Expanding Knowledge of Parental Involvement in Children's Secondary Education: Connections with High School Seniors' Academic Success

This paper analyzes data from the parent and student components of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 to investigate family educational involvement in secondary education. It examines connections between parental involvement practices and the educational outcomes of high school seniors. Utilizing multiple involvement indicators for the 8th and 12th grades, the study concludes that the nature of relationships between parental involvement and 12th grade educational outcomes depends on the type of parental practices and educational outcomes considered. Parental involvement indicators are not associated with achievement growth between the 8th and 12th grades. However, a number of parental involvement indicators are associated with seniors' enrollment in an academic high school program and with their coursework in core academic subjects. High levels of educational expectations, consistent encouragement, and actions that enhance the learning opportunities of children are the family practices that are positively associated with the above educational experiences of high school seniors. The relationships between parental involvement and educational outcomes exist regardless of students' socioeconomic or race/ethnic background and regardless of whether parental practices are measured in the middle grades or in high school.     

Functional relationships in the nuclear and extended family: A 16‐culture study

This study investigated the relationship between culture, structural aspects of the nuclear and extended family, and functional aspects of the family, that is, emotional distance, social interaction, and communication, as well as geographical proximity. The focus was on the functional aspects of family, defined as members of the nuclear family (mother, father, and their children) and the extended family (grandmother/grandfather, aunt/uncle, cousins). Sixteen cultures participated in this study, with a total number of 2587 participants. The first hypothesis, that the pattern of scores on the psychological measures and the behavioral outcomes are similar across cultures, an indication of cultural universality, was supported. The second hypothesis, that functional relations between members of the nuclear family and their kin are maintained in high‐affluent and low‐affluent cultures, and that differences in functional relationships in high‐ and low‐affluent cultures are a matter of degree, was also supported by the findings. The results suggest that it is less meaningful in cross‐cultural family studies to ask questions about the structure of the family, than to ask about the functional relationships between members of the nuclear family and their kin. In looking only at the nuclear family, one focuses only on those residing in the household, but ignores those important members of the extended family who may reside nearby and their significant relationships with the members of the nuclear family.     

A Preliminary Investigation of Quality of Life Satisfaction Reports in Emerging Adults With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) affects around 5% of the population and is diagnosed on the basis of poor motor coordination. Although we know rather little about the lifetime consequences of this disorder, it is clear that significant difficulties remain through adolescence and into adulthood for the majority. It is also clear that significant psychosocial consequences exist for many individuals with DCD. In the current study, quality of life satisfaction was investigated in a group of emerging adults with and without DCD using the Quality of Life Satisfaction Questionnaire (Endicott et al. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 29, 321–326, 1993). Overall, the group of adults with DCD reported significantly lower levels of quality of life satisfaction across all domains on the scale. This finding has important implications for consideration of early and later intervention for these individuals, as well as for studies to consider the risk and protective factors at play in long-term outcome with respect to both the motor skills and psychosocial aspects of this disorder.     

Cold-blooded loneliness: social exclusion leads to lower skin temperatures

Being ostracized or excluded, even briefly and by strangers, is painful and threatens fundamental needs. Recent work by Zhong and Leonardelli (2008) found that excluded individuals perceive the room as cooler and that they desire warmer drinks. A perspective that many rely on in embodiment is the theoretical idea that people use metaphorical associations to understand social exclusion (see Landau, Meier, & Keefer, 2010). We suggest that people feel colder because they are colder. The results strongly support the idea that more complex metaphorical understandings of social relations are scaffolded onto literal changes in bodily temperature: Being excluded in an online ball tossing game leads to lower finger temperatures (Study 1), while the negative affect typically experienced after such social exclusion is alleviated after holding a cup of warm tea (Study 2). The authors discuss further implications for the interaction between body and social relations specifically, and for basic and cognitive systems in general.     

The 9th annual INDUS-EM 2013 Emergency Medicine Summit, “Principles,Practices, and Patients,” a level one international meeting,Kerala University of Health Sciences and Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute,Thrissur, Kerala,India, October 23–27, 2013

INDUS-EM is India’s only level one conference imparting and exchanging quality knowledge in acute care. Specifically, in general and specialized emergency care and training in trauma, burns, cardiac, stroke, environmental and disaster medicine. It provides a series of exchanges regarding academic development and implementation of training tools related to developing future academic faculty and residents in Emergency Medicine in India. The INDUS-EM leadership and board of directors invited scholars from multiple institutions to participate in this advanced educational symposium that was held in Thrissur, Kerala in October 2013.     

Socio-ethical Education in Nanotechnology Engineering Programmes: A Case Study in Malaysia

The unique properties of nanotechnology have made nanotechnology education and its related subjects increasingly important not only for students but for mankind at large. This particular technology brings educators to work together to prepare and produce competent engineers and scientists for this field. One of the key challenges in nanotechnology engineering is to produce graduate students who are not only competent in technical knowledge but possess the necessary attitude and awareness toward the social and ethical issues related to nanotechnology. In this paper, a research model has been developed to assess Malaysian nanotechnology engineering students’ attitudes and whether their perspectives have attained the necesary objectives of ethical education throughout their programme of study. The findings from this investigation show that socio ethical education has a strong influence on the students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes pertaining to socio ethical issues related to nanotechnology.     

Attachment and well-being: The mediating effects of psychological needs satisfaction within the coach–athlete and parent–athlete relational contexts

ObjectivesGrounded in attachment theory and self-determination theory, this study aimed to examine whether basic needs satisfaction is a mechanism by which athletes' insecure attachment styles are associated with levels of well-being.MethodAthletes (N = 430) from a range of sports and competition levels completed a multi-section questionnaire to assess the main variables of the study.ResultsBootstrap mediation analysis revealed that athletes' perceptions of satisfaction of basic psychological needs generally mediated the association between their attachment styles and well-being. Moreover, the indirect effect of athletes' experience of the satisfaction of basic needs on well-being was greater within the parental relational context than within the coaching relational context.ConclusionsOverall, the findings from the study highlight that the integration of attachment and self-determination theories can promote understanding of relational process in sport.