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Teacher-rated classroom engagement and student self-reported motivation for mathematics were used to predict mathematics scores in 3rd and 5th grade. Students were grouped based on a combination of biological sex and SES quintiles resulting in 10 independent groups. The mathematics achievement patterns were predicted based upon a combined within-group model. Results indicated female mathematics achievement was not significantly related to self-reported mathematics motivation but was related to classroom engagement. In males, mathematics motivation was not significantly related to achievement for lowest SES males; however, there was a significant relationship for highest quintile class males. Conversely, classroom engagement was significant for lower class males and was not significantly related for highest quintile SES males. Implications of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Victimization has been associated with increased depression, anxiety, anger, and delinquency; yet, research on adolescent victimization has largely relied on variable-centered approaches to examine associations with singular outcomes. With secondary data from the Developmental Victimization Survey, we utilized latent profile analysis to identify subgroups of youth, ages 12-17, based on clusters of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. We also examined how the behavioral outcome clusters were associated with different forms of victimization. Four behavioral subscales were included within the latent profile analysis and a four-class model had the best fit. Youth in Class 3 (high depression, anxiety, anger, and delinquency) were significantly more likely to have experienced peer/sibling victimization and to have experienced indirect victimization than youth in Class 2 (high depression, anxiety, and anger). The study findings indicate that certain types of victimization have greater consequences on mental health and that the unique clustering of symptoms is at least partially accounted for by the types of victimization experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internalizing mental health issues are a significant developmental and clinical concern during adolescence, but rarely identified as a problem among school staff. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined the associations between adolescent emotional distress, school connectedness, and educational achievement by exploring potential mechanistic and interactive roles of perceived school connectedness on the emotion-education association. Emotional distress was negatively associated with adolescents' perceptions of belonging to school, which, in turn, may negatively influence educational achievement. School connectedness also had both additive and multiplicative interaction effects on the emotion-education relationship. Results support previous evidence of school connectedness as a protective factor for adolescents with internalizing mental health concerns, although much of the work to date has focused on externalizing problems. This study informs our understanding of how, why, and for whom emotional problems influence educational outcomes in light of social support in the school context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One aspect of women's interpersonal functioning that may be affected by child sexual abuse (CSA) is parenting. The purpose of our study was to examine parenting profiles among women (N = 264) with/without histories of CSA. We performed a latent profile analysis (LPA) to establish profile membership based on women's self-reported measures of parenting competence and stress. The best fitting model consisted of a three-class solution representing profiles of low competence/high stress (Class 1: 20.83 %), average competence and stress (Class 2: 59.85 %) and high competence/low stress (Class 3: 19.32 %). We also performed a multinomial logistic regression utilizing the estimates generated from the LPA to examine additional correlates of class membership. Our results revealed that women with a history of CSA were represented in all three classes; yet, there was no significant difference in women with histories of CSA across the three classes and CSA was not associated with class membership. We found that daily living hassles, women's sense of personal mastery, acceptability of their child and having a partner were associated with class membership. Membership in Class 1 (low competence/high stress) was predicted by higher scores on daily hassles and lower scores on acceptability of child, compared to Class 2. There were three variables that predicted membership in Class 3, compared to Class 2: personal mastery, acceptability of child and having a partner. None of the other variables were significantly associated with class membership, including a history of CSA. Our findings indicate that regardless of CSA history, all women have strengths and capabilities which should be enhanced in order to promote parenting competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, research on symmetry in intimate partner violence (IPV) has continued to yield mixed results. This article examines symmetry in the prevalence of four types of IPV perpetration and victimization based on socio-demographic characteristics of gender, race, relationship status, sexual orientation, age, and socioeconomic status. Socio-demographic characteristics are examined individually and in combination based on subgroups of unidirectional (perpetration-only and victimization-only) and bidirectional IPV using a nationally representative sample of young adults. Results indicate nearly 40% of the study sample reported at least one act of intimate partner violence and the majority of relationships involved bidirectional violence. Study findings reveal a lack of symmetry on some types of IPV based on the individual and combined socio-demographic characteristics of age, race, and gender. Overall findings show IPV to be prevalent in the relationships of young adults and implications for primary prevention programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated child welfare practitioners’ ratings of the severity of parental discipline practices. Ratings varied by the type of act, age of the child, and by chronicity. Exploratory investigation into changes across time found that current practitioners ( N = 27) rated several practices (e.g. spanking and shaking) as more severe than did professionals ( N = 24) sampled in 1977. Results underscore the complexity of defining child maltreatment and offer implications for practitioners, applied researchers, and child welfare policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A MAb (B16G) which recognizes a constant epitope on TsC and their soluble factors in DBA/2 mice has been described previously. In this study, we show that when this MAb is covalently linked to the photoactivable molecule Hp, and injected i.v. into P815 tumor-bearing mice which were subsequently exposed to light, tumors undergo permanent regression in 10%-40% of these mice (depending on the individual experiment). All control animals died within an average of 22-24 days after tumor cell injection. It is suggested that tumor regression is attributable to immune mechanisms facilitated by the elimination of a population of TsC. When splenocytes of B16G-Hptreated mice were assayed in vitro for the generation of CTL active against P815 tumor cells, it was found that 24 h after treatment, a significant increase in killer cell activity was noted but that this effect was gone by 48h. We also show that B16G-Hp conjugates are capable in vitro of specifically killing cells of a TsC hybridoma, A10 (which has been shown previously to secrete a T suppressor factor reactive with P815 cell surface antigens). This conjugate had no cytotoxic effect on P815 cells under conditions in which A10 cells were killed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a national database, this study examined the relationship between the language of instruction models and the frequency of peer-mediated learning activity on English learners’ reading achievement (N = 1,004). Results from the Multilevel Modeling (MLM) analyses revealed an interaction between the language of instruction and the frequency of peer-mediated learning in EL’s second-grade reading. Specifically, ELs enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs who worked weekly with monolingual English speaker peers had greater reading scores than those who worked daily or monthly. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]