Randomized trial of a statewide home visiting program to prevent child abuse: impact in reducing parental risk factors

OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of a home visiting program in reducing malleable parental risk factors for child abuse in families of newborns identified, through population-based screening, as at-risk of child abuse. METHODS: This randomized trial focused on Healthy Start Program (HSP) sites operated by three community-based organizations on Oahu, HI, USA. From 11/94 to 12/95, 643 families were enrolled and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Mothers in both groups were interviewed annually for 3 years (88% follow-up each year) to measure mental health, substance use, and partner violence. HSP records were reviewed to measure home visiting services provided. Home visitors were surveyed annually to measure their perceived competence. RESULTS: Malleable parental risks for child abuse were common at baseline. There was no significant overall program effect on any risk or on at-risk mothers' desire for and use of community services to address risks. There was a significant reduction in one measure of poor mental health at one agency and a significant reduction in maternal problem alcohol use and repeated incidents of physical partner violence for families receiving > or =75% of visits called for in the model. Home visitors often failed to recognize parental risks and seldom linked families with community resources. HSP training programs were under-developed in preparing staff to address risks and to link families with community resources. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the home visiting program did not reduce major risk factors for child abuse that made families eligible for service. Research is needed to develop and test strategies to improve home visiting effectiveness in reducing parental risks for child abuse.     

The successful resolution of armed hostage/barricade events in schools: A qualitative analysis

This article explores the perceptions and reactions of school and law enforcement personnel in the successful resolution of armed hostage and barricade events in schools. A total of 12 individuals from three schools were interviewed to determine (1) their salient roles related to the situations, (2) facilitative systemic conditions, (3) to what they attributed the successful resolution, and (4) their advice to other school professionals. Results suggest that establishment of trusting relationships between school personnel and all students is essential in successfully resolving school hostage and barricade events. In addition, respondents discussed the importance of awareness, training, and communications in resolving such events. Implications for school staff are included, along with limitations and future research directions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Playing With Ideas: Evaluating the Impact of the Ultimate Block Party,a Collective Experiential Intervention to Enrich Perceptions of Play

Parental attitudes shape play opportunities afforded to children in home, community, and school settings. This study presents evaluation of an intervention designed to enrich parent's conception of play and its relationship with socially valued skills and capacities. On the basis of data from 291 racially and ethnically diverse parents/caregivers of young children (median age between 3 and 6) attending an event in NYC, we find the intervention helped parents conceptualize play in complex ways and altered perceptions of its impact on children's current—but not future—lives. Multivariate analyses reveal the causal pathway for these changes as exposure to multiple play sites, rather than time at the event—a finding with direct implications for exposing parents to developmental science in community settings.     

Sentence context and meaning frequency effects in children's processing of ambiguous words

Nine- and twelve-year-old children named target words which were preceded by sentences ending in words having more than one meaning. Sentences biased the ambiguous word toward its dominant (more frequent) or subordinate (less frequent) meaning. Targets were related to the same meaning as that biased by the sentence, the other meaning, or were unrelated. Targets were presented 0, 300, or 700 ms following the sentence. For both ages, dominant sentences facilitated responses only to the contextually appropriate target. However, subordinate sentences led to facilitation of the appropriate meaning only for the younger group. Older children showed greater facilitation for the inappropriate (but more common) meaning. These results indicate that younger children are more sensitive to the sentence context in which an ambiguous word appears, while the processing of the older children is determined more by the relative frequencies of the words meanings.     

The Relation Between Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement Across Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-Analysis

This research synthesis explores how academic achievement relates to two main components of self-regulated learning for students in elementary and secondary school. Two meta-analyses integrated previous findings on (1) the defining metacognitive processes of self-regulated learning and (2) students’ use of cognitive strategies. Overall correlations were small (metacognitive processes, r?=?0.20; cognitive strategies, r?=?0.11), but there was systematic variation around both of them. Five moderator analyses were conducted to explain this variation. Average correlations significantly differed based on the specific process or strategy, academic subject, grade level, type of self-regulated learning measure, and type of achievement measure. Follow-up tests explored the nature of these differences and largely support the hypotheses. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Early social communication development in infants with autism spectrum disorder

Social-communication differences are a robust and defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but identifying early points of divergence in infancy has been a challenge. The current study examines social communication in 9- to 12-month-old infants who develop ASD (N = 30; 23% female; 70% white) compared to typically developing (TD) infants (N = 94, 38% female; 88% white). Results demonstrate that infants later diagnosed with ASD were already exhibiting fewer social-communication skills using eye gaze, facial expression, gestures, and sounds at 9 months (effect size: 0.42–0.89). Moreover, three unique patterns of change across distinct social-communication skills were observed within the ASD group. This study documents that observable social-communication differences for infants with ASD are unfolding by 9 months, pointing to a critical window for targeted intervention.     

论陀思妥耶夫斯基"非暴力"思想对周作人的影响

陀思妥耶夫斯基对周作人早期思想发展影响极大,尤其是他的非暴力思想和"爱之福音"的文学观深刻地影响了周作人早期的文学观和人生观.在以往的研究中,陀思妥耶夫斯基的影响一直未被重视,本文试图从比较研究的角度探讨这一问题,以补周作人早期思想研究之不足.