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Introduction/Aims Methods Results Discussion Neuromas come in different shapes and sizes; yet the correlation between neuroma morphology and symptomatology is unknown. Therefore, we aim to investigate macroscopic traits of excised human neuromas and assess the validity of a morphological classification system and its potential clinical implications.End‐neuroma specimens were collected from prospectively enrolled patients undergoing symptomatic neuroma surgery. Protocolized images of the specimens were obtained intraoperatively. Pain data (Numeric rating scale, 0–10) were prospectively collected during preoperative interview, patient demographic and comorbidity factors were collected from chart review. A morphological classification is proposed, and the inter‐rater reliability (IRR) was assessed. Distribution of neuroma morphology with patient factors, was described.Forty‐five terminal neuroma specimens from 27 patients were included. Residual limb patients comprised 93% of the population, of which 2 were upper (8.0%) and 23 (92.0%) were lower extremity residual limb patients. The proposed morphological classification, consisting of three groups (bulbous, fusiform, atypical), demonstrated a strong IRR (Cohen's kappa = 0.8). Atypical neuromas demonstrated higher preoperative pain, compared with bulbous and fusiform. Atypical morphology was more prevalent in patients with diabetes and peripheral vascular disease.A validated morphological classification of neuroma is introduced. These findings may assist surgeons and researchers with better understanding of symptomatic neuroma development and their clinical implications. The potential relationship of neuroma morphology with the vascular and metabolic microenvironment requires further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being able to talk comfortably about sexual topics enhances romantic relationships; however, revealing private sexual information entails trusting a partner with the disclosure. Based on the disclosure decision-making model, this study tested a sexual disclosure model identifying mechanisms linking perceived disclosure trust with willingness and likelihood to disclose private sexual information to partners. Survey responses from 595 individuals indicated that when deciding to reveal private sexual information, people consider their level of trust disclosing to a partner, the outcomes that they anticipate will incur if they reveal the information to the partner, and their ability to manage such a revelation. The sexual disclosure model provides a useful framework for understanding decisions to reveal private sexual information to romantic partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of early childhood professionals use the Internet to improve their skills, knowledge, and practice. The Internet may be a practical alternative for providing high-quality, research-based training, information, and resources to these professionals. When designing online materials and Web sites, however, it is important to first assess early childhood professionals' needs so that the materials and experience can be designed to best meet those needs. The current, multistate study was designed to address three questions: (1) How do early childhood professionals currently use the Internet? (2) What features do early childhood professionals most prefer in a Web site designed especially for them? and (3) Do preferences for specific types of features vary depending on characteristics such as age, education, experience, and comfort with the Internet? Eight hundred sixteen early childhood professionals in three regions of the United States (Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada) completed a brief questionnaire regarding their preferences and experiences with online professional development. Respondents were most likely to use the Internet for email and to access it for both professional and personal reasons. Respondents were most interested in being able to download learning activities and curricula, access online training and classes, obtain materials to give to parents, and ask questions of experts. The information from this study should be useful for educators currently involved in providing online educational opportunities, as well as those educators considering offering such resources. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)

Much effort has been expended in developing intervention programs to help improve the early literacy and school readiness skills of young children. This article presents the results of a needs assessment project aimed at identifying priorities for community intervention programs aimed at ensuring that young children enter school ready to learn. A panel of 30 carefully selected early childhood panelists completed 4 rounds of questionnaires designed to develop a prioritized list of key community needs and programs. The panelists identified 39 broad issues and prioritized these in terms of critical importance. Participants also identified key existing assets and needed community efforts to address the highest rated priorities. Several implications for educational intervention and service provision can be drawn from this project. The article may provide a blueprint for others wishing to identify key community needs related to important early childhood issues.

Objective: The goal of this study was to explore the messages young adults received from their parents about sexual morality. Background: Research on parent–child communication about sexuality has shown that parents are likely to convey moral messages about sex, however, little is known about the content of these messages. Method: Young adults (N = 350) were surveyed about parent–child communication as part of a larger study (N = 425). This paper focuses on perceptions of messages about sexual morality young adults believe they received from their parents while growing up. Results: Results indicate parents may unknowingly be providing gendered information reinforcing sexual scripts. Specifically, women are differentially taught about relationship structures (e.g., marriage), abstinence, consent, avoidance of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, contraception, and autonomy, while also receiving disproportionately more mixed, unclear messages than men. Conclusions: Emerging adult recollections on parent–child discussions tended to be general in scope and lacked the specificity that could inform sexual knowledge and behaviors. Implication s : These thematic messages related to sexual morality can be utilized to inform sexual education and parent education programs related to sexuality, sexual knowledge, and communication. Lack of comprehensive sexual education and parent–child discussions may have implications for health and well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Couples managing chronic illnesses—the leading causes of death and disability in the United States—can experience challenges in their daily lives and relationships. Both couple members have reported lower satisfaction, greater burden, and communication difficulties. Many of these illnesses are nonvisible or concealable, increasing fear and uncertainty when sharing illness information, and reducing self-disclosure. These challenges can leave couples vulnerable to dissatisfaction and distress. In this longitudinal study, we integrated dyadic coping frameworks to examine how couples' communication and coping predicted relational well-being over time. Couples, where one partner was diagnosed with a concealable chronic illness, completed three online surveys 6 months apart (n = 242 couples at baseline, 146 couples at 6 months, and 123 couples at 12 months). Couples were recruited from university settings. Actor-partner interdependence mediation models using within-person multilevel dyadic path modeling tested the theoretical model. For patient and partner actor effects, at times when they saw the illness as shared and something that they could manage together, the more they talked about the illness and used dyadic coping strategies (p <.001). In turn, when using dyadic coping strategies more often, patients and partners felt more satisfied, close, and sexually satisfied than they typically felt that year (p <.001). For cross-partner effects, when patients talked about the illness more than usual, their partners also used dyadic coping strategies more often (p =.01). Patients' open communication may not only benefit themselves but also their partners. This multifaceted approach offers new insight into promoting relational well-being while managing concealable chronic illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several challenges arise when researchers or practitioners attempt to assess the literacy skills of toddlers, including a lack of developmentally appropriate measures, toddlers' more limited communication ability, and how literacy is defined in the years before age three. This paper describes four new measures of early literacy development and provides preliminary evidence of their reliability and validity. Results show that the measures of Representational Knowledge, Concepts About Symbols, Book Handling Skills, and Environmental Symbols all performed well in a sample of 148 toddlers. The findings hold several implications for the study of the literacy development of toddlers.

Communicating verbally about sexual topics is one aspect of sexual communication, and romantic partners have to choose whether to disclose sexual information. The present study used conversational goals – what one hopes to accomplish in the conversation – to examine how people decide whether or not to engage in sexual self-disclosure. In an online survey, romantically involved participants (n = 428) provided data on four conversational goals (instrumental, impression management, identity, and relational), disclosure efficacy, disclosure anxiety, and likelihood to sexually self-disclose. Mediation model results indicated that the instrumental goal was directly associated with greater likelihood to disclose while the impression management goal was directly associated with less likelihood to disclose. The instrumental, impression management, and relational goals were indirectly connected with the likelihood to sexually self-disclose as mediated by disclosure efficacy and anxiety. The results highlight the importance of considering conversational goals perspectives when studying communication about taboo topics. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: DVD classroom newsletters are one proposed technology tool to promote classroom-to-home connections. The present study explored the experiences of prekindergarten children from predominantly Spanish-speaking homes with bilingual (English and Spanish) DVD classroom newsletters. On average, parents reported that children watched each DVD nearly 3 times. Interviews with children and other sources, including parent logs, teacher logs, and a teacher focus group, also captured children's experiences. Findings indicate that children have overall positive experiences with watching DVD classroom newsletters at home. Practice or Policy: Overall the findings support the use of DVD newsletters in prekindergarten programs as a way to create an opportunity to empower children, strengthen their digital literacy, extend the learning environment, and provide opportunities for meaningful conversations in the classroom and home.

The presence and use of new technologies in early childhood settings are rapidly increasing. One technology tool used in early childhood settings is monthly DVD classroom newsletters, yet there is a lack of assessments to support pre-kindergarten teachers' uses of such DVD newsletter technology--in general and in specific. The present study helps to fill this gap by developing and testing a revised rubric to evaluate the quality of monthly DVD classroom newsletters. Results indicate that the revised "Monthly DVD Classroom Newsletter-Rubric" exhibited good overall reliability. We suggest that the use of a rubric to assess pre-kindergarten teacher-created monthly DVD classroom newsletters supports teachers' decision making about technology uses and professional development.

Using a developmental assets framework, we examined the influences of family resources, routines, and stress on preschool-aged children's emerging literacy development. Data were collected from 85 children as well as from their parents. Using path analysis, the results revealed that the more regular the routines in the household, the more likely parents were to engage their children in literacy enhancing activities, and in turn the higher the children's print knowledge and reading interest. This was the case both initially and a year later. Results also showed that family resources and stress contributed to aspects of literacy development, although not as strongly as family routines. The findings suggest that interventions should include efforts to promote supportive family contexts as an additional means to enhance children's literacy development. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures, and 1 note.)

Family scholars have offered a host of formal definitions of family with little consensus. One reason scholars may have trouble reaching agreement is that rather than having a classical definition, there may be a variety of features and forms of family that people consider more typical than others. Three studies were undertaken to gain a better understanding of laypeople's concept of family. Study 1 indicates that people have central features and attributes that they ascribe to the concept of family. Study 2 likewise reveals that certain forms of family are considered more exemplary than others. Study 3 brings the elements of features and forms together and provides evidence of a possible underlying structure of family in which central features are matched with central forms. Research, measurement, and social policy implications for the study of family are discussed. (Contains 3 tables.)

The authors review the article "Prescription Drug Use and Abuse: Risk Factors, Red Flags, and Prevention Strategies" (J. H. Isaacson, J. A. Hopper, D. P. Alford, & T. Parran, 2005), which provides an overview of the recent increase in prescription opioid abuse and dependence from the physician's perspective. In the present article, the authors discuss the counselor's role in identifying issues related to client misuse and abuse of prescription opioids. Associated terminology, common drug acquisition strategies, and signs of problematic use are provided and discussed.

This paper reports on a study that examined both the concurrent and longitudinal connections between multiple components of the home environment and indicators of preschool-aged children's literacy and language development. Data were collected from 85 parents and their children at two different times. Results of structural path models indicated that (a) parental literacy habits were positively associated with parental reading beliefs, (b) parental reading beliefs were positively associated with parent-child literacy and language activities in the home, and (c) parent-child literacy and language activities were positively associated with children's print knowledge and reading interest. Parental demographic characteristics were associated with children's expressive and receptive language skills. The results highlight how different components of the home literacy environment are associated with different components of preschool-aged children's literacy and language abilities, findings that become more important as educators and policy-makers look for ways to enhance children's literacy and language development.

This study examined mothers beliefs about literacy development, the association of those beliefs with other aspects of the home literacy environment, and connections between parental literacy beliefs and pre-school aged children's literacy development. Data were collected from 79 mothers and their children over one year, and two profiles of parental literacy beliefs emerged. Facilitative mothers believed that taking an active role in teaching children at home would provide opportunities for their children to gain vocabulary, knowledge, and morals. Conventional mothers expressed the belief that schools, more than parents, are responsible for teaching children and tended to report many challenges to reading with children. Homes with Facilitative mothers tended to be more literacy enriching than homes of Conventional mothers, and children with Facilitative mothers displayed more advanced print knowledge and interest in reading. These findings have implications for understanding the connections among parental literacy beliefs, home literacy environments, and children's literacy outcomes. (Contains 5 tables.)

Based on ecological theory, this study examined how four components of children's home and child-care literacy environments, and the connections between these environments, were associated with preschool-age children's literacy and language development. Interview and standardized assessment data were collected from 85 preschool-age children, their parents, and child-care teachers. Findings from correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that (a) the literacy environments in a home and in a child-care center were associated with children's literacy and language development in varied and multifaceted ways, (b) aspects of home and child-care literacy environments combined to support children's skills, and (c) some of these associations remained after one year. The findings have implications for how researchers conceptualize the contexts in which preschool-age children's literacy and language development occurs and how they study connections among those contexts.

The purpose of this article is to review the available literature regarding rural couple and family counseling, in conjunction with the findings of research in closely related fields. This review is conducted in an effort to identify unique practice issues facing rural couple and family counselors. (Contains 77 references.) (GCP)

Examined the relationship between the family environment and children's language and literacy skills, guided by the three models of: (1) Family as Educator; (2) Resilient Family; and (3) Parent-Child Care Partnership. Found that only the Family as Educator model was significantly related to child language and literacy outcomes. (Author)

This study examined changes in support and stress for 352 high school-age subjects at three points over a seven-month period. Questionnaire responses indicated that mothers were selected most often as primary support person. Perceptions of parental and family support were instrumental in predicting adolescents changing their nomination of support provider and perception of stress. (Author/KB)

Presents a model which blends the family and work spheres into an exchange-based model of family interaction in two-generation farm families. Specific recommendations are made to help rural family practitioners, educators, and Cooperative Extension agents better understand and work with two-generation farm families. (LLL)

Examined role of stress and resources in family satisfaction for two-generation farm families. Findings from 481 adults highlight the central role of family stress, unity, and power in the perception of family satisfaction; however, the role these variables played differed for each generation. (Author/NB)