Emotional Safeguarding: Exploring the Nature of Middle‐Class Parents’ School Involvement1

Although discussion of parents’ school involvement generally surrounds academic success, there are also emotional motivations for parents’ school interventions. In this exploratory analysis, based on interviews with 21 parents and teachers, I show how these middle‐class parents’ concerns for children extend beyond grades and academic success to the children’s own emotional comfort with schooling. I discuss examples of emotional safeguarding, a parental practice to protect children’s happiness at school. Results also suggest that emotional and academic concerns for children at school are interrelated, and parents often approach the emotional with the academic in mind. Parents focus on reducing children’s anxiety or discomfort at school with the ultimate goal of instilling a love of learning. The parents in this study perceive an emotional route to achieving academic success for their middle‐class children. Unlike parents, teachers in the study identify parents’ concerns as academic or a product of parents’ anxiety. This research introduces the possibility that while parents’ academic concerns are very real, they are also accompanied by equal and occasionally greater concerns for children’s happiness and well‐being at school.     

Carl Warner摄影欣赏

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Graduate and post-graduate medical education with the synchronous systems model.

Behavioral sciences have an important new role, particularly in medicine and prevention (Revans, 1990; Starr, 1982). A decade ago when the ideology of medical care shifted from a biomedical to a biopsychosocial model, behavioral and social factors ascended in importance in modern health concerns (see Engel, 1977). Now, a living systems model called Synchronous Systems (Jasnoski & Schwartz, 1985) incorporates environmental (including the social and physical) along with physiological and psychological factors into its structure. The environment has been gaining recognition as an important determinant in health, disease, and wellness (Daniel, 1990; Demick & Wapner, 1990; Lawton, 1990; Stokols, 1990). The phrase "Synchronous Systems" departs from the traditional linear thought patterns to depict contemporaneous occurrences. Synchrony refers to simultaneous experiences or events, with an emphasis on healthy, congruent process and function. Positive, beneficial process in human functioning emphasizes prevention as found in public health efforts but refers also to dysfunctional and recuperative foundation of medicine as a departure from the healthy norm. These process and functional dynamics in the Synchronous Systems Model derive conceptually from systems theory, specifically from control and cybernetic theories (Cannon, 1932; Weiner, 1948). The dynamic complexity of health in the whole human system, which also incorporates the environment, requires synthesis of knowledge from the biological, social, behavioral, and ecological sciences. This article provides the fundamentals of the structural and functional synthesis possible in the Synchronous Systems Model. Its direct application to multidisciplinary research is also presented along with its specific application to medical education, policy, research, and service delivery.     

Meeting report--National Institute on Aging Workshop on the Comparative Biology of Aging

This Perspective is a summary of the Comparative Biology of Aging Workshop that was held in February 2002 by the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, MD. Participants discussed ways to exploit similarities and differences in aging among diverse species to learn more about critical factors that affect aging and regulate life expectancy in animals. The aim of the workshop was to stimulate new approaches to understanding the molecular bases for differences in aging rates and life expectancy among species.     

Arousal seeking and the maintenance of mutual gaze in same and mixed sex dyads

Thirty male and thirty female undergraduates were randomly paired in either same or mixed sex dyads and were asked to maintain silent mutual gaze for as long as possible over two or three trials. The results indicated that high arousal seekers were better able to do this than low arousal seekers, and that this difference was especially strong in same sex dyads.     

请再说一遍“我爱你”

【正】请说了一遍,再向我说一遍,说我爱你即使那样一遍遍重复,你会把它看成一支布谷鸟的歌曲;可是记着,在那青山和绿林间,那山谷和田野中,纵使清新的春天披着全身绿装降临、也不算完美无缺,要是她缺少了那串布谷鸟的音节。爱,四周那么黑暗,耳边只听见惊悸的心声,处于那痛苦的不安中,我嚷道:再说一遍:我爱你!谁嫌太多的...     

Who Participates and Who Benefits From Employer‐Provided Child‐Care Assistance?

Support from employers to help parents balance work and family responsibilities has become an increasingly important issue, particularly in the United States, where public support for families is scarce. Little is known about the effectiveness of employer‐provided child‐care support. Who participates in these programs, and what are their benefits? This study is among the first to address these questions using a dataset that combines administrative with survey data from employees at a large organization. Findings indicate that employer financial support for child care can be structured so that employees with the greatest need benefit and employee participation is not associated with stigma. Results suggest the employer benefits from increased employee commitment and reduced employee stress, but employees do not report increased parent or child satisfaction with care. Although employer financial support alone cannot compensate for structural problems with regard to child care, it may reduce stress and increase employee commitment in the workplace.