Family play,reading, and other stimulation and early childhood development in five low-and-middle-income countries

This paper used longitudinal data from five studies conducted in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes (N = 4904; M_age = 51.5; 49% girls). Results from random-effects and more conservative child-fixed effects models indicate that across these studies, family stimulation, measured by caregivers’ engagement in nine activities (e.g., reading, playing, singing), predicted increments in children's early numeracy, literacy, social-emotional, motor, and executive function skills (standardized associations ranged from 0.05 to 0.11 SD). Study-specific models showed variability in the estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies. These findings indicate the need for additional research on culturally specific ways in which caregivers may support early development and highlight the importance of promoting family stimulation to catalyze positive developmental trajectories in global contexts.

Research Highlights

• Research on the links between family stimulation and early childhood development in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited.
• We used longitudinal data from studies conducted in five LMICs to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes.
• Results suggest that family stimulation predicted increments in children's numeracy, literacy, social-emotional, motor, and executive function skills.
• We found variability in the observed estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies, suggesting the need for additional research in LMICs.

     

Training psychiatric teams to do family systems acute psychiatry

This article presents an account of a comprehensive eighteen‐day, multi‐team, multidisciplinary training approach to family systems inpatient acute psychiatry. It has been developed and tested as part of the SYMPA project (systems therapy in acute psychiatry), which aims to establish systemic case conceptualizations and interventions as routine practice in acute psychiatry. Content, didactic characteristics and specifications of this training are discussed. To illustrate the practical implementation of the training, specifically designed exercises are described and a clinical case is included. The article concludes by presenting first results of the research on implementation indicating that the training had a significant impact on the quantity and quality of conversations with patients.     

How and When Do Core Self-Evaluations Predict Career Satisfaction? The Roles of Positive Goal Emotions and Occupational Embeddedness

We draw on theories of self-verification and situational strength to examine how and when core self-evaluations (CSE) predict career satisfaction. We tested our hypotheses using a time-lagged study with 139 alumni of two business schools across three measurement waves. Results showed that compared to individuals with lower CSE those with higher CSE were more satisfied with their careers because they associated more positive emotions with pursuing their career goals. However, a high degree of occupational embeddedness attenuated the indirect effect of the CSE–career satisfaction relationship through positive goal emotions and compensated for low levels of positive goal emotions. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

Multisensory mental representation of objects in typical and Gifted Word Learner dogs

Animal Cognition - Little research has been conducted on dogs’ (Canis familiaris) ability to integrate information obtained through different sensory modalities during object discrimination...     

The selfish preen: absence of allopreening in Palaeognathae and its socio-cognitive implications

Animal Cognition - Preening behaviours are widespread in extant birds. While most birds appear to autopreen (self-directed preening), allopreening (preening directed at conspecifics) seems to have...