This article discusses ways that racism affects child development, the historic racial experiences and reaction to them that has made it difficult for society to address racism, and the implications of racism and its history for the preparation and practice of early childhood professionals. (IAH)

This article summarizes views expressed to teacher education students who interviewed public school educators on the subject of social problems that stand in the way of meeting academic goals. These interviews were assigned as part of a unit in a course designed to provide a social foundation for teachers. (IAH)

Offers a framework for the analysis and evaluation of actions taken on behalf of children upon their environment. Examines defining suitable child development outcomes for intervention programs. Discusses poverty and prejudice, two examples of environmental conditions that threaten children's development. Summarizes the characteristics of a…

Summarizes study of children born in poverty on Kauai, Hawaii, focusing on resilience characteristics of the one-third of children who succeeded and became socially competent despite their poverty. Identifies resilience characteristics for infants, toddlers, and elementary school children, and for corresponding caregivers and caregiving…

Recent research has emphasized the importance of cognitive appraisal in understanding coping processes. This study attempts to assess Belfast children's perception of stressful familial, academic, social, and violent events with specific reference to the Northern Irish conflict environment. The perceptions of 689 8- to 11-year olds were rated. (LZ)

Describes functional assessment, discusses the need to translate research findings into formats and processes that can be used efficiently in applied settings, and stresses the need for research to continue to build a technology of functional assessment that meets the range of situations faced in schools and communities. (Author/CR)

Examined effects of different environmental measures on individual intellectual growth patterns. Growth curve analyses revealed that HOME scores exerted a constant influence on the expected composite, verbal, and nonverbal intellectual skills at each age. Only SES influenced the rate of growth, specifically nonverbal intellectual skills. (Author)

The study examined relationships among family social status, perceptions of family and school learning environments, and measures of children's academic achievement, educational aspirations and self-concept. Data were collected from 261 (128 boys, 133 girls) 11-year-old Taiwanese children. The findings from structural equation modelling suggest…

Using multivariate discriminant analysis and the data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999, this paper made 5 individual comparisons between the U.S. middle school system and 5 Asian middle school systems, which have typically been top ranked in mathematics and science achievement scores. The discriminant…

Over the past 30 years, the rate of childhood obesity has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2 to 5 years and adolescents aged 12 to 19 years, and it has more than tripled for children 6 to 11 years of age (Institute of Medicine, 2005). At present, approximately 9 million children over 6 years are considered obese (Institute of…

The purpose of this article is to discuss determinants of computer self-efficacy from the perspective of participant internal learning motivations and external learning environments. The former consisted of three motivations--interest, trend, and employment--while the latter comprised two environments--home and school. Through an intermediate…

Based on the theoretical perspectives of socio-constructivism and language socialization, this study reports two Chinese Canadian first grader's experiences of language and literacy learning in and out of school in a unique sociocultural setting where they were "the mainstream." The article examines the students' reading and writing…

A study examined issues related to between- and within-class decomposition of variance in reading achievement. The aim is to find "pure" latent structures of achievement at the between-class level as a basis for further investigation of explanatory factors such as teaching. Multilevel factor analysis (MFA) can give a pattern…

This Digest considers language learning as a socio-cultural process, contending that to fully function in a particular language, one not only needs to understand the mechanics, such as the grammar, but also to apply that language across various contexts, audiences, and purposes. The Digest discusses language learning at home, language learning in…

The 174 measures in this bibliography are concerned with the description and evaluation of the human environment, including those of the school, workplace, and family. Types of measures include; observations, rating scales, coding systems, questionnaires, and inventories. All ages are represented. This document is one in a series of topical…