Theories of visual narrative understanding have often focused on the changes in meaning across a sequence, like shifts in characters, spatial location, and causation, as cues for breaks in the structure of a discourse. In contrast, the theory of visual narrative grammar posits that hierarchic "grammatical" structures operate at the…

The use of mental health-related intake assessments by juvenile correctional facilities as predictive measures of confinement behavior has seen limited use in recent years. This study employs the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2) and How I Think Questionnaire (HIT) as measurement tools on the same data set to assess the…

Non-parental arrangements for young children serve a dual function as supports for parental activities and educational inputs for children. However, arrangements that are suited to meet families' specific needs and preferences are sometimes in tension with experts' definitions of "quality." Researchers and policymakers increasingly…

Prior research suggests that parenting affects children's relationships, including those with teachers, although there is variation across individuals in such effects. Given evidence suggesting that oxytocin may be particularly important for the quality of social relationships, we tested the hypotheses (a) that change in parenting from 4 to 6…

Research Findings: It is widely acknowledged that consistent, high-quality teacher-student interactions promote optimal developmental outcomes for children. Previous research on the quality of teacher-student interactions provides empirical support for this premise. Little research has been conducted on the consistency of teacher-student…

This study investigated the relationship between emotional responses and reading performance in middle-school students. Although a large number of prior studies have investigated the relationship between emotion and reading, those studies have concentrated primarily on relatively static and distal measures of emotion. In this research, we measured…

As supervisors of preschool teachers, childcare center directors are well-situated to mentor their staff to pursue higher education. Telephone interviews with 78 directors examined their role as mentors in encouraging preschool teachers to take college classes. Educational mentoring was shown to be distinct from career mentoring. Logistic…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of "self-efficacy" for "Enlisting Social Resources, Self-Regulatory Efficacy, self-efficacy" for "Self-Regulated Learning," and "self-efficacy" for "Academic Achievement" (Bandura's Children's "Self-Efficacy Scale," 2006) of urban…

Objective: To describe the dietary behaviors of black women who enrolled in the SisterTalk weight control study. Design: Baseline data collected via telephone survey and in-person screening. Setting: Boston, Massachusetts and surrounding areas. Participants: 461 black women completed the baseline assessments. Main Outcome Measures: Measured height…

It is unclear how objective risk factors influence the factors associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk perception. The goals of this study were to investigate factors associated with perceived risk of CRC and to explore how these relationships were modified by personal history of polyps or family history of CRC. The study involved a mailed…

A school climate questionnaire was developed and administered to 1,959 students in a sample of 24 Massachusetts high schools. Related questionnaires were administered in eight of these schools to 500 teachers, administrators, and support staff. School climate is defined as feelings and opinions about various aspects of the school and how it…