Researchers, the authors state, link play to cognitive and affective processes important for a child's development and overall well-being. In this article, the authors examine the relationships involving pretend play, coping, and subjective well-being (the last of which they conceptualize as positive affect--positive mood--and life satisfaction)…

We conducted a qualitative study to explore parental beliefs about emotions in the family across three cultures (African American, European American, and Lumbee American Indian), using the underutilized yet powerful methodology of focus groups. The main goal of this monograph is to understand parents' beliefs about the role of emotions in the…

A critique of research examining whether early experiences with primary caregivers are reflected in adaptation is that relevant longitudinal studies have generally not employed genetically informed research designs capable of unconfounding shared genes and environments. Using the twin subsample (N = 485 pairs) of the Early Childhood Longitudinal…

Set within the affective turn in cultural and social theory, in this paper, I explore the significance of materiality and matter, most specifically, bodily matter, in the pedagogic practices of contemporary school classrooms. The received view in education is that affect is tantamount to emotion or feeling and that materials, such as bodily…

Social skills training (SST) is an evidence-based intervention to help increase social competence for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), but there is limited research that addresses SST for students identified as experiencing EBD at alternative campuses. A mixed methods design was utilized to examine SST at an alternative…

The present paper was written under the auspices of the interdisciplinary research group "Educational Processes, Competence Development, and Selection Decisions at Preschool and Primary School Age (BiKS)" (FOR 543), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The surveys were conceptualised and supervised as part of the developmental…

This article examines the relevance of humor to student engagement in outdoor education. A sociocultural framework is applied to this examination, based on a view of learning as constructed, cognitive, embodied, and affective. A set of affordances of outdoor education as a contextually situated learning activity is identified along with related…

This field report investigates how the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, a college-readiness system targeting populations traditionally underrepresented in postsecondary education, provides students with consistent academic support while enrolled in a rigorous course of study. The report also addresses strategies AVID…

Australian, Iranian and Portuguese university students ("n"?=?967) completed the University Students Depression Inventory (USDI) in English, Persian and Portuguese languages, respectively. A series of MANOVA analyses were used to examine differences in depression symptoms as an effect of the country and demographic variables.…

Research suggests that second/foreign language teachers' sense of humor is directly related to many outcomes for teachers and their students. This research investigates the relationship between the perceived sense of humor of in-service Spanish teachers' (n?=?102) and their students' (n?=?5,419) score on the National Spanish Exams…

The literature is divided on the issue of what matters for adolescents' well-being, with one approach focusing on quality and the other on routine family time. Using the experience sampling method, a unique form of time diary, and survey data drawn from the 500 Family Study ("N" = 237 adolescents with 8,122 observations), this study examined the…

We examined the structural and predictive properties of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in large samples of Canadian male Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders. The PCL-R ratings were part of a risk assessment for criminal recidivism, with a mean follow-up of 26 months postrelease. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, we were…

This study was designed to examine the mediation role of self-efficacy and the moderating roles of change leadership strategy and trust on the change attitudes of job insecure employees. Using job insecurity theory (Greenhalgh, 1983), Chin & Benne's (1961) seminal classification of change leadership strategies and the tripartite model of…

This quantitative study attempted to understand the factors that influence Minnesota community and technical college students to pursue Information Technology (IT) certification. The study investigated the problem of determining the factors that influence Minnesota community and technical college students to pursue IT certification along with…

Early diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders followed by timely research-based intervention is associated with better long-term outcomes such as the improvement of social skills, communication, and increased IQ (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001). Characteristics of children with autism and their families, including limited financial resources…