Saahoon Hong

The mediation effect of preservice teacher attitude toward inclusion for students with autism in South Korea: a structural equation modelling approach

ABSTRACT Giving preservice teachers experience in working with students with autism is essential for successful teacher preparation. Structural equation modelling was employed to identify the factors affecting preservice teachers’ attitudes toward the use of inclusive settings for students with autism. The results indicated that their coursework influenced attitudes toward full inclusion both directly and indirectly, but had no effect on their perceptions of partial inclusion and self-contained classroom settings. Preservice teachers’ beliefs toward special education exerted a mediation effect between special education coursework and full inclusion. Similarly, preservice teacher attitudes toward students with autism presented a mediation effect between field experience and inclusion.

Longitudinal association of child maltreatment and cognitive functioning: Implications for child development

Although research investigating associations among child maltreatment, cognitive functioning, and academic achievement has grown in recent years, important questions remain. In particular, assessing the influence of maltreatment apart from that of other co-occurring and confounding factors remains difficult. This study was developed to further the fields understanding by investigating cognitive functioning in association with time-variant maltreatment patterns. Using multiple time-variant linear mixed models, we investigated the relationships between maltreatment timing and three domains of cognitive functioning (i.e., knowledge, comprehension, and analysis). In general, the cognitive functioning of students who experienced maltreatment was lower than that of their peers who had yet to experience maltreatment at the time of testing. Results of LMM indicated that the cognitive functioning of students who experienced maltreatment concurrent with the testing year fluctuated over time whereas the cognitive functioning of students who experienced maltreatment prior to or after the testing year remained stable. Students who experienced concurrent maltreatment showed the lowest functioning of any group. While maltreatment timing was a significant predictor of cognitive functioning over time, the addition of poverty into the model resulted in a non-significant effect of maltreatment timing. Additional research is needed to disentangle the longitudinal effect of maltreatment on cognitive functioning and address the interacting role of poverty and chronic maltreatment.