Neighborhood characteristics, parental practices and children’s math achievement in elementary school

This paper investigates the relationships among neighborhood characteristics, education-related parental practices, and children’s academic achievement during a critical but under-studied stage of children’s educational trajectories - the elementary school years. Using a large, nationally representative database of American elementary school students - the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) - and contextual data from the 2000 US Census, we examine parental practices and neighborhood characteristics at the beginning of children’s school careers (grades K-1) and their associations with math achievement through the end of the 5th grade. Findings: Net of family-level characteristics, higher levels of early education-oriented parental practices were associated with higher mathematics achievement at the end of 5th grade, while neighborhood disadvantage was associated with lower 5th grade math achievement. Families residing in high poverty, high unemployment, low-education neighborhoods employed fewer education-oriented practices with their kindergarten-first grade children, but the positive effect of such parental practices on children’s mathematics achievement was stronger for children who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods.     

Parental Status and Biological Functioning: Findings from the Nashville Stress and Health Study

Population Research and Policy Review - Does childrearing affect the biological functioning of parents? To address this question, we analyze cross-sectional survey and biomarker data from...     

All Smiles are Not Created Equal: Morphology and Timing of Smiles Perceived as Amused, Polite, and Embarrassed/Nervous

We investigated the correspondence between perceived meanings of smiles and their morphological and dynamic characteristics. Morphological characteristics included co-activation of Orbicularis oculi (AU 6), smile controls, mouth opening, amplitude, and asymmetry of amplitude. Dynamic characteristics included duration, onset and offset velocity, asymmetry of velocity, and head movements. Smile characteristics were measured using the Facial Action Coding System (Ekman et al. 2002) and Automated Facial Image Analysis (Cohn and Kanade 2007). Observers judged 122 smiles as amused, embarrassed, nervous, polite, or other. Fifty-three smiles met criteria for classification as perceived amused, embarrassed/nervous, or polite. In comparison with perceived polite, perceived amused more often included AU 6, open mouth, smile controls, larger amplitude, larger maximum onset and offset velocity, and longer duration. In comparison with perceived embarrassed/nervous, perceived amused more often included AU 6, lower maximum offset velocity, and smaller forward head pitch. In comparison with perceived polite, perceived embarrassed/nervous more often included mouth opening and smile controls, larger amplitude, and greater forward head pitch. Occurrence of the AU 6 in perceived embarrassed/nervous and polite smiles questions the assumption that AU 6 with a smile is sufficient to communicate felt enjoyment. By comparing three perceptually distinct types of smiles, we found that perceived smile meanings were related to specific variation in smile morphological and dynamic characteristics.

Function-Altering Effects of Rule Phrasing in the Modulation of Instructional Control

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - This study evaluated the effects of four instructional variants on instruction following under changing reinforcement schedules using an operant task based on...     

The rural arena: The diversity of protest in rural England

In the past 15–20 years, the rural areas of England have been used by a wide diversity of groups as the stage for their protest activities. Some have argued that this is due the rise of a rural social movement; this paper contends that rural areas have become both available and advantageous as the locale of protest through a range of interlocking factors. Firstly, that the rise of the network society has repositioned the societal importance of rural areas. Secondly, that the governance of rural areas has changed, allowing the social stake of rurality to be more widely contested. Thirdly, that opportunities to protest have shifted in favour of rural spaces, in terms of technology and policing. Through a discussion of recent changes in rural England and three case studies, The Land is Ours, Farmers for Action and the Organic Food and Farming Movement, this paper examines these changes and what they mean for the future of rural England.     

Appreciating Impact: Evaluating Small Voluntary Organizations in the United Kingdom

Within the mixed economy of care in the United Kingdom there are debates about the ways in which impact can be evaluated, in order to shape funding and policy decisions. One of the tensions evident in this debate is whether the evaluation approach should reflect the perspectives and goals of the voluntary organizations and their members, or whether evaluation should reflect the wider goals of the whole system of provision. The former runs the risk of being insular and self-congratulatory, while the latter may be inappropriate and dismissive of achievements. This paper explores this tension by reporting on a study that used Appreciative Inquiry to evaluate 10 small-scale not-for-profit schemes for older people. The data indicated some unexpected and long-term impacts that demonstrated the distinctiveness of the sector. Subsequently the findings were mapped on to the “impact grid” developed by Wilding and Lacey (2003). While this was straightforward at the levels of individuals and interorganizationally, it was more difficult at the sector/community level, suggesting that more work needs to be done to bring these two perspectives together.     

Labor Market Search and Optimal Retirement Policy

A popular and long‐standing view is that social security is a means for young, unemployed people to “purchase” jobs from older workers. Can social security, by encouraging retirement and hence creating job vacancies for the young, improve the allocation of workers to jobs? Maybe, according to a standard model of labor market search, but public retirement programs currently pay the elderly substantially more than their jobs are worth. An important effect is that retirement reduces the value of other vacant jobs. Our results imply that recent reforms aimed at reducing retirement incentives are likely to improve labor market efficiency.     

Relationship among grip strength,functional outcomes,and work performance following hand trauma

This study examined the relationship among the recovery grip strength, functional outcomes, and work performance following occupational therapy intervention for hand trauma. This study had a sample size of 15 participants whose recovery grip strength was measured using a Jamar dynamometer, whose satisfaction with outcomes was measured by the Michigan Hand Outcomes Questionnaire (MHQ), and whose compliance with the home therapy program was measured by a visual analog scale (VAS). A Pearson r correlation demonstrated a significant relationship between recovery grip strength and two MHQ subset scores: overall hand function (r = 0.59, p = 0.019) and activities of daily living (ADL) performance (r = 0.61, p = 0.016). The participants' self-rating of compliance did not predict or influence either recovery grip strength or MHQ scores. A moderate positive correlation approaching significance (r = 0.51, p = 0.052) was found between grip strength and overall MHQ scores. The researchers concluded that a recovery grip strength measure should be used along with functional measures to appropriately assess overall hand function following hand trauma.     

A Cognitive Career Course: From Theory to Practice

A university career development course based on cognitive information‐processing theory was assessed. Students who took the course showed a significant decrease in their negative career thoughts when the Career Thoughts Inventory (J. P. Sampson, G. W. Peterson, J. G. Lenz, R. C. Reardon, & D. E. Saunders, 1996a) was used as a pretest and posttest measure. The greatest decrease in negative thinking was found in students with the highest level of negative thinking at the beginning of the course. The specific components of negative career thinking—decision‐making confusion and commitment anxiety—contributed significantly to the main effect. There were no significant interactions with ethnicity or sex.