Early Childhood Parenting Predicts Late Childhood Brain Functional Connectivity During Emotion Perception and Reward Processing

Seventy-nine 3-year olds and their mothers participated in a laboratory-based task to assess maternal hostility. Mothers also reported their behavioral regulation of their child. Seven years later, functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired while viewing emotional faces and completing a reward processing task. Maternal hostility predicted more negative amygdala connectivity during exposure to sad relative to neutral faces with frontal and parietal regions as well as more negative left ventral striatal connectivity during monetary gain relative to loss feedback with the right posterior orbital frontal cortex and right inferior frontal gyrus. In contrast, maternal regulation predicted enhanced cingulo-frontal connectivity during monetary gain relative to loss feedback. Results suggest parenting is associated with alterations in emotion and reward processing circuitry 7–8 years later.     

Relationship transitions for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: types,turbulence, and transition processing communication

This study surveys transitions specific to parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), examines how aspects of relational turbulence vary based on the type of transition experienced, and explores the transition processing activities couples use to navigate marital transitions in this context. The study examined the transition experiences of 298 parents of children with ASD who were currently married. Participants detailed an important transition throughout the life span of their child with ASD using open-ended questions. They completed scales assessing qualities of the relationship during the transition and transition processing communication used to navigate the experience. Results demonstrate significant differences in experiences of relational turbulence based on the type of transition described. In particular, the initial diagnosis received the highest ratings for transition magnitude and relational turbulence compared to other common transitions. Engagement in transition processing communication predicted relational uncertainty and facilitation from a partner, which predicted relational turbulence.     

University-industry relationships in the life sciences: Implications for students and post-doctoral fellows

Growth in the industrial support of university research in the life sciences and more specifically in biotechnology has raised questions concerning its effects, both positive and negative, on the educational experiences of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. A survey of 693 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows at six research intensive universities in the United States reveals that 19 percent of the responding students and fellows receive direct industry support for their research or training and that another 15 percent work with faculty advisors supported by industrial funds. On average students and fellows in this sample believe that the benefits of relationships with private firms outweigh the risks. In addition, students funded by private firms are more likely than those without industry connections to report patents resulting from their research. No relationship is found between industry support and young scientists' career plans or their rating of the quality of their educational experiences. However, the data suggest the existence of some risks: industry support is associated with fewer or delayed publications, inhibition of scientific communication on the part of some trainees, and some restrictions on students' and fellows' research. In a few cases, students are supported by funds from companies in which faculty advisors hold equity, a situation that creates potential conflicts of interest for students' mentors. To protect students, university administrators must monitor the relationships with industry that give rise to these potential problems. Future research into industrial support of research and training is needed to extend these results.     

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This article attempts to analyse the ongoing debate regarding open-mindedness as an educational value. The views of Hare, McLaughlin and Gardner are considered. They do not always agree on what open-mindedness is, and the discussion could benefit from a more unified terminology and better counter-examples. The value and limitations of open-mindedness in both science and the humanities are discussed and analysed. It is argued that open-mindedness, while clearly a virtue if not taken to excess, need not be a goal of the educational process.     

The Knowledge Required for Tutorial Planning: An Empirical Analysis

A significant portion of tutorial interactions revolve around the bugs a student makes. When a tutor performs an intervention to help a student fix a programming bug, the problem of deciding how to help the student appears to require extensive planning. In this article, we identify five considerations tutors appear to take into account when they plan tutorial interventions for students’ bugs. Using data collected from human tutors working in the domain of introductory computer programming, we (1) identify the knowledge tutors use when they reason about the five planning considerations, and (2) show that tutors are consistent in the ways that they use the kinds of knowledge to reason about students’ bugs.     

Embracing the complexity of inclusive science classrooms: Professional development through collaboration

There are no panaceas and no shortcuts. Man is an amphibious being who lives simultaneously or successively in several universes: in the world of matter, the world of mind, the world of spirit; in the individual world and in the social world; in the homemade universe of his own artifacts, institutions, and imaginings, and in the given, the God-made universe of nature and grace. In the very nature of things none of the major problems confronting such a being can possibly be a simple problem. Those who seek simple solutions for complex problems may have the best of intentions; but unfortunately there is an original sin of the intellect in our habit of arbitrary oversimplification. Those who act without taking precautions against this vice of their intellectual nature doom themselves and their fellows to perpetual disappointment. (Aldous Huxley, 1953, p. 1.)     

Child victims of sexual abuse: Teachers' evaluation of emotion regulation and social adaptation in school

This study assessed the social adaptation of sexually abused children and tested whether children's emotion regulation competencies mediated the association between child sexual abuse (CSA) and two outcomes of the social domain (i.e. withdrawal and social difficulties). A group of 283 child victims of sexual abuse and a comparison group composed of 60 nonabused children was recruited. Teachers completed questionnaires assessing the children's emotion regulation competencies, withdrawal, and social difficulties exhibited in the school context. Results showed that sexually abused children displayed poorer emotion regulation skills and higher levels of both withdrawal and social difficulties relative to nonabused children. CSA was associated with social difficulties and withdrawn behavior through the mediation of emotion regulation competencies. Teachers and school psychologists should be assisted in identifying children at risk of social difficulties and emotional dysregulation and schools be encouraged to adopt a trauma‐informed approach.     

Current understanding about intergenerational transmission of child sexual abuse

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to review what is currently understood about intergenerational transmission of child sexual abuse (CSA). METHOD: CSA transmission is discussed first from the point of view of men CSA survivors who become sexually abusive, and then from the perspective of mothers who survived CSA whose children have been sexually abused. Mechanisms that may help us understand how CSA is transmitted from one generation to another are described. More specifically, focus is given to those mechanisms that might differentiate CSA survivors who break the cycle of abuse from those who perpetuate it. RESULTS: In light of the research reviewed, it seems that the transmission of CSA is far from inevitable, since one-third of sexually abusive men and half of sexually abused children's mothers mentioned having been sexually abused in their childhood. Because of the retrospective method used in many studies, causal links could not be established. However, some mechanisms have been proposed in order to better understand the phenomenon of CSA. Severity of abuse, attachment relationships with parental figures, as well as dissociative symptoms that follow the abuse were identified. Dissociative symptomatology appeared to be a determining factor in understanding the cycle of CSA. CONCLUSIONS: More studies on CSA transmission are needed to understand the mechanisms that are involved in that cycle, as well as to develop effective strategies to treat and prevent CSA.