Exploring outcomes through narrative: the long-term impacts of Better Beginnings, Better Futures on the turning point stories of youth at ages 18-19.

This study examined the long-term effects of the Better Beginnings, Better Futures project, a community-based early childhood development program, on 18-19 year-old youths' narratives about turning points in their lives. The sample consisted of youth who participated in Better Beginnings from ages 4-8 (n = 62) and youth from a comparison community who did not participate in Better Beginnings (n = 34). Controlling for covariates, significant differences favoring youth from the Better Beginnings sites were found on several dimensions of the turning point stories: ending resolution, personal growth, meaning-making, coherence, and affect transformation. Effect sizes ranged from .45 to .76 for these outcome dimensions, indicating moderate to large effects. Also, turning point story dimensions were found to be significantly correlated with two standardized measures of well-being: youths' self-esteem and community involvement. Youths' self-esteem was directly related to story ending resolution, personal growth, and meaning making, and youths' community involvement was directly related to story specificity, meaning making, and coherence. Family functioning was also examined in relation to these narrative dimensions but was not found to be significantly related to them. The findings suggest the utility of a narrative approach for the evaluation of the long-term outcomes of early childhood development programs.

[Utilization and effectiveness of short-term counseling in child guidance]. / Inanspruchnahme und Wirksamkeit von Kurzberatung in der Erziehungsberatung.

UNLABELLED: This study investigates the utilization and effectiveness of short-term counseling in child guidance. For this purpose a comparison was made between short-term and long-term counseling (each N = 89) and a catamnestic telephone interview of the parents who had had short-term counseling was conducted (N = 70). RESULTS: 1. The rate of short-term counseling amounts to 39%. 2. The individuals seeking short-term counseling are significantly less burdened with problems. 3. In stating the reason for a short-term counseling, 58% of the individuals concerned claim that the number of counseling sessions held had been sufficient, that there had been an improvement with regard to the problems, or that according to the counselor there had been no need for further activity; 24% were dissatisfied with the counseling and for this reason broke it off; 10% were directed to other institutions. 4. On the whole the persons seeking advice evaluated the short-term counseling mainly positively. The evaluation of satisfaction and success corresponds with the evaluation commonly gained in educational guidance: 70% of the individuals seeking counseling were satisfied with the results, 44% reported positive changes due to the advice they received, and 66% seem to have gained a better understanding for their children. 5. The good relationship between the counselor and the person seeking advice appeared to be particularly important.

Assessment of families who have substance abuse issues: those who maltreat their infants and toddlers and those who do not.

Although an association exists among risk factors of age of child, substance use and child maltreatment, less is known about the differences between substance abusing families who maltreat their children and substance abusing families who do not maltreat their children. The relationship among substance use and maltreatment needs to be further explored to identify specific assessment techniques to discriminate between the two groups. The study findings, based upon case records analyzed in 2002, show there is a set of significant characteristics of families who have a history of substance use and who maltreat their infant and toddlers and those families who do not.

Desarrollo de diferentes marcos de referencia espacial para la orientación en entornos a pequeña escala / Development of different spatial frames of reference for orientation in small-scale environments

Background: Previous studies show that there is a developmental transition in the frames of reference children use to orientate from a body-centered to an allocentric strategy. However, there is no agreement concerning the age at which they begin to integrate and flexibly use both strategies in small scale environments. Method: 6-10-year-old children and adults were trained to locate a hidden object in an arm-maze placed within a small-scale model, which maintained stable relationships with the frames of reference provided by the experimental room and by the subject (Experiment 1), and in a situation of inconsistency between the frame provided by the small scale model and the other two (Experiment 2). Results: When the frames of reference provided by the room and by the subject conflict with that of the manipulative space, the performance deteriorates compared to the situation when multiple frames of reference can be used cooperatively to locate the goal. The flexible use of the information provided by the model (i.e., the cues surrounding the maze and the geometrical features) emerged at 10 years. Conclusions: Through development, children acquire new spatial abilities and increasing flexibility in the conjoint use of egocentric and allocentric frames of reference in small-scale environments (AU)

Antecedentes: estudios previos muestran una transición durante el desarrollo en las estrategias que los niños utilizan para orientarse, aunque no hay consenso en la edad de inicio para emplear conjuntamente estrategias alocéntricas y egocéntricas en entornos a pequeña escala. Método: niños de 6-10 años y adultos fueron entrenados para encontrar un objeto escondido en un laberinto radial ubicado en una maqueta que mantiene una relación constante con los marcos de referencia proporcionados por la habitación experimental y por el participante (experimento 1), y en una situación de inconsistencia entre el marco de referencia del entorno a pequeña escala y los de la habitación y el sujeto (experimento 2). Resultados: cuando los marcos de referencia de la habitación y el sujeto entran en conflicto con el del espacio manipulativo, la ejecución empeora respecto a una situación en que múltiples marcos de referencia cooperan para localizar la meta. Desde los 10 años los niños usan la información del espacio manipulativo, tanto las claves que rodean al laberinto como la geometría de dicho entorno. Conclusiones: durante el desarrollo los niños adquieren nuevas habilidades espaciales y mayor flexibilidad en el uso conjunto de marcos de referencia egocéntricos y alocéntricos en entornos a pequeña escala(AU)

Habilidades sociales y de liderazgo en el trastorno por déficit de atención/ hiperactividad: relación con las capacidades cognitivo-atencionales / Social and leadership abilities in attention defi cit/hyperactivity disorder: relation with cognitiveattentional capacities

Objetivo. Analizamos las habilidades sociales y de liderazgo en niños con TDAH y su relación con la ejecución de tareas que implican atención y autocontrol. Material y métodos. Análisis retrospectivo clínico de 170 pacientes con TDAH. Se evaluaron las habilidades sociales y de liderazgo medido a través del sistema de evaluación de la conducta de niños y adolescentes (BASC) y su relación con diferentes test neuropsicológicos, incluyendo la escala de Wechsler para niños-IV (WISC-IV) y el test de ejecución continuada de Conners (CPT II).Resultados. En el análisis diferencial entre el cociente intelectual, los resultados de los test y su relación con las puntuaciones del BASC, se observó una relación estadísticamente significativa entre la capacidad atencional esperada para la inteligencia del paciente, y la puntuación en los apartados habilidades sociales (según el BASC rellenado por madres y profesores) y de liderazgo (según todos los informadores).Conclusiones. Las dificultades atencionales están íntimamente relacionadas con la competencia social en pacientes con TDAH, bien por una relación causa-efecto directa o por un sustrato disejecutivo común en este trastorno (AU)

Objective. We have analyzed social and leadership abilities in children with ADHD and their relationship with execution of tasks involving sustained attention and inhibitory control. Patients and methods. A retrospective analysis of 170patients with ADHD was performed. We evaluated leadership and social abilities, measured through the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) and their relations with the results of different neuropsychological tests, including Wechsler scale for children (WISC-IV) and Conners' continuous performance (CPT II). Results. In the differential analysis between the IQ, results of the tests and their relation to BASC scores, a statistically significant relation was observed between attentional capacity expected according to the patient’s intelligence and social skills scores (according to BASC filled out by mothers and teachers) and leadership (according to all informants) sections. Conclusiones. Attention al difficulties are closely related to social competence in patients with ADHD, either by a direct cause-effect relationship or a shared dysexecutive substrate of this disorder (AU)

¿Es estable la orientación afectiva de los niños hacia los diferentes grupos étnicos? Un estudio longitudinal de las actitudes intragrupo y exogrupo en niños de Escuela Infantil / How stable is children's affective orientation toward different ethnic groups? A longitudinal study of in-group and out-group attitudes among preschoolers

La mayoría de las investigaciones sobre la conciencia étnica y el prejuicio en niños se ha basado en estudios transversales, por lo que tenemos poca información sobre los cambios intraindividuales que ocurren en esta área de desarrollo. ¿Hay una secuencia de desarrollo estable de los diferentes componentes de la conciencia étnica? ¿La preferencia por el endogrupo precede al rechazo del exogrupo, como sugieren los estudios transversales? ¿Y mantienen los niños la misma orientación afectiva hacia diferentes exogrupos? En este artículo se presenta un estudio longitudinal con 50 niños españoles de 4 a 5 años (primera medida) y de 5 a 6 años (segunda medida) en el que se evaluaron varios aspectos de su conciencia étnica y de sus actitudes hacia cuatro grupos (españoles, latinoamericanos, africanos y asiáticos), en un contexto de juego de ordenador. Los resulta-dos mostraron una significativa positividad hacia el endogrupo, pero ausencia de negatividad hacia los exogrupos, tanto en el primer tiempo de medida como en el segundo. De hecho, no hubo diferencias en las atribuciones negativas de los niños al endogrupo y a los exogrupos. Por otra parte, los análisis longitudinales mostraron que la mayoría de los niños no cambió la intensidad de su orientación afectiva hacia cada grupo étnico, un tema que ha recibido poca atención en estudios previos (AU)

Most previous research on children’s ethnic awareness and prejudice has been based on cross-sectional studies; hence we have little in-formation on the intra-individual changes that occur in this area of development. Is there a stable developmental sequence of the different components of ethnic awareness? Does in-group preference precede out-group rejection, as cross-sectional studies do suggest? And do children maintain the same affective orientation toward different out-groups? We con-ducted a longitudinal study with 50 Spanish children aged 4 to 5 years (first measure) and 5 to 6 years (second measure). We assessed several aspects of their ethnic awareness and attitudes toward four groups (Spaniards, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians), within a computer-game context. Results showed a significant in-group positivity but a lack of out-group negativity, both at time 1 and 2. In fact, children’s negative attributions to the in-group and to the out-groups did not differ. On the other hand, the longitudinal analyses revealed that most children did not change the intensity of their affective orientation to each group, an issue that has received little attention in previous studies (AU)