Effects of motifs in music therapy on the attention of children with externalizing behavior problems

Recent studies highlight the role of attention (i.e., executive attention and joint attention) in the negative association between children’s externalizing behavior problems (EBPs) and self-regulation. In music therapy improvisation, “Motifs” represent a repeated and meaningful use of freely improvised or structured music. They have been reported to be effective in drawing attention toward joint musical engagement. This study aimed to examine the effects of clinically derived motifs on the attention of a child with EBPs. Video microanalysis of four therapy sessions was employed. Interaction segments with/without motifs were then selected for analysis: (a) Executive attention measurement: a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of Motifs (Factor I) across sessions (Factor II) on the duration of interaction segments. (b) Joint attention measurement: another two-way ANOVA investigated the effects of these two factors on the duration of joint attentive responses in each segment. Results showed that (a) the segments with Motifs tended to decrease in duration throughout the sessions, while (b) these segments showed a significant increase in proportions of joint attentional responses. These findings suggest a positive effect of Motifs on enhancing efficiency of joint attention execution over time, indicating the child’s recognition of the Motifs through learning

Advancing newborn health: The Saving Newborn Lives initiative

Until recently, newborn health was virtually absent from the global health agenda. Now, assistance agencies, national governments and non-governmental organisations are increasingly addressing this previously neglected issue of close to four million newborns dying every year. The experience of the Saving Newborn Lives initiative documents some of the progress that has been made and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Since the start of the initiative in 2000, targeted research, focused on overcoming the key barriers to improved newborn survival, has demonstrated low-cost, community-based interventions and strategies that can significantly reduce newborn mortality. Building on what has been learned from this and other efforts to date, the challenge now is to reach the millions of newborns still at risk

Reverse discrimination and efficiency in education

This article shows that reverse discrimination policies can find a justification purely on efficiency grounds. We study the optimal provision of education when households belong to different groups, differing in the distribution of the potential to benefit from education among individuals, which is private information. The main result is that high-potential individuals from groups with relatively few high-potential individuals should receive more education than otherwise identical individuals from groups with a more favorable distribution of these benefits

Intersectional Differences in Segmented Assimilation: Skill and Gender in the Context of Reception

Purpose - Segmented assimilation theory predicts that contemporary non-white groups follow three patterns of assimilation: mainstream, downward, or delayed. Yet, the homogenous treatment and primacy of ethnicity resigns all group members to a similar fate. Whereas few studies of ethnic incorporation consider both the classed and gendered nature of the labor market, this study investigates the extent to which intersectional group differences within the highly stratified American economy shape segmented assimilation trajectories. Methodology/approach - This study introduces an intersectional approach to segmented assimilation theory. Using the 2000 census, this study examines how within group differences in skill and gender condition the hourly earnings, joblessness and self-employment participation outcomes of five ethnic minority groups from the first to the second generation, compared against US-born, non-Hispanic whites.Findings - Findings generally support the mainstream assimilation hypothesis for all groups; a downward assimilation trajectory among Chinese men only; and a delayed assimilation trajectory for low-skilled Filipinas and high-skilled Cuban men and women. This study reveals that intra-group differences in skill and gender shape divergent segmented assimilation trajectories among members of the same ethnic group. Originality/value - This study challenges the emphasis on and primacy of ethnicity in predicting segmented assimilation in favor of an intersectional approach that considers how multiple, interdependent, and intersecting dimensions of identity and not only ethnicity shape the process of economic incorporation among ethnic groups

Patterns of student interaction in Clark-Trow subgroups

Previous research on the Clark-Trow model has failed to provide evidence on whether students classified into the same Clark-Trow subgroup interact with one another or are even aware of their common orientation. Yet, this is a basic tenet of claims that these subgroups operate as campus subcultures. This study investigated whether students who self-select into the same Clark-Trow subgroup interact significantly more often with each other than they do with members of the other three subgroups. The results tend to disconfirm expectations based on the Clark-Trow model and suggest these subgroups do not operate as student subcultures.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43584/1/11162_2004_Article_BF00975127.pd

School crime and disruption as a function of student-school fit: An empirical assessment

A theoretical model is described which conceptualizes school crime and disruption as a function of the congruence or fit between the personal characteristics of students and the social environments of the schools they attend. In a direct empirical test of the model, indices representing 10 distinct dimensions of student-school fit are related to three composite measures of school misconduct: school crime, school avoidance, and class misbehavior. A number of significant relationships are found between dimensions of student-school fit and the three indices of school misbehavior, several of which manifest one of the nonlinear forms specified by the model, providing at least modest support for a person-environment fit theory of school crime and disruption.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45305/1/10964_2005_Article_BF02087987.pd