African American Pastors on Mental Health,Coping, and Help Seeking

Within the Black Church, there remains much that is unknown about pastoral motivations, beliefs, and attitudes about mental health. The purpose of this study was to investigate pastors' responses to parishioners dealing with mental health issues, including perspectives on counseling services and coping strategies. According to this study's findings, African American pastors often are the first line of support for parishioners' mental health and recognizing adaptive and maladaptive forms of coping.     

Embodiment Effects and Language Comprehension in Alzheimer's Disease

It has been shown that when participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences that describe a transfer of an object toward or away from their body, they are faster to respond when the response requires a movement in the same direction as the transfer described in the sentence. This phenomenon is known as the action compatibility effect (ACE). This study investigates whether the ACE exists for volunteers with Alzheimer's disease (AD), whether the ACE can facilitate language comprehension, and also whether the ACE can still be produced if the order of the two events is inverted, that is, whether overt movement can prime comprehension of transfer sentences. In Study 1, participants with AD, younger, and older adults were tested on an adaptation of the ACE Paradigm. In Study 2, the same paradigm was modified to include an arm movement that participants had to perform prior to sentence exposure on screen. In Study 1, young, older adults, and individuals with AD were faster to respond when the direction of the response movement matched the directionality implied by the sentence (ACE). In Study 2, no traditional ACE was found; participants were faster when the direction of the movement immediately preceding the sentence matched the directionality of the sentence. It was found that compatibility effects generated a relative advantage, that transfer schemata are easier to process, and that an ACE‐like effect can be the result of mutual priming between language and movement. Results suggested preservation in AD of the neural systems for action engaged during language comprehension, and conditions under which comprehension in AD can be facilitated in real life may be identified.     

Transmitting pro‐environmental behaviours to the next generation: A comparison between Germany and Japan

The present study examined the processes by which children acquire pro‐environmental behaviours in different cultures. Our focus was on parental influence. Several studies have been conducted on adults' environmental behaviours; however, we know little about how children's environmental attitudes and behaviours are formed. We conducted a questionnaire survey with elementary school children and one of their parents in Germany and Japan. Two hundred and twenty‐one pairs participated in Germany and 365 in Japan. The results of structural equation modelling showed that parents' behaviours affected children's environmental behaviours directly and also via the subjective norm (the children's experienced expectations of their parents). A comparison of the two countries revealed that hypothesized cultural differences between the impact of personal norms and subjective norms were clearer for adults. The results also showed that the effects of subjective norms were stronger for children, indicating that children are more likely to be influenced by expectations of others. The results of the study suggest that for promoting children's environmental behaviours, showing the behaviours in daily life would be most effective.     

Spirituality and child protection in early childhood education: a strengths approach

In recent international and Australian early childhood curriculum guidelines and child-protection policies, the need for teachers of young children to foster spirituality has been highlighted. However, what this might mean in practice has not been widely explored. This article addresses the more controversial issue of spiritual abuse and the right of children to protection in terms of spiritual development. We present a critique of current definitions taken from research and policy documents. Qualitative data provide the research background. Vignettes are presented to give examples of what spiritual harm might look like in practice. Finally, a strengths-based approach is introduced and strategies are suggested in order to explore the potential of the Strengths Approach (a social justice approach originating from social service practice) to aid early years’ teachers to create spiritually protective learning environments. This approach recognises and values children’s holistic development and wellbeing and supports them to appreciate, engage with and question the world around them with a resilient spirit.     

Effective coordination in medical emergency teams: The moderating role of task type

Coordination in health care action teams is an important factor in clinical performance and patient safety. Implementing a high-fidelity in situ simulation study, we investigated the performance-relevant effects of task distribution, provide information without request (PIWR) and closed-loop communication (CLC) in 68 medical emergency teams (METs) composed of fully qualified clinicians. We differentiated between two task types: algorithm-driven and knowledge-driven tasks. We assigned two different emergency tasks to each task type. We proposed not only a direct relationship between the three coordination behaviours and clinical performance, but also a moderating role for the type of task. Only CLC was related to performance and also moderated by task type. There was no relationship between the coordination behaviours task distribution and PIWR and performance. We discuss the differential effects of the three coordination behaviours on performance and emphasize the importance of the task in team research. In particular, we highlight theoretical and practical implications.