Trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress symptoms among Syrian refugee youth in Jordan: Social support and gender as moderators

This study assessed relations between exposure to trauma and post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms, and whether perceived social support from family and friends and gender moderated these associations. Syrian refugee youth (N = 418, 55.0% female) attending public schools in Jordan participated. Boys reported more age-adjusted PTS symptoms than girls. Analyses revealed that family support and gender moderated the association of trauma on PTS symptoms. For males, the benefits of family support were most evident under conditions of high traumatic stress exposure, while for females, benefits of family support were evident when no loss or injury to family members had been reported. Support from friends was not helpful for either gender. School- or family-based interventions designed to treat PTS symptoms need to consider the different needs of boys and girls, particularly within the Syrian Muslim cultural context.     

Parent-Implemented Early Social Communication Intervention for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Journal of Behavioral Education - Numerous developmental difficulties differentiate children with autism from typically developing children, including delays in social communication skills. In this...     

Maternal involvement and children’s academic motivation and achievement: The roles of maternal autonomy support and children’s affect

Motivation and Emotion - Parents’ level of involvement in children’s schooling is related to children’s academic success; yet, few studies have considered factors that may play a...     

The topography of aggressive behavior of an attacking rat is determined by the behavior of the victim

Untreated rats were observed to either bite or box with Pentobarbital-treated opponents in a shockelicited aggression situation. Specific behaviors such as ataxia movements and submissive postures immediately preceded biting attacks, but rarely boxing whereas behaviors such as moving around the chamber and upright threat postures immediately preceded boxing attacks, but rarely biting. These data suggest that the topography of aggressive behavior of an attacking rat is determined by the behavior of the victim.     

Moral “I”: The Feminist Subject and the Grammar of Self-Reference

Much recent feminist theory tacitly subscribes to some version of what cognitive and evolutionary scientists are successfully undermining as untenably Cartesian, namely, the view that moral agency is achieved through the transcendence of physical causality guaranteed by self-consciousness. Appealing to Wittgenstein's insights concerning self-reference, I argue that abandoning Cartesian dualism implies abandoning neither subject nor moral agency but rather opens up nonandrocentric possibilities unavailable to the traditional model of mind.     

Self-appraised social problem solving abilities, emotional reactions and actual problem solving performance

Self-report measures of social problem solving abilities have yet to be associated with objective problem solving performance in any consistent manner. In the present study, we investigated the relation of social problem solving abilities--as measured by the Social Problem Solving Skills Inventory--Revised (SPSI-R [Maydeu-Olivares, A. & D'Zurilla, T. J. (1996). A factor analytic study of the Social Problem Solving Inventory: an integration of theory and data. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 115-133])--to performance on a structured problem solving task. Unlike previous studies, we examined the relation of problem solving skills to performance curves observed in repeated trials, while controlling for affective reactions to each trial. Using hierarchical modeling techniques, a negative problem orientation was significantly predictive of performance and this effect was not mediated by negative affectivity. Results are discussed as they pertain to contemporary models of social problem solving.     

The Politics of Teaching of Indigenous Traditions in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Reflecting on two study abroad trips to New Zealand in 2005 and 2007, I suggest in this essay that it is possible to mitigate the risk of (American or European) students recapitulating imperial attitudes through development of a rigorous curriculum focusing on the legacies of colonialism, institutional racism, and the somewhat dubious phenomenon of “post‐colonialism.” Readings, I argue, should be in continual play during cultural and social activities, operating in a dialectal move toward an “ethics of respect.” Such an ethics remains aporetic, or uncertain, insofar as no code of behavior can render us immune to the political and polemical effects of past and present forms of imperialism. However, a cultivated respect for distance and difference, including regarding questions of “authenticity,” can help to actualize the transformative promise of studying (indigenous) religion abroad. This essay is published alongside of six other essays, including a response from John Barbour, comprising a special section of the journal (see Teaching Theology and Religion 18:1, January 2015).     

Using Coaching to Support Teacher Implementation of Classroom-based Interventions

Despite the growing evidence base for the efficacy of preventive interventions, the level of implementation of these interventions in schools is often less than optimal. One promising approach to supporting teachers in implementation of interventions is the use of coaching. In this study, teachers were trained in a universal classroom management intervention and provided ongoing coaching. The association between the type and amount of coaching activities and teacher implementation of proactive classroom management over time were investigated. Results indicated that teachers who received more performance feedback had higher levels of implementation over time in comparison with teachers who received less feedback. In addition, a significant interaction between the amount of coaching a teacher received and his or her implementation of proactive classroom management was found. Increased implementation over time was observed for teachers with lower initial levels of implementation who received more coaching, whereas implementation decreased over time for teachers who received less coaching. The importance of coaching as a support system for enhancing implementation quality of classroom-based preventive interventions is discussed.