Predicting school adjustment from motor abilities in kindergarten

The present study assessed the relations between basic motor abilities in kindergarten and scholastic, social, and emotional adaptation in the transition to formal schooling. Seventy‐one five‐year‐old kindergarten children were administered a battery of standard assessments of basic motor functions. A year later, children's adjustment to school was assessed via a series of questionnaires completed by the children and their class teachers. The results indicate that in addition to the already documented association between visual–motor integration and academic achievement, other motor functions show significant predictive value to both scholastic adaptation and social and emotional adjustment to school. The results further suggest a better prediction of scholastic adaptation and level of disruptive behaviour in school when using an aggregate measure of children's ability in various motor domains than when using assessments of singular motor functions. It is concluded that good motor ability may serve as a buffer to the normative challenges presented to children in the transition to school. In contrast, poor motor ability emerges as a vulnerability factor in the transition to formal schooling. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predictors of absenteeism among primary school teachers

The present study was designed in order to examine the contribution of personal attributes, teachers organizational commitment, and two organizational attributes, school climate and culture of absence at, school, vis-à-vis two different types of teacher absences from work, namely voluntary and involuntary absence. For that purpose, 200 teachers (74% answered) from Jerusalem (Israel), were required to complete the following scales: the Organization commitment scale, the primary school climate scale and the culture of absence scale. Results indicated that the correlations between attitudes and voluntary measures differ from the same correlations involving the involuntary measures. None of the biographical (gender, age and seniority, education) and/or attitudinal variables can explain the variance for any of the involuntary indices. Lower teachers commitment to school, principals restrictive behavior and absentee school culture offer a better explanation of variances in teacher absenteeism than any of the biographical variables.     

Attitudes toward risk are complicated: experimental evidence for the re-individuation approach to risk-attitudes

Philosophical Studies - We present experimental evidence that supports the thesis (advanced recently by Stefánsson and Bradley in Philos Sci 82(4):602–625, 2015, Br J Philos Sci...     

The continuity principle: A unified approach to disaster and trauma

The continuity principle stipulates that through all stages of disaster, management and treatment should aim at preserving and restoring functional, historical, and interpersonal continuities, at the individual, family, organization, and community levels. Two misconceptions work against this principle and lead to decisional errors: the “abnormalcy bias” which results in underestimating victims' ability to cope with disaster, and the “normalcy bias” which results in underestimating the probability or extent of expected disruption. This article clarifies these biases and details the potential contributions of the continuity principle at the different stages of the disaster. The authors are reserve officers in the Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences Centers of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and were, in this capacity, directly involved in the coordination of agencies dealing with Gulf War victims.