Evaluating Emotional Literacy in Schools: The Development of the School Emotional Environment for Learning Survey

This paper describes the development of the School Emotional Environment for Learning Survey, an instrument for evaluating the perceived level of emotional literacy of the school as an organization. It elicits student and staff perceptions of their affective experience of being a part of the school community. It was designed to look at the extent to which a school enables members of its community to interact in a manner that builds an understanding of their own and others' emotions, which can then be used to shape their actions. Emotional literacy is seen here as a potential in everyone that is contingent on the interaction between a person and their social context, rather than a capacity that is either present or absent in the individual.
Qualitative data were collected from an ethnographic case study of two schools using closed- and open-ended questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, a draw-and-write exercise and participant observation. The data were used to generate grounded theory and to build a theoretical framework for organizational emotional literacy. This theoretical framework is described as the CORE framework, addressing the domains of communication, relationships, organization and emotional experience. These domains are then characterized by particular qualities and values that are described in the 'matrix of emotional literacy'. This framework and matrix were then used to develop a questionnaire, which was trialed as a tool to audit the level of emotional literacy in both primary and secondary schools.     

Anaerobic work and power output during cycle ergometer exercise: effects of bicarbonate loading

Eight trained male cyclists who competed regularly in track races, were studied under control, alkalotic (NaHCO3) and placebo (CaCO3) conditions in a laboratory setting to study the effect of orally induced metabolic alkalosis on 60 s anaerobic work and power output on a bicycle ergometer. Basal, pre- and post-exercise blood samples in the three conditions were analysed for pH, pCO2, pO2, bicarbonate, base excess and lactate. All blood gas measurements were within normal limits at basal levels. There were significant differences in the amount of work produced, and in the maximal power output produced by the cyclists in the experimental condition when compared to the control and placebo conditions (P less than 0.01). The post-exercise pH decreased in all three conditions (P less than 0.05) and post-exercise pCO2 increased significantly in the alkalosis trial (P less than 0.01). In the alkalotic condition, the pre-exercise base excess and HCO3- levels were both higher (P less than 0.05) than the basal levels, suggesting that the bicarbonate ingestion had a significant increase in the buffering ability of the blood. Post-exercise lactate levels were significantly higher (P less than 0.05) after the alkalotic trial when compared to the other two conditions, immediately post-exercise and for the next 3 min. Post-exercise lactate levels were higher than basal or pre-exercise levels (P less than 0.001). This was true immediately post-exercise and for the next 5 min. The results of this study suggest that NaHCO3 is an effective ergogenic aid when used for typically anaerobic exercise as used in this experiment. We feel that this ergogenic property is probably due to the accelerated efflux of H+ ions from the muscle tissue due to increased extracellular bicarbonate buffering.     

Memory development and neurophysiology: accomplishments and limitations

The review of Teyler and Fountain offers developmental psychologists an update on the status of neurophysiological theorizing and findings related to memory and learning. Recent findings of LTP and of localization of different types of memory in different brain areas have potential for enriching our understanding of memory development. However, we note several limitations in Teyler and Fountain's presentation in that they do not: distinguish between learning and memory, nor between storage and retrieval; address the role of knowledge-based or top-down influences in memory and learning; employ concepts that can accommodate such developmental phenomena as stages in the hierarchical reorganization of memory. We conclude that even when the age-old search for the "engram" is accomplished, these issues will remain, and that different levels of neural modeling will be required to accommodate them. It is important for developmental psychologists and neuroscientists to maintain communication for the purpose of mutual refinement of models as their knowledge bases continue to grow.     

Expectation and anticipation of dynamic visual events by 3.5-month-old babies

We report an investigation of the development of visual expectancies in 3.5-month-old infants. One of the infant's eyes was videorecorded as the infant watched a series of slides that were presented noncontingent on behavior. Babies were presented an alternating and an irregular series of 30 slides with a 700-msec onset duration separated by an interstimulus interval (ISI). The ISI for the alternating series was 1,100 msec, whereas the slides for the irregular series were separated by 900, 1,100, or 1,300 msec, randomly ordered. One-half of the babies saw the irregular series first, and one-half saw the regular series first. Babies in both groups provided evidence that they developed expectations for the visual events in the alternating series. Their reaction times (RTs) declined significantly from 3-5 "baseline" presentations, and their RTs were reliably faster during the alternating than the irregular series. Additionally, babies in the alternating-late group had significantly more stimulus anticipations during the alternating than during the irregular series. These findings indicate that 3.5-month-olds can detect regularity in a spatiotemporal series, will develop expectancies for events in the series, and will act on the basis of those expectancies even when those actions have no effect on the stimulus events. We believe that infants are motivated to develop expectations for noncontrollable spatiotemporal events, because these expectations permit them to bring their visual behavior under partial internal control.     

Losing it in New Guinea: the voyage of HMS Rattlesnake

The voyage of the HMS Rattlesnake to New Guinea and the archipelago to the east of it could have achieved so much for science. 'Make sure of what you do', enthused British hydrographer Francis Beaufort to the Rattlesnake's commander Owen Stanley in 1848. 'Do not leave interesting questions to be answered at the next visit - give names to Capes and Islands...and bring yourself and your people back without quarrels'. But for some reason Stanley wavered. There were several scientists on board the Rattlesnake desperate to ask interesting questions of these uncharted islands. But these natural historians, and in particular a young Thomas Henry Huxley, found their ambitions thwarted by their increasingly edgy captain.     

Parental Wealth and Children’s Cognitive Ability,Mental, and Physical Health: Evidence From the UK Millennium Cohort Study

This article investigates the influence of wealth, a frequently neglected aspect of the economic circumstances of families, on children’s development. Using the UK Millennium Cohort Study, it explores whether parental wealth (net total wealth, net housing wealth, net financial wealth, and house value) is associated with children’s cognitive ability, mental, and physical health at age 11 (N = 8,645), over and above parental socioeconomic status and economic resources, in particular permanent income. Housing wealth was associated with fewer emotional and behavioral problems, independent of the full set of controls. Children’s verbal cognition and general health were more strongly associated with family permanent income and socioeconomic characteristics than with wealth.     

Extending Models of Sensitive Parenting of Infants to Women at Risk for Perinatal Depression

Objective. Recognizing that not all mothers at risk for depression engage in insensitive parenting, this study examined predictors of individual differences in sensitive parenting of infants by mothers with histories of depression, who are at elevated risk for depression during the perinatal period. Design. We examined maternal personal characteristics, context, and early infant temperament as predictors of sensitive parenting. Seventy-six women with a history of major depression were followed through pregnancy and postpartum and observed during play and feeding interactions with their 12-month-old infants. Results. Maternal personal characteristics (recurrence of clinically significant depression symptom levels during pregnancy or postpartum and higher trait anxiety), context (lower social context and lower income), and early infant temperament (higher negative affectivity, surgency/extraversion, and orienting/regulation) are often associated with less sensitive parenting, with stronger and clearer associations for play than feeding and with some differences based on whether sensitivity was defined as affective matching or rated sensitivity. Conclusions. The findings extend support for multi-determination of sensitive parenting of infants to women with histories of depression, albeit with small to medium effect sizes, and suggest ways to identify those who may be most at risk for insensitive parenting and the potential value of intervening in pregnancy to enhance subsequent sensitivity of parenting.     

A comparison of types of attorney representation for children in California juvenile court dependency cases

OBJECTIVE: The present study concerns types of attorney representation for maltreated children involved in juvenile court actions in the state of California. The aims of the research were to document the different types of representation used in dependency cases in 2000 (e.g., public defender, District Attorney, private firms) and to evaluate these types of representation with respect to children's experiences in foster care. METHODS: Every county in California was surveyed about the predominant type of legal representation used in their dependency court system. In addition, data on children's experiences in foster care were obtained from the Child Welfare System/Child Management System (CWS/CMS). RESULTS: Findings indicate that, in the majority of counties in California, children were represented by the public defender's office or by a panel of court-appointed attorneys. Approximately equal numbers of counties employed county-affiliated (i.e., District Attorney, public defender, county counsel) and independent (i.e., private firm, panel of court-appointed attorneys) types of representation (47% and 52%, respectively). Further analyses suggested that children in counties employing independent types of representation tended to experience fewer foster-care placements than did children in counties employing county-affiliated types of representation. This relation remained significant when potentially confounding variables were statistically controlled. CONCLUSION: Results indicated that some types of representation, specifically, private firms and court-appointed attorneys, were associated with one better outcome for children.     

Families with children conceived by donor insemination: a follow-up at age twelve

Growing public awareness of the use of donor insemination (DI) to enable infertile couples to become parents has been accompanied by increasing concern regarding the potentially negative consequences for family relationships and child development. Findings are presented from a prospective study of the quality of parenting and psychological adjustment of DI children at age 12. Thirty-seven DI families, 49 adoptive families, and 91 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, fathers, children, and teachers. The differences between DI families and the other family types reflected greater expressive warmth of DI mothers toward their children and less involvement in the discipline of their children by DI fathers. The DI children were well adjusted in terms of their social and emotional development. The findings are discussed with respect to the secrecy surrounding DI and the imbalance in genetic relatedness between the parents and the child.