Instructional Practices in Fifth-through Eighth-grade Science Classrooms of a Selected Seventh-day Adventist Conference

This investigation focused on instructional practices within fifth- through eighth-grade science classes of selected Seventh-day Adventist schools. Teachers reported regular use of discussion, student projects, and tests or quizzes. Most respondents said they did not feel prepared or had “never heard of” inquiry, the learning cycle, or constructivism. Over half the respondents felt discussion, student-projects, and hands-on laboratory work were effective instructional practices in science classrooms. Learning cycle and constructivism were described by most respondents as “not at all” effective; many respondents had “never heard of” these same two instructional approaches.     

Adolescents React to the Events of September 11, 2001: Focused Versus Ambient Impact

This study examined the perceived impact of the events of September 11, 2001, on adolescents distant from the disaster sites and compared these perceptions with changes in everyday moods. A survey of reactions to September 11 was completed 2-5 months after the events by 171 adolescents participating in a longitudinal study of stress and health. Electronic diary ratings of contemporaneous moods before and after the attacks were also compared. Many adolescents distant from the disaster sites reported changes in everyday activities and signs of distress along with some positive outcomes. Elevated levels of negative affect emerged when adolescents were asked directly about the event (focused impact), but no changes were detected in their ongoing, momentary mood reports before and after September 11 (ambient impact). Trait and electronic diary measures of anxiety independently predicted posttraumatic distress. Refined assessments are needed to evaluate the degree to which self-reported traumatic symptoms reflect significant clinical distress versus an attentional focus generated by the question-asking process.     

Instructional Patterns in Science An Exploratory Study

This article describes a re-analysis of a national study of instructional practices in seventh- and eighth-grade science classes. Responses from a subset (n = 81) of Christian-school teachers taken from the original study population (n = 543) was analyzed to determine what instructional practices predominated in Christian-school science classes. Results indicate the use of a variety of both teacher- and student-centered instructional approaches by science teachers in Christian schools.     

Influences of menstrual cycle position and sex hormone levels on spontaneous intrusive recollections following emotional stimuli

Spontaneous intrusive recollections (SIRs) are known to follow emotional events in clinical and non-clinical populations. Previous work in our lab has found that women report more SIRs than men after exposure to emotional films, and that this effect is driven entirely by women in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. To replicate and extend this finding, participants viewed emotional films, provided saliva samples for sex hormone concentration analysis, and estimated SIR frequency following film viewing. Women in the luteal phase reported significantly more SIRs than did women in the follicular phase, and SIR frequency significantly correlated with salivary progesterone levels. The results are consistent with an emerging pattern in the literature suggesting that menstrual cycle position of female participants can potently influence findings in numerous cognitive domains. The potential implications of these results for disorders characterized by intrusions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are also discussed.     

Personality is associated with perceived health and functional status in older primary care patients

Using data collected on 265 primary care medical patients 60 years of age and older, the authors examined the personality bases of subjective health (perceived health, functional status) after controlling for observer-rated depression and medical burden. Four hypotheses were tested: High Neuroticism is associated with poorer perceived health, low Extraversion is associated with poorer perceived health, low Openness to Experience is associated with worse functional status, and age moderates the relationships between personality and subjective health. Findings supported the notion that personality is associated with subjective health; moreover, this effect appeared to grow more pronounced with increasing age. This study underscores the conceptual and heuristic value of examining moderators of the links between personality variables and health.     

Alcohol First Use and Attitudes Among Young Children

We describe the attitudes and first use of alcohol by children, grades 3-6, who participated in the Bogalusa Heart Study, 1993-94. Questionnaire data reflected that more than one-third of the children had experimented with alcohol at the time of the study. The dominant environmental factor in experimentation was family modeling, and the dominant personal factor was curiosity, regardless of race, gender, or grade. Most children believed that alcohol use can lead to accidents, that drinking has negative social consequences, and that alcohol use hurts only if done to excess. Indications are that young children generally have negative attitudes regarding alcohol use, and that public and family alcohol education efforts need to be more specific about deleterious effects of even low levels of alcohol use in the young.