Parents and Educators: Dialogue and Development Through Partnership

SUMMARY. This paper describes an approach to working with parents which emphasises the parents' own learning process and which might be termed ‘developmental partnership’. By this is meant a relationship in which not only are the parents explicitly acknowledged as the primary educators of their own children but also that, through a process of mutual enquiry into the activities and development of these children, parents, educator and children learn and work together. A number of issues are raised about working in ‘developmental partnership’ with parents, including the role of the unconscious in relationships focused upon learning.     

Food for Thought: Malnutrition and Obesity

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003: Monitoring Progress towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Goals. By FAO Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime: Food Security and Globalization. By C. Ford Runge, Benjamin Senauer, Philip G. Pardey and Mark W. Rosegrant Combating Malnutrition: Time to Act. Edited by Stuart Gillespie, Milla McLachlan and Roger Shrimpton The Economist's Tale: A Consultant Encounters Hunger and the World Bank. By Peter Griffiths Disease‐Related Malnutrition: An Evidence‐based Approach to Treatment. By R. J. Stratton, C. J. Green and M. Elia Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All‐American Meal. By Eric Schlosser Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. By Marion Nestle Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America's Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do About It. By Kelly D. Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen     

Dimensions of Poverty: Status and Solutions Towards the Millennium Development Goals

Books reviewed: State of the World Population 2004: The Cairo Consensus at Ten ‐ Population, Reproductive Health and the Global Effort to End Poverty. By UNFPA. How Have the World's Poorest Fared Since the Early 1980s? By Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004: Monitoring Progress towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals. By FAO. Fifth Report on the World Nutrition Situation: Nutrition for Improved Development Outcomes. By SCN. IFPRI Annual Report 2003‐4. By IFPRI. Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done. By Task Force on Hunger. Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures. By Lester R. Brown. The State of the World's Children 2005: Childhood Under Threat. By UNICEF. Education for All: The Quality Imperative ‐ EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005. Commissioned by UNESCO. World Employment Report 2004‐05: Employment, Productivity and Poverty Reduction. By ILO. The Future of the WTO: Addressing Institutional Challenges in the New Millennium. By the Consultative Board. State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security. By the Worldwatch Institute. Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. By Jeffrey D. Sachs and the UN Millennium Project.     

Predictors of Longitudinal Growth in Inhibitory Control in Early Childhood

In the current study, we examined latent growth in 731 young children's inhibitory control from the ages of two to four years, and whether demographic characteristics or parenting behaviors were related to initial levels and growth in inhibitory control. As part of an ongoing longitudinal evaluation of the family check‐up, children's inhibitory control was assessed yearly at the ages of two to four years. Inhibitory control was initially low and increased linearly to the age of four years. High levels of harsh parenting and male gender were associated with low initial status in inhibitory control. High levels of parental positive behavior support were associated with faster growth. Extreme family poverty and African‐American ethnicity were also associated with slower growth. The results highlight parenting as a target for early interventions in contexts of high socioeconomic risk.     

Resources for Social Policy

The paper attempts the difficult task of identifying and exploring key resource factors which may influence social policy in the next millennium. It begins by critically examining the impact of demographic trends upon finance and demand for welfare in Europe. The possible impact of this is then examined in relation to the role of the family as a primary welfare resource and upon the supply of professional services. The implications of diminishing environmental resources are then examined and green social policy proposals are briefly outlined. However, the paper argues that the key resource is public goodwill and support for a range of social policy interventions. "The public" has been regarded as homogeneous in many surveys, but this paper argues that trends in middle-class welfare support and welfare activity pose concerns for the future of welfare provision.     

Interpersonal discounting

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - Many discounting choices affect both the decision maker and at least one other person. The interpersonal nature of these choices is not well explored because the...     

Indirect effects of the Family Check‐Up on youth extracurricular involvement at school‐age through improvements in maternal positive behavior support in early childhood

Extracurricular involvement in the school‐age years has widespread potential benefits for children's subsequent socioemotional development, especially for low‐income youth. However, there is a dearth of research on interventions aimed at increasing school‐age extracurricular involvement in low‐income youth. Thus, the present study aimed to test the collateral effect of a brief, family‐focused intervention for low‐income families, the Family Check‐Up, on children's school‐age extracurricular involvement via improvements in maternal positive behavior support (PBS) in early childhood. The sample (n = 630, 50% female, 50% White, 28% Black/African American) represented a subsample of families from the Early Steps Multisite Study. At the age of two, families were randomly assigned to the Family Check‐Up or Women, Infants, and Children Nutritional Supplement Services as usual. Mother‐child dyads participated in observed interaction tasks at child ages 2 and 3 that were subsequently coded to assess PBS. Primary caregivers reported on children's school‐age extracurricular involvement at ages 7.5, 8.5, and 9.5. Results indicated that although there was not a direct path between intervention status and children's school‐age extracurricular involvement, a significant indirect path emerged from intervention group to changes in PBS between ages 2 to 3 to children's school‐age extracurricular involvement. The results are discussed in terms of implications for designing preventive interventions in early childhood that promote extracurricular involvement at school‐age, particularly for children at risk for maladaptive outcomes.