度很高 ,但对健康知识的掌握较少 ,运用健康知识分析与解决学习、生活中的健康问题的能力较低 ,对此提出相应对策