Emotional Regulation and Display in Classroom Victims of Bullying: Characteristic Expressions of Affect, Coping Styles and Relevant Contextual Factors

Research suggests that victims of bullying may lack skills in emotional regulation, a process which facilitates coping with provocative situations to lessen the stress of negative emotions (Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995). The present study examined the emotional regulation and display patterns of victims during classroom bullying episodes. Children in grades one through six were observed during free play in the winter and spring of three consecutive school years. Results of the study indicated that the coping styles observed in victims of bullying can be grouped into two distinct clusters: 1) problem-solving strategies that are associated with the de-escalation and resolution of bullying episodes; and 2) aggressive strategies that tend to perpetuate and escalate the bullying interaction. Parallels were found between victims' and bullies' emotional displays. Results are discussed in the context of how maladaptive emotional regulation processes may act as risk factors for chronic victimization.     

Dynamic Graphics for Exploring Spatial Data with Application to Locating Global and Local Anomalies

We explore the application of dynamic graphics to the exploratory analysis of spatial data. We introduce a number of new tools and illustrate their use with prototype software, developed at Trinity College, Dublin. These tools are used to examine local variability—anomalies—through plots of the data that display its marginal and multivariate distributions, through interactive smoothers, and through plots motivated by the spatial auto-covariance ideas implicit in the variogram. We regard these as alternative and linked views of the data. We conclude that the most important single view of the data is the Map View: All other views must be cross-referred to this, and the software must encourage this. The view can be enriched by overlaying on other pertinent spatial information. We draw attention to the possibilities of one-many linking, and to the use of line-objects to link pairs of data points. We draw attention to the parallels with work on Geographical Information Systems.     

Reduced-Variance Methods for Detectability Correction of Population Abundance

Detectability issues create uncertainty in field surveys of animal and plant populations. Detectability correction is one method employed to deal with this problem when there is reasonable certainty that detectability is roughly constant with time or in different areas. Two new reduced-variance estimators of detectability are introduced and evaluated for the case of using a detectability correction for new areas that are surveyed only once. The new estimates are unbiased or nearly unbiased and produce population estimates with smaller variance than the Lincoln–Petersen estimate.     

Distribution of the quotient of noncentral normal random variables

The Mellin convolution is used to derive in analytical form an exact 3-parameterprobabilitydensity function of the quotient of two noncentral normal random variables. In contrast with the 5-parameter probability density function previously derivedby Fieller (1932) and Hinkley (1969), this 3-parameter probability density function is feasible for computer evaluation of the mean and cumulative distribution function, which are needed, for example, when dealing with estimation and distribution problems in regression analysis and sampling theory. When the normal variables are independent, the probability density function reduces to a 2-parameter function, for which a computer program is operational. An illustrative example is given for one set of parameters when the normal variables are independent, in which themean and functional form of the probability density function are presented, together with a brief tabulation of the probability density function.     

Bad news indeed for Ryff’s six-factor model of well-being

Springer and Hauser (An Assessment of the Construct Validity of Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-Being: Method, Mode, and Measurement Effects. 2006. Social Science Research 35) tested one key aspect of the validity of Ryff’s six-factor model of psychological well-being (RPWB), namely, whether there is substantial independent variation among the six factors. In several large and heterogeneous samples, under a variety of model specifications, and using various sets of RPWB items, we found very high factor correlations among the dimensions of well-being, especially personal growth, purpose in life, self-acceptance, and environmental mastery. That is, the six-factor model makes theoretical claims that do not yield large or consistent empirical distinctions when standard measures and instrumentation are used. Where Ryff and Singer’s comment (Best News Yet on the Six-Factor Model of Well-Being. 2006. Social Science Research 35) refers directly to that analysis, their methodological discussion is most often irrelevant or incorrect. Their text largely ignores and fails to challenge our strong empirical findings about the factorial structure of well-being. In this response, we reinforce these findings and their implications for the (in)validity of the six-factor well-being model as implemented by Ryff. We also explain why Ryff and Singer’s lengthy review of studies that show differential relationships of RPWB factors with other variables should be interpreted with far greater caution than Ryff and Singer recognize. We offer recommendations for analyzing RPWB items in surveys that have already been conducted, but we also emphasize the need for a thorough rethinking of the measurement and dimensionality of psychological well-being.     

An Assessment of Change in Risk Perception and Optimistic Bias for Hurricanes Among Gulf Coast Residents

This study focuses on levels of concern for hurricanes among individuals living along the Gulf Coast during the quiescent two‐year period following the exceptionally destructive 2005 hurricane season. A small study of risk perception and optimistic bias was conducted immediately following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Two years later, a follow‐up was done in which respondents were recontacted. This provided an opportunity to examine changes, and potential causal ordering, in risk perception and optimistic bias. The analysis uses 201 panel respondents who were matched across the two mail surveys. Measures included hurricane risk perception, optimistic bias for hurricane evacuation, past hurricane experience, and a small set of demographic variables (age, sex, income, and education). Paired t‐tests were used to compare scores across time. Hurricane risk perception declined and optimistic bias increased. Cross‐lagged correlations were used to test the potential causal ordering between risk perception and optimistic bias, with a weak effect suggesting the former affects the latter. Additional cross‐lagged analysis using structural equation modeling was used to look more closely at the components of optimistic bias (risk to self vs. risk to others). A significant and stronger potentially causal effect from risk perception to optimistic bias was found. Analysis of the experience and demographic variables’ effects on risk perception and optimistic bias, and their change, provided mixed results. The lessening of risk perception and increase in optimistic bias over the period of quiescence suggest that risk communicators and emergency managers should direct attention toward reversing these trends to increase disaster preparedness.     

How Employed Mothers in Australia Find Time for Both Market Work and Childcare

Time use studies find that employed mothers reduce their parental childcare time by much less than an hour for every hour they spend in market work. This paper uses data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey 1997 (4,059 randomly selected households) to investigate how employed mothers manage to avoid a one-for-one trade-off between work and childcare. It compares the time allocation of employed fathers, employed mothers and non-employed mothers and finds that parents use non-parental childcare to reschedule as well as to replace their own childcare, that employed mothers reschedule activities from weekdays to weekends or to earlier or later in the day, and spend less time than other mothers in housework, childfree leisure and personal care.

Is the Education of Local Children Influenced by Living near a Refugee Camp? Evidence from Host Communities in Rwanda

This article studies the extent to which educational services and schooling outcomes of local children are influenced by the presence of a refugee camp in or near their community. Investigating Congolese refugees in Rwanda and relying on a mixed‐method approach, we examine schooling rates and access to school‐based feeding programmes in communities closer to and further away from three refugee camps. We conduct cohort analyses to compare the schooling outcomes of Rwandans residing at different distances from each of these camps. Our results highlight that children residing closer to the camps have better schooling outcomes and that locals residing closer to the camps have mostly positive views regarding the effects of refugees on local education. These results contribute to the literature on the effects of refugees on host communities and inform policy debates on how refugees need not be a “burden” if a long‐term vision shapes educational investments.     

Mainstream is not for all: the educational experiences of autistic young people

Abstract

This article highlights two current issues facing autistic young people in their pursuit of suitable education. First, mainstream education is advocated for all, from a rights-based perspective on inclusion, yet, as 12 autistic young people from Northern Ireland demonstrate, being academically able does not mean they are mainstream able. Second, autistic young people, who are largely missing from the debate on educational improvement, and in particular the inclusion debate, ought to be central to this discussion and have much to add. The social model of disability is considered relevant to autism. For the young people referred to in this article, inclusion is a feeling (a sense of belonging) not a place (mainstream or otherwise).