Social–Emotional Factors and Academic Outcomes Among Elementary‐Aged Children

Social–emotional comprehension involves encoding, interpreting, and reasoning about social–emotional information, and self‐regulating. This study examined the mediating pathways through which social–emotional comprehension and social behaviour are related to academic outcomes in two ethnically and socioeconomically heterogeneous samples totaling 340 elementary‐aged children. In both samples, social–emotional comprehension, teacher report of social behaviour, and academic outcomes were measured in a single school year. In both samples, structural equation models showed that the relationship between social–emotional comprehension and reading was mediated by socially skilled behaviour. In one sample, but not the other, the relationship between social–emotional comprehension and math was mediated by socially skilled behaviour. This paper advances our understanding of the mechanisms through which social–emotional factors are associated with academic outcomes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Feedback Informed Treatment: Evidence‐Based Practice Meets Social Construction

This article explores the challenges presented by the mandate for evidence‐based practice for family therapists who identify with the philosophical stance of social construction. The history of psychotherapy outcome research is reviewed, as are current findings that provide empirical evidence for an engaged, dialogic practice. The authors suggest that the binary between empiricism and social construction may be unhinged by understanding empiricism as a particular discursive frame (i.e., a particular way of talking, acting, and being in the world), one of many available as a way of understanding and talking about our work. Through a case vignette, the authors introduce the evidence‐based practice of Feedback Informed Treatment as an elaboration of social construction, and as an example of bridging the gap between the discursive frames of empiricism and social construction.     

Replication and Extension of a Hierarchical Model of Social Anxiety and Depression: Fear of Positive Evaluation as a Key Unique Factor in Social Anxiety

Wang, Hsu, Chiu, and Liang (2012, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26, 215–224) recently proposed a hierarchical model of social interaction anxiety and depression to account for both the commonalities and distinctions between these conditions. In the present paper, this model was extended to more broadly encompass the symptoms of social anxiety disorder, and replicated in a large unselected, undergraduate sample (n = 585). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression analyses were employed. Negative affect and positive affect were conceptualized as general factors shared by social anxiety and depression; fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and disqualification of positive social outcomes were operationalized as specific factors, and fear of positive evaluation (FPE) was operationalized as a factor unique to social anxiety. This extended hierarchical model explicates structural relationships among these factors, in which the higher-level, general factors (i.e., high negative affect and low positive affect) represent vulnerability markers of both social anxiety and depression, and the lower-level factors (i.e., FNE, disqualification of positive social outcomes, and FPE) are the dimensions of specific cognitive features. Results from SEM and hierarchical regression analyses converged in support of the extended model. FPE is further supported as a key symptom that differentiates social anxiety from depression.     

儿童入学准备状态的理论模型与干预途径

入学准备状态是指学龄前儿童为了能够从即将开始的正规学校教育中受益所需要具备的各种关键特征或基础条件。本文从三个方面介绍了国外关于儿童入学准备状态研究的新进展：（1）儿童学校适应结果的早期预测因素和儿童入学准备状态的生态学模型;（2）入学准备状态评定工具的发展状况和效度评价; （3）国外针对入学准备状态不足儿童采用的干预措施及其效果评价。最后,对当前研究的不足和未来发展方向进行了讨论,并结合文化差异对开展中国儿童入学准备状态研究提出了建议。     

主管承诺理论研究述评

主管承诺（supervisory commitment or commitment to supervisor）是20世纪80年代以来在组织承诺（organizational commitment or commitment to organization）基础上发展起来的员工承诺理论的一个分支。对它的测量,学者们主要是借鉴Allen和Meyer与O’Reilly和Chatman对组织承诺的测量方法,目前属香港学者陈振雄的测量最为细致和全面。对影响主管承诺的前因,学者们目前探索到文化、感受主管支持（PSS）和领导—成员交换（LMX）三个因素。对主管承诺的结果,学者们普遍认为,主管承诺比组织承诺更能影响员工的工作绩效和组织公民行为（OCB）,但在对工作满意感和跳槽意图的影响上还存在不同的意见。另外,在目前大多数学者的研究中,主管承诺与组织承诺是并列关系,但Hunt和Morgan更主张二者是因果关系,而且是主管承诺带来组织承诺。在全面述评的基础上,作者对未来的研究提出了四点展望。     

A New Multilevel CART Algorithm for Multilevel Data with Binary Outcomes

The multilevel logistic regression model (M-logit) is the standard model for modeling multilevel data with binary outcomes. However, many assumptions and restrictions should be considered when applying this model for unbiased estimation. To overcome these limitations, we proposed a multilevel CART (M-CART) algorithm which combines the M-logit and single level CART (S-CART) within the framework of the expectation-maximization. Simulation results showed that the proposed M-CART provided substantial improvements on classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specific over the M-logit, S-CART, and single level logistic regression model when modeling multilevel data with binary outcomes. This benefit of using M-CART was consistently found across different conditions of sample size, intra-class correlation, and when relationships between predictors and outcomes were nonlinear and nonadditive.     

Perinatal maternal mental health and infant socio-emotional development: A growth curve analysis using the MPEWS cohort

Pregnancy and the early post partum period are widely understood as a critical period for the infant’s emotional development and the earliest influence shaping social interaction. The present study aims to understand the potential influence of both antenatal and postnatal maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms on socio-emotional outcomes in offspring aged 12 months. The study used longitudinal data from a prospective cohort study on Australian pregnant women and their children. Data were available for 282 mothers and their children. Maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms were measured in early pregnancy, trimester three of pregnancy, six and 12 months postpartum. Social and emotional development in children was measured using the Brief Infant and Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) at 12 months. Using growth curve analysis of 4 waves of repeated measurement to examine intercept and slope, we found that both initial maternal depression and anxiety symptom levels, and the growth of these symptoms over time, predicted more problems with children’s social and emotional development. In the final model anxiety accounted for 19% of the variance in child socio-emotional problems and depression 23% of variance. The results emphasise the importance of perinatal maternal mental health as a potential risk factor for child development. This carries important implications for policy development, such as the need to build early identification and early intervention models in to the current clinical practice for perinatal care, specifically, to develop targeted screening, assessment and interventions to address maternal mental health issues for at-risk parents during pregnancy, and continuing monitoring of young children whose mothers have experienced perinatal mental health difficulties.     

Conversation with 2016 American Academy of Religion Excellence in Teaching Award Winner Joanne Maguire Robinson

This conversation between the editors of Teaching Theology and Religion and Joanne Maguire Robinson continues an occasional series of interviews that has previously featured Jonathan Z. Smith, Stephen Prothero, Mary Pierce Brosmer, and Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore. The exchange takes as its point of departure the teaching statement that Professor Robinson produced in support of her candidacy for the American Academy of Religion's Excellence in Teaching Award. Issues addressed include the impact of institutional context on one's teaching, teaching the humanities in universities that are ever more focused on job training, making the transition from a graduate program focused on research to teaching undergraduates who are unlikely to take even a second course in the study of religion, and ways in which women are challenged to navigate multiple responsibilities while striving to make their way in a male‐dominated academy.