Pink gives girls permission: Exploring the roles of explicit gender labels and gender-typed colors on preschool children's toy preferences

Children engage in gender-typed toy play to a greater extent than in non-gender-typed toy play leading to different developmental trajectories for boys and girls. The present studies examine the characteristics of toys and how they differentially affect boys' and girls' interests, stereotypes, and judgments of the toys. In Study 1, children (N = 73, M_age = 4.01) were presented with masculine and feminine toys that were decorated with masculine and feminine colors. Results indicated that boys were more interested in masculine toys than in feminine toys. Girls were significantly less interested in masculine toys with masculine colors than in all other combinations. Children's perceptions of others' interests also followed a similar pattern. In Study 2, children (N = 42, M_age = 3.84) were presented with novel items labeled as “for boys” and “for girls” and decorated in masculine and feminine colors. Among girls, both explicit labels and color of novel toys impacted interests. Children's predictions of others' interests also reflected this pattern.     

Textual demands of passages in three english/language arts common core assessments and one core literacy program for intermediate elementary grades

The Common Core has emphasized reading for comprehension, including making inferences. However, little is known about the textual demands found within assessment and instructional passages that are promoted as being in line with Common Core expectations. The purpose of this content analysis was to identify the readability levels, passage length, and types of inferences found within 72 fiction and nonfiction passages from the PARCC, Smarter Balanced, and SAGE Common Core assessments and one core literacy program, Journeys, for students in grades three, four, and five. Results show that the readability levels of passages in this study were written at higher levels than their associated grade levels. Anaphoric relationships were by far the most common inference type found in the texts, followed by Prior Knowledge and Retrospective inferences.     

Uncivilizing “Mental Illness”: Contextualizing Diverse Mental States and Posthuman Emotional Ecologies within The Icarus Project

This article argues humans should not be defined strictly at their physical boundaries with clear distinctions between anatomical bodies, mental states, and the rest of the world. Rather, diverse mental states, which are often diagnosed as “mental illness,” take shape within greater environmental forces and flows, including those that are constructed online. Drawing from a multi-sited ethnography of The Icarus Project, a radical mental health community, the author situates online narratives written by two of its members within posthuman emotional ecologies in which the exchange of ideas online affects mental states in a profound way. These narratives can be seen as a new type of psychiatric resistance based in new technologies, one that “uncivilizes” mental illness by searching for alternative frameworks and metaphors to understand lived experiences with mental distress. This ethnographic perspective differs significantly from traditional bio-psychiatric models and interventions and can offer both patients and mental healthcare providers with an alternative language to frame mental health.     

Discrepancy Analysis of Emerging Adult and Parental Report of Psychological Problems and Relationship Quality

Cross-informant discrepancies on reports of psychopathology can have detrimental consequences on the relationship between emerging adults and their parents. The current study utilized emerging adult reports of their own psychopathology and their perspective on their parent’s psychopathology as well as their parents’ reports of parental psychopathology and their perspective on the emerging adult’s psychopathology (measured using the Adult Self Report and Adult Behavior Checklist). Analyses were performed to further examine the associated between the discrepancies between emerging adult and parent reports of psychopathology on dyadic relationship qualities (i.e., affection, conflict, and satisfaction within the emerging adult-parent relationship). Emerging adults and their parents demonstrated significant differences in their reports of parental depression as well as emerging adult depression, anxiety, and antisocial personality problems. Furthermore, discrepancies on parental depression and antisocial problems and emerging adult depression were associated with differences on relationship qualities. Additional results and implications are discussed.

     

Does the character-based dimension of stories impact narrative processing? An event-related potentials (ERPs) study

Cognitive Processing - This event-related potentials (ERPs) study investigated online processes of integration of information relating to characters in narrative comprehension. The final sample...     

Team identification more than organizational identification predicts counterproductive work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior and mediates influences of communication climate and perceived external prestige

Organizational identification has been linked to both positive behavior and negative behavior at work. Based on theory and research that suggest that for many organizational behaviors, team identification may be a more important influence than organizational identification, we advance a research model proposing that team identification, more than organizational identification, predicts counterproductive work behavior and organizational citizenship behavior and is the more important mediator of the influence of communication climate (CC) and perceived external prestige (PEP) on these outcomes. This research model was tested in a survey of N = 300 employees of four Italian organizations from different sectors. Results show that team identification, but not organizational identification, predicts counterproductive behavior and citizenship behavior and mediates the influence of CC and PEP. To enhance team identification for sustaining positive voluntary behavior at work, two possible strategies could be considered: improving perceived external prestige and promoting a good communication climate.     

Psychometric Investigation of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire—Short-Form

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire—Short Form (SCSRFQ-SF). Participants were 226 undergraduate students (168 female) at a large public university enrolled in randomly selected undergraduate courses. A principal components analysis of the SCSRFQ-SF supported the hypothesized one-factor structure. In addition, the internal consistency was high and the convergent validity of the SCSRFQ-SF was supported with significantly positive relations with the Duke Religion Index. These findings provide initial support for the reliability and construct validity of the SCSRFQ-SF.     

Effects of an indicated cognitive-behavioral depression prevention program are similar for Asian American, Latino, and European American adolescents

The authors tested whether a brief indicated cognitive-behavioral depression prevention program produced similar effects for Asian American, Latino, and European American adolescents (M age = 17.3, SD = 1.6) with elevated depressive symptoms using data from two randomized trials. The first trial involved 37 Asian-American/Pacific Islanders, 32 Latinos, and 98 European Americans and the second trial involved 61 Latinos and 72 European Americans. Reductions in depressive symptoms from pre- to post-intervention and from pre to 6-month follow-up for intervention participants versus assessment-only controls did not differ significantly for the various ethnic groups in either trial, despite sufficient power to detect clinically meaningful differences. These findings suggest that this indicated depression prevention intervention is similarly efficacious for Asian American, Latino and European American adolescents.     

Burnout and self-perceptions of physical fitness in a sample of Italian physical education teachers

This study examined the relations of physical education teachers' burnout with some individual variables, including teachers' self-perceived physical fitness and the perceived influence of personal fitness on teaching. Participants were 219 Italian physical education teachers in secondary school. Demographic and professional information, ratings of self-perception of physical condition, and the Italian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory were recorded. Compared to the data of a normative sample, average scores on the three dimensions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalisation, and Reduced Personal Accomplishment) were found. There were statistically significant associations among Reduced Personal Accomplishment, the self-perception of physical fitness, and the perception of the influence of personal fitness on teaching. Women reported scores on Emotional Exhaustion and Reduced Personal Accomplishment indicative of greater severity than men. No significant differences appeared to be related to the years of teaching. Recommendations for further studies are discussed.