Jewish Blood: Reality and Metaphor in History,Religion, and Culture

Although Rodney Stark is best known for his work on religious economies, he has recently turned his attention to the social effects of monotheism. If we look carefully on the theoretical trajectory evident in this recent work, what we find is a social-evolutionary approach to religion that was prevalent in the 19th century, but long ago assumed by most academics to be discredited. Furthermore, as becomes increasingly evident going through this series, the particular social-evolutionary sequence that Stark constructs has been shaped by a vision of Protestant triumphalism, and a privileging of evangelical Protestantism, that also belongs to an earlier time. While it would easy to ignore Stark's work (and the last two books in this series do seem to have been ignored in academic circles), there are reasons (which include the popular appeal of his work and his treatment of Islam) for taking his work seriously.     

Educational psychology in England and Wales

This paper describes the work of educational psychologists in England and Wales, within the context of the educational system in this part of the United Kingdom. The school system and its relationship to local national control is discussed. The development of psychological services is considered from their origin in 1913 to the present day, and data are given concerning the demographic aspects of the profession and current patterns of training. Current major contributions of educational psychologists are reviewed in a context of change consequent upon development from within the profession and that forced upon the profession by recent legislation, in particular the 1981 Education Act which, for the first time, gives educational psychologists a statuary role, in the assessment of children's special educational needs.     

Parental socialization styles, parents' educational level, and sexist attitudes in adolescence

The aims of this study were to analyze the differences in the mothers' and fathers' socialization styles depending on their children's sex; whether there are differences in hostile, benevolent, and ambivalent sexism, and neosexism as a function of both parents' socialization styles; and whether the parents' educational level affects their level of sexism and their children's sexism. The sample included 1,455 adolescents and their parents (764 mothers and 648 fathers). The results showed no differences in the socialization style of the father with his children's sexism, but the mother used a more authoritarian style with her daughters. The parents' socialization style had little influence on their children's sexism, although it had a higher impact on the sons' sexism. The father's style had less influence than the mother's on their sons' sexism, and it had no influence on their daughters' sexism. The indulgent style of both parents had the highest relation with a low level of sexism. Moreover, a negative correlation was found between the parents' educational level and their level of sexism, as well as between the mother's educational level and her daughters' sexism. To conclude, the indulgent style and the mother's high educational level promote fewer sexist attitudes.     

Children and computers. Approaching the twenty-first century

The "effects" that various forms of "computer" use are likely to have on different children's learning, motivation, and social behavior have been a source of heated debate and continuing controversy. In this article, various aspects of this controversy are characterized, and sources of disagreement concerning educational computing are examined. Difficulties in the current state of empirical research in this area are then considered, and recommendations regarding directions for future research are proposed.     

Social Research in the Advancement of Children's Rights

This article argues that investigators doing developmental and social research with children have, for the most part, failed to acknowledge the inherent implications of their work for children's rights. The impact of these studies upon children's rights occurs at every stage; from hypothesis formulation to hypothesis testing to dissemination of findings. This paper addresses the issue in the context of developmental research on children's ability to report experienced events accurately. This particular research area has generated data that has been extrapolated to legal contexts and created a foundation for assumptions about the credibility of child witnesses. This in turn has had profound effects on children's right to be heard and the weight given to their testimony. The argument is made that there is a need for social scientists to explicitly articulate how their work may impact upon children's rights and what is in fact the social agenda in this regard underlying their research.     

Family Background,Social and Academic Capital,and Adolescents' Aspirations: A Mediational Analysis

In this study a mediational model was constructed to examine relationships between refined measures of childhood and adolescent social capital and the aspirations of adolescents with varying academic capital and from differing social status and ethnic backgrounds. Longitudinal data were collected from 460 16-year-old Australians and their parents from Anglo-Australian, Greek, and Southern Italian groups. Using partial least squares path modeling the findings suggest: (a) family background, childhood social and academic capital, and adolescents' social capital combine to have medium to large associations with adolescents' aspirations, and that the associations are larger for educational aspirations than for occupational aspirations and stronger for males than for females; (b) the mediational model is more successful in explaining family background differences in educational aspirations than variations in occupational aspirations; and (c) after taking into account social and academic capital, Greek males continue to have higher occupational aspirations than do Anglo-Australian and Southern Italian males, and sons of fathers with high social status continue to have higher occupational aspirations than do other male adolescents. The investigation indicates that within encompassing family backgrounds, differences in educational outcomes should be examined in relation to children's and parents' perceptions of social and cultural capital and to variations in children's academic capital.     

Ethics,Subjectivity, and Sociomaterial Assemblages: Two Important Directions and Methodological Tensions

Research that explores ethics can help educational communities engage twenty-first century crises and work toward ecologically and socially just forms of life. Integral to this research is an engagement with social theory, which helps educators imagine our shared worlds differently. In this paper I present two theoretical-methodological directions for educational research that centres ethics: Ethics and (human) subjectivity; and Ethics-in-assemblage. While both approaches might be seen as commensurable, they can also be seen as quite divergent. Using Michel Foucault’s later work on subjectivity and ethics, as well as recent work in Anthropology, I present a methodological direction for research into ethical subjectivity, how students come to see themselves as self-reflective ethical actors. Relevant here is the tension between ethics and politics, individual and collective modes of being, as both are crucial to both struggles for justice on a damaged planet. The second direction involves a sociomaterialist approach that employs Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of ‘assemblage’ as well as Karen Barad’s notion ‘entangled responsibility’ to show that ethics can also be seen to co-emerge with/in phenomena that exceed human relations. In short, exploring ethics through educational research means simultaneously examining ethics as subjectivity and ethics as co-emergent larger assemblages/phenomena.     

Attributional style,attributional retraining,and inoculation against motivational deficits

College students periodically experience many challenges in pursuit of their educational goals. Such experiences can have deleterious effects on subsequent motivation and performance when they are perceived as negative. Research shows that some students who experience negative events are buffered against motivational deficits, whereas others are motivationally at-risk. Several individual difference variables have been proposed to account for such diverse reactions. A longitudinal field study that involved three phases was conducted to extend this research. Phase I examined the motivational buffering effects of academic attributional style on students' performance, motivation, and emotions. Results indicated that attributional style related to students' performance, motivation, and emotions. Specifically, students who routinely made unstable and controllable attributions for negative academic events exhibited the greatest performance and motivation compared to students who typically made stable and uncontrollable attributions. Phases II and III were designed to examine the remedial benefits of attributional retraining for different attributional styles. Findings indicated that attributional retraining influenced motivation, emotions, and course grade. These results were qualified by the interaction between attributional style, attributional retraining, and time. Findings are discussed within Weiner's (1985, 1986) attribution theory. This research was based, in part, on the first author's dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) doctoral fellowship, a University of Manitoba doctoral fellowship, and a SSHRCC postdoctoral fellowship to the first author. In addition, the research was also supported by a SSHRCC research grant (#410911296) to the second author. The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Bernard Weiner, Harvey Keselman, John Adair, Rodney Clifton, and Robert Altemeyer. Also appreciated was the assistance of Verena Menec and the Higher Education Research group.     

流动性、教育安置方式和心理弹性对流动儿童孤独感的影响:一项追踪研究

采用潜变量增长模型对426名流动儿童进行四次追踪测查,旨在考察流动儿童孤独感的变化趋势,探索不同流动性和教育安置方式的流动儿童孤独感变化的差异性以及心理弹性对孤独感变化的促进性作用。结果发现：（1）流动儿童的孤独感呈线性下降趋势;（2）打工子弟学校流动儿童的孤独感起始水平显著高于公立学校流动儿童;流动性高的儿童的孤独感起始水平高于流动性低的儿童,但流动性和教育安置方式对孤独感的发展趋势没有显著预测作用;（3）对于流动儿童来说,较高的心理弹性水平不仅能显著预测更低的孤独感起始水平,同时也能显著预测更快的孤独感的下降速率。本研究启示,增加进入公立学校学习的机会、降低流动频率和提升心理弹性对降低流动儿童的孤独感水平具有重要的意义。     

Solving spatial tasks with unaligned layouts: the difficulty of dealing with conflicting information

Previous research has shown that preschool children have difficulty using relational information in spatial tasks. The present study investigates whether this difficulty is due, in part, to children's inability to deal with situations of conflict where both objective and egocentric cues are available and point to different responses. Two studies were conducted to compare performance in the presence versus absence of conflicting cues. In Study 1, 40 four-year-olds had to locate an object in a single layout presented from different perspectives. In Study 2, 39 four-year-olds had to transfer locational information between two unaligned layouts. The presence of conflict significantly affected children's performance in both studies. The results are discussed in the context of similar findings in other cognitive domains.     

Pink and blue collar jobs: children's judgments of job status and job aspirations in relation to sex of worker

Past work shows that even young children know that occupations are differentially linked to men and women in our society. In our research, we studied whether 6- and 11-year-old children's (a) beliefs about job status and (b) job interests would be affected by the gendered nature of jobs. When asked about familiar occupations, children gave higher status ratings to masculine jobs and expressed greater interest in jobs culturally associated with their own sex. To circumvent the extant confounds between job gender and job status in our culture, we also developed a new methodology in which novel jobs were portrayed with either male or female workers. Older children rated novel jobs portrayed with male workers as having higher status than the identical jobs portrayed with female workers. Portrayal sex had no effect on children's own interests in these novel jobs at either age. Methodological, theoretical, and educational issues are discussed in relation to sex-role development and vocational aspirations.     

Maternal education and children's academic achievement during middle childhood

Despite much evidence that links mothers' educational attainment to children's academic outcomes, studies have not established whether increases in mothers' education will improve their children's academic achievement. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth on children between the ages of 6 and 12, this study examined whether increases in mothers' educational attainment are associated with changes in children's academic achievement and the quality of their home environments. Results suggest that children of young mothers with low levels of education perform better on tests of academic skills and have higher quality home environments when their mothers complete additional schooling, whereas increased maternal education does not predict improvements in the achievement or home environments of children with older and more highly educated mothers. The estimated effects of additional maternal schooling for children of these younger mothers appear to be more pronounced for children's reading than math skills.     

Retention of Hispanic/Latino students in first grade: Child, parent, teacher, school, and peer predictors

A sample of 283 Hispanic children with literacy performance at entrance to first grade below the median for their school district was studied as part of a larger research project on the predictors of grade retention in grade 1. Following retention decisions, 51 Hispanic students were retained in first grade. Low literacy skills, being young at entrance to first grade, low ego resilience, low support in the teacher-student relationship, and parents' low sense of responsibility for their children's educational outcomes predicted retention decisions. Hierarchical logistics regression investigated the contribution of six categories of variables (academic competencies; socio-demographic characteristics; social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment; resiliency, school context; and home environment) to retention. Controlling for literacy, only being young for grade and parents' low sense of responsibility for their children's adjustment to school made a direct contribution to retention. Early literacy skills were higher for children enrolled in bilingual classrooms than for children in non-bilingual classrooms. Implications for educational policy are discussed.     

出国务工人员子女社会技能的情绪成分与归因研究

了解出国务工人员子女的社会技能的情绪成分和归因特点对单亲家庭子女的社会交际和教育有重要意义。本研究选取福州连江瑁头镇中心小学学生作被试,发现出国务工人员子女具有比较明显的外部归因倾向,有较高焦虑感和孤独感。     

"Just stop thinking about it": effects of emotional disengagement on children's memory for educational material

Children regulate negative emotions in a variety of ways. Emotion education programs typically discourage emotional disengagement and encourage emotional engagement or "working through" negative emotions. The authors examined the effects of emotional disengagement and engagement on children's memory for educational material. Children averaging 7 or 10 years of age (N=200) watched either a sad or an emotionally neutral film and were then instructed to emotionally disengage, instructed to engage in problem solving concerning their emotion, or received no emotion regulation instructions. All children then watched and were asked to recall the details of an emotionally neutral educational film. Children instructed to disengage remembered the educational film better than children instructed to work through their feelings or children who received no emotion regulation instructions. Although past research has indicated that specific forms of emotional disengagement can impair memory for emotionally relevant events, the current findings suggest that disengagement is a useful short-term strategy for regulating mild negative emotion in educational settings.     

Temperamental attention and activity, classroom emotional support, and academic achievement in third grade

The purpose of this study is to examine the interplay of children's temperamental attention and activity (assessed when children were 4-and-a-half years old) and classroom emotional support as they relate to children's academic achievement in third grade. Particular focus is placed on the moderating role of classroom emotional support on the relationship between temperament (attention and activity level) and academic achievement. Regression analyses indicated that children's attention and activity level were associated with children's third grade reading and mathematics achievement, and classroom emotional support was associated with children's third grade reading and mathematics achievement. In addition, classroom emotional support moderated the relation between children's attention and reading and mathematics achievement, such that attention mattered most for reading and mathematics achievement for children in classrooms with lower emotional support. Findings point to the importance of understanding how children's temperament and classroom emotional support may work together to promote or inhibit children's academic achievement.     

亲子间教育期望差异对小学生情感幸福感的影响:学业成绩和学业自我效能感的中介作用

以891名河北省衡水市某小学4~6年级学生为研究对象，采用问卷调查的方式，考察了亲子间教育期望差异对小学生情感幸福感的影响，以及学业成绩和学业自我效能感的多重中介作用。结果发现：（1）亲子间教育期望差异影响小学生情感幸福感，与感知到的父母教育期望和自我教育期望一致相比，当感知到的父母教育期望高于自我教育期望时，小学生的积极情感水平更低而消极情感水平更高；（2）学业成绩和学业自我效能感在“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”这一差异方向与积极情感间起部分中介作用，在“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”与消极情感间起完全中介作用。具体而言，“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”可直接影响积极情感，还可通过学业成绩和学业自我效能感的链式中介作用以及学业自我效能感的独立中介作用间接影响积极情感；同时，“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”可通过学业成绩和学业自我效能感的链式中介作用、学业自我效能感的独立中介作用以及学业成绩的独立中介作用影响消极情感。     

Maternal employment and child development: a fresh look using newer methods

The employment rate for mothers with young children has increased dramatically over the past 25 years. Estimating the effects of maternal employment on children's development is challenged by selection bias and the missing data endemic to most policy research. To address these issues, this study uses propensity score matching and multiple imputation. The authors compare outcomes across 4 maternal employment patterns: no work in first 3 years postbirth, work only after 1st year, part-time work in 1st year, and full-time work in 1st year. Our results demonstrate small but significant negative effects of maternal employment on children's cognitive outcomes for full-time employment in the 1st year postbirth as compared with employment postponed until after the 1st year. Multiple imputation yields noticeably different estimates as compared with a complete case approach for many measures. Differences between results from propensity score approaches and regression modeling are often minimal.     

Children's antisocial behavior, mental health, drug use, and educational performance after parental incarceration: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Unprecedented numbers of children experience parental incarceration worldwide. Families and children of prisoners can experience multiple difficulties after parental incarceration, including traumatic separation, loneliness, stigma, confused explanations to children, unstable childcare arrangements, strained parenting, reduced income, and home, school, and neighborhood moves. Children of incarcerated parents often have multiple, stressful life events before parental incarceration. Theoretically, children with incarcerated parents may be at risk for a range of adverse behavioral outcomes. A systematic review was conducted to synthesize empirical evidence on associations between parental incarceration and children's later antisocial behavior, mental health problems, drug use, and educational performance. Results from 40 studies (including 7,374 children with incarcerated parents and 37,325 comparison children in 50 samples) were pooled in a meta-analysis. The most rigorous studies showed that parental incarceration is associated with higher risk for children's antisocial behavior, but not for mental health problems, drug use, or poor educational performance. Studies that controlled for parental criminality or children's antisocial behavior before parental incarceration had a pooled effect size of OR = 1.4 (p < .01), corresponding to about 10% increased risk for antisocial behavior among children with incarcerated parents, compared with peers. Effect sizes did not decrease with number of covariates controlled. However, the methodological quality of many studies was poor. More rigorous tests of the causal effects of parental incarceration are needed, using randomized designs and prospective longitudinal studies. Criminal justice reforms and national support systems might be needed to prevent harmful consequences of parental incarceration for children.     

Linking Parents' Work Stress to Children's and Adolescents' Psychological Adjustment

Recent research indicates that parental work stress has implications for the quality of family interaction and, in turn, children's and adolescents' adjustment. Studies in two distinct genres are reviewed: investigations relying on global reports of work demands, family dynamics, and child and adolescent adjustment and studies focusing on within-person comparisons of family interaction on days characterized by high and low work stress. The effects of parental work stress on children's and adolescents' adjustment appear to be indirect. Work stress is linked to parents' feelings of overload and strain, which in turn predict lower parent-child acceptance and higher conflict, processes that in turn are related to less positive adjustment of children and adolescents. In the face of high work stress, withdrawing from family involvement may be adaptive in the short run but ultimately problematic. The strength of these associations depends on parents' personality qualities, parents' coping styles, and work and family circumstances.