Marriage and the Parenting Alliance: Longitudinal Prediction of Change in Parenting Perceptions and Behaviors

The study evaluates how marriage and the parenting alliance affect parenting experiences over time. Couples ( N = 79) with school-age children who have mental retardation completed self-report and observational measures of marriage, the parenting alliance, and parenting attitudes and behaviors at 2 periods, 18–24 months apart. Longitudinal structural equation modeling demonstrated significant effects of marital quality on changes over time in self-reports of perceived parenting competence for both the mothers and the fathers, and in observed negative mother-child interactions. Also, in all cases, the parenting alliance mediated the effects of marriage on parenting experiences. There was little evidence of reciprocal causation in which parenting variables predicted change in the quality of marriage and the parenting alliance. Interactions involving child age suggested that teenagers as opposed to younger children were more reactive to negative features of their parents' marital functioning and parenting alliance. Implications are discussed regarding stable but negative marital functioning and regarding possible differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting in the context of marital distress.     

DETECTING PARENTAL DECEPTION USING A BEHAVIOR RATING SCALE DURING ASSESSMENT OF ATTENTION‐DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

It is often assumed that parents completing behavior rating scales during the assessment of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can deliberately manipulate the outcomes of the assessment. To detect these actions, items designed to detect over‐reporting or under‐reporting of results are sometimes embedded in such rating scales. This study presents the results of an experimental study in which parents (a) read a scenario telling them that their hypothetical son's teacher has suggested their son may have ADHD and (b) considered assigned goals for the assessment. Parents then completed the accompanying Conners 3Parent Short form (Conners 3‐P[S]) in a manner that they believed would achieve their assigned goals. Findings showed that parents are able to engage in deception when completing behavior rating scales. The validity scales embedded in the Conners 3‐P(S), however, demonstrated mixed results for detecting parental deception with the Negative Impression validity scale, accurately detecting attempts to malinger in the majority of cases, whereas the Positive Impression validity scale appears to have little to no diagnostic utility for the detection of defensive responding. Clinicians utilizing behavior rating scales should carefully consider results, and nonresults, obtained from embedded validity scales when interpreting parent responses to behavior rating scales as part of an ADHD assessment.     

Parents' report of vocabulary and grammatical development of African American preschoolers: child and environmental associations

This study examined how child and family factors affect individual differences in the language development of African American children between 18 and 30 months of age. Participants were 87 African American children, primarily from low-income families. Children's vocabulary and grammatical skills were assessed at 18, 24, and 30 months of age using the short form of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI), a standardized parent report tool. Standardized language tests were administered repeatedly between 1 and 3 years of age. Results showed that children's vocabulary and utterance length grew linearly over time between 18 and 30 months of age. Children from more stimulating and responsive homes were reported to have larger vocabularies, to use more irregular nouns and verbs, and to use longer utterances, in addition to having more rapid rates of acquisition of irregular forms and longer utterances over time. Girls used longer utterances than boys and more irregular forms. Girls also had larger vocabularies in a secondary analysis that eliminated children whose parent report of their vocabulary was substantially lower than children's scores on a standardized language test. There are indications that some parents may be under-reporting their children's early vocabulary and grammatical development, with a high proportion of the parents reporting their child's 30 month vocabulary and grammatical development as being at or below the 10th percentile according to the CDI norms.     

A catalog of models for multiplication and division of whole numbers

Summary The above catalog contains fifteen headings, each of which indicates a collection of families of models for multiplication and division of whole numbers. The catalog refers to somewhat more than sixteen families of models which are easily distinguished one from the other.Not included in the catalog thus far developed are several interpretations of multiplication and division that are also of interest. Among these are models based on the equivalency of denominations of money and various units of measurement. Other interpretations which are of historical interest are those of McLellan and Dewey [15] and Thorndike [24]. The relation between models of operations on whole numbers and models of operations defined on larger universal sets is also of interest. One aspect of this area of interest is the process of constructing models of multiplication and division of whole numbers from such models by altering the rules of the model or delimiting its universal set. For example, one can begin with one of Diénès' models of multiplication of integers [8, pp. 57–58] and make approapriate adjustments and result in a model of multiplication of whole numbers. Other interpretations developed by Diénès are of interest because they involve concretizations of whole numbers which are operators as opposed to states [8, pp. 12, 30; 9, p, 36].These are a great many strategies available for the use of models in teaching the operations on whole numbers. In one such strategy, an educator can define either multiplication or division on some basis (most likely in terms of a model) and then the other can be defined as its inverse.Another strategy is to define each operation in terms of a different model. For example, one might define multiplication in terms of the repeated addition model and division in terms of the repeated subtraction model.Still another type of procedure involves a multiple embodiment strategy in which several interpretations are taught as representing each operation.The choice of a particular strategy would depend upon a great many factors. Some of the factors would be the type of culture and students for which the program is written, the psychological assumptions adopted by the writer, and the writer's knowledge of the domain of models for the operations as well as their relation to the abstract mathematical domain which they represent. This article has contributed to a basis for intelligent decisions in this area by presenting a characterization of the domain of models for multiplication and division of whole numbers and their relation to the abstract operations.     

Child Development and Neuroscience

Although developmental psychology and developmental neuroscience share interests in common problems (e.g., the nature of thought, emotion, consciousness), there has been little cross-fertilization between these disciplines. To facilitate such communication, we discuss 2 major advances in the developmental brain sciences that have potentially profound implications for under standing behavioral development. The first concerns neuroimaging, and the second concerns the molecular and cellular events that give rise to the developing brain and the myriad ways in which the brain is modified by both positive and negative life experiences. Recurring themes are that (1) critical, new knowledge of behavioral development can be achieved by considering the neurobiological mechanisms that guide and influence child development, and (2) these neurobiological mechanisms are in turn influenced by behavior.     

The role of the associate dean in UK universities: distributed leadership in action?

This paper reports on findings from a Leadership Foundation for Higher Education funded project exploring the role of associate deans in UK universities. While the number of associate deans leading cross-curricular and inter-disciplinary initiatives appears to be on the increase, there has been very little research focusing on the exact nature of the role and its importance, or otherwise, in the leadership and management of universities. Drawing on mixed-methods data from 15 semi-structured interviews and a follow-up online survey (n = 172), this paper reports on how the role is defined and positioned in relation to university organisational structures and identifies what the similarities and differences are between associate deans working at traditional and modern universities. As the first national survey of the role, it is argued that this paper makes a significant and original contribution to knowledge. By drawing on the concept of distributed leadership, the paper also offers new theoretical insights into how different types of universities in the UK are responding to external pressures as a consequence of the fast-changing and increasingly complex sector environment.     

Examining the Validity of GOLD® With 4-Year-Old Dual Language Learners

Research Findings: This study builds on prior work related to the assessment of young dual language learners (DLLs). The purposes of the study were to (a) determine whether latent subgroups of preschool DLLs would replicate those found previously and (b) examine the validity of GOLD^® by Teaching Strategies with empirically derived subgroups. Latent class analysis confirmed previous findings of 3 distinct latent subgroups of DLLs (bilingual children, emergent bilingual children, and heritage language speakers). Results of differential item functioning analysis showed that with few exceptions, GOLD items functioned similarly, which indicates that groups matched on ability were similar in their item scores. The item pertaining to using conventional grammar consistently favored non-DLLs over heritage language speakers. The item pertaining to name writing consistently favored DLLs as a single group, emergent bilingual children, and heritage language speakers. Practice or Policy: Study results provide further support for the heterogeneity of DLLs and the use of GOLD with DLL subgroups. This provides the field with an opportunity to better understand this special population of children and enables teachers to plan with greater precision experiences that contribute to their development and learning.