This paper describes the development, implementation and preliminary evaluation of the Reaching Educators and Children (REACH) program, a training and coaching intervention designed to increase the capacity of early childhood teachers to support children's social and emotional development. We evaluated REACH with 139 teachers of toddler and preschool classrooms. Teacher attendance and survey results suggest that teachers were highly satisfied with the training and materials. Data from classroom observation scales conducted pre- and post-REACH implementation suggest significant improvements in the sensitivity of teachers' interactions with children in the classroom, and increased teacher use of targeted social and emotional supports (such as teaching children to resolve conflicts). Further, data from observations of children's classroom behavior suggest increases in children's prosocial behaviors and small but significant decreases in verbal aggression. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the REACH program may be effective in building teachers' capacity to support social-emotional development of young children, and point to the need for additional research.
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a structured, 8-week, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on perceived stress, mood, endocrine function, immunity, and functional health outcomes in individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).DESIGN: This study used a quasiexperimental, nonrandomized design.
METHODS: Subjects were specifically recruited (nonrandom) for intervention (MBSR) or comparison group. Data were collected at pretest and post-test in the MBSR group and at matched times in the comparison group. t Tests where performed to determine within-group changes and between-group differences.
RESULTS: Natural killer cell activity and number increased significantly in the MBSR group compared to the comparison group. No significant changes or differences were found for psychological, endocrine, or functional health variables.
CONCLUSIONS: These results provide tentative evidence that MBSR may assist in improving immunity in individuals infected with HIV.
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a structured, 8-week, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program on perceived stress, mood, endocrine function, immunity, and functional health outcomes in individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).DESIGN: This study used a quasiexperimental, nonrandomized design.
METHODS: Subjects were specifically recruited (nonrandom) for intervention (MBSR) or comparison group. Data were collected at pretest and post-test in the MBSR group and at matched times in the comparison group. t Tests where performed to determine within-group changes and between-group differences.
RESULTS: Natural killer cell activity and number increased significantly in the MBSR group compared to the comparison group. No significant changes or differences were found for psychological, endocrine, or functional health variables.
CONCLUSIONS: These results provide tentative evidence that MBSR may assist in improving immunity in individuals infected with HIV.
<p>Do religious traditions produce emotions unique to specific cultural contexts? Answering in the affirmative are variations of constructionism typically associated with postmodernism; answering in the negative are variations of evolutionary psychology. Postmodernism and evolutionary psychology define the extremes of an explanatory continuum on which we can locate theory and research in religious studies. Concerned with both humanistic exploration of distinctiveness and the social science drive to find commonanalities, religious studies occupies a liminal space in the academy. The benefits of being liminal include the capacity to elucidate the nuances of otherwise unknown texts and traditions and to challenge the West with competing notions of being human. Among the costs of being liminal is our common failure to designate how we might be wrong. Nevertheless, I cite Spinoza and affirm the value of religious studies as a discipline that challenges those not caught "betwixt and between."</p>
<p>A review by Patrick Kaplanian of John Bray, <em>A Bibliography of Ladakh</em>.</p>
As Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) expands to focus on adolescent populations, the broadly accepted theoretical framework put forth by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) should be empirically tested for measurement utility. Using longitudinal data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, we first tested and validated the five (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making) SEL factor model using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a normative sample of 1,717 U.S. fifth grade youth. The model was then subjected to longitudinal measurement invariance testing using CFA models that included the sixth- and seventh-grade samples to confirm SEL as a robust model across these grades. Validity was further evidenced through relation of the SEL model to important youth outcomes (e.g., academic achievement). Relations were significant and in the expected direction. Implications for application of the model to adolescent development are discussed.
Purpose of ReviewTo determine the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on clinical and patient-reported outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Recent Findings
We identified randomized clinical trials from inception through April 2018 from MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and hand searches. After screening 338 references, we included five trials with one post-hoc analysis that evaluated MBIs and collectively included 399 participants. Outcome instruments were heterogeneous across studies. Three studies evaluated RA clinical outcomes by a rheumatologist; one study found improvements in disease activity. A limited meta-analysis found no statistically significant difference in the levels of DAS28-CRP in the two studies that evaluated this metric (− 0.44 (− 0.99, 0.12); I2 0%). Four studies evaluated heterogeneous psychological outcomes, and all found improvements including depressive symptoms, psychological distress, and self-efficacy. A meta-analysis of pain Visual Analog Scale (VAS) levels post intervention from three included studies was not significantly different between MBI participants and control group (− 0.58 (− 1.26, 0.10); I2 0%) although other studies not included in meta-analysis found improvement.
Summary
There are few trials evaluating the effect of MBIs on outcomes in patients with RA. Preliminary findings suggest that MBIs may be a useful strategy to improve psychological distress in those with RA.
Cooperation among humans is one of the keys to our great evolutionary success. Natalie and Joseph Henrich examine this phenomena with a unique fusion of theoretical work on the evolution of cooperation, ethnographic descriptions of social behavior, and a range of other experimental results.
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