Acculturation and the school.

Opvoeding, diagnostiek en behandeling van kinderen en jeugdigen met (ernstige) ontwikkelings-, opvoedings-, en onderwijsprobleme

BDNF Methylation and Maternal Brain Activity in a Violence-Related Sample

It is known that increased circulating glucocorticoids in the wake of excessive, chronic, repetitive stress increases anxiety and impairs Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) signaling. Recent studies of BDNF gene methylation in relation to maternal care have linked high BDNF methylation levels in the blood of adults to lower quality of received maternal care measured via self-report. Yet the specific mechanisms by which these phenomena occur remain to be established. The present study examines the link between methylation of the BDNF gene promoter region and patterns of neural activity that are associated with maternal response to stressful versus non-stressful child stimuli within a sample that includes mothers with interpersonal violence-related PTSD (IPV-PTSD). 46 mothers underwent fMRI. The contrast of neural activity when watching children-including their own-was then correlated to BDNF methylation. Consistent with the existing literature, the present study found that maternal BDNF methylation was associated with higher levels of maternal anxiety and greater childhood exposure to domestic violence. fMRI results showed a positive correlation of BDNF methylation with maternal brain activity in the anterior cingulate (ACC), and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), regions generally credited with a regulatory function toward brain areas that are generating emotions. Furthermore we found a negative correlation of BDNF methylation with the activity of the right hippocampus. Since our stimuli focus on stressful parenting conditions, these data suggest that the correlation between vmPFC/ACC activity and BDNF methylation may be linked to mothers who are at a disadvantage with respect to emotion regulation when facing stressful parenting situations. Overall, this study provides evidence that epigenetic signatures of stress-related genes can be linked to functional brain regions regulating parenting stress, thus advancing our understanding of mothers at risk for stress-related psychopathology

Ethnic identity, immigration, and well-being: an interactional perspective

Gedragsveranderingen bij leerlingen en hun lerare

The effect of immigration, acculturation and multicompetence on personality profiles of Israeli multilinguals

The present study investigates the link between multilingualism/multiculturalism, acculturation and the personality profile (as measured by the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire) of 77 young multilingual Israeli teenagers (34 females, 42 males). Statistical analyses revealed that veteran Israeli teenagers scored higher on Emotional Stability than immigrant teenagers with different nationality provenance. Language dominance had a significant effect on the participants’ scores on Emotional Stability; with participants having become dominant in Hebrew as a foreign language (LX) scoring lower than L1-dominant participants. The number of languages known by participants was not linked to their personality profile. A high level of use of various languages was linked to significantly higher scores on Cultural Empathy and Openmindedness. Gender was also found to have a significant effect on personality profiles and was linked to the knowledge of more languages. These findings confirm that some personality traits are shaped by a variety of social and biographical factors. Acculturation is stressful resulting in lower levels of Emotional Stability. While the mere knowledge of more languages did not affect personality profiles, the frequent use of more languages strengthened Cultural Empathy and Openmindedness

The Unfamiliar and the Indeterminate: Language, Identity and Social Integration in the School Experience of Newly-Arrived Migrant Children in England

Research into the language socialisation of migrant-background children in new educational contexts has pointed to a complex relationship between language, identity and social integration. This paper helps us to further define this relationship in two main ways. Firstly, through focusing on the specific (and largely neglected) context of the experiences of newly-arrived migrant school children, from disadvantaged backgrounds and with little initial command of English, in the East of England, which has in recent years seen a steep rise in the population of children from Eastern Europe in particular. Secondly, through inductive analysis of the pupils’ accounts of their experience in the new environment, the paper identifies four key themes which shed light on the overlap between language, identity and social integration in this context: perceptions of exclusion in the new language environment; the social boundaries of language use; L1 exchange as communicative capital; and languages and identity simulation.The Bell Foundatio