CHILDREN'S NEGOTIATION OF MEANING*

Focusing on the interaction of children with other children in day care centers, this paper examines the various ways in which children take the role of the other toward oneself. Using a sample of sixty-two children aged two to four, data was provided from a field work study involving intensive participant observation. Within a Meadian perspective, a model of negotiating meaning emerged with four characteristic stances of children's involvement in the process of taking children into account. Each stance is outlined using field work examples. The overall result is the provision of a continuum of interaction which documents the basic ways in which individuals move from the realm of private understandings to public or shared objects of attention.     

An Integrative Examination of Peer Conflict: Children's Reported Goals, Emotions, and Behaviors

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the interrelations among children's typical emotions, goals, and behavior during peer conflict and to examine emotions and goals as joint predictors of behavior. Children (7 to 11 years old) described recent conflicts with peers and were questioned about their emotions, goals, and behaviors. The friendliness of children's reported goals during conflict was associated with low anger intensity and with high intensity of sadness. Children who tended to report nonconstructive behavior also tended to report relatively intense anger and relatively unfriendly goals. Furthermore, in regression analyses, the friendliness of goals uniquely predicted the constructiveness of children's behavior after controlling for the effects of anger intensity, age, gender, provoking event, and friendship with the peer. Although boys and girls reported similar levels of anger and sadness, girls reported friendlier goals and more constructive behavior than did boys. The use of self‐reports of actual events to examine peer conflict during middle childhood is also discussed.     

A Model for Optimization of Biomarker Testing Frequency to Minimize Disease and Cost: Example of Beryllium Sensitization Testing

A common problem with medical surveillance programs using biomarkers is determining the optimal frequency of testing to minimize adverse health effects and cost. In the case of beryllium-exposed workers, frequency of testing for beryllium sensitization may be especially important. Recent studies indicate a lack of dose response for beryllium sensitization, but do support a dose response for the development of chronic beryllium disease (CBD). Though unproven, this implies that early identification of sensitization and immediate removal from exposure may reduce development of CBD. A model is proposed to project the optimal frequency of sensitization testing using the current beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT) to minimize disease-related costs, assuming that a positive BeLPT will precede CBD. Conversion rates for cumulative exposure to disease development were adapted from the literature and used with testing costs and cost of disease estimates in the model. The model was run assuming several test frequency regimes. Results support the use of periodic testing in line with the annual schedule proposed in the Final Chronic Beryllium Disease Prevention Program Rule (1999) following initial testing within three months of first beryllium exposure. The financial and health benefits of reducing the time from exposure to detection of early disease was also explored with the model and demonstrated as a highly desirable characteristic for an alternative test or improved BeLPT. Limitations of the approach are discussed as well as options for adapting this biomarker optimization methodology to consider biomarkers of other exposure-associated diseases.     

The Supervision of Two Isolated Practitioners: It's supervision,Jim, but not as you know it

A supervisory format used over a four year period for two isolated family therapists is discussed. After an initial face to face meeting, in-person supervision took place quarterly. Between these meetings, supervision was by a combination of audiotapes and letters. Supervisees recorded their questions, comments and news on cassette tapes, often sending as well the tape of a client session, and the supervisor responded by letter. The particular difficulties and advantages of this format are discussed, and some attention is given to the special needs of isolated practitioners.     

Comparison of microcomputer programs for making population projections: An update

There are many programs for making population projections now available for use with microcomputers. This article reviews six of approximately 15 microcomputer population projection programs. Each program is compared to a standard set of criteria relating to such items as hardware and software requirements, input data requirements and specification of assumptions, methodology and documentation, and summary output indicators. Numerical results from projections of six test data sets reflecting different assumptions about mortality, fertility, and migration are compared. Qualitative comments are included for describing special features and for making an overall assessment of each program.     

Effects of prenatal care on maternal postpartum behaviors

Most research on the effectiveness of prenatal care has focused on birth outcomes and has found small or no effects. It is possible, however, that prenatal care is “too little too late” to improve pregnancy outcomes in the aggregate, but that it increases the use of pediatric health care or improves maternal health-related parenting practices and, ultimately, child health. We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing birth cohort study that have been augmented with hospital medical record data to estimate effects of prenatal care timing on pediatric health care utilization and health-related parenting behaviors during the first year of the child’s life. We focus on maternal postpartum smoking, preventive health care visits for the child, and breastfeeding. We use a multi-pronged approach to address the potential endogeneity of the timing of prenatal care. We find that first trimester prenatal care appears to decrease maternal postpartum smoking by about 5 percentage points and increase the likelihood of 4 or more well-baby visits by about 1 percentage point, and that it may also have a positive effect on breastfeeding. These findings suggest that there are benefits to standard prenatal care that are generally not considered in evaluations of prenatal care programs and interventions.