Mothers’ and Fathers’ Reports of Their Supportive Responses to Their Children’s Negative Emotions Over Time

Objective. Parents’ emotion socialization practices are thought to be moderately stable over time; however, a partner’s socialization practices could initiate change. Design. We examined mothers’ and fathers’ reports of their supportive responses to their children’s negative emotions when the target child was 7 years old and again at age 10. We tested a dyadic, longitudinal path model with 111 mother–father pairs. Results. Significant actor and partner effects emerged: Parents’ age 7 responses predicted their own age 10 responses and their partners’ later responses. Conclusions. Parents’ reported responses to children’s negative emotions during middle childhood are predicted by their own earlier responses and by their partners’ responses.     

Crawling versus Walking Infants' Perception of Affordances for Locomotion over Sloping Surfaces

14-month-old toddlers vs. 8.5-month-old crawling infants were encouraged to ascend and descend a sloping walkway (10°, 20°, 30°, and 40°). Infants in both locomotor groups overestimated their ability to ascend slopes. However, on descending trials where falling was more aversive, most toddlers switched from walking to sliding positions for safe descent, but crawlers plunged down headfirst and many fell at each increment. Toddlers touched and hesitated most before descending 10° and 20° slopes, and they explored alternative means for descent by testing out different sliding positions before leaving the starting platform. In contrast, crawlers touched and hesitated most before descending 30° and 40° slopes, and they never explored alternative sliding positions. In addition, we analyzed measures of locomotor skill and experience in relation to children's ability to perceive affordances. Findings indicate that children must learn to perceive affordances for locomotion over slopes and that learning may begin by fine-tuning of exploratory activity.     

Menus for toddlers in dau care: Part II

This is the second part of a fourpart series of articles that provide a total of four weeks' worth of menus for toddlers. In the first installment (Fall 1978) will be found the Basic Recipes for preparing Milk Plus, TVP, and Fruit Juice, as well as a general introduction to the format of these menus. Emily Herbert-Jackson managed the nutrition research project described here in her capacity as Research Associate in the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas. She is now associated with Children's Behavioral Services, Reno, Nevada. Marion O'Brien is a writer for the Living Environments Group and has served as consultant to the toddler center in which the research was conducted. The authors wish especially to thank Kathy Erwin for her contribution to the development of these menus, as well as all the staff and children at the toddler center. The research described here was supported in large part by grant MC-R-200347 from the Office of Maternal and Child Health to the Bureau of Child Research and the Department of Human Development at the University of Kansas. The toddler day care program is fully deseribed in the bookThe Toddler Center: A Practical Guide to Day Care for One-and Two-Year-Olds, by Marion O'Brien, Jan Porterfield, Emily Herbert-Jackson, and Todd R. Risley (Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978).     

Teachers’ Values and the Literacy Hour

The article reports on an enquiry into teachers’ values and beliefs about literacy. The teachers work in the schools of members participating in an action research project on improving literacy in the primary school. The enquiry was one of the first tasks the project undertook. Its purpose was to enable teachers to articulate their own values and to examine these alongside aspects of the proposed literacy hour within the context of the overall national literacy strategy. As schools implement the literacy hour, the project plans to examine critically the extent to which teachers’ own values and valued practices can operate alongside the requirements of the literacy hour. It will also critically examine those values themselves to see if they change in the light of the experience of the literacy hour. There are some marked differences between the teachers’ views and those embedded within the national literacy strategy. The article discusses some potential practical implications which may arise for teachers and children from these differences. Some commonality between the teachers’ views and the national literacy strategy are also highlighted. It is not the intention of the research project to shape a consensus on values. Rather, one of its purposes is to create a context in which teachers and teacher researchers can engage actively and critically in implementing the national strategy, rather than seeing themselves as passive agents. The debate within the project about values differences is intended to contribute to this purpose

     

Achievement Motivation Goals in Relation to Academic Performance in Traditional and Nontraditional College Students

This study extended Dweck's model of achievement motivation to the collegiate level, and it is the first to apply this model to nontraditional students. We examined the relationship between goal orientations and academic performance in 262 undergraduate students grouped by nontraditional vs. traditional status. Although both groups rated themselves higher on learning goals than on performance goals, non-traditional students endorsed learning goals even more strongly than their traditional peers. Goal orientations were a better predictor of academic success than student status. Consistent with Dweck's model, a learning goal orientation was positively related to successful academic performance for both groups. The relationship between performance goals and academic success was less straightforward, but students who rated both goal orientations as relatively weak had the lowest cumulative GPAs. Traditional and nontraditional students differed on variables that were inversely related to academic performance. Less successful traditional students endorsed irrational beliefs (a possible index of learned helplessness), while less successful nontraditional students worked more hours at a paid job.