Long-term changes in parenting and child behavior after the Home-Start family support program

Background: The intervention Home-Start is a wide spread program in a number of countries, among which the Netherlands. In Home-Start, trained volunteers visit families with young children in need of support once or twice a week to help them to deal with problems in family life and parenting. Little is known, however, about the effects of Home-Start. This study describes short-term and long term changes in families that participated in Home-Start. Methods: Three groups of families with young children (at the start mean age 1 1/2 years) were followed over a period of four years. One of the groups of families participated in the Home-Start family support program in the first 6.6 months of this period. The two other groups were (1) a randomly selected community sample and (2) a group of families with elevated parenting stress and a need for support. Data were collected at the beginning of the study, (after median 1.4 months), directly after the intervention (median 6.6 months) and at two follow-up occasions (respectively, median 12.5 and 49.2 months after the first measurement). At the last measurement, data were available for 33, 45 and 34 families respectively. Results: Multilevel analysis showed more positive changes in parental wellbeing, competence and behavior (more consistent behavior and less rejection) during the intervention period in the Home-Start group than in the two other groups. At the three year follow up, the Home-Start group showed, compared to the other groups, more improvements in parenting (more responsiveness), but also diminished child externalizing and internalizing behavior problems (less oppositional defiant behavior, affective problems and anxiety problems). Conclusions: Home-Start seems a promising family support intervention that deserves to be studied more extensively

Degenerate solutions obtained from several variants of factor analysis

Considerable research has been performed concerning degenerate solutions from the Parafac model. However, degenerate solutions have also been reported to occur with the shifted multiplicative model and a model for component analysis of multitrait multimethod matrices. Furthermore, we obtained similarly degenerate solutions for the directly fitted Parafac-2 model, the indirectly fitted Parafac-2 model and a constrained variant of the Tucker-3 model. Comparing degenerate solutions reported in the literature with the degenerate solutions we obtained ourselves, we learned that for all the above-mentioned models there are two-factor degenerate solutions sharing the same properties. We distinguish three common features. Furthermore, the above-mentioned models have in common that they are all variants of factor analysis producing component matrices with components that are rotationally unique. Underscoring the significance of this property, we show that all models for two-way and three-way factor analysis not resulting in solutions with rotationally unique components cannot produce degenerate solutions. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd

A Multilevel p2 Model with Covariates for the Analysis of Binary Bully–Victim Network Data in Multiple Classrooms

Many studies have been aimed at defining the exact nature of bullying, identifying bullies and their victims in school classes, investigating the personal and developmental characteristics of bullies and victims, and evaluating intervention programs to prevent bullying (see, e.g. Espelage & Swearer, 2003). Children have different roles in bullying (Schwartz, 2000), and some pairs of children lead to more bullying than others (Coie et al., 1999). Relatively little is known about the dyadic properties of bullies and victims (Rodkin & Berger, in press). Recently, a dual perspective theory of bullying was proposed, focusing on the dyadic nature of the bully-victim relationship (R. Veenstra et al., 2007). This theory is tested on pre-adolescent data from TRAILS (Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey). TRAILS is designed to chart and explain the development of mental health and social development from preadolescence into adulthood (De Winter et al., 2005; Oldehinkel, Hartman, De Winter, Veenstra, & Ormel, 2004). Students were asked to report about several of their ties with classmates. This round robin design yields in principle two observations for each relationship between two children A and B, one from the perspective of child A (the nominator or ‘sender’), reporting whether or not s/he bullies child B (the target or ‘receiver’), and vice versa. These two reports may not always coincide and are less likely to be in agreement for a bullying tie than for a friendship tie. The set of dyadic data collected in a closed group forms a social network. Many methods and models have been proposed for social network analysis (see Wasserman & Faust, 1994). For a review on the intricacies of dyadic designs and dyadic data analysis, see Kenny, Kashy, and Cook (2006). We use a multilevel p2 model (Zijlstra, Van Duijn, & Snijders, 2006) to analyze bully network data from 54 classes collected in the TRAILS study. This model takes into account the dependent nature of the data and employs the characteristics of sender and receiver individually and as a dyad. Moreover, class characteristics can be used to explain differences per classroom; for instance, between prevalence rates of bullying in school classes. We follow the dual perspective theory as laid out by Veenstra et al. (2007) but slightly modify the covariates used in the analysis. In the next section we start with the definition and interpretation of the simple p2 model, followed by the multilevel p2 model, and its relation to other models for social network data. In Section 3, we present the data and theory to be tested. After a section introducing the interpretation of p2 model results, we present the results obtained for the dual perspective theory. The final section summarizes and discusses the findings.

Assessing the professional identity of primary student teachers: Design and validation of the Teacher Identity Measurement Scale

This study aimed to design and validate the Teacher Identity Measurement Scale (TIMS) for assessing primary student teachers’ professional identity. Based on identity theory and a systematic review into quantitative instruments of teacher identity, teacher identity was decomposed in four first-order constructs: motivation, self-image, self-efficacy, and task perception. This resulted in a measurement scale consisting of 46 items. The factorial design was examined by administering the TIMS to first- and second-year primary student teachers. In phase 1, involving 17 students, qualitative scale development methods were used to assess the construct validity. In phase 2, its second-order factor structure was tested and confirmed among a sample of 211 students. In phase 3, this structure was cross-validated among a new sample of 419 students. The instrument may contribute to understanding primary student teacher's professional development and can be used as a tool to support the process of developing a professional teacher identity

The Multilevel p2 Model : A Random Effects Model for the Analysis of Multiple Social Networks

The p2 model is a random effects model with covariates for the analysis of binary directed social network data coming from a single observation of a social network. Here, a multilevel variant of the p2 model is proposed for the case of multiple observations of social networks, for example, in a sample of schools. The multilevel p2 model defines an identical p2 model for each independent observation of the social network, where parameters are allowed to vary across the multiple networks. The multilevel p2 model is estimated with a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm that was implemented in free software for the statistical analysis of complete social network data, called StOCNET. The new model is illustrated with a study on the received practical support by Dutch high school pupils of different ethnic backgrounds.

The sustainability of a teacher professional development programme for beginning urban teachers

This study investigated the long-term effects of a professional development intervention for beginning urban teachers and explored which characteristics and activities in school organisations contributed to the sustainability of these effects. A quasi-experimental study (n = 72) investigated whether the positive effects of the programme were observed one year after the programme ended. Interviews with teachers and principals (n = 19) were used to explore which characteristics and activities in schools contributed to those positive effects. A significant long-term effect of the programme was found on teachers’ competences and professional orientation. An open culture in the schools was experienced as an important factor for the sustainability of the programme’s effects