Developmental trajectories of childhood anxiety: Identifying continuity and change in anxious emotion

This paper outlines a way for thinking about continuity and change in childhood anxiety symptoms. Considerations for a model of continuity and change in anxious emotion are discussed first. Then, a perspective which may resolve inconsistencies across studies on the stability of childhood anxiety problems overtime is presented. The perspective views dysregulation of the anxiety response system and distress/negative affect as the core primary and necessary features of maladaptive anxious emotion and views the disorder-specific symptoms (generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, separation anxiety, panic disorder, and simple phobia) as secondary characteristics of maladaptive anxious emotion. The perspective emphasizes ordered complexity in the developmental expression of anxious emotion, and delineates expectations for continuity and change in the features of anxious emotion by describing major normative trajectories across childhood and positing multiple sub-trajectories.     

从家长的角度探讨有关低出生体重儿的生命伦理学问题

为了了解家长关于低出生体重儿医疗救治权的观点,为医疗决策提供伦理学依据,按1：1匹配各选择124例单胎低出生体重儿及正常儿建立队列,调查两组家长对低出生体重儿医疗救治观点的认识。结果显示,两组家长大多认同低出生体重儿应积极救治且医疗救治权应当由医生和家长共同决定。因此,应加强围产期保健教育,积极预防低体重儿出生。     

Japanese parents' estimates of their own and their children's multiple intelligences: Cultural modesty and moderate differentiation

Abstract:  A total of 198 Japanese parents completed a questionnaire concerning their own and their children's estimated overall general (g), and multiple intelligences. Japanese parents' self-estimates were somewhat lower than those found in the Western populations but males (fathers) rated their own overall "g" score and seven Gardner multiple intelligences, significantly higher than did females (mothers). There were few sex differences, however, when parents rated sons or daughters. Parents' own IQ estimate was the best predictor of the first (eldest) child's estimated IQ. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictors of self-estimated overall "g" intelligence were self-estimated verbal and numeric intelligences. Children's age and sex, and parents' age and sex, were all non-significant predictors of the overall "g" score estimates of the first two children. There were no sex differences in experience of, or attitudes towards, intelligence testing. A number of cultural differences were found compared with other studies in Western cultures.     

青少年及其家长应付方式、心理健康状况的相关研究

研究者通过对800名12——16岁中学生及其家长的测试,比较了青少年及其家长应付方式、心理健康状况的异同和相关,结果表明：1、中学生的积极、成熟应付方式和心理健康状况低于成年人;2、青少年的应付方式与其家长的应付方式呈现出同质化的特点,观察、模仿家长是形成青少年应付方式的重要途径;3、“合理化”应属于不成熟的应付方式。     

The Effectiveness of Audiovisual Self-Instructional Materials in Teaching Child-Care Skills to Parents with Intellectual Disabilities

Children of parents with intellectual disabilities are at risk for neglectful care due to parenting skill deficiencies. Previous studies have shown that parents with intellectual disabilities can improve child-care skills with intensive behavioral training, but self-instruction has not been explored. We evaluated the efficacy of self-instructional pictorial child-care manuals with and without accompanying audiotaped instruction using a multielement design with 13 parents with intellectual disabilities. The self-instructional materials were effective in teaching 22 of 26 skills to levels seen in parents without intellectual disabilities. Eighty-one percent of the skills maintained over a 1-15 month follow-up period and self-learning effects were replicated when the parents received self-instructional materials for the original no-training control skill. Despite the low literacy skills of the parents, for most of them no advantage was found in adding the audiotape to the illustrations. Three parents only reached criterion after an audiotape was added to the manual alone skill. Consumer satisfaction ratings were uniformly high and those parents who stated a preference, preferred the pictorial manuals without, as opposed to with, the audiotape. These findings suggest that a majority of parents with intellectual disabilities may improve their parenting skills with low cost, low tech, self-instructional materials.     

Teaching practices to save America's schools: The legacy of B. F. Skinner

The research and practices found in behavior analysis and the behavioral models of instruction suggest a common set of effective teaching practices. Implementation of these practices could save our schools. They have implications for the students, parents, teachers, and supervisors in our schools. They are presented herein as standards for effective pedagogy and schooling from the viewpoints of students, parents, teachers, and supervisors. Indeed, they may be the necessary ingredients for adequate schooling. All of these practices are feasible now, and all of the parties involved in schooling stand to benefit from their implementation!     

AN ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE MISPLACED PARENTAL SOCIAL CONTINGENCIES1

This study analyzed the training of a mother to modify five subclasses of her attention to her young child's noncompliance with instructions, and also displayed the changes in her child's behavior correlated with these events. Training in four subclasses consisted of teaching the mother to withhold various forms of social attention to her daughter's undesired behavior; training in the fifth subclass involved introduction of a brief room-timeout procedure for noncompliance. The effectiveness of the parent-training procedure, consisting of initial instructions and daily feedback, was demonstrated through a multiple-baseline design across the five subclasses of parent behavior. Sequential decreases in the first three subclasses of the mother's social attention to undesired child behavior resulted in incomplete improvements in some child responses; however, a decrease in the fourth subclass resulted in a significant increase in undesired child behavior. Complete remediation of all child behaviors was achieved following the training of a timeout procedure for noncompliance. Postchecks conducted up to 16 weeks later showed that these effects were durable.     

Service Needs of Foster Families with Children who have Disabilities

We examined the service needs of foster families with children who have disabilities. Foster parents in a large Canadian city were asked “What services or supports would be helpful to you?” The responses to this question were edited for clarity and to eliminate redundancies, and sorted into piles of like statements by a group of 15 foster care professionals. Two types of statistical analysis were applied to the sorting of the statements to describe the relationship between statements and their groupings. The major concepts were identified according to the contents of the cluster and a map was constructed to provide a graphic representation of the conceptualization process. The major services and supports identified in this study were: support in the community, financial support, accommodating school system, good relationships with social workers, responsive professionals, information, comprehensive medical care, services for aboriginal children and families, transitional services, and respite.