How Eastern Afro-Carribbean Women Report About Their Intimate Relationships: A Descriptive and Correlational Study Migdalia Brathwaite, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2010 Little published research describes views of intimate heterosexual relationships among non-Western samples of women. This study represents a first attempt to document Afro-Caribbean womens views about their intimate relationships. A small sample of 53 Afro-Caribbean women from the island of Barbados were interviewed in their homes for a larger study of body image. Included in the measures were questionnaires about the extent to which womens expectations were or were not met in their current heterosexual relationships and if symptoms of depression were experienced. The women in this study generally reported, like Western women, that their relationships met their expectations (whatever those expectations may have been), that they contributed more positive than negative behaviors to the relationship, and that they experienced mostly mild or infrequent depressive symptoms. Unlike findings for Western samples, however, neither relationship duration, womens level of education, nor the extent to which they reported depressive symptoms covaried with whether they reported that their expectations were met or not. In summary, this study did not shed light on possible sources of Afro-Caribbean womens relationship satisfaction, although it potentially ruled out a few. An ethnographic approach to further research on this population was recommended.

While most research on the benefits of afterschool programs has shown positive behavioral outcomes, the results on academic outcomes have been mixed. This study focused on academic outcomes to further explore whether students who regularly attended a school-based afterschool program showed greater academic gains than students who did not attend. Previous research has shown mixed results in academic outcomes from afterschool programs depending on gender, program location and grade level; therefore, these variables were examined to evaluate where group differences may exist. Afterschool attendance was considered and narrowly defined to provide more understanding about dosage in afterschool outcomes research. Students in this study were in grades 3 through 8 during the 2008-2009 school year, and they attended two charter schools in Western Pennsylvania. The afterschool programs operated within the charter schools. This is a secondary data analysis, using data that were collected for a program evaluation of the afterschool programs. To measure academic gains, a difference score was calculated from students pretest and posttest scores on the 4Sight reading and mathematics assessments. The design of this study was a quasi-experimental design comparing students who regularly attended the afterschool programs (50% or greater attendance) with a randomly selected comparison group from the same population of charter school students. An overall Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) on the difference scores showed that afterschool participants with regular attendance performed better than nonparticipants in mathematics but not in reading. Further ANOVAs on the mathematics difference scores found no differences in gain scores by gender. Elementary students showed greater mathematics gains than middle school students, and students who attended the afterschool program at School M showed greater mathematics gains than students at School H. The reading gain scores were also further analyzed with ANOVAs, and boys showed greater gains than girls, elementary students showed greater gains than middle school students, and students at School M showed greater gains than students at School H. No correlation was found between the number of days of afterschool attendance and reading or mathematics gain scores. Findings are related to future directions for afterschool research and implications for afterschool providers.

Using experience sampling methodology this paper compares youth with and without Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in their social and asocial uses of electronic media (EM) and non-electronic media (NEM). In addition this study examines whether recovery from depression is accompanied by changes in media use. The media use and companionship of 108 participants, 47 MDD and 61 non-depressed Controls, were recorded through telephone report. Results show that youth with MDD used EM more in an asocial context than did the Control group both during the depressive episode and after recovery from depression. In addition, NEM use was significantly higher for the Control group than the MDD group after recovery. Time spent with asocial EM is considered as a consequence of the depressive episode and as an aid to recovery supporting the social risk hypothesis of depression. Asocial media use is also considered to be a possible hindrance to recovery. Implications for treatment are discussed.

Parental involvement is a critical component of early childhood education (ECE) programming with the aim to support child development. However, the efforts designed to support this aim are challenged by the increasing diversity in race/ethnicity in ECE classrooms. First, parents from different racial/ethnic backgrounds seem to have different patterns and levels of parental involvement, and the effects of multifaceted parental involvement on child outcomes seem to differ by race/ethnicity. Second, within ECE classrooms, it remains challenging to support meaningful parental involvement for children and families from diverse racial/ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. This dissertation aimed to address these issues by investigating the within- and between-group variations regarding the effects, attributes, and predictions of parental involvement on child readiness and growth during early transition. Two independent but related studies were conducted. The first study examined the moderation effect of race/ethnicity and multifaceted parental involvement on child outcomes. The second study tested the moderation effect of race/ethnicity and ECE attributes (i.e., teacher and classroom characteristics) on multifaceted parental involvement. The aim was to understand what ECE programs can do to support child development via investing in meaningful parental involvement for all children and families. Data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) were used because these families are at higher risk of school failure. Four groups were included: White, Black, English-speaking Hispanic, and Spanish-speaking Hispanic. Three facets of parental involvement were investigated (i.e., school-based involvement, home-based involvement in cultural activities, and home-based involvement in learning activities). The theory of ecology, social capital, and cultural capital were applied to guide the theoretical frameworks. Findings of the first study revealed that home-based involvement in cultural activities emerged as a stronger predictor of child outcomes within the White and Black samples; whereas school-based involvement was a stronger predictor within the Hispanic groups. In the second study, ECE attributes had positive effects on most groups except the Black sample. This dissertation has significant implications for policy issues related to the readiness gap during early transition as well as parental involvement practices within the Head Start framework.

Responding to inappropriate student behavior is a significant challenge for many educators. Behavioral interventions and strategies are tools that teachers can use to reduce the occurrence of difficult behaviors while promoting positive alternatives. Factors that influence teacher selection of behavioral interventions are well-documented by the literature. However, which interventions teachers actually use has received much less attention. This paper provides an exploratory review of the preferred behavioral interventions and strategies of a large sample of urban school teachers. Participants responded to an anonymous online survey which asks how often teachers use different interventions and strategies. Results were reviewed to uncover which strategies teachers use the most/least often, whether teachers match intervention intrusiveness to the severity of problem behavior, and to determine if teachers use evidence-based practices more often than those that are not evidence-based. Results demonstrate that teachers are familiar with most of the interventions in the survey and use them to varying degrees of frequency. In addition, teachers report that they use evidence-based practices more frequently than interventions that are not evidence-based. However, teachers may not always match intervention intrusiveness to the severity of problem behaviors. Implications for school administrators and teacher trainers, as well as recommendations for improving professional development are discussed.

A large empirical body of literature suggests that teachers make a difference in the lives of students both academically (Pianta & Allen, 2008) and personally (McCaffrey, Lockwood, Koretz, & Hamilton, 2003). Teachers influence students through not only their delivery of content knowledge, but also their development of optimal learning conditions and establishment of positive, pedagogical interactions in the classroom (OConnor & McCartney, 2007). A recent line of inquiry suggests that teachers need to understand the emotional practice of their job in order to develop optimal classroom learning conditions, interact positively with students, and build authentic teacher-student relationships (Hargreaves, 1998). One approach to exploring the emotional practice of teaching involves understanding the emotional labor performed by teachers at work. Emotional labor is the suppression or expression of ones feelings to meet the goals of a job (Grandey, 2000). By exploring the emotional labor of teachers using a new adapted instrument, The Emotional Labor of Teaching Scale (TELTS) and sampling a large, homogenous teacher population, this study found that teaching involved emotional labor. More specifically, findings endorsed that teachers performed emotional labor on the job despite teachers not knowing the emotional display rules required in their schools. Overall, results provide implications for practice to improve how we prepare and supervise teachers.

This study evaluated the robustness of DIF detection for multidimensional polytomous items using two different estimation methods, MG-CFA and MGRM-DFIT. A simulation study across 960 study conditions was performed. The purpose of this study was to establish the Type-I error rate and Power of DIF detection for the MG-CFA and MGRM-DFIT estimation methods across the study conditions. The MGRM-DFIT method consistently controlled Type-I error rate under alpha across all study conditions. Though the MGRM-DFIT method demonstrated high power in detecting DIF for the combined items, it had lower power in detecting DIF for each item individually. The MGRM-DFIT method had higher power of DIF detection when impact (true distributional differences) is in the opposite direction of manipulated DIF. Overall, compared to the non-DIF items, NCDIF values are larger, and CDIF values are smaller for the 4 DIF items. Across the replications and the study conditions, CDIF was not as consistent as NCDIF. The MG-CFA method demonstrated slightly inflated Type-I error rate in a couple of study conditions (particularly in the presence of impact). However, the MG-CFA method demonstrated lower power across all study conditions. This could partly be explained by the low magnitude of DIF that was manipulated in the 'α/λ' parameter in this study. Parameter estimation for the MGRM, and the MGRM-DFIT method should be incorporated as part of commonly used software packages. In general, the MG-CFA method is recommended for DIF detection with multidimensional polytomous types of items, since it performs more consistently as a univariate test and as a multivariate test, and is easily available as part of several commonly used software packages.

In article 1, intelligence in general was considered, followed by a discussion of traditional as well as more recent views on intelligence. Particular emphasis was placed on the issue of whether intelligence is a single general factor, or whether it should be regarded as a multiple concept. The best-known theory on multiple intelligence, namely that of Gardner, was also examined. Gardner divided intelligence into the following facets: logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, linguistic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence; and these facets are discussed in this article. Moreover, the prediction value of intelligence, as well as the measuring of intelligence, were considered. On the basis hereof, it is already evident that the conception of intelligence, as previously known and used by psychologists, will have to be revised and renewed. Article 2 was dedicated to a discussion of emotional intelligence. The definitions of emotional intelligence were considered, according to the models of Bar-On (1997), Salovey & Mayer (1995) and Goleman (1995). The development of the concept of emotional intelligence was also discussed. According to certain authors, some persons - such as Wechsler and Thurstone - had already referred to the concept, albeit vaguely, as early as the 1930s. During the past decade, society in general has become more conscious of the importance of emotions, and it became possible for a term such as âemotional intelligenceâ to come into its own. Current views on emotional intelligence are positive, for the most part, particularly in respect of the prediction value of this form of intelligence. Facets of a personâs life that are affected by emotional intelligence were subsequently discussed. Specific facets of childrenâs lives that are influenced by emotional intelligence include, inter alia: emotional problems, school readiness and academic success. The lives of adults are affected by emotional intelligence in the following areas, inter alia: job success, marital relations and crime. In article 3, factors that play a role in the development of childrenâs emotional intelligence are discussed. The normal, or natural, emotional development of children is taken into account, while certain factors that influence the development of childrenâs emotional intelligence are also discussed. These factors are: neurological factors, linguistic development, the personâs ability to acquire skills, and genetic factors. These factors corroborate the fact that emotional intelligence can be acquired. Role-players who can have a beneficial or detrimental effect on the development of childrenâs emotional intelligence are also discussed. Among the most important role-players in this regard are the childâs parents. The media also play a role in the development of childrenâs emotional intelligence â a role which, unfortunately, is mostly negative. Article 4 deals with the manifestation and development of childrenâs emotional intelligence. The aspects of emotional intelligence are firstly discussed in detail. These aspects are optimism, impulse control, the recognition and control of oneâs own emotions, empathy and interpersonal skills. Each of these aspects is defined before the various components thereof are discussed and brought into relation with the lives of people. Thereafter, each of the aspects is brought into relation with childrenâs development. In this regard, reference is made, inter alia, to childrenâs mental health, their ability to control their emotions, their ability to cope with homework, their various emotions and the wide range of their emotional experiences, their aggressive outbursts and their ability to make friends. Article 5 deals with the standardisation of a test that measures emotional intelligence in young children between the ages of four and eight. The standardisation of the test was divided into four phases, which entailed the following: Phase 1: The identification of provisional items; Phase 2: Item analysis and selection; Phase 3: The determination of norms; and Phase 4: Reliability tests. In each phase, reference was made to the procedures that were followed, as well as the results that were obtained. During phase 1, emphasis was placed on the rationale behind each of the five aspects of the test. The use of pictures is also discussed. Item analysis (phase 2) was carried out on the basis of the discrimination values and difficulty level of the items. During phase 3, the determination of norms for the respective age groups was measured in respect of each individual aspect, as well as the total test. In phase 4, the statistical characteristics of the test were calculated and reported in respect of each subtest and the total test. The averages and standard deviations of the subtest scores were considered, as well as the reliability coefficients, standard error of measurement, skewness and kurtosis.

In article 1 it became clear from the literature why adolescents are seen as a high-risk group for contractin g and spreading HIV/Aids. Adolescents are seen as being in a developmental phase regarding the forming of an identity and the development of a self-esteem. Research has shown that adolescents have adequate knowledge about the virus, but they lack in skills to apply this knowledge. The Theory of Social Representations emphasize the idea that one must keep in mind the individual's own interpretations and realities when the Aids-pandemic is addressed. This article must be seen as an introduction to the other articles in this series. Article 2 attempts to understand the attitudes of teachers, the peergroup and the community towards the HIV-positive adolescent. Although the individuals involved showed empathy, few of them were prepared to take responsibilities in order to help prevent the problem. In addition to this, HIV/Aids are contracted and spread amongst adolescents because many misperceptions prevail. This article concludes that the sexual development of the adolescent should be redefined in order to curb this problem. The consequences of HIV-positive diagnosis on the adolescent are discussed in article 3. Responses of adolescents proved that they still experience stigmatization from the community, which in turn leads to, amongst other things, anxiety, depression and anger. It is concluded that to be diagnosed HIV-positive, does not necessarily lead to a change in behaviour. It is important to support these adolescents for them to be able to live their lives with dignity. In the fourth article in this series of five, attention is firstly paid to possible implications of HIV -positive diagnosis as recorded in the literature. The researcher then tried to establish what effects HIV-positive diagnosis on the adolescent have on his/her family. It proved that these families are still discriminated against and in some cases it leads to the isolation of the family. Emotional support and counselling of family members is of utmost importance when they have to take care of an adolescent diagnosed with HIV. Article 5 attempts to highlight possible strategies and solutions that could help in the prevention of HIV. Components are discussed in two phases, namely the prevention of HIV and the support to roleplayers that are affected by HIV/Aids.

This study contains a theoretical article and an empirical article to investigate and discuss an intervention programme for dyslectic learners with regard to their reading and spelling problems. The following discussion also serves as summary of the findings and conclusions reached by the researcher in each article. The literature study focuses on the causes of dyslexia by referring to neurological, genetic, teratogenic, and environmental and educational causes. In the discussion of the identification and assessment of dyslexia, the IQ discrepancy theory is discussed. The discussion of the cognitive, academic and behavioural characteristics of dyslectic learners illuminates the identification of these learners for the sake of using the correct intervention strategies. From the literature study, it is clear that dyslectic learners do not benefit by current teaching programmes following the phonological method. Neuro-imaging techniques have shown that dyslectic learners activate the right hemisphere of the brain (which is normally not suitable for language use) to execute phonological instructions. Therefore, better results are obtained when dyslectic learners' strong point, namely their visualisation ability, is used during language exercises. An overview is given of the various kinds of dyslexia, where it has been found in the literature study that a large majority of dyslectic learners have a strong visualisation ability. Researchers differ about the way in which dyslectic learners should be taught, however, and a variety of intervention programmes found in the literature are discussed. This study focuses on the Ron Davis program as an intervention programme, because the programme focuses on the learning preference of the dyslectic learner. It is a multisensory programme that focuses on visual, kinaesthetic and cognitive strategies. In the empirical article, the development and implementation of a remedial intervention programme, which is based on the Ron Davis program, for intermediate Afrikaansspeaking dyslectic learners is investigated and discussed. The research study has been completed at a school for learners with learning disabilities in the Motheo district in the Free State. Dyslectic learners in the experimental group (N = 18) were exposed to the remediation intervention programme that is based on the Ron Davis program, while dyslectic learners in the control group (N = 18) were receiving their normal remedial teaching. Research results in this empirical investigation have demonstrated that the reading and spelling achievements of Afrikaans-speaking intermediate dyslectic learners (experimental group) were significantly better after exposure to the remedial intervention programme that is based on the Ron Davis program than the reading and spelling achievements of the Afrikaans-speaking intermediate dyslectic learners (control group, N =18) that were not exposed to this programme. The conclusion the researcher reached after completing the study is that the word recognition and spelling achievements of Afrikaans-speaking intermediate dyslectic learners can improve significantly by exposing these dyslectic learners to a remedial intervention programme that is based on the Ron Davis program.