Daryl B. Greenfield

Development and validation of the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist.

The purpose of this article is to provide data on a recently developed instrument to measure the multidimensional nature of the bereavement process. In contrast to widely used grief instruments that have been developed using rational methods of instrument construction, the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist (HGRC) was developed empirically from data collected from bereaved adults who had experienced the death of a loved one. Factor analysis of the HGRC revealed 6 factors in the normal trajectory of the grieving process: Despair, Panic Behavior, Blame and Anger, Detachment, Disorganization, and Personal Growth. Additional data are provided that support reliability and validity of the HGRC as well as its ability to discriminate variability in the grieving process as a function of cause of death and time lapsed since death. Empirical support is also provided for Personal Growth as an integral component of the bereavement process. The article concludes by considering the substantive as well as psychometric findings of this research for such issues as traumatic grief, anticipatory grief, change in the bereaved persons self-schema, and spiritual and existential growth.The purpose of this article is to provide data on a recently developed instrument to measure the multidimensional nature of the bereavement process. In contrast to widely used grief instruments that have been developed using rational methods of instrument construction, the Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist (HGRC) was developed empirically from data collected from bereaved adults who had experienced the death of a loved one. Factor analysis of the HGRC revealed 6 factors in the normal trajectory of the grieving process: Despair, Panic Behavior, Blame and Anger, Detachment, Disorganization, and Personal Growth. Additional data are provided that support reliability and validity of the HGRC as well as its ability to discriminate variability in the grieving process as a function of cause of death and time lapsed since death. Empirical support is also provided for Personal Growth as an integral component of the bereavement process. The article concludes by considering the substantive as well as psychometric findings of this research for such issues as traumatic grief, anticipatory grief, change in the bereaved persons self-schema, and spiritual and existential growth.

Science in the Preschool Classroom: A Programmatic Research Agenda to Improve Science Readiness

Research Findings: This article focuses on preschool science, an important but underresearched school readiness domain. There is considerable activity surrounding quality science in early childhood classroom practices, including state standards, curricula with science activities, and an extensive literature on potential best practices. However, there is very little empirical research focused on the effectiveness of these practices. The present article presents preliminary investigative research, a necessary first step in pursuing a research area that has been underexplored. The first study uses a large, ethnically diverse statewide database of Head Start childrens school readiness to show that children end their pre-kindergarten year with science readiness scores significantly lower than readiness scores in all other measured domains. The second study identifies low self-efficacy in science and time-management issues as two possible barriers for why preschool teachers may have difficulty teaching science. The third study reports on a program designed to integrate other readiness domains around science activities, with promising results for childrens school readiness in multiple domains. Practice or Policy: The article concludes with a discussion of future directions, emphasizing the need to focus on science in preschool classrooms and the critical role that science education can potentially play in improving early childhood classroom practices and child outcomes.

The Cross-Language Transfer of Phonological Skills of Hispanic Head Start Children

Abstract This article determines the interlanguage relationships between oral language skills and phonological awareness abilities in 100 Spanish-speaking Head Start children learning English. Childrens oral language abilities, measured using the pre-Language Assessment Scale 2000, along with their phonological awareness, measured using the Phonological Sensitivity Test, were assessed in both English and Spanish. A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted in which the unique variance of oral proficiency in each language and phonological awareness in Spanish indicated an effect on performance for phonological awareness tasks in English, with Spanish phonological awareness and English oral proficiency accounting for the most variance. Results suggest strengthening the language and metalinguistic skills of these children in their first language as a tool for later acquiring English literacy skills.

Adolescent Sibling Bereavement Symptomatology in a Large Community Sample

This study presents data on a recently developed instrument assessing symptomatology in a 13-to 18-year-old community sample of bereaved adolescents. Adolescents assessed within 18 months of their siblings death showed consistently high levels of grief symptomatology. A second sample assessed more than 18 months after their siblings death reported lower levels of grief symptomatology. However, a significant group of adolescents in this second sample continued to have high levels of grief reactions. Groups high and low on reported grief symptoms, when the death had occurred more than 18 months earlier, were compared on the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire. The data revealed dysfunctionalpatterns of self-concept in adolescents with high grief symptom levels. This pattern was not evident in the adolescents who were able to normalize their lives despite the traumatic experience of having a brother or sister die.

Cognitive Flexibility, Approaches to Learning, and Academic School Readiness in Head Start Preschool Children.

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine whether approaches to learning significantly mediated relations between cognitive flexibility (a component of executive functions) and school readiness in Head Start preschoolers. A total of 191 children from 22 Head Start classrooms were directly assessed on cognitive flexibility and school readiness. In addition, teachers rated childrens approaches to learning in 3 domains (competence motivation, attention/persistence, and attitude toward learning) using the Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale (P. A. McDermott, L. F. Green, J. M. Francis, & D. H. Stott, 2000). Results of multilevel mediation analyses revealed that 1 component of approaches to learning—attention/persistence—significantly mediated the relation between cognitive flexibility and school readiness. These results suggest that part of the effect of cognitive flexibility on school readiness may be related to cognitive flexibility supporting childrens approaches to learning. Practice or Policy: This information may be useful to researchers and practitioners attempting to improve school readiness by improving childrens cognitive flexibility. The findings suggest, at a very preliminary level, that improvements to childrens cognitive flexibility may lead to improved approaches to learning as well as academic school readiness. This information is important to consider as preschool programs increasingly target childrens executive functions.

Goodness of Fit Between Children and Classrooms: Effects of Child Temperament and Preschool Classroom Quality on Achievement Trajectories

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine whether child temperament differentially predicted academic school readiness depending on the quality of classroom interactions for 179 Head Start preschoolers. Teachers rated childrens temperament as overcontrolled, resilient, or undercontrolled in the fall and reported on childrens language/literacy and math skills continuously throughout the year. Observations of classroom emotional and instructional support were conducted in the spring. Results from multilevel models indicated that overcontrolled children (compared to resilient children) made greater math gains in classrooms with higher instructional support, whereas a trend-level effect suggested that undercontrolled children (compared to resilient children) made lower math gains in classrooms with lower emotional support. Results also showed that resilient childrens gains in language/literacy were more positively associated with high emotional support than were the scores of overcontrolled children. Practice or Policy: This study adds to prior findings suggesting that overcontrolled and undercontrolled children need special attention in the preschool classroom. Teachers and administrators may want to carefully consider the effect that classroom interactions and instructional techniques have on individual children and attempt to tailor instruction to meet the individual needs of children within classrooms.

Learning Behaviors Mediating the Effects of Behavior Problems on Academic Outcomes

This study examined the relationships between behavior problems, learning behaviors, and educational outcomes for at-risk preschool children. A sample of Head Start children (N = 196) was selected in the southeast United States. Behavior problems were assessed using the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (LeBuffe & Naglieri, 1999) and learning behaviors were assessed using the Preschool Learning Behavior Scale (McDermott, Leigh, & Perry, 2002). Academic outcomes included measures of literacy and mathematics, collected using subscales from the Galileo System for the Electronic Management of Learning (Bergan et al., 2003). Childrens behavior problems were found to predict their learning behaviors as well as their mathematics and literacy yearly gains. Furthermore, learning behaviors were found to mediate the effect of behavior problems on literacy and mathematics. The findings of the study provide a preliminary explanation regarding the mechanism through which behavior problems relate to academic outcomes...

Assessment of Social Competence in High-Risk Preschoolers: Evaluation of the Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory (ASBI) across Home and School Settings

This study evaluates the Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory (ASBI) for assessing pre-school childrens social competence across home and school settings. Data were collected on a multi-ethnic sample of 191 3- to 5-year-old children attending Head Start centers. Parents, teachers, and teacher aides rated children similarly on the three ASBI subscales: Express, Comply, and Disrupt. Although two of the three scales, Express and Disrupt, produced statistically significant mean differences, these differences were relatively small given the range of possible scores and were not consistently related to context, with parents and aides differing from teachers on the Disrupt scale. Correlations across the home-school context were moderate and statistically significant. In addition, canonical correlation analysis examining the relationship between ASBI parent and teacher reports revealed significant matches between hypothesized like factors, suggesting congruence between parent and teacher ratings across home and school contexts. The use of measures of social competence such as the ASBI that provide a common language by which parents and teachers may jointly review childrens social competence and thereby encourage parent involvement and shared decision making is discussed, along with implications for developing similar home-school congruence in other important domains of development.

The Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory (ASBI): Evaluation with High-Risk Preschoolers

This paper assesses the reliability and factor structure of the Adaptive Social Behavior Inventory (ASBI) with a multi-ethnic sample of 3- to 5-year-old Head Start children using teachers as raters. The ASBI is a 30-item instrument recently developed to assess multiple dimensions of social competence in 3-year-olds using mothers as raters. Features of the ASBI have led to its use with older Head Start children using teachers as raters, even though the reliability of the instrument and validity of the subscale structure have not been established in this context. Data from the present study provide interrater reliability assessment of the ASBI and confirm a factor structure for 3- to 5-year-old children that is identical to the one obtained in the original study of 3-year-olds. The three subscales, Express, Comply, and Disrupt, also had high levels of internal consistency. Potential uses of the ASBI with children attending preschool programs such as Head Start are discussed.

The screening potential of a taxonomic information task for the detection of learning disabled and mildly retarded children

Abstract Normally achieving (NA) students were compared to mildly mentally retarded (MMR) same-age peers (Experiment 1) and to learning disabled (LD) same-age peers (Experiment 2). In both studies the same task was presented. The students were asked to (a) describe similarities and differences among exemplars of 12 different categories, (b) identify the categories, and (c) name the exemplars. In Experiment 1, group comparisons yielded large, consistent performance differences between the mildly retarded and their normally achieving chronological age (CA) matches. High levels of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive accuracy were obtained when task performance was used to assign individual students to educational groups. These levels were maintained or improved when using a reduced set of 5 categories and the different descriptors measure. Using cut-off scores from this reduced set was also associated with accurate student identification. In experiment 2, there were small mean differences favoring the NA over the LD students on all 4 dependent measures but none was significant. None of the psychometric measures was associated with adequate levels of classification accuracy, although identification was improved when only a subset of categories and a single dependent measure was employed. However, a subset of LD students generated fewer different descriptors than any of their same age NA peers indicating that the task might be sensitive to a subset of LD children.