Formal and parental sex education differences among Hispanic young women by nativity status

This study sought to investigate the association between nativity status and Hispanic young women’s formal sex education and parental sex education in the USA. We used data from a cross-sectional sample of 310 Hispanic young women aged 18–24 years old from the 2013–2015 US National Survey of Family Growth. We assessed 11 outcomes: four formal sex education topics; receiving any formal sex education; a formal sex education scale; four parental sex education topics; and receiving any parental sex education. The majority of our sample was US-born Hispanic versus foreign born (72.6% and 27.4% respectively). Foreign-born Hispanics were less likely to have received any type of formal sex education than US-born Hispanics (adjusted odds ratio = 0.81; 95% confidence interval: 0.24, 0.68, p < 0.01). Foreign-born Hispanics were less likely to have received parental HIV sex education than U.S.-born Hispanics (aOR = 0.36; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.97, p < 0.05). Nativity status did not have a significant effect on each unit increase on the scale (aB = –0.07, SE = 0.16; aβ = –0.42, p > 0.05). Our results indicate that having appropriate sex education knowledge is better than not being cognisant. Future studies should however examine the quality and content of sex education programmes so policymakers can better understand these young women’s sexual behaviours and decisions.     

Long-term effects of a mediated reading programme on the development of emotional competencies / Efectos a largo plazo de un programa de lectura mediada para el desarrollo de competencias emocionales

Emotional competencies are considered protective factors against behaviour problems and have been associated with adequate social and academic development. Early intervention means a greater chance of stability and development of these skills; however, few programmes address these aspects and evaluate their effectiveness in the short, middle or long term. Our research goal was to implement an early intervention programme for the development of emotional competencies based on the mediated reading of children’s literature and to evaluate its long-term effectiveness. Participants were 115 children between the ages of five and eight who were divided into two groups. To assess the impact of the programme, a factorial design was implemented with four independent variables. The ‘Mediated reading’ and ‘Traditional reading’ groups were compared on measures of facial emotion recognition, empathy and emotional regulation. Results indicate that the mediated reading group showed the best performance on all the dimensions evaluated, with significant differences from the traditional reading group. The study concludes by analysing the outcomes and limitations of the programme implemented.     

Integrating Reform‐Oriented Math Instruction in Special Education Settings

This mixed‐methods study assessed the effects of Enhanced Anchored Instruction (EAI) on the math performance of adolescents with learning disabilities in math (MLD). A quasi‐experimental pretest–posttest control group design with switching replications was used to measure students' computation and problem‐solving skills on EAI compared to control conditions. Scores on the curriculum‐aligned and standardized measures showed improved problem‐solving skills but results were mixed for computation. To augment the numerical data, a qualitative inquiry captured day‐to‐day classroom activities. The findings showed that problem‐based curricula such as EAI have the potential for helping students with MLD develop deeper understandings of math concepts but that considerable effort is required to structure and teach these concepts in ways students with MLD understand.     

Same Language,Different Histories: Developing a “Critical” English Teacher Identity

ABSTRACT

Our paper contends that growing awareness of the historicity of English lies at the heart of the process by which English language teachers develop “critical” identities. We compare novice teachers in three different contexts of English teaching: urban Guatemala, rural Nicaragua, and a Tibetan refugee community in India. Collectively, these ethnographic case studies illustrate the complexity of English teacher identity formation in contemporary global society, as our participants developed new understandings of their positions in history, their relationships with English learners, and the local meanings around English as symbolic capital.     

Determinants of School Performance Among Quechua Children in the Peruvian Andes

In the rural Andes of Peru, primary school inefficiency ranks higher than in the rest of the country, with a nearly 50 per cent rate of first grade repetition. In 1993 the investigators administered a battery of four psycho-educational tests to 360 schoolchildren in the fourth and fifth grades at ten primary schools in the Andean region of Huaraz. They also recorded the children's individual characteristics, i.e. family background, nutritional status, and educational attainment, and rated the schools according to educational features such as classroom size, time devoted to learning, and student-teacher ratio. A year later, in 1994, children were re-examined in the schools using the same test battery. All subjects were small for their age, had poor diets, spoke mostly Quechua at home (Spanish in school), lived in a rural environment, and walked considerable distances to school. Regression analyses of the 1993 data indicated that the performance of Quechua children on verbal tests was heavily influenced by family background, while their mathematical competence was related to school experience. On the other hand, improvement in test scores from one year to the next appeared to be strongly related to test performance in 1993 and less clearly to the other recorded variables. Finally, the schools' promotion rates were clearly associated with test scores from the previous year but less clearly with grade repetition rates.     

The moderating capacity of racial identity between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being over time among African American youth

This study examined the influence of racial identity in the longitudinal relation between perceptions of racial discrimination and psychological well-being for approximately 560 African American youth. Latent curve modeling (LCM) and parallel process multiple-indicator LCMs with latent moderators were used to assess whether perceptions of racial discrimination predicted the intercept (initial levels) and the slope (rate of change) of psychological well-being over time, and whether racial identity moderates these relations. The results indicated that African American adolescents who reported higher psychological responses to discrimination frequency levels at the first time point had lower initial levels of well-being. Regressing the slope factor for psychological well-being on the frequency of discrimination also revealed a nonsignificant result for subsequent well-being levels.