Understanding Parental Educational Involvement: The Roles of Parental General and Child-Specific School Readiness Beliefs

Making a smooth transition to the K–12 (kindergarten through Grade 12) classroom context sets the stage for academic success throughout the life course. Parents’ early education-related behaviors are linked with children’s adjustment, yet less is known about how parental school readiness beliefs motivate parenting practices at this educational transition. We investigated the associations between parental school readiness beliefs (general and child-specific) following the transition to kindergarten and parents’ involvement the following year. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten 2011 cohort (N = 9,790), general school readiness beliefs and child-specific academic and behavioral competency beliefs were associated with school-based involvement in first grade. Kindergarten parents who held higher child-specific academic competency beliefs also reported less homework involvement and had greater teacher-reported classroom-based involvement in first grade. Family poverty status differences did not emerge. Findings can inform efforts to increase parental involvement by elucidating the ways in which parents’ beliefs about their children motivate involvement strategies

FACTORS RELATED TO SELF-ESTEEM IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE

The literature suggests that children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk of lower self-esteem than healthy peers. Research on factors predicting low self-esteem in children and adolescents with SCD is sparse, yet findings from studies of healthy children and adolescents indicate that age and sex are related to self-esteem. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the relationships between self-esteem in children and adolescents with SCD and age, sex, disease severity, and physical stature using data from, the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease. The study also examined whether age and sex moderated the relationship between physical stature and self-esteem. Results indicated that self-esteem scores and age were positively correlated, with scores dipping around the time of school transitions. Sex, disease severity, and physical stature were not predictive of self-esteem in children and adolescents with SCD in this study. Future research should focus on identifying and examining other possible factors that may be related to self-esteem in youth with SCD.  M.A

FACTORS RELATED TO SELF-ESTEEM IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE

The literature suggests that children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk of lower self-esteem than healthy peers. Research on factors predicting low self-esteem in children and adolescents with SCD is sparse, yet findings from studies of healthy children and adolescents indicate that age and sex are related to self-esteem. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the relationships between self-esteem in children and adolescents with SCD and age, sex, disease severity, and physical stature using data from, the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease. The study also examined whether age and sex moderated the relationship between physical stature and self-esteem. Results indicated that self-esteem scores and age were positively correlated, with scores dipping around the time of school transitions. Sex, disease severity, and physical stature were not predictive of self-esteem in children and adolescents with SCD in this study. Future research should focus on identifying and examining other possible factors that may be related to self-esteem in youth with SCD

What is the Impact of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination on Adolescents’ Well-Being?

Racial and ethnic disparities are common across multiple domains in the United States and likely rooted in experiences of discrimination that occur early in individuals’ lives. In this brief, PRC faculty research associate Aprile D. Benner and colleagues report on a meta-analysis that examines whether adolescents’ perceptions of racial and ethnic discrimination are negatively linked to their well-being. They found that greater experiences of racial and ethnic discrimination are associated with higher levels of socioemotional distress, a higher likelihood of engaging in risky health behaviors and lower academic achievement. They also found that discrimination poses the greatest risk for Latino youth and younger adolescents.Population Research Cente

Molecular Recognition and Shape Studies of 3- and 4-Substituted Diarylamide Quasiracemates

Families of quasiracemic materials constructed from 3- and 4-substituted chiral diarylamide molecular frameworks were prepared, where the imposed functional group differences systematically varied from H to CF3–9 unique components for each isomeric framework. Cocrystallization from the melt via hot stage thermomicroscopy using all possible racemic and quasiracemic combinations probed the structural boundaries of quasiracemate formation. The crystal structures and lattice energies (differential scanning calorimetry and lattice energy calculations) for many of these systems showed that quasienantiomeric components organize with near inversion symmetry and lattice energetics closely resembling those found in the racemic counterparts. This study also compared the shape space of pairs of quasienantiomers using an in silico alignment-based method to approximate the differences in molecular shape and provide a diagnostic tool for quasiracemate prediction. Comparing these results to our recent report on related 2-substituted diarylamide quasiracemates shows that functional group position can have a marked effect on quasiracemic behavior and provide critical insight to a more complete shape space, essential for defining molecular recognition processes

Molecular Recognition and Shape Studies of 3- and 4-Substituted Diarylamide Quasiracemates

Families of quasiracemic materials constructed from 3- and 4-substituted chiral diarylamide molecular frameworks were prepared, where the imposed functional group differences systematically varied from H to CF3–9 unique components for each isomeric framework. Cocrystallization from the melt via hot stage thermomicroscopy using all possible racemic and quasiracemic combinations probed the structural boundaries of quasiracemate formation. The crystal structures and lattice energies (differential scanning calorimetry and lattice energy calculations) for many of these systems showed that quasienantiomeric components organize with near inversion symmetry and lattice energetics closely resembling those found in the racemic counterparts. This study also compared the shape space of pairs of quasienantiomers using an in silico alignment-based method to approximate the differences in molecular shape and provide a diagnostic tool for quasiracemate prediction. Comparing these results to our recent report on related 2-substituted diarylamide quasiracemates shows that functional group position can have a marked effect on quasiracemic behavior and provide critical insight to a more complete shape space, essential for defining molecular recognition processes

Coronal Heating as Determined by the Solar Flare Frequency Distribution Obtained by Aggregating Case Studies

Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counter-intuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfv\'en waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold, $\alpha=2$ as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed $>$600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: pre-flare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine that $\alpha = 1.63 \pm 0.03$. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfv\'en waves are an important driver of coronal heating.Comment: 1,002 authors, 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, published by The Astrophysical Journal on 2023-05-09, volume 948, page 7