Exploring Trajectories of Young Mothers’ Parenting Stress in Early Childhood: Associations with Protective Factors and Psychological Vulnerabilities

SYNOPSIS

Objective . Most parents manage some degree of parenting stress without serious concerns, but young mothers experience parenting stress at higher levels than adult mothers; high parenting stress is problematic due to its association with children’s socioemotional and behavior problems and the increased likelihood of maltreatment. Understanding the circumstances that precipitate or mitigate parents’ stress can have lasting impacts for child well-being. Extant research fails to account for both longitudinal and individual variation in young mothers’ parenting stress, leading to equivocal findings about the nature of mothers’ parenting stress trajectories across early childhood. Design . The present study used growth mixture modeling (GMM) to model the trajectories of 544 first-time young mothers’ parenting stress from children’s infancy to school-age. We considered how protective factors (i.e., social support) and psychological vulnerabilities (i.e., depression) experienced during the transition to parenthood were associated with parenting stress trajectories and variation within trajectories when children were of school-age. Results . GMM identified three trajectories of parenting stress: “low stable”, “high increasing”, and “high decreasing.” Protective factors were related to low and decreasing patterns of parenting stress, whereas psychological vulnerabilities were associated with higher parenting stress patterns. Conclusions . This study has implications for programs and services that help young mothers cope with the demands of parenting and reduce parenting stress.     

ROLF—an open learning delivery system

The Resourced Open Learning Facility (ROLF) has been developed by the UK Skills Training Agency (STA) as a means of delivering off-the-job skill training in the national network of 60 skillcentres. STA introduced ROLF as a pilot scheme in six skillcentres at a time when the government was introducing a new programme for the long-term unemployed (Employment Training). The authors evaluated the pilot scheme and concluded that ROLF was working well for low achieving adults. ROLF is also important because it is a systematic approach to open learning delivery in a chain of centres under the same management. Most educational technology literature about open learning features materials, rather than delivery.     

The professional developmental needs of higher education-based teacher educators: an international comparative needs analysis

A universal lack of attention to the professional learning needs of teacher educators is the driver for this study, which considers the most effective ways to support the professional learning of higher education-based teacher educators. At a time when many industrialised countries are engaged in systemic educational reform, this study provides an international and comparative needs analysis through a survey of 1158 higher education-based teacher educators in the countries participating in the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development: Belgium, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. Our results suggest that while teacher educators are only moderately satisfied with their professional development experiences, a strong desire exists for further professional learning. This desire, influenced by their professional context, relates to their current beliefs concerning ‘best practice’ in teacher education, the academic skills required to further their professional careers and knowledge of the curriculum associated with their fields of expertise.     

Education on population matters in Europe: results from a comparative survey among students in five European countries

In 1996–1997, within the framework of the European Observatory for Population Education and Information, a comparative survey was conducted among students in final classes of secondary education in several European countries. On the one hand, the survey attempted to assess the effects of education on population in terms of knowledge acquired; the issues addressed in the questionnaire pertained to knowledge of demographic facts and trends (such as the ageing of Western societies and immigration). On the other hand it tried to ascertain students' opinions on demographic trends. What are young people's views on intergenerational solidarity, how tolerant are they towards immigrants, what are their views on recent changes in family structures? This knowledge is important since it is young people's attitudes and future behaviour that will help to shape both the social tissue and the economic prosperity of the European and world population. In this article we present a comparative analysis of survey results obtained in five European countries. We examined the question whether knowledge acquired in the course of scolarisation influences opinions. The results evidence a significant relationship between knowledge of the migrants' issue and attitudes of tolerance towards migrants. By means of multivariate analyses, the impact of factors such as social origin, study orientation and gender on both students' knowledge and attitudes, are investigated. We conclude that adequate educational training on population issues can have a significant positive impact on attitudes of tolerance.     

Informed learning design: teaching and learning through engagement with information

ABSTRACT

While higher education teachers are able to use information in sophisticated ways to learn and communicate within their disciplines, they may not be accustomed to teaching their students to use information creatively and reflectively to support their work in a course. This article introduces informed learning design, a curriculum design model by which teachers specifically enable students to learn course content through intentional engagement with information. Drawing from informed learning pedagogy and the variation theory of learning, the design model outlines an instructional pattern for enabling student awareness of critical aspects and features of the object being studied related to both information use and course content.