Improving Prediction of Significant Career‐Related Constructs for High School Students With Learning Disabilities

Preparing students with learning disabilities (LDs) to make the transition into the world of work is considered an essential preparation that high schools can provide. However, existing services are limited for career development preparation, and available programs rely on assessments normed for samples of students without LDs. This study examined the predictability of critical career‐related constructs of dysfunctional career thoughts, career maturity, and vocational identity in high school students with LDs, using a sample of 139 such students. Data analyses were performed using multiple regression and t tests. Results indicate that it is possible to predict important career constructs for students with LDs using standardized instruments, which can inform subsequent interventions.     

Factors affecting completion of a matched savings program: Impacts of time preference,discount rate,and financial hardship

There is a general consensus among researchers and policymakers that matched savings programs can significantly increase the propensity to save among low-income households. This study offers a unique contribution to the field by testing whether principals and theories from behavioral economics affect the decisions that participants make in these savings programs. Using a sample of people participating in the $aveNYC program, a matched savings program for very low-income households, we test whether information failure, time preference, and financial hardship affected people's ability to complete the program and receive the match money. We find that future orientation does not significantly impact program completion, but both information failure and financial hardship increase the hazard of early account closure. Although the pool of participants who did not receive the match was small, both information failure and financial hardship had large impacts on the risk of withdrawing the account before receiving a match. We discuss how these findings can inform program design and suggest future research.     

Dynamic Noun Generalization: Moment‐to‐Moment Interactions Shape Children's Naming Biases

Recent research on early word learning suggests that children's behavior when‐generalizing novel nouns integrates their prior vocabulary knowledge with the specifics of the task. This study examines how these factors interact on the moment‐to‐moment time scale of the training children receive and the sequence of stimuli they are shown. In ***1 condition, we used a combination of training and stimulus factors predicted to produce a bias to generalize nouns by shape similarity. We then reduced this shape bias and amplified a bias to generalize nouns by material similarity via manipulations of training and stimuli across 3 other conditions. Additional analyses suggest that children's generalizations on individual trials are influenced by what they have seen and done on previous trials. These results highlight the importance of the task and stimuli in bringing children's prior knowledge to bear in early word learning.     

Maternal Sensitivity and the Learning‐Promoting Effects of Depressed and Nondepressed Mothers' Infant‐Directed Speech

The hypothesis that aspects of current mother‐infant interactions predict an infant's response to maternal infant‐directed speech (IDS) was tested. Relative to infants of nondepressed mothers, those of depressed mothers acquired weaker voice‐face associations in response to their own mothers' IDS in a conditioned‐attention paradigm, although this was partially attributable to demographic differences between the 2 groups. The extent of fundamental frequency modulation (ΔF₀) in maternal IDS was smaller for infants of depressed than nondepressed mothers, but did not predict infant learning. However, Emotional Availability Scale ratings of maternal sensitivity, coded from videotapes of mothers and infants engaged in a brief play interaction, were significant predictors of infant learning, even after maternal depression, its demographic correlates, and antidepressant medication use had been taken into account. These findings are consistent with a role for experience‐dependent processes in determining the effects of IDS on infant learning.     

Keeping the family balance – adult daughters’ experiences of roles and strategies when supporting caring fathers

The Scandinavian countries represent a progressive approach to gender equality and transitions of traditional gender roles but little attention has been paid to gender equality in old age and how normative constructions of gender intersect in the lives of family carers. The aim of this study was to understand how adult daughters experience their roles and strategies when supporting fathers caring for an ill mother. A sample of eight daughters shared their experiences through in-depth interviews. The findings show that the daughters provide substantial and crucial effort and are intimately involved in the caring for their father and the sole contributors towards the emotional support of their fathers. They tend to devote a lot of energy towards picturing their family as ‘normal’ in terms of the family members adopting traditional roles and activities inside as well as outside the family context. In conclusion, the lack of understanding about gender as a ‘norm producer’ is something that needs to be further elaborated upon in order for professionals to encounter norm-breaking behaviours. The daughters’ position as family carers is often assumed and taken for granted since the intersecting structures that impact on the situations of the daughters are largely invisible.     

Using innovation to address HIV, AIDS, and environment links: intervention case studies from Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Malawi

This article presents three cross-cutting intervention case studies that address HIV, AIDS, and natural resources management in an integrated manner through innovative programming in Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Malawi. In Zimbabwe, a religious-based non-governmental group and two community organizations work together to build skills of HIV- and AIDS-vulnerable children in rural areas to meet dietary and income needs, while using natural resources sustainably. In Uganda, various government agencies and NGO actors work together to improve the food security of HIV-affected households at the national, district, sub-district, and village levels. Finally, in Malawi, a conservation organization incorporates HIV and AIDS awareness and programming into its operations and projects. Each case study presents pioneering approaches to simultaneously addressing the pressures on conservation initiatives, food security/agricultural production, income generation/livelihoods, and social and health care systems. They also provide lessons for expanding interventions and partnerships.     

Addressing the Needs of Adults and Children with Disabilities through Emergency Preparedness and Organizational Improvisation

The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe the experiences of fifteen organizational leaders and staff members who were responsible for caring for adults and children with disabilities during a 2014 winter storm. This study integrates the literature bases of emergency management and organizational improvisation. In response to this severe unexpected winter weather event, organizational leaders and staff members demonstrated creativity and flexibility in addressing the needs of clients, students, and patients, including adults and children with disabilities. The study concludes with reflections about emergency planning and organizational improvisation, practical implications, and a call to action to learn from these events and provide additional training and resources to individuals who may be in similar situations in the future.     

Latinos’ Changing Ethnic Group Representation From Elementary to Middle School: Perceived Belonging and Academic Achievement

This study examined the association between change in ethnic group representation from elementary to middle school and Latino students’ school belonging and achievement. The ethnic diversity of students’ middle school was examined as a moderator. Participants were 1,825 Latino sixth graders from 26 ethnically diverse urban middle schools. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a change in ethnic representation toward fewer Latinos in middle school than elementary school was related to less perceived belonging and lower achievement in schools with low ethnic diversity. There were no mean differences as a function of declining representation in more diverse middle schools, suggesting that greater school diversity was protective. Findings highlight the importance of examining school ethnic context, especially across the middle school transition.     

The Impact of Historical Trauma and Mistrust on the Recruitment of Resource Families of Color

ABSTRACT

The Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 and the Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996 (MEPA-IEP) require states to diligently recruit “potential foster and adoptive families that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the state for whom foster and adoptive homes are needed” (42 U.S.C. §622b(3)(9)). Nationally, 53% of the children in foster care and 55% of the children waiting to be adopted are children of color (Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, 2014). Recruitment of resource families of color has historically presented challenges. This article critically examines the diligent recruitment efforts of an urban county targeting Black/African American, Latino, and Native American communities through a critical race theory lens. Although there was an overall increase in resource families, the racial and ethnic representation of resource families to children in care within the county improved for Latinos yet declined for Black/African Americans and Native Americans. Theoretically, these results indicate that the historical mistrust of communities of color toward the child welfare system is a barrier to successful recruitment of resource families from these communities.     

Challenges Faced by Young Mothers with a Care History and Views of Stakeholders About the Potential for Group Family Nurse Partnership to Support Their Needs

Women with experience of being ‘looked after’ are more likely than their peers to become young mothers. There has been limited research investigating support for their needs. This study, embedded in a randomised trial of Group Family Nurse Partnership (gFNP), involved interviews with young mothers with care experience, Family Nurses delivering group gFNP, and health and social care professionals. This first qualitative study to explore the views of these varied stakeholders found consensus regarding young mothers’ social isolation and lack of trusting relationships but diversity in views about the potential of gFNP to meet their needs.