Content creation in virtual worlds to support adolescent identity development

Virtual worlds are online graphical environments that are becoming an increasingly large part of the online experience of young people. Virtual worlds have the potential to become one additional environment, like school, home, and the playground, where youth can learn, play, and grow. The physical world is becoming interconnected with virtual worlds, and it is important for researchers to understand how this will affect children's development. Virtual worlds technologies provide a unique opportunity to allow youth to explore many types of content creation, including customizable avatars, media galleries, and virtual representations of personal spaces. This ability for youth to create content can be an important means by which to support and encourage adolescent identity development.     

Local influence for functional comparative calibration models with replicated data

We investigate local influence analysis in functional comparative calibration models with replicated data. A method for selecting appropriate perturbation schemes based on the expected Fisher information matrix with respect to the perturbation vector is proposed. It is shown that arbitrarily perturbing these models may result in misleading inference about the influential subjects. First-order influence measures for identifying the correct influential subjects and replicates on corrected score estimators are defined. We introduce different perturbation schemes including perturbation of subjects and replicates on the corrected likelihood function and obtain the density of the perturbed model from which the methodology is based. Particularly, three perturbation of variances schemes could be a better way to handle badly modeled subjects or replicates. Two real data sets are analyzed to illustrate the use of our local influence measures.     

Grandparenting in the 21st century: issues of diversity in grandparent-grandchild relationships

Although previous literature has demonstrated the importance of age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in understanding grandparent-grandchild relationships, additional factors contribute to a more complete and nuanced understanding of multigenerational relationships. Thorough understanding of the role of diversity requires examination of the discrete impacts of grandparents' gender, sexual orientation, and physical and/or cognitive limitations on the relationship. This article focuses on these 3 important, yet overlooked, issues of diversity, with a focus on strength-based and empowerment-oriented strategies and their implications for practice, policy, and future research.     

Performance of coefficient of variation estimators in ranked set sampling

In this paper, we propose and evaluate the performance of different parametric and nonparametric estimators for the population coefficient of variation considering Ranked Set Sampling (RSS) under normal distribution. The performance of the proposed estimators was assessed based on the bias and relative efficiency provided by a Monte Carlo simulation study. An application in anthropometric measurements data from a human population is also presented. The results showed that the proposed estimators via RSS present an expressively lower mean squared error when compared to the usual estimator, obtained via Simple Random Sampling. Also, it was verified the superiority of the maximum likelihood estimator, given the necessary assumptions of normality and perfect ranking are met.     

Reflective Practices for Engaging in Trauma-Informed Culturally Competent Supervision

ABSTRACT

Race, ethnicity, and culture are critical components that affect and shape the supervisory relationship, yet literature about ways to acknowledge and actively engage them from a trauma-informed approach has been limited. To enhance the discussion of this issue, this article first reviews leading theoretical aspects of supervision designed to train practitioners in the field of mental health, followed by a discussion of race, ethnicity, and culture in supervision and, finally, provides reflective practices for engaging in trauma-informed culturally competent supervision.     

A Support Group for Caregivers of Children with Craniofacial Differences

ABSTRACT

Caregivers of children with craniofacial differences (CFD) experience psychosocial stressors; however, few groups are described for this population. The authors outline an eight-session group and qualitative analysis of caregivers’ experiences. The majority of participants (n = 100) were mothers (76%) of children who were female (75%) and identified as Latino (79%). Children’s mean age was 10.6 (SD = 2.8) years, and they were born with cleft lip/palate (56%) along with other CFD diagnoses. Themes included: group appreciation (21%), mutual acceptance (18%), coping (18%), parenting skills (17%), learning (9%), resiliency (7%), empathy (4%), diagnosis information (3%), and self-care (3%). Caregivers’ reported experiences largely corresponded with group goals.     

Examining the Quality of Adolescent–Parent Relationships Among Chilean Families

The purpose of this study was to examine if adolescents’ reports of warm and harsh parenting practices by their mothers and fathers varied as a function of demographic, youth and their mothers or mother figures’ individual and family characteristics. Data are from 707 community-dwelling adolescents (mean age = 14, SD = 1.4) and their mothers or mother figures in Santiago, Chile. Having a warmer relationship with both parents was inversely associated with the adolescents’ age and positively associated with adolescents’ family involvement and parental monitoring. Both mothers’ and fathers’ harsh parenting were positively associated with adolescent externalizing behaviors and being male and inversely associated with youth autonomy and family involvement. These findings suggest that net of adolescent developmental emancipation and adolescent behavioral problems, positive relationships with parents, especially fathers, may be nurtured through parental monitoring and creation of an interactive family environment, and can help to foster positive developmental outcomes.     

Grandparenting across borders: American grandparents and their Israeli grandchildren in a transnational reality

Families are increasingly dispersed across national borders. Americans in Israel are one migrant group that represents the worldwide phenomenon of transnationalism. Grandparents separated geographically from their grandchildren develop new means of communication with them and new kinds of relationships. This study uses ethnographic interviews with the grandparents of transnational, American-Israeli children and youth to offer an in-depth examination of the experience of grandparenting across borders. We find that grandparenting children who are both geographically distant and raised in a foreign culture necessitates the development of new ways of maintaining relationships with grandchildren. This study considers the impact of transnational migration on the extended family, on those left behind, who struggle with redefining their roles as grandparents and with the sense of being deprived of the roles they had expected to play.