The current study examined the relations between parental and relationship functioning and infant social-emotional functioning, with an emphasis on the differential predictive power of mothers and fathers. This is the first study to examine certain specific predictors of parent functioning: parental alliance, parental identity, relationship adjustment and relationship conflict in an infant sample during the transition to parenthood. Results indicated that fathers’ functioning better predicted infants’ dysregulatory problems, while mothers’ functioning better predicted infants’ internalizing problems. Specifically, fathers’ functioning predicted negative emotionality and eating problems in their infants, while mothers’ functioning predicted general anxiety and separation distress in their infants. Results also showed that several combinations of differential predictive power (e.g., the highest functioning parent vs. the lowest functioning parent) were not significant predictors of difficulties in their infants, indicating that the impact of one parent does not depend on the functioning of the other. Important theoretical implications based on the gender differences in predictive power found, as well as the lack of contextual effects found in the present sample, are discussed.

This study investigated the mental health of high school students enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) High School Diploma Program (n =139) in a large, southeastern high school. Mental health was assessed using both positive indicators (life satisfaction, academic achievement, academic self-efficacy) and negative indicators (psychopathology) indicators of adolescent social-emotional and school functioning. Findings from this study include that IB students perceive more stress than their general education peers, yet maintain mental health that is equivalent or superior to that of their general education peers. The role of coping in predicting mental health outcomes in IB students was also investigated. Findings indicate that specific coping styles are differentially related to mental health outcomes in this sub-population of adolescents. Furthermore, coping styles moderate the influence of stress on global life satisfaction and internalizing psychopathology. These findings suggest that participation in the academically rigorous and time-intensive IB program is not harmful to the mental health of high school students, and in fact may be beneficial, as evidenced by the superior academic functioning of students in the IB program.

To date the research in the area of social emotional competence has focused on child-based intervention and outcomes. The findings cite effective approaches to assisting children in the area of social and emotional development involving promotion of appropriate social skills, explicit instruction of behavioral expectations, and support for emotional literacy and awareness (Wester -- Stratton, 1990; Hyson, 2004; Fox et al, 2003; Denham & Burton, 1996). These recommended practices requires teacher knowledge and skill, content knowledge in the area of social emotional developmental, and skills in using pedagogical techniques that support acquisition of the aforementioned areas. Educational researchers and specialists cannot begin to support the advancement of teacher practice in the area of social-emotional competence until they are clear on the methods and behaviors childcare professional currently employ. On the basis of a review of empirical literature, it is clear that limited descriptive information about childcare provider's pedagogical practices in the area of promoting social, emotional, and behavioral competence exists. The intent of this inquiry was to investigate childcare professionals' chosen methods in guiding children's social and behavioral development. After identifying which methods were used, the researcher sought to describe the childcare professional's intention when choosing to use specific pedagogical techniques during large- and small-group instruction. Specifically, the concentration of interest was on the methods used during teacher-initiated instruction (such as large and small group) to guide children's social skill building and behavioral expectation compliance. Research questions were examined using a mixed methodological framework with a descriptive research design component and a phenomenographic approach incorporating stimulated recall. Findings suggest childcare professionals readily and proficiently engage in explicit instruction around behavioral expectations. However, they rarely systematically instruct children on social skills. Childcare professionals seem to rely on the implicit nature of day to day interactions to embed social interactions and reactions. Further, childcare professionals seem to be primed for systematic instruction around the promotion of social skills. They are cognoscente of explicit techniques to guide behavioral expectation compliance but seem to have limited transference from this skill to explicit instruction in social skill acquisition. Additional findings and implications are provided in the text.

Bullying is a complex behavior that can cause academic and social problems for students and can contribute to a negative school climate. Students who feel isolated or do not feel connected to their school may experience similar risks to those who are victimized by peers. Recent school violence incidents have led to an increase in bullying behavior research. The importance of the school climate is also emerging in educational discourse prompting a growth of research in school connectedness and positive relationships. However, research on the impact that relationships and school connectedness may have on bullying victimization at school is limited. This is a secondary analysis of a national data set from the 2005 administration of the National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement. The study focused on the relationship between school connectedness and bullying victimization and whether gender, race, grade level, and academic achievement moderate the relationship. The role of relationships in bullying victimization was considered. Weighted regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between bullying behaviors and school connectedness and to identify the combination of factors that may influence the relationship. Components of school connectedness identified through factor analysis were statistically significant predictors of occurrence and frequency of bullying victimization, but accounted for a very small amount of variance in the outcome. Adding demographic variables of race, gender, grade level, and academic achievement produced a slight increase in the proportion of variance accounted for. Race did not have a statistically significant impact on occurrence of bullying victimization; neither race nor gender was statistically significant in variance of frequency of bullying victimization. Peer relationships proved to be statistically significant in bullying victimization frequency but neither adult-student nor peer relationships were statistically related to bullying victimization occurrence. Overall, school connectedness predicted a very small proportion of variance in occurrence and frequency of bullying victimization, suggesting that bullying prevention efforts should include strategies beyond those to improve a student's sense of connectedness to school. A comprehensive approach is needed to address bullying in schools effectively.

Maternal psychological well-being is one of many factors that shape the interactions a woman has with her infant. According to Belsky's (1984) Determinants of Parenting Process Model, he suggests that maternal personality and psychological well-being play a significant role in the observation of parenting behaviors. This model was utilized as the overarching framework for this dissertation. The dissertation, in the form of three manuscripts, outlines important factors within the marital relationship that impact postpartum depression, then exploring the moderation of depression by knowledge of infant development in four behavioral scales observed during a mother-infant interaction. Finally, two maternal behaviors that impact child outcomes were utilized as predictors of infant social-emotional and cognitive outcome, while testing for moderation by infant age.Results. In study one, women were more likely to report postpartum depression when they experienced more arguments with family and lower relationship depth. The second study found that knowledge of infant development moderated maternal reports of postpartum depression, thus allowing women with higher knowledge to maintain positive behaviors compared to women with low or average knowledge. The third study indicated that verbal stimulation resulted in higher scores for infant social-emotional and cognitive development, whereas maternal sensitivity was the only variable impacting social-emotional development. The test of moderation by infant age found mothers of older infants did speak more to their older infants, but the differences were minimal.Conclusion. Marital relationships play a significant role in promoting healthy maternal psychological well-being during motherhood. When psychological well-being is compromised via postpartum depression, decreases in maternal behaviors result in lower scores during maternal-child interactions. Maternal sensitivity and verbal stimulation uniquely contributed to infant outcomes. In addition, infant age may impact the observance of these two maternal behaviors resulting in increased or decreased observances based on the infant's age.Thus, use of Belsky's Determinants of Parenting Process Model within this dissertation confirmed the importance of maternal personality and psychological well-being in parenting behaviors. Mothers impacted by postpartum depression suffered a reduction in parenting behaviors, though higher knowledge appeared to buffer these negative effects. Implications for interventions and future work are discussed within each study.

Research has typically addressed a specific emotional component of having a Learning Disability (LD), and thus has failed to capture the complete picture of what it is like to experience a LD. The current study asked university students to describe without any prompts or cues how it feels to have a LD, both retrospectively in high school and currently in university. We were interested in seeing how individuals with LDs describe their LD experience in their own words through free association. Information was collected from eight different cohorts throughout the past 11 years who were enrolled in a course on LDs for students diagnosed with LDs. All descriptors were coded into 17 different theme categories and further sorted by valence into positive, neutral, and negative categories. Participants reported more negative descriptors than positive ones, which interacted with the context in which they were reported. More negative descriptors were reported in high school compared to university and more positive descriptors were reported in university than high school. We failed to find any differences in emotional valence across the different cohorts. Latent class analyses revealed that reports of high school experiences consisted of two different LD profiles: extremely negative and negative. University experiences consisted of three different LD profiles: predominately positive, mixed emotional valence, and predominately negative. These results suggest that the experience of a LD can improve in university but that approximately 23% continue to find having LD a highly negative experience even though they are receiving support. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master’s Scholarship

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Darbe atskleidžiamas pedagogų ir tėvų požiūris į ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų pažangos ir pasiekimų vertinimą, išryškinama sąveikos ir mokymosi paradigmų sampratų genezė ir išbandoma Edukologijos universiteto mokslininkų parengta pasiekimų aprašo vertinimo metodika, kiek ši leidžia fiksuoti socialinę – emocinę vaiko raidą. Baigiamojo darbo struktūra konstruojama mokslinės literatūros ir empirinio tyrimo analizės pagrindais, kurių tikslas - atskleisti šiuolaikinį ikimokyklinio ugdymo pedagogų požiūrį į pažangos ir pasiekimų vertinimą. Tikslui pasiekti keliami uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti mokslinę literatūrą ir švietimą reglamentuojančius dokumentus ir apibrėžti šiuolaikinę ikimokyklinio ugdymo(si) pažangos ir pasiekimų vertinimo sampratą. 2. Atskleisti vertinimo ciklo ypatumus ir aptarti užsienio šalių vaikų ugdymo(si) pažangos ir pasiekimų patirtį. 3. Išsiaiškinti pedagogų ir tėvų požiūrį į ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų pažangos ir pasiekimų vertinimą ir atlikti lyginamąją analizę. 4. Išbandyti ikimokyklinio amžiaus vaikų pažangos ir pasiekimų vertinimo metodiką bei patikrinti kiek ši leidžia fiksuoti socialinę – emocinę vaiko raidą. Kiekybinio ir kokybinio tyrimo analizė atskleidė, kad pedagogams ir tėvams pažangos ir pasiekimų vertinimas yra labai reikalinga ir reikalinga ugdymosi proceso dalis, kuri padeda numatyti ugdymosi žingsnius, gerinti ugdymo kokybę, stebėti, pažinti, įvertinti kiekvieno vaiko individualią pažangą ir ugdymosi raidą, įžvelgti ugdymosi... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In this final thesis educators’ and parents’ attitude towards evaluation of pre-school aged children’s progress and achievements is revealed, genesis of interface and learning paradigm conceptions is emphasized and evaluation methodology of achievements description prepared by scientists of University of Educational Sciences is used as far as it lets record social-emotional development of a child. Structure of the final thesis is constructed on the basis of analysis of nonfiction and empirical research, which aim is to reveal modern pre-school educators’ attitude towards evaluation of progress and achievements. In order to reach the aim the following tasks have been raised: 1. To analyze regulatory documents of nonfiction and education, also determine a modern conception of pre-school education progress and achievements’ conception. 2. To reveal peculiarities of evaluation and discuss learning progress’ and achievements’ experience of children from foreign countries. 3. To find out educators’ and parents’ attitude towards evaluation of pre-school children’s progress and achievements and perform a comparative analysis. 4. To experiment with pre-school children’s progress and achievements evaluation methodology and examine how far it lets record social-emotional development of a child. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative research revealed that evaluation of progress and achievements is a very important part of education process for educators and parents which helps to... [to full text]

This research is about the enhancement of the Grade 1 learner's social and emotional development through a music support programme. The aim of this research was to determine how a music support programme could enhance the social and emotional development of Grade 1 learners through a music support programme. To achieve this goal, data were gathered through a literature study and empirical study. The empirical study was performed by way of semi constructed interviews with the Grade 1 learners' teacher to assemble the empirical data. The results indicated that the Grade 1 learners manifested social and emotional difficulties and that the music support programme was effective for those learners' social and emotional development. Recommendations from the study include: • schools should consider a music support programme on a permanent basis. • The community must be introduced to the music support programme because the concept is still unknown. • To help children with social-emotional behavioural problems, schools can raise a fund that will help these learners to develop through a music support programme. • Schools and/or a music support presenter can give parental guidance and can set up a programme for parents. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This research is about the enhancement of the Grade 1 learner's social and emotional development through a music support programme. The aim of this research was to determine how a music support programme could enhance the social and emotional development of Grade 1 learners through a music support programme. To achieve this goal, data were gathered through a literature study and empirical study. The empirical study was performed by way of semi constructed interviews with the Grade 1 learners' teacher to assemble the empirical data. The results indicated that the Grade 1 learners manifested social and emotional difficulties and that the music support programme was effective for those learners' social and emotional development. Recommendations from the study include: • schools should consider a music support programme on a permanent basis. • The community must be introduced to the music support programme because the concept is still unknown. • To help children with social-emotional behavioural problems, schools can raise a fund that will help these learners to develop through a music support programme. • Schools and/or a music support presenter can give parental guidance and can set up a programme for parents. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.