The High School Dropout Goes to College

662 former secondary school leavers of academic potential were identified for a program designed to give selected dropouts a chance to enter the University of Toledo. Following responses to questionnaires, 94 students were selected for further screening, which resulted in the final selection of 50 candidates. 34 members of the experimental group attended pre-school workshops in reading, writing, and study habit skills. 31 enrolled as regularly admitted students in academic programs of the university for the academic year. 11 completed their freshman year, although only 4 were making satisfactory academic progress.     

Habituation under stress: shocked mice show nonassociative learning in a T-maze

Conflicting predictions of reinforcement and neophobia-arousal theories were evaluated in a simple choice task. Four groups of C57BL/6J mice were administered daily two-trial tests in a uniform T-maze for 10 consecutive days. For three groups, the contingencies of footshock treatments were manipulated to reinforce alternation, perseveration, or both. A control group that was not administered footshock alternated, but all three groups that were stressed perseverated more and more across tests, despite the differences in reinforcement contingencies. These results are inconsistent with the predictions of reinforcement theory but consistent with the view that stressed or aroused animals are neophobic and use nonassociative learning (habituation) to distinguish between novel and familiar alternatives.     

Surveying the forest: A meta‐analysis,moderator investigation,and future‐oriented discussion of the antecedents of voluntary employee turnover

Recent narrative reviews (e.g., Hom, Mitchell, Lee, and Griffeth, 2012; Hom, Lee, Shaw, and Hausknecht, 2017) advise that it is timely to assess the progress made in research on voluntary employee turnover so as to guide future work. To provide this assessment, we employed a three‐step approach. First, we conducted a comprehensive meta‐analysis of turnover predictors, updating existing effect sizes and examining multiple new antecedents. Second, guided by theory, we developed and tested a set of substantive moderators, considering factors that might exacerbate or mitigate zero‐order meta‐analytic effects. Third, we examined the holistic pattern of results in order to highlight the most pressing needs for future turnover research. The results of Step 1 reveal multiple newer predictors and updated effect sizes of more traditional predictors, which have received substantially greater study. The results of Step 2 provide insight into the context‐dependent nature of many antecedent–turnover relationships. In Step 3, our discussion takes a bird's‐eye view of the turnover “forest” and considers the theoretical and practical implications of the results. We offer several research recommendations that break from the traditional turnover paradigm, as a means of guiding future study.     

The Long-term Effects of Early Paternal Presence on Children’s Behavior

A father’s presence in the family is important for promoting adaptive behavioral functioning in children. It is unknown however, if there is a critical time during infancy and childhood for such paternal presence and involvement to affect behaviour. Using data from the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative (ABC) study, we examined the amount of paternal presence children experienced through their first 11 years of life (measured as fathers’ time spent in the same household as their children) and its effect on their behavioral outcomes at 11 years of age. After controlling for potential confounds, children who whose fathers were minimally present (left between 0 and 3.5 years of age) were twice as likely to report clinically significant behavioural difficulties as those whose fathers were present throughout childhood. Those whose fathers were present for early childhood (left between 3.5 and 7 years of age) exhibited no significant differences in their behaviour at 11 years of age when compared to their peers whose fathers remained present. Mothers reported no significant changes in their children’s behavior. Findings suggested that paternal presence early in a child’s life might be most important with regard to promoting adaptive behavioural functioning as they age.     

Q-sort assessment of attachment security during the preschool years: links from home to school

This study investigated relations among preschoolers' secure-base behavior with mother at home, stressful family conditions, and qualities of developing relationships with peers and teachers in preschool. Preschool-age children (N = 94; 51 boys and 43 girls) and their mothers were observed during multiple home visits, and their security of attachment was assessed with the Attachment Q-Set. Children in families with lower levels of stress had more secure attachment relationships with mothers. Both boys and girls who were less securely attached to their mothers expressed significantly more anger-aggression in preschool. For boys, higher levels of family stress were also significantly related to anger-aggression and to social competence in preschool. In addition, boys who were more securely attached to their mothers were more securely attached to their preschool teachers and were more popular with peers in preschool.     

Now you see it, now you don't: explicit versus implicit measures of the personal/group discrimination discrepancy

When making explicit self-report ratings, members of status- and racial-minority groups report less personal experience with discrimination than that encountered by their group—a phenomenon called the personal/group discrimination discrepancy (PGDD). This study provides evidence, for the first time, that the PGDD may be, in part, a product of the procedure used to measure it. White women and men completed explicit and implicit measures of personal and group discrimination based on sex. The PGDD surfaced among women in the explicit measures, but not in the implicit measures. These findings suggest that explicit and implicit measures might provide different assessments of experience with discrimination.