Antecedents of emotion knowledge: Predictors of individual differences in young children

Individual differences in emotion knowledge were examined among 188 4-year-old, predominantly African American children. Cognitive ability and negative emotionality, maternal characteristics (parenting, verbal intelligence, and depressive symptoms), environmental risk, and child sex were examined as predictors of emotion knowledge. Regression analyses indicated that cognitively skilled children who resided in relatively low risk environments with verbally intelligent mothers possessed greater emotion knowledge. Proximal (4-year) child cognitive ability was a stronger predictor than distal (2-year) cognitive ability. Positive parenting at 4 years was correlated with child emotion knowledge, but this relation disappeared when parenting was examined in the context of other predictors. These findings highlight the potential role of child cognitive ability, along with environmental risk and maternal verbal intelligence, in children's emotion knowledge and demonstrate the importance of examining a variety of predictors for their unique contribution to emotion knowledge.     

The Impact of an Intensive Consciousness-Raising Curriculum on Adolescent Women

The impact of a consciousness-raising module offered in 50-minute class periods over 20 consecutive school days to junior and senior high school women was evaluated. Experimental and control groups were constituted randomly from a pool of volunteers. Subjects completed the attitudes toward women scale, the personal orientation inventory, and the Tennessee self-concept scale before and after the consciousness-raising experience. Results indicated that women who participated became more liberal in their beliefs about women's rights and roles and also showed increases along several dimensions of self-actualization. However, such gains did not radiate to self-concept.     

ORAL LANGUAGE CRITERIA FOR SELECTING LISTENABLE MATERIALS: AN UPDATE FOR READING TEACHERS AND SPECIALISTS

Materials for Instruction and assessment of listening skills ought to exhibit appropriate levels of listenability. One factor contributing to listenability is the degree to which passages contain features of oral (as opposed to written) language. Oral language represents one end of a spectrum which ranges from planned autonomous (written) to spontaneous (oral) language; it is features of oral language are: 1) syntax that is characteristic of oral composition and suited for aural processing, 2) elements of text structure which ease the burdens of oral production and aural reception, and 3) expressions which tend to evoke a sense of immediate, face‐to‐face interaction. Since oral reading predominates in early reading instruction, it is suggested that these criteria may also be used in selecting listenable materials.