A caregiver–child socioemotional and relationship rating scale

This article reports the construction and pilot reliability, validity, and psychometric properties of a new caregiver–child rating scale that emphasizes caregiver–child socioemotional interactions and relationships. While the scale was developed and studied in orphanages for young children, it potentially could be used in nonresidential early care and education settings as well as for parent–child interactions in the home. The intent was to assess a few dimensions that comprehensively cover the range of caregiver–child socioemotional interactions and relationships, by means of a scale that could be administered in a relatively short time period in a variety of situations and would not require extensive coder training, manuals, or materials. Results showed that the scale can be reliably administered even using observation periods as short as 5 min, that inter‐rater reliability was acceptable (based on data from two raters working in two orphanages, and five raters working in another), and that ratings of caregivers were similar across different types of caregiving activities (i.e., feeding, dressing/bathing, free play) and for caregivers attending to children birth to 4 and 4 to 8 years of age. In the orphanage context, factor analyses showed that the scale primarily reflects caregiver–child mutual engagement and relationship with subordinate components of caregiver punitiveness and caregiver‐ versus child‐directed behaviors and intrusiveness.     

WHITEHEAD,CHANCE, AND THE IMMANENTLY CREATIVE SPIRIT

In this essay, it is argued that God through the Spirit is both the immanent and eminent principle of creativity, ever wooing and empowering the advancements in complexity within biological evolution. I argue herein also that God, particularly in and through the activity of the Spirit of creativity, was fully present in and with and under what is oft called “creation,” from the very beginning of created time—and will be to the end of time, proleptically present as the expression of the principle of creativity. I maintain that the Spirit, by her kenosis into the natural world, imbibed the nature with an evolving fertility that has continually manifested itself in and through the increases of complexity in the natural environ. This primal imbibing of herself into the world of nature caused the world to become marked by what principally amounts to an activation of the naturally occurring, inherent potentialities within nature, thereby producing a distinctive self‐creativity within the world. Somewhat akin to Peirce, who said that we need a “thorough‐going evolutionism or none,” I contend that we need a thoroughly immanent God or none, all the while noting that both immanent creativity and self‐creativity are marks of this overall poietic process known as biotic evolution.     

Early predictors of later IQ: The search continues

Studies by Lewis and Brooks-Gunn and by Fagan and McGrath (this issue) reporting predictions from assessments of infant recognition memory to later developmental performance and IQ are critiqued. While certain inelegancies in design, procedure, and analyses are noted, a conclusion of cautious optimism on the potential of this approach is reached, but the utility of this strategy for practical or clinical purposes is still not demonstrated.     

Early Caregiver–Child Interaction and Children’s Development: Lessons from the St. Petersburg-USA Orphanage Intervention Research Project

Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review - We review a series of interrelated studies on the development of children residing in institutions (i.e., orphanages) in the Russian Federation or...