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Birth parents are the most stigmatized and least researched part of the adoption triad and they experience microaggressions from a number of sources. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, birth parents' needs and stories deserve to be elevated. Using the adoption microaggressions framework, this qualitative study examined birth parents' lived experiences and the microaggressions they have heard and internalized. Microaggressions specific to birth parents and the adoption process were identified. The most frequently occurring microaggressions against birth parents included: Shameful Inadequate, Institutional Microaggressions, and Phantom Birth Parents. Implications for counseling and training are provided for working with members of the adoption triad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Children with ADHD exhibit deficits in academic motivation compared to their peers. Yet conceptualizations of motivation according to prominent motivation theories connected to achievement have not been studied in college-bound youth with ADHD symptoms. Method: This study examined motivation according to these theories, differences in motivation by ADHD symptoms, and how the cross-sectional association between motivation and achievement varies by ADHD symptoms. The sample included 461 first-year college students retrospectively reporting their motivation and achievement in their last year of high school. Results: Results indicated differences in motivation by ADHD symptoms. Mastery achievement goal orientation was uniquely associated with achievement and exerted beneficial effects on achievement at moderate to high ADHD symptom levels. Conclusion: Motivation may operate differently in association with achievement for college-bound youth with ADHD symptoms compared to youth with no to low symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability worldwide, with 70 percent of survivors exhibiting residual impairments of the upper limb that require frequent in-person visits to rehabilitation clinic over several months. This study explored rehabilitation clinician's preferences for design features to be included in an mHealth-enabled app for post-stroke upper limb rehabilitation. Data were collected via online survey, sampling participants from Ethiopia (n = 69) and the United States (n = 75). Survey results indicated that Ethiopian and US rehabilitation clinicians have different opinions about the importance of design features that should be included in a stroke tele-rehabilitation system which are likely due to differences in culture, the availability of human and physical resources, and how the field of rehabilitation is organized and managed. Our results, thus, indicate that mHealth technologies must be tailored to the geographical and cultural context of the end users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing available to most farmworkers is substandard and unacceptable in 21st-century America. The federal government established minimal occupational safety and health standards applicable to migrant farmworker labor camps decades ago, and some states have statutory schemes and regulations that set standards for farm labor camps and employee housing. Many of these federal and state regulations no longer reflect current employment and housing trends, and enforcement success varies greatly. These regulations implicitly recognize the connection between housing conditions and health, but do not effectively address that connection. This review describes the current state of farmworker housing, discusses laws and regulations pertaining to such housing, and highlights the literature on health risks associated with inadequate housing. We propose specific recommendations to strengthen enforcement and reduce the risks of substandard housing for the health of farmworkers and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How defendants are selected into mental health courts (MHC) is central to issues of fairness, efficacy, and successful program replication. Only recently has empirical research started to examine MHC selection, revealing a multi-stage process with multiple decision makers and multiple variables. In this study, we use classification and regression tree analysis (CART) to examine the variables suggested in recent research to predict selection into MHC. The analysis includes legal and diagnostic variables, treatment history, measures of treatability, motivation to change, violence risk, and symptom severity. We find that the MHC is more likely to accept defendants who did not have warrants issued for their arrest, who had diagnoses other than depression, and who did not report using illegal drugs around the time of their admission. Symptom severity and motivation to treatment also predict MHC admission, with their effects contingent on defendants’ statuses on other variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charlotte Todes Stern (5/5/1897-11/15/1996) was a radical activist for most her life, beginning with her introduction to YPSL (Young People's Socialist League) during her college years. In 1923, Todes Stern became a staff member of the Workers' Health Bureau (WHB), and two years later she became their Organizing Secretary. She traveled the United States organizing for the WHB until 1927. This is the third of seven interviews with Charlotte Todes Stern, conducted by Rosalyn Baxandall for the Feminist History Research Project. This interview focuses on the Workers' Health Bureau, its formation, early efforts with the Painters' union in New York, its accomplishments and efforts to obtain safer and healthier working conditions for workers throughout industry, and its organization of annual national conferences for occupational health and safety. Todes Stern discusses the conflicts with the American Federation of Labor and the demise of the Bureau. An interview with Grace Burnham McDonald appears on page 327 of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grace Burnham McDonald (born in 1889) was a founder of the Workers Health Bureau in New York City in 1921. She started the Bureau after her experience with the Joint Board of Sanitary Control. The Bureau assessed workplace health and safety risks, educated labor unions about these issues, and advocated for laws to ensure the highest degree of workplace protection. Her Bureau colleagues were Harriet Silverman and Charlotte Todes (Stern). Burnham McDonald supported the Bureau with part of her 1923 inheritance from her first husband. After years of effective work, the Workers' Health Bureau shut down in 1929, largely as a result of diminished support from the unions, whose focus had shifted to purely economic issues, and the dissociation of the AFL from the Bureau. In later life, Burnham McDonald moved to California, where she became involved in some of the same causes, especially as they affected agricultural laborers. An interview with Charlotte Todes Stern follows and appears on page 337 of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photo essay which documents community environmentalism related to asbestos among students in Indonesia is presented.

The article discusses a document on U.S. workers' compensation reform policy from the American Public Health Association (APHA). According to the document, Workers' Compensation is a social safety net for the protection of workers from unemployment and disability that provides social service needs. Topics include an overview of Workers' Compensation laws, disparities in coverage, care, and compensation, and reform efforts.

The article presents a declaration from the participating members at the 2009 Klimaforum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Topics include an overview of the document's preamble, which states the need for sustainable transition away from carbon-based economies, the global environmental challenges of climate changes, and the causes of climate change from human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Narrative research has become part of the landscape of education inquiry, yet its theory and practice are still debated and evolving. This article addresses the construction of narratives using literary elements common to nonfiction and fiction writings. The authors discuss these elements and use four narratives to illustrate them. They address how literary elements intersect with more familiar practices of generating and analyzing evidence to reveal themes, and they relate these intersections with wider issues about what can be known from research and how it can be learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eula Bmgham, toxicologist and former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is now at that place in her professional life where she can look back over her long career and identify its turning points and evaluate what worked and what didn't, what was important and what of lesser significance. In two interviews, she also looks at the present and the future and expresses concerns about the way we live now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research systematically examines cognitive representations of stereotypes of old age and young adults' and older adults' perceptions of their own communication accommodative behaviors, emotions, and communication satisfaction when a particular Intergenerational Communication Schema is activated. Taiwanese respondents show both congruent and incongruent patterns of responding: Some schemas yield consistently positive or negative responses across dependent variables, whereas others yield mixed and apparently inconsistent patterns. Respondents from the USA show that a helping orientation, when it is associated with different schemas (positive, very sympathetic, or negative) may result in different overall evaluations of the intergenerational conversation experience. Results are discussed in relation to the Communication Predicament of Aging Model and Chinese cultural values of intergenerational communication. Limitations are acknowledged and future studies are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the ability of a safer sex televised public service announcement (PSA) campaign to increase safer sexual behavior among at-risk young adults. Independent, monthly random samples of 100 individuals were surveyed in each city for 21 months as part of an interrupted-time-series design with a control community. The 3-month high-audience-saturation campaign took place in Lexington, KY, with Knoxville, TN, as a comparison city. Messages were especially designed and selected for the target audience (those above the median on a composite sensation-seeking/impulsive-decision-making scale). Data indicate high campaign exposure among the target audience, with 85%-96% reporting viewing one or more PSAs. Analyses indicate significant 5-month increases in condom use, condom-use self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions among the target group in the campaign city with no changes in the comparison city. The results suggest that a carefully targeted, intensive mass media campaign using televised PSAs can change safer sexual behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysfunction in menstrual physiology has pronounced effects on quality of life, involving mood changes, body image, infertility, and pregnancy complications. Light exposure may affect menstrual cycles and symptoms through the influence of melatonin secretion. The purpose of this systematic review is to determine the current state of knowledge about the effects of light and melatonin secretion on menstrual phase and cycle alterations. A brief overview of the influence of melatonin on human physiology is included. There is evidence of a relationship between light exposure and melatonin secretion and irregular menstrual cycles, menstrual cycle symptoms, and disordered ovarian function. In women with a psychopathology such as bipolar disorder or an endocrinopathy such as polycystic ovary syndrome, there seems to be greater vulnerability to the influence of light--dark exposure. Research on the complex role of light--dark exposure in menstrual physiology has implications for treatment of menstrual-associated disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The life and work of sociologist Elise Boulding, a matriarch of the 20th-century peace research movement, has been a celebration of the unique contributions of women in visualizing, making, and building global peace. Women's acculturation toward nurturing, networking, and connections have afforded them opportunities for learning the skills that are most needed for building a better world. The founder of numerous organizations and networks in peace research, peace studies, women's studies, futures, and activism, Boulding has made major contributions to the contemporary field of social reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversations with teachers and professional development leaders enable us, as researchers, to highlight the ambiguous promise of action research within the context of mandated teacher professional development in the province of Alberta, Canada. From this departure, we investigate how educators believe action research projects influence their professional practices and we explore the question of the validity of using state-mandated action research projects as a means of bringing about authentic teacher professional development. Using conversations, we recount the experiences of three teachers who took part in two separate action research projects. As the conversations we present underscore, many teachers involved in state-mandated school-based projects found themselves caught between competing discourses of personal empowerment and individual autonomy on the one hand and externally driven measures of accountability and excellence on the other. In this complex and ambiguous location and within the context of their involvement in action research projects, the three teachers in this study negotiated their own understandings of professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of a survey administered during the spring of 2005. At this time, graduates of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program from two public schools in a large city in British Columbia, Canada, were asked to respond to 20 statements on a 4-point Likert-type scale, and to 7 open-ended questions. Graduates from the years 1996 and 2000 were selected. At the time of this survey, many of the graduates of 2000 were just finishing their undergraduate postsecondary programs, and the graduates of 1996 were settling into their chosen careers. Both groups were in a position to reflect on their experiences while they were in the program, and also to analyze the benefits of IB, if any, that they experienced during their postsecondary studies. Overall, graduates reported positive experiences in the program. They felt that the rich curriculum to which they were exposed, and the critical thinking and time management skills that they developed, were well worth the extra effort required to earn an IB diploma. Furthermore, they felt that the IB experience prepared them well for postsecondary studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 126(g) of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 mandated the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to establish a grant program for the training and education of hazardous waste operations and emergency response workers. This program, originally established as the Superfund Worker Training Program, has evolved into the Worker Education and Training Program (WETP) and is currently in its nineteenth year of successful operation. Beginning with eleven awardees in 1987, it currently supports eighteen awardees that include more than one hundred organizations nationally. The NIEHS WETP built upon the lessons learned from earlier worker health education and training programs to establish a national worker health education intervention that has demonstrated the capacity of and potential for public health excellence. The principles and practices established as the program's foundation in its first five years are detailed, providing a basis for understanding how the program was able to take an active supporting role in response to the national disasters on September 11, 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last several decades, Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) has become a widely used technique in public policy-making. This review examines CBA from perspectives of both advocates and critics; it looks at its theory and practice, its purported advantages and shortcomings in application. It also proposes several ways in which the process can be made more accountable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents views of various persons on the inadequate enforcement of U.S. safety standards. Complain made by Jim Moran, director of Philaposh, a non-profit coalition of 100 unions based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about the criminal prosecution section of the OSH Act; Narration of a story of a worker who went to work to support his family and never returned home from his job.

An association of epidemiologists looks at the state of regional public health preparedness in a time of terrorism in a report that gauges regional readiness. The report examined the status of preparations to deal with chemical and radiological events, and looked at planning gaps, resources, and interagency agreements to coordinate emergency response. The research found inadequate levels of preparedness, planning, and established interagency partnerships and puts forth recommendations to improve the nation's ability to respond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. is rapidly negotiating a raft of new regional and bilateral trade agreements. The most recent agreement, with Central America, [was to] come before Congress for a vote as soon as late May. There is growing concern that international trade agreements threaten health care and the health of communities. ... The Draft Public Health Statement on the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), developed by CPATH which planned a campaign around the issues, analyzes key provisions from the perspective of public health and suggests reframing the trade debate in terms of health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tackles the controversies regarding sewage sludge management. Implications of sewage sludge for public health; Issues about the land application of sewage sludge; Regulation of sewage sludge application; Petitions penned by the Center for Food Safety to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding sewage sludge regulation.

Painful self-disclosures (PSDs) have been described as an elderly phenomenon, yet prior research has not empirically tested possible consequences of PSDs or potential motivations behind them. This study investigated the influence of disclosure type (PSDs vs. nonpainful self-disclosures [NPSDs]) and participant age (young vs. old) on perceptions of disclosure characteristics, discloser traits, and motivations. After watching videotaped interactions, participants completed an impression questionnaire. Participants rated PSDs as more painful, more intimate, and less appropriate than NPSDs, with an interaction effect of age and disclosure type on the PSD ratings. Also, participants rated disclosers of PSDs lower on positive stereotype traits and higher on negative stereotype traits than disclosers of NPSDs, with another interaction effect on the set of positive stereotype traits. Finally, participants rated various motives differently, according to disclosure type and age of participant. These results are discussed within the framework of the communicative predicament of aging model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the actions taken by the U.S. government to protect the forest lands of the country. Improvement of environmental conditions and fostering sustainability; Campaign led by environmentalist Patrick Moore; Legislations enacted in Vermont for the protection of forest lands.

Following Okamoto and Robinson, two studies were conducted to extend the study of politeness in context to a consideration of how older individuals respond to advice delivered in a patronizing (impolite) or affirming (polite) manner Study I involved older persons in focus groups that considered contexts for, perceptions of, and responses to patronizing advice. Study 2 collected oral responses from other older individuals in a 2 (advice style: patronizing/affirming) x 2 (context: community/hospital) design. Together, the studies showed that participants perceived at least five ways of responding to patronizing advice (appreciative, assertive, passive, ignoring, condescending) that vary from highly polite (appreciative) to polite to impolite (condescending). Results from Study 2 supported the hypothesis that evaluations of advice and responses would show that the hospital context legitimates a patronizing advice style, consistent with the general framework of politeness theory. Other results reinforced the complexity and challenges of using the theory to interpret behaviors in context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that the cultures of accountability and validity in high-stake educational testing in the United States are at odds with each other. Distinction between the concepts of accountability and validity; Evidence of contradictions; Discussion on the fallacies of tests used to hold students and teachers accountable.

Describes the partnership of a large urban university and an elementary school in the first year as a professional development school (PDS). Details on the partnership; Guiding principles of PDS; Views on meeting the needs of teachers in a partnership; Discussion on a sophisticated system of interdependence.

This paper relates the history of assessment policy in Arizona using an extensive base of interview, observation, and archival data. In less than a decade, two radical shifts took place: from basic skills and standardized testing to progressive reform by performance testing to high-stakes standardized testing based on state standards. We argue that the shape of assessment policy and policy change had more to do with political spectacle and the struggle for power, position, resources, and the control over public schools than with empirical or rational analysis, moral imperative, or democratic debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the beliefs and attitudes of adults of all ages in the United States about stereotypes of older adults. Multiple stereotypes of older adults; Age differences in perceptions of the elderly; Typicality judgments; Age judgments; Stereotype trait sets; Perceptions of the relative typicality of individual stereotypes.

Explores assumptions and issues of psychological, pedagogical, and reform theories that undergird measurement-driven reform (MDR) of education in the United States. Old and new views of MDR; Arizona student assessment program and the national test movement; Alternative policy instruments.

Discusses how secondary students can be motivated to read their textbooks. Statistics cited in the `Report in Brief: NAEP 1996 Trends in Academic Progress'; Pre-reading strategies that can be used by teachers to help students access prior knowledge; Key to motivating students to read textbooks; Conclusions.

Focuses on the importance of literacy and the incorporation of reading skills into courses across the curriculum. Teachers' preparation in content area reading strategies as well as their content area; View of reading as a dynamic process in which the reader works actively to construct meaning; Impact of teaching reading in content areas on student achievement.

Studies the relationship of physiognomonic cues to age and the activation of positive versus negative stereotypes of elderly individuals in interaction. Model of the role of elderly stereotypes; Self-system of the perceiver; Physical characteristics of the elderly target; Age-adapted speech.

Analyzes the age and typicality judgments of stereotypes of the elderly. Elderly adults' perception of stereotypes as less typical of elderly individuals than did the young adults; Agreement of both groups of respondents on which stereotypes were most typical of the general elderly population; Tendency of both age groups to associate stereotypes with the older elderly age ranges.

The article presents an overview of the "Toxic Chemical Management in Massachusetts: An Analysis of Further Chemical Restriction Policies" report from the Massachusetts Toxies Use Reduction Institute (TURI) and the Chemical Restrictions Roundtable at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Topics discussed include chemical restrictions policies in the U.S., the role of the states in the restrictions process, and the list of priority toxic chemicals.

Evaluating texts is an important activity associated with teaching statistics. Surprisingly, the statistical education literature offers little guidance on how these evaluations should be conducted. This lack of guidance may be at least partly responsible for the fact that published evaluations of statistics texts almost invariably employ evaluation criteria that lack any theory-based rationale. This failing is typically compounded by a lack of empirical evidence supporting the usefulness of the criteria. This article describes the construction and piloting of instruments for evaluating statistics texts that are grounded in the statistical education and text evaluation literatures. The study is an initial step in a line of research which we hope will result in the establishment and maintenance of a database of evaluations of statistical texts. Evaluative information of this kind should assist instructors wrestling with text selection decisions and individuals charged with performing evaluations, such as journal reviewers, and should ultimately benefit the direct consumers of these texts-the students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Evidence from an extensive qualitative study of the role of external testing in elementary schools led to propositions about the effects of such tests on teachers. Data from interviews revealed that teachers experience negative emotions as a result of the publication of test scores and determine to do what is necessary to avoid low scores. Teachers believe that scores are used against them, despite the perceived invalidity of the tests themselves. From classroom observations it was concluded that testing programs substantially reduce the time available for instruction, narrow curricular offerings and modes of instruction, and potentially reduce the capacities of teachers to teach content and to use methods and materials that are incompatible with standardized testing formats. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A multisite investigation of local school districts and states led to the formulation of five propositions that address the nature of competency testing reforms. Two propositions address the determination of standards and examine the extent to which such procedures are affected by political and practical considerations. Another pair of propositions center on implementation of such testing reforms; lopsided organizational activity and nominal attention to minority issues were witnessed at all five sites. In the final proposition, the authors assert that competency tests and standards function more as symbolic and political gestures than instrumental reforms. Five themes are discussed in support of this conclusion: the importance of the standard's image, the redundancy with preexisting standards, the loose coupling of test performance and decisions, the overemphasis on initial fail rates, and the striking contrast between early and late phases of competency testing reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From a qualitative study of the role of external testing in elementary schools, a typology of meanings of test preparation was constructed. Based on long-term, intensive observation and interaction with two elementary schools and the analysis of clinical interviews, we found eight types of orientation toward preparing pupils to take mandated, high-stakes achievement tests. These included (a) ordinary curriculum with no special preparation, (b) teaching test-taking skills, (c) exhortation, (d) teaching content known to be covered by the test, (e) teaching to the test in format and content, (f) stress inoculation, (g) practicing test or parallel test items, and (h) cheating. Meanings of teachers are contrasted with meanings of test preparation held by school administrators, testing experts, and school critics. The structure of meanings is analyzed with some concepts of micropotitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues concerning teachers' beliefs about and use of retention were explored in a qualitative study. Clinical interviews with teachers, participant observation in kindergarten classes, analysis of documents, and interviews with parents revealed that teachers' beliefs about the development of school readiness could be described and ordered along a dimension of nativism, that these beliefs relate to their use of retention as a solution to unreadiness or incompetence, and that elements of the organization of the schools in which they teach may also account for beliefs and practices. Teachers' endorsement of retention diverges both from extant propositional knowledge and from the perceptions of other interested groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article categorizes and describes qualitative research areas. Qualitative researchers involves studying qualities or entities and understanding them in a particular context. The notion of context sensitivity forms the basis of qualitative research. Qualitative research represents the belief that the environment in which individuals find themselves has great influence on their thought and action. The view that human acts are context-sensitive forms another basis of qualitative research. Qualitative research is characterized by self-examination and criticism of the roles established, of the methods used and of mistakes made. Some qualitative research may be described as systematic. Conflict theories and structural-functional theories are two social theories used to explain social life by qualitative researchers. A conflict theorist views schools as a representator and reproductor of the existing class and economic divisions in the society as a whole where as structural functionalism sees schools as one component in a cohesive system of interlocking parts. The researcher operating from the conflict theories framework chooses topics for study and focuses the analysis of data around these themes. The researcher operating from the structural functionalism framework identifies how the schools function with respect to the larger system and identifies dysfunctional aspects.

This study was aimed at describing the characteristics of school-aged children whom educators had identified as learning disabled (LD). A probability sample of 800 was selected from the population of all children served as learning disabled in the state of Colorado. A coding form was used by trained coders to extract relevant features from the case files of the children. The sample was characterized by (1) distributions of single variables (e.g., below grade level achievement, discrepancy between IQ and achievement, medical indicators), and (2) hierarchical classification creating clusters or subgroups within the LD sample. Fewer than half the sample exhibited characteristics consistent with definitions of LD in federal regulations and professional literature. Included in this group were subgroups of hyperactive, brain-injured children, children with significant discrepancies between IQ and achievement and those with signs of perceptual processing disorders. Slightly more than half the sample did not match conventional definitions of LD but exhibited learning problems such as language interference, emotional disorders, or mild retardation. The inclusion of the latter groups among the learning disabled is a particular problem in the validation of the construct and will confound research on prevalence rates and treatment efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features of 59 studies of this relationship were coded and quantified and 371 findings were transformed into a common metric for statistical integration. Analysis, based on a logarithmic model, revealed a substantial relationship between clan size and teacher and pupil attitudes as well as instruction. Favorable teacher effects (workload, morale, attitudes toward students) are associated with smaller classes as are favorable effects on students (self concept, interest in school, participation). Smaller classes are associated with greater attempts to individualize instruction and better classroom climate. The results complement those of a previous meta-analysis that showed positive effects of class size on achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tests the hypothesis that stereotypes of the elderly may lead to beliefs about their communication competence. Use of the Language in Adulthood Questionnaire (LIA) to assess beliefs of young, middle-aged and elderly adults about their language skills and those of four elderly targets; Comparison of the language problems among the elderly, the middle-aged and the young.

Discusses the functions and consequences of patronizing communication towards the elderly. Outline of verbal and nonverbal features of patronizing messages; Study of the development of overparenting and dependency-supportive behaviors; Influence of provider behavior, recipient characteristics, context and recipient response on the meaning of patronizing messages.