Sleep Tight,Act Right: Negative Affect,Sleep and Behavior Problems During Early Childhood

Temperamental negative affect and insufficient sleep have been independently associated with behavior problems during early childhood. However, it is unknown whether these factors interact to contribute to behavioral difficulties in young children. The current study examined the interactions between temperamental negative affect and both sleep onset time and sleep midpoint, assessed by actigraphy, in predicting externalizing and internalizing behaviors in a sample of 117 children (34–69 months of age). Children with high temperamental negative affect and either later sleep onset time or later sleep midpoint were more likely to exhibit externalizing and internalizing behaviors. These results emphasize the association between temperamental negative affect and behavioral difficulties, particularly for children with insufficient sleep.     

Reading for meaning: the effects of Developmental Education on reading achievements of primary school students from low SES and ethnic minority families

The appropriateness of innovative educational concepts for students from a low socioeconomic status (SES) or ethnic minority background is sometimes called into question. Disadvantaged students are supposed to benefit more from traditional approaches with Programmatic Instruction (PI). We examined Developmental Education (DE), an innovative approach, inspired by Vygotskian theory, in which reading skills are developed through meaningful reading of texts corresponding to students’ self-generated problems. The effectiveness of DE is compared to PI in terms of reading comprehension, strategy knowledge, and reading motivation of 4th-grade students; 170 students from ethnic minority or low SES background participated in a pretest-posttest natural 2-group design. Outcomes were similar in both approaches, with one exception: Students with an ethnic minority background in DE performed better on strategy knowledge than similar students in PI. These results are discussed in relation to previous studies on the appropriateness of innovative curricula for disadvantaged students.     

Parental involvement in the development of children's reading skill: a five-year longitudinal study

This article presents the findings of the final phase of a 5-year longitudinal study with 168 middle- and upper middle-class children in which the complex relations among early home literacy experiences, subsequent receptive language and emergent literacy skills, and reading achievement were examined. Results showed that children's exposure to books was related to the development of vocabulary and listening comprehension skills, and that these language skills were directly related to children's reading in grade 3. In contrast, parent involvement in teaching children about reading and writing words was related to the development of early literacy skills. Early literacy skills directly predicted word reading at the end of grade 1 and indirectly predicted reading in grade 3. Word reading at the end of grade 1 predicted reading comprehension in grade 3. Thus, the various pathways that lead to fluent reading have their roots in different aspects of children's early experiences.     

Tobacco and alcohol advertisements in popular African‐American and general audiences magazines

This study examines samples of fourteen popular magazines. Comparisons are made between the tobacco and alcohol advertisements in magazines that target African‐American versus general audiences. The content analyses indicate that African‐American magazines carry higher numbers and concentrations of ads promoting health‐risk products. Results also indicate that tobacco and alcohol targeting strategies may well go beyond racial and ethnic differences.     

The Desirability of Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis on Published Scales

This paper advances an argument in favor of conducting and reporting confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) on existing and previously validated scales and reporting the findings of those analyses in published research. Previous evidence of scale validity does not necessarily ensure validity in subsequent uses. Instead, scale invariance is best viewed as an empirical question. The case is made that CFA facilitates rather than hinders cross-studies comparisons, and that replication is good scientific practice. Reporting the outcomes of CFA on existing scales provides useful information that facilities knowledge generation and can minimize costly scientific dead-ends.     

Risk,threat, and information seeking about genital herpes: The effects of mood and message framing

This paper examines the effect that mood and message frame has on perceived threat, efficacy, attitude, intention and, ultimately, behavior regarding genital herpes information seeking. A 2 (message frame: negative/positive) X 2 (mood: happy/sad) independent groups experiment examining the interaction between mood and message framing was conducted. A two‐way interaction between mood and message framing on the dependent variable(s) was hypothesized such that persons in a sad mood will be more persuaded (as evidenced by heightened threat, efficacy, attitude, intention and behavior) by a negatively framed message given its mood congruent qualities. And, persons in a happy mood were posited to be more persuaded by a positively framed message given its mood congruent qualities. A main effect for mood was also proposed, given that sad persons are expected to pay closer attention to the message(s) overall. These data were partially consistent with the hypotheses. In the main, frame and mood elicited separate effects. Sadness is positively correlated with severity and susceptibility of genital herpes. Frame increases response efficacy. A path model articulating the relationships among all variables is proposed.     

A Window Into Early Literacy: Exploring the Cognitive and Linguistic Underpinnings of Invented Spelling

Children's early spelling attempts (invented spellings) and underlying component skills were evaluated in a sample (N = 115) of 5-year-old children. Letter-sound knowledge and phoneme awareness were shown to be important predictors of invented spelling performance in this age group. The results also showed associations between invented spelling and measures of orthographic awareness and morphological processing. The findings support the view that invented spelling is a developmentally complex and important early literacy skill that involves phonemic awareness, letter sound knowledge, and other oral language skills and orthographic knowledge.     

Development,construct validity and test–retest reliability of a field-based wheelchair mobility performance test for wheelchair basketball

The aim of this study was to develop and describe a wheelchair mobility performance test in wheelchair basketball and to assess its construct validity and reliability. To mimic mobility performance of wheelchair basketball matches in a standardised manner, a test was designed based on observation of wheelchair basketball matches and expert judgement.

Forty-six players performed the test to determine its validity and 23 players performed the test twice for reliability. Independent-samples t-tests were used to assess whether the times needed to complete the test were different for classifications, playing standards and sex. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated to quantify reliability of performance times.

Males performed better than females (P < 0.001, effect size [ES] = ?1.26) and international men performed better than national men (P < 0.001, ES = ?1.62). Performance time of low (≤2.5) and high (≥3.0) classification players was borderline not significant with a moderate ES (P = 0.06, ES = 0.58). The reliability was excellent for overall performance time (ICC = 0.95).

These results show that the test can be used as a standardised mobility performance test to validly and reliably assess the capacity in mobility performance of elite wheelchair basketball athletes. Furthermore, the described methodology of development is recommended for use in other sports to develop sport-specific tests.     

Religious-Thinking-Through Using Bibliodrama: An Empirical Study of Student Learning in Classroom Teaching

Searching for new methods to start a genuine dialogue in secondary school classrooms, bibliodrama as an active form of putting religious stories in action was used. The research focused on examining relationships between student learning activities and teacher behavior; six lessons were analyzed in a qualitative cross-case analysis. A dialogue in the classroom aims to evoke theologizing by the students, also to be called religious-thinking-through. The effectiveness of religious-thinking-through was operationalized into three learning activities (testing positions, producing criticism, and reflecting) and six teaching scaffolds, building stones used by teachers to gear active learning. A quantitative correspondence analysis yielded a scale that contrasts more from less effective lessons. The specific contribution of an effective religion teacher is to show understanding, give space and listen. When he asks meta-cognitive questions in a debating way of connective truth finding this leads to a higher level of religious-thinking-through by students.