Anxiety in Children with Mood Disorders: A Treatment Help or Hindrance?

This study examined the role of comorbid anxiety in treatment outcome for children with mood disorders (N = 165; age 8–11) participating in Multi-Family Psychoeducational Psychotherapy (MF-PEP). Assessments occurred at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months for two randomly assigned groups: immediate treatment and 1-year wait-list. Most children (69%) had comorbid anxiety disorders. Baseline comorbid anxiety, as reported on the Children’s Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes (ChIPS), was associated with higher Children’s Depression Rating Scale- Revised (CDRS-R) scores but not Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) scores. Higher levels of anxiety symptoms were associated with lower Children’s Global Assessment Scale (C-GAS) scores. Participation in MF-PEP did not significantly reduce anxiety symptoms (p = 0.62). However, presence of comorbid anxiety did not impede reduction in depressive (CDRS-R, p = 0.74) or manic (YMRS scores, p = 0.94) symptoms following MF-PEP. More baseline anxiety symptoms were associated with greater improvement in C-GAS scores post-treatment (p = 0.02). Implications are discussed.     

Finding Female Fulfillment: Intersecting Role-Based and Morality-Based Identities of Motherhood, Feminism, and Generativity as Predictors of Women’s Self Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction

Focused on 113 U.S. mothers of college-aged daughters, we extend the existent role-based identity literature to address role- and morality-based identities and their ties to women’s fulfillment. Specifically, women’s identities as mothers, feminists, and generative individuals were assessed for their associations with each other, as well as their unique and combined associations with women’s self satisfaction and life satisfaction. Across the results, generativity yielded the greatest significance. Women with higher generativity identity report having higher self satisfaction and life satisfaction; women who were highly committed to mothering have stronger associations between generativity and life satisfaction. Women with strong generativity identities also tend to identify themselves as feminists. Feminist and mothering identity were not related to one another nor directly tied to satisfaction with one’s self nor life. Implications are discussed regarding continued assessment of role- and morality-based identity intersections as well as to the functions and limitations of the three identities and their assessment featured herein.     

Are pictures good for learning new vocabulary in a foreign language? Only if you think they are not

The current study explored whether new words in a foreign language are learned better from pictures than from native language translations. In both between-subjects and within-subject designs, Swahili words were not learned better from pictures than from English translations (Experiments 1-3). Judgments of learning revealed that participants exhibited greater overconfidence in their ability to recall a Swahili word from a picture than from a translation (Experiments 2-3), and Swahili words were also considered easier to process when paired with pictures rather than translations (Experiment 4). When this overconfidence bias was eliminated through retrieval practice (Experiment 2) and instructions warning participants to not be overconfident (Experiment 3), Swahili words were learned better from pictures than from translations. It appears, therefore, that pictures can facilitate learning of foreign language vocabulary--as long as participants are not too overconfident in the power of a picture to help them learn a new word.     

Cluster subtypes within the precontemplation stage of change for sun protection behavior

The aim of this study is to identify replicable cluster subtypes within the precontemplation stage of change for sun protection. Secondary data analysis of baseline data from a sample of participants in a home-based expert system intervention was performed. Three random samples were selected from participants in the precontemplation stage (N = 570). Cluster analyses were performed using the scales of pros, cons, and self-efficacy. Interpretability of pattern, pseudo F-test, and dendograms were used to determine the number of clusters. A four-cluster solution replicated across subsamples. Significant differences between clusters on the nine processes of change and on behavioral measures were found. Cluster solutions were robust, interpretable and with good initial external validity. They replicated patterns found for other behaviors, demonstrating long-term predictability and providing basis for tailored interventions.     

Amplifying and Attenuating Inequity in Collaborative Learning: Toward an Analytical Framework

Abstract

Research on collaborative learning has focused on its potential to foster successful problem solving. Less attention, though, has been given to issues of equity. In this article, we investigate how inequity can become amplified and attenuated within collaborative learning through small interactional moves that accumulate to produce broader patterns of equity or inequity. Our theoretical perspective utilizes Boaler’s notion of relational equity and introduces what we term participatory equity. Research was conducted in a computer science course co-taught by the authors and taken by upper-elementary students. Data sources include audio recordings of students’ collaborative interactions, ethnographic field notes, student work, and student surveys. This article focuses on a single student, Jason, and his dyadic interactions, and builds upon our previous analyses of his interactions with four higher-performing partners. Findings reveal how the interplay between classroom structures and student enactments shaped two types of inequity during collaborative learning. We conclude by discussing implications for theorizing and analyzing equity and inequity, as well as pedagogical considerations for structuring collaborative learning to attenuate inequity.     

Measurement Skills in Low-Income Elementary School Students: Exploring the Nature of Gender Differences

In this research, we examined overall performance and gender differences in measurement skills in elementary-school students from low-income families. In Study 1, accuracy and error patterns were analyzed in a large sample of fourth-graders; in Study 2 error patterns and strategy usage were examined with a smaller sample of fourth-graders. Study 1 showed no main effect of gender on students’ performance. Instead, as predicted, the direction of gender difference varied as a function of problem type: boys outperformed girls on spatial/conceptual measurement, whereas girls outperformed boys on formula-based measurement, as well as on a test of computation skills. Study 2 revealed both similarities and differences in the way boys and girls approached measurement problems. Girls appeared to have specific difficulty with spatial/conceptual problems where objects and measurement units were not pictorially presented. When recording their solutions, girls generally wrote down calculations while boys made drawings. Overall, the students performed poorly in measurement; strategy analysis allowed for examination of common weaknesses, indicating possible ways of improving performance of underserved groups.     

Using prequestions to enhance learning from reading passages: the roles of question type and structure building ability

ABSTRACT

Answering questions before learning something (“prequestions”) enhances learning. However, these benefits usually occur for information that was asked in the prequestions (i.e. prequestioned material), and not for non-prequestioned material. We reasoned that this narrow benefit may be due to the fact that studies typically use fairly simple prequestions that have a clear answer within one part of the learning material – isolative prequestions. We explored the effects of integrative prequestions that required participants to make connections across different parts of a reading passage. Experiment 1 showed the usual benefit of isolative prequestions on prequestioned but not on non-prequestioned material, but no benefit of integrative prequestions. However, in Experiment 2 when participants were given instructions to seek the answers while reading, integrative prequestions benefited learning of both prequestioned and non-prequestioned material. Individual differences in structure building positively predicted performance, but did not interact with the effects of prequestions.     

Book Review

This research reviews and analyzes case law related to private-school employment contracts. The cases deal with the validity of contracts and termination of employment in which the courts have been called upon to settle a variety of disputes between nonpublic schools and their employees. School administrators must be knowledgeable of the basic principals of contract law.     

Aging Effects on Recollection and Familiarity: The Role of White Matter Hyperintensities

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have indicated that aging is associated with declines in recollection whereas familiarity-based recognition is left largely unaffected. The brain changes underlying these recollection declines are yet not well understood. In the current study we examined the role of white matter integrity as measured by white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on age-related changes in recollection and familiarity. Recognition was measured using a remember/know procedure (Experiment 1) and a source-memory process-dissociation procedure (Experiment 2). Robust age related declines in recollection were observed, but there was no evidence that white matter damage was related to the observed memory declines. Although future studies with larger samples will be necessary to fully characterize the role of WMH in normal age-related declines in different types of memory, the results suggest that declines in recollection are not strongly related to the brain changes indexed by WMHs.     

Screening for Muir-Torre Syndrome Using Mismatch Repair Protein Immunohistochemistry of Sebaceous Neoplasms

Screening for the Muir-Torre variant of Lynch Syndrome (LS) using Mismatch Repair (MMR) gene immunohistochemistry (IHC) on sebaceous neoplasms (SNs) is technically feasible. To date, research into the clinical utility of MMR IHC for this indication is limited. We conducted a retrospective chart review of 90 patients with MMR IHC completed on at least one SN from January 2005 to May 2010. SNs included were adenomas, epitheliomas, carcinomas and basal and squamous cell carcinomas with sebaceous differentiation. Of the 90 patients, 13 (14 %) had genetically confirmed or fulfilled clinical criteria for a diagnosis of MTS and 51 patients (57 %) presented with an abnormal MMR IHC result (loss of one or more MMR proteins) on at least one SN. Abnormal IHC had a sensitivity of 85 %, specificity of 48 %, positive predictive value (PPV) of 22 % and negative predictive value (NPV) of 95 % when evaluating for MTS. When personal or family history of colorectal cancer (≥2 family members with a history of colorectal cancer) was taken into consideration, ignoring IHC results, sensitivity was 92 %, specificity was 99 %, PPV was 92 % and NPV was 99 %. MMR IHC on SNs when used to screen for MTS has poor diagnostic utility. We recommend that MMR IHC not be performed routinely on SNs when the patient does not have either personal or family history of colorectal cancer.