Attitudes of Volunteer Coaches toward Significant Youth Sport Issues

A questionnaire consisting of 20 positive and negative statements frequently made about youth sports was completed by 423 nonschool youth sport coaches from Illinois and Missouri. The coaches indicated to what degree they agreed with the statements for the sport in general, and for the particular program in which they coached. Coaches from eight sports were sampled: baseball/softball, basketball, football, gymnastics, hockey, soccer, swimming, and wrestling. The results revealed that coaches have generally favorable attitudes toward youth sports, supporting the value of participation for the well-being of children. One exception to the coaches' generally favorable attitudes was their moderate agreement that too much emphasis is placed on winning. It also was found that the coaches' 20 specific agreement ratings could be reduced to 4 interpretable factors—“positive attitudes,” “negative facets of youth sports programs,” “negative consequences for participants,” and “equipment and facilities not adequate.” Factor scores computed for these factors were found to differ as a function of sport coached and the coach's education, formal training, coaching experience, sex, occupation, and community size. In a second section of the survey, the coaches rated the importance of including various technical and sport science topics in coaching clinics and workshops.     

A Political Analysis of Community Influence over School Closure

This study seeks to understand community member participation in and influence over an urban school district’s school closure process. Data from interviews with School Board members, district administrators, and community members, as well as district documents and newspaper articles suggest that district administrators limited participation through committee membership and public hearing procedures. In addition, the development of an “objective” process served to legitimize the decision. Finally, higher income community members influenced the closure process through formal and informal mechanisms, while low-income community members exerted power through alliances with external (powerful) groups.     

Into the Unknown: Examining Neural Representations of Parent–Adolescent Interactions

The parent–adolescent relationship is important for adolescents’ emotion regulation (ER), yet little is known regarding the neural patterns of dyadic ER that occur during parent–adolescent interactions. A novel measure that can be used to examine such patterns is cross-brain connectivity (CBC)—concurrent and time-lagged connectivity between two individuals’ brain regions. This study sought to provide evidence of CBC and explore associations between CBC, parenting, and adolescent internalizing symptoms. Thirty-five adolescents (mean age = 15 years, 69% female, 72% Non-Hispanic White, 17% Black, 11% Hispanic or Latino) and one biological parent (94% female) completed an fMRI hyperscanning conflict discussion task. Results revealed CBC between emotion-related brain regions. Exploratory analyses indicated CBC is associated with parenting and adolescent depressive symptoms.     

Physical,Mental, and Financial Stress Impacts of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Educators

Early Childhood Education Journal -     

From PSAs to reel communities: exploring the sounds and silences of urban youth mobilizing digital media production

ABSTRACT

Amplified by a global political climate of fear, oppression, and increased nationalism, this article examines how U.S. secondary students in a digital media elective course used multimodal composition, and video production in particular, as a nexus of ‘participatory politics.’ By partnering theories of multiliterate expression with youth civic engagement, it offers new understandings into how urban youth use digital media production to leverage school-based social action. Refracted through a mediated discourse analysis lens, and with a particular focus on sound as a modal resource for design, findings suggest that youth used media production and semiotic sense-making to simultaneously enliven community action as well as shield students from personal histories of trauma. By engaging in the process of digital media production, as this article suggests, students cultivated new core practices of civic interaction and local engagement by amplifying injustice.