The Teacher Cadet Program began in South Carolina as a means of introducing high school students to the career of teaching. Although implemented in 1986, little research exists about the perspectives of stakeholders in the Teacher Cadet Program. The purpose of this research study was to explore the participants' perspectives concerning the structure and experiences offered in the TCP and describe how those experiences influenced college and career decisions. This qualitative case study investigated how 46 Teacher Cadet participants in a rural public high school perceived their experiences in the Teacher Cadet Program. The study also examined the stories of four participants who represented each of the groups studied. Data collection methods included survey information, interviews, and focus group discussions analyzed using a constant-comparative approach. Focusing on a single site allowed the researcher to explore the stories of program participants and uncovered three elements they viewed as the most important characteristics of the program: the contributions of hands-on experiences, the significance of early exposure to the field of teaching, and the importance of the relationships that were established. Study results provided a framework for understand in the affects of the Teacher Cadet Program on participants. The findings documented overall positive perceptions. This study added to the body of knowledge about the perspectives of stakeholder in the Teacher Cadet Program in regards to the value participants placed on their experiences and subsequently how those experiences influenced their career and college plans.

Despite efforts to increase female participation in STEM majors, women continue to be an underrepresented population in this domain, impacting the U.S. workforce. Researchers have identified a variety of factors that benefit engineering students without regard to gender (mentoring; student-faculty interactions; co-curricular involvement) but research is limited on how female engineering students foster a sense of belonging to the engineering major helping them persist through to graduation. Negative factors like gender bias or stereotyping are detailed in extant literature. Research needs to identify ways that contribute to female engineering connection and sense of belonging in engineering, not solely focus on the factors that negatively impact female engineering student trajectories. In an effort to address this gap in the literature, interviews with alumnae who graduated from engineering colleges across the U.S. were conducted. Data from this study provides a glimpse into what helped foster successful navigation through engineering majors for alumnae. Expanding current female and STEM literature, participants provide insights on pre-college, college, and on career influences. / text

Although the negative associations between marital conflict and children’s adjustment are well documented, less is known about how marital conflict styles (e.g., engagement, withdrawal, problem solving and compliance) are related to children’s developmental outcomes. The present study seeks to determine what types of parents’ conflict styles, during the child’s first year of life, are related to children’s behavioral outcomes in the first grade. Analyses examine the hypothesis that more conflictual conflict resolution styles of parents during a child’s infancy will predict poorer child outcomes over time. In addition, given the growing literature documenting the first year of life as a particularly sensitive period in children’s development, the proposed study will explore the effect of parents’ conflict resolution styles in the child’s first year of life on child outcomes at age six, controlling for concurrent levels of conflict. Lastly this study will explore the interaction of parents’ conflict resolution style in predicting children’s outcomes. Conflict resolution style and children outcomes were examined in a sample of 153 working-class, first-time parents and their children. Participants were recruited through prenatal classes at hospitals and birth clinics, as well as through Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) offices in Western Massachusetts.

The effects of age/maturation, grade, amount of school exposure, and early or late entry into school, on mathematics and executive function skills of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students was examined. The sample consists of four-and five-year olds from low-income ethnic minority families enrolled in pre-kindergarten (pre-K) (n = 42) and kindergarten (n = 40). Assessments of mathematics competency and executive function were conducted by trained researchers in the fall of the school year. Regression analyses were conducted to test the effects of age/maturation and amount of schooling, while independent samples t-test were used to examine late versus early entry into school, the value of pre-K attendance, and if grade level matters. The findings revealed that there is a maturation effect to an extent in the beginning of the preschool year. The importance of school exposure (pre-K attendance) and early entry was also confirmed. A future longitudinal study needs to be conducted that follows the same cohort from pre-K to adulthood in order to find the long term effects underlying this debate. / acase@tulane.edu

As pornography has become more widespread, young people are being exposed to pornography at earlier ages. Research examining the relationship between timing of exposure to pornography and outcomes in adulthood of mental health, life satisfaction, sexual behavior and attitudes, and pornography viewing patterns is limited. This study focuses on the relationship between timing of exposure to pornography and individual outcomes in adulthood. Results indicate that earlier exposure to pornography may significantly influence mental health, life satisfaction, sexual behavior and attitudes, and pornography viewing patterns in adulthood. Implications of this study include greater awareness of the risks of early exposure to pornography and unrestrained access to sexually explicit material for young people.

La psychopathie est souvent définie comme étant un trouble de personnalité qui se reflète par une exagération de traits interpersonnels et antisociaux ou une absence de traits émotifs (Hare et Neumann, 2005). La psychopathie serait associée à des de nombreuses habitudes sexuelles qui pourraient être qualifiées de cliniquement déviante lorsqu’elles sont présentent à un niveau élevé. Depuis les fondements mêmes de la définition de ce qu’est la psychopathie, les auteurs font référence à la sexualité anormale des personnes à la personnalité psychopathique et certains la considèrent même comme une dimension probable de la psychopathie (Hare et Neumann, 2005). Cependant, peu d’études se sont intéressées à ce qui pourrait expliquer que les personnes à la personnalité psychopathique développent ces habitudes sexuelles à l’âge adulte. Pour cette raison, un des objectifs de cette étude est d’explorer la relation entre la psychopathie et le développement de différentes habitudes et intérêts sexuels. L’hypothèse émise dans ce mémoire vise les effets modérateurs que pourrait avoir une exposition précoce à la sexualité chez les personnes à la personnalité psychopathique dans le développement de certaines habitudes sexuelles à l’âge adulte. Pour mesurer la relation entre la psychopathie et la sexualité, des analyses de corrélations et de régressions linéaires multiples seront effectuées. Pour mesurer l’effet modérateur de l’exposition précoce à la sexualité, une série d’analyses de modération sera effectuée pour explorer l’effet que la précocité sexuelle, l’exposition à la pornographie et les abus sexuels dans l’enfance et l’adolescence pourraient avoir sur l’association entre la psychopathie et les habitudes sexuelles. Ces analyses ont été effectuées auprès d’un échantillon de 529 délinquants sexuels adultes qui ont tous été évalués à l’aide du Multidimensional Inventory of Sex and Agression, un inventaire autorapporté créé par le chercheur Raymond A. Knight. Les résultats confirment ce qui est avancé par la littérature par rapport au fait qu’il existe une relation importante entre la psychopathie et la prévalence de certaines habitudes sexuelles. Il y aurait aussi une relation importante entre des événements sexuels perturbateurs à l’enfance et l’adolescence, la psychopathie et leurs habitudes sexuelles. Finalement, les résultats semblent supporter l’hypothèse selon laquelle une exposition précoce à la sexualité exacerberait la présence de certaines habitudes sexuelles chez les personnes à la personnalité psychopathique. / Psychopathy is often described as a personality disorder that is characterized by exaggerated antisocial and interpersonal (Hare and Neumann, 2005). Psychopathy is also an important predictor of recidivism as well as a predictor of more violent recidivism (Serin and Amos, 1995). Psychopathy is also linked to different sexual behaviours. Since the inception of the definition of psychopathy, there has been mention of their abnormal sexual behaviour. Some authors have referenced the abnormal sexual tendencies of people with psychopathic personality and some even consider it as a probable dimension of psychopathy (Hare and Neumann, 2005). However, few studies have been interested on the reasons that could explain why people with psychopathic personality develop a problematic sexuality in adulthood. For that reason, one of the objectives o this study is to explore the relationship between psychopathy and problematic sexuality. The hypothesis in this study stipulates that there could be moderating effects of an early exposure to sexuality on the development of different sexual habits on people with psychopathy. To achieve this, a series of moderations will be made to evaluate the impact of precocious sexuality, of early exposure to pornography and sexual abuse in childhood and as teenagers on the association between psychopathy and various sexual fantasies and behaviours. To measure the relationship between psychopathy and problematic sexuality, a series of correlations and multiple linear regressions will be made. To measure the moderating effects of early exposure to sexuality, a series of moderations will be made to explore the effects that precocious sexuality, early exposure to pornography and sexual abuse could have on the development of a problematic sexual lifestyle for people with psychopathy traits. These analyses will be made on a sample of 529 sexual offenders who have all been assessed by the Multidimensional Inventory of Sex and aggression, a self-report inventory developed by researcher Raymond A. Knight. The results seem to suggest that there is a strong relationship between psychopathy and sexual habits. They also seem to support the hypothesis formulated in this study which stipulates that being exposed to certain forms of sexuality at a younger age could crystallize problematic sexual behaviours and fantasies in people with the psychopathic personality.