A Little Bit of the Blues: Low-Level Symptoms of Maternal Depression and Classroom Behavior Problems in Preschool Children

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between low-level depressive symptoms in mothers and teacher-reported child behavioral outcomes. Participants included 442 low-income mothers of preschool-age children who were screened for maternal depression by their child's preschool teacher. Teacher reports of child behavior problems were collected on a random sample of the children (n = 264). Of mothers screened for depression, 16.7% reported low-level depressive symptoms (below the cutoff on the screener indicating clinically elevated symptoms). Analyses revealed that children of mothers with low-level depressive symptoms had significantly greater problems with externalizing behavior compared to children of mothers with no depressive symptoms. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that children whose mothers experience even low-level depressive symptoms are at risk for problems with behavior, pointing to the need for screening and interventions to address maternal depression at all levels of severity. Early childhood education providers are in an excellent position to support families impacted by symptoms of maternal depression through screening and education, supportive daily interactions, and referrals for services if needed. Teachers can also provide direct support for high-risk children's social and emotional skill development through the provision of sensitive, nurturing care.     

Lost in Narration: Applying Autoethnography

The authors convey a story of getting lost in narration, on an applied and collaborative research project in which they combined autoethnography (AE), mindfulness, and relational communication. They examine common criticisms of AE in an effort to more accurately narrate how the method operates communicatively and resonates with commitments of applied communication research. This tale ends with a few invitational morals that are directed to skeptics and practitioners of AE.     

The Literature on Academic Integrity and Graduate Students: Issues,Solutions, and the Case for a Librarian Role

SUMMARY

Graduate and professional school students face a variety of academic integrity issues and are sometimes academically dishonest. The author surveys the literature of the last decade on graduate student academic integrity, including plagiarism, cheating, falsification, and authorship conflicts, focusing on empirical studies in multiple disciplines, studies that portray issues arising in individual disciplines, and solutions suggested. The author proposes that librarians who serve, teach, and consult with graduate students should develop their instructional role in this area. By becoming aware of the chief academic integrity problems and the subject-discipline related concerns, they can better assist graduate students in the context of information literacy and collaborate with faculty on training and other solutions.     

Learning Experience and Learning Effectiveness in Undergraduate Statistics: Modeling Performance in Traditional and Flexible Learning Environments*

This project investigates the relationship between student performance, past mathematics experience, and perceptions of statistics education for two groups of university students studying statistics in different learning environments. One group received the traditional form of teaching with lectures, whereas the other group studied in a more flexible learning mode where lectures were replaced with a computer‐managed learning tool and optional small‐group workshops facilitated by written lecture notes. The results on student learning experience show that, for both groups, student enjoyment of the course is positively related to their learning attitudes and to their perceived value of statistics education, and is negatively related to anxiety with regard to their performance in the course. There is some evidence that the group studying in the technology‐supported flexible learning environment experienced more assessment anxiety and consequently less enjoyment of the subject. There is also evidence that assessment anxiety has a negative effect on student performance that is exacerbated by a lack of prior mathematics experience. Hence, the flexible learning approach in statistics education, with minimal face‐to‐face teaching, may be especially inappropriate for these students.     

Reading the image of Rigoberta Menchu: Undecidability and language lessons

This essay frames issues of historical truth, interpretation, and translation in reading I, Rigoberta Manchu in terms of the analysis of qualitative data. Using Walter Benjamin's work on translation and historiography, posited lessons include: to read for difference rather than the same; to focus on what is becoming in the data; to probe the price people pay to tell the truth about themselves; to attend to how stories are told; and to situate interpretation as supplement rather than mimesis, both inadequate and necessary. Such lessons are endorsed toward the goal of what Gayatri Spivak terms a "knowledgeable Eurocentrism" rather than a naive one in first-world dealings with third-world texts.