Does my daughter like math? Relations between parent and child math attitudes and beliefs

As early as age six, girls report higher math anxiety than boys, and children of both genders begin to endorse the stereotype that males are better at math than females. However, very few studies have examined the emergence of math attitudes in childhood, or the role parents may play in their transmission. The present study is the first to investigate the concordance of multiple implicit and explicit math attitudes and beliefs between 6- and 10-year-old children and their parents. Data from implicit association tasks (IATs) reveal that both parents and their children have implicit associations between math and difficulty, but only parents significantly associated math with males. Notably, males (fathers and sons) were more likely than females (mothers and daughters) to identify as someone who likes math (instead of reading), suggesting gender differences in academic preferences emerge early and remain consistent throughout adulthood. Critically, we provide the first evidence that both mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes about math relate to a range of math attitudes and beliefs held by their children, particularly their daughters. Results suggest that girls may be especially sensitive to parental math attitudes and beliefs. Together, data indicate that children entering formal school already show some negative math attitudes and beliefs and that parents’ math attitudes may have a disproportionate impact on young girls.     

The discourse of being ‘triggered’: Uses and meanings among counselling students

Despite the initial understanding of the word ‘triggered’ as relating to the clinical phenomenon of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this language has become a common part of the vernacular today, used by many people to apply to a wide variety of experiences and events. Counselling students are particularly sensitised to trauma, as well as identity politics, and are familiar with trigger warnings at college. They themselves have experienced trauma at high rates. Therefore, we were interested to understand how they might be using the word and interpreting the experience of being ‘triggered’, whether different sources of being triggered are related to emotional reactions, and whether a discourse analysis might indicate how and why the term has become useful and for what other experiences it might be serving as a stand-in. In this mixed-methods study, 79 counselling students from around the country shared their definitions and experiences of being ‘triggered’. Participants completed surveys and wrote narratives, which, via thematic qualitative analysis, were coded into five themes. The quantitative analysis focused on the relationship of feelings to themes and the relationship between anger suppression and coping with each theme. Discourse analysis explored how individuals wrote about responsibility and anger. It was discovered that those who wrote about being triggered from a past sexual assault did not discuss anger, nor the responsibility of others to protect them (as those who wrote about microaggressions did), but positioned themselves as overreactors. Results are discussed with regard to training and practice.     

Reconsolidation after remembering an odor-reward association requires NMDA receptors

A rapidly learned odor discrimination task based on spontaneous foraging behavior of the rat was used to evaluate the role of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (NMDARs) in ongoing memory consolidation. Rats were trained in a single session to discriminate among three odors, one of which was associated with palatable food reward. Previous experiments showed that the NMDAR antagonist DL-APV induced amnesia for this task when injected immediately after training. In the present study, memory was reactivated 24 h after training by exposure to the rewarded odor within the experimental context after which rats received an intracerebroventricular injection of APV. Combined reactivation-drug treatment induced profound amnesia when tested 48 h later. Animals receiving drug alone, in absence of reactivation, showed perfect retention. It is concluded that NMDARs support a consolidation process taking place after memory reactivation.