Stephanie M. Reich

The Effectiveness of Baby Books for Providing Pediatric Anticipatory Guidance to New Mothers

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether embedding pediatric anticipatory guidance into books read to infants is an effective way to educate low-income, first-time mothers about injury-prevention and health-promotion practices. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Primiparous women (N = 168) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: an educational-book group; a noneducational-book group; or a no-book group. Knowledge of anticipatory-guidance topics regarding children from birth to 12 months of age (eg, injury prevention, parenting, nutrition) was assessed during the third trimester of pregnancy and again when infants were ∼2, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months of age. RESULTS: Women in the educational-book group scored consistently higher on knowledge than did those in the other 2 groups. Those in the educational-book group were found to have significantly higher knowledge scores than those in both the noneducational-book group (effect size [ES]: 0.3, P < .001) and the no-book group (ES: 0.3, P < .001) in the longitudinal model. CONCLUSIONS: Books read by mothers to infants seem to be an effective way to provide anticipatory guidance to new mothers. However, future work is needed to determine if increased knowledge translates into safer and more developmentally appropriate parenting practices.

Connecting Offline Social Competence to Online Peer Interactions.

Decades of research have documented the importance of social competence in children’s development and the risks of lacking these skills for physical, social, emotional, and academic outcomes. Social interactions today are increasingly technologically mediated, with a large number of children and adolescents interacting with others online. Nonetheless, little effort has been made to connect the construct of social competence to online interactions. This article reviews recent research (up to 2014) on social interactions online and tries to identify ways in which components of social competence from offline settings (e.g., adaptability, social skills, perspective-taking) might apply to online contexts. Challenges of applying the construct to online peer interactions are highlighted and the current gaps in research are identified, raising questions about whether social competence from offline settings can be applied to online ones. Lastly, this review argues for the need for more research directly assessing competence in social interactions online, especially in light of user characteristics such as age and gender.

Sleep Debt in Student Life: Online Attention Focus, Facebook, and Mood

The amount of sleep college students receive has become a pressing societal concern. While studies show that information technology (IT) use affects sleep, here we examine the converse: how sleep duration might affect IT use. We conducted an in situ study, and logged computer and phone use and collected sleep diaries and daily surveys of 76 college students for seven days, all waking hours. We examined effects of sleep duration and sleep debt. Our results show that with less sleep, people report higher perceived work pressure and productivity. Also, computer focus duration is significantly shorter suggesting higher multitasking. The more sleep debt, the more Facebook use and the higher the negative mood. With less sleep, people may seek out activities requiring less attentional resources such as social media use. Our results have theoretical implications for multitasking: physiological and cognitive reasons could explain more computer activity switches: related to less sleep.

Tablet-Based eBooks for Young Children: What Does the Research Say?

Objective: Young childrens use of electronic books (eBooks) is increasing as handheld touch screen devices, such as tablets, become increasingly available. Although older childrens reading on tablets has been more broadly investigated, less is known about the impacts of digital reading for infant, toddlers, and preschoolers. This review compares the educational affordances of reading on tablets versus print books for young childrens learning. Method: A qualitative synthesis of research on tablet-based eReading and young childrens learning from screens was conducted. Results: When eBooks are designed well, preschool-aged children learn equally well and sometimes more than from print books. However, enhanced eBooks with sounds, animations, and games can distract children and reduce learning. When book-sharing with an adult, conversations during eBook reading are often about the platform while print book conversations are more often about the book content. For young children (0–2 yr), there is a paucity of research, but broader studies on learning from screens suggest limited educational benefits of tablet use for this age group. Discussion: The authors recommend that (1) the selection of eBooks (especially enhanced eBooks) be thoughtful as games or animations that are not related to the story content can be distracting for young children, (2) adults share in the reading experience as discussions of the story, text, and characters have been found to enhance comprehension, language development, and print awareness, and (3) tablet eBook use be restricted for infants and toddlers, as they benefit more from face-to-face interaction with caregivers than from interactive screens alone.

Nourishing a partnership to improve middle school lunch options: a community-based participatory research project.

Community-based participatory research is predicated on building partnerships that tackle important issues to the community and effectively improve these issues. Community-based participatory research can also be an empowering experience, especially for children. This article describes a university-community partnership in which students at a low-income middle school worked to improve the quality of the cafeteria food provided to the 986 students eligible for free and reduced price lunches. The project led to menu changes, improved communication between youth, school administrators, and district staff, and enabled youth to enact school improvements that were beneficial for their health.

Community psychology and global climate change: introduction to the special section.

Global climate change is not just a distant environmental or future problem but a crisis that has a clear human face already causing the suffering of millions around the globe. It is an issue of high relevance for community psychologists and the communities we work with but has received little attention within the field of community psychology. This special section is intended to promote more thinking and dialogue on this important topic. Six articles are presented that feature both theoretical consideration and empirical research related to global climate change and related environmental issues.

A Month of Breastfeeding Associated with Greater Adherence to Pediatric Nutrition Guidelines

Background: Research has shown that both breastfeeding and delaying the introduction of solids or liquids other than breast milk protect against obesity later in early childhood. Objectives: To compare whether breastfeeding mothers adhere to more of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) feeding recommendations for infants. Method: This longitudinal study compared the breastfeeding knowledge, intentions and practices as well as complementary feeding choices of 163 ethnically diverse, primiparous women over the first 18 months of motherhood. Results: Although almost all women (98%) knew about the health benefits of breastfeeding and intended to breastfeed (98%), only 85% initiated and 51% continued beyond 4 weeks. Breastfeeding for longer durations was associated with better feeding choices. Mothers who breastfed for more weeks were more likely to adhere to AAP guidelines on feeding infants liquids other than breast milk at 4, 6 and 12 months, and introducing solids, liquids other than breast milk and other complementary foods at later ages. Furthermore, mothers who breastfed for less than 1 month were more likely to introduce solids by 2 months in comparison to mothers who breastfed for 1 month or more (OR = 3.22). Conclusion: Knowledge and intentions do not explain breastfeeding initiation or continuation. However, when women committed to more weeks of breastfeeding, especially more than 4 weeks, they made better nutrition choices for their infants.

Affordances and Constraints of Scaffolded Learning in a Virtual World for Young Children

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of virtual worlds aimed at populations between the ages of 6 to14 years. This article examines the content and design of one such site, Webkinz World, as a sociocultural context for informal learning. Focusing on the design and activities of this site sheds light on the ways in which Webkinz World supports learning, especially for nascent users, and the apparent limits of these structures as users gain more expertise. with school-based skills, such as sophisticated learning and literacy practices (Apperley, 2010; Gee, 2003; Salen, 2007; Steinkuehler, 2007), collaborative problem solving (Squire, 2005), informal scientific reasoning (Steinkuehler & Duncan, in press), and informal science learning (Fields & Kafai, 2009; Kafai, 2008; Kafai & Giang, 2007). The majority of the aforementioned research has focused on games targeting adolescents and adults; however, of late, there has been a veritable boom in the arena of virtual worlds for elementary school aged children. Sites such as Webkinz World, Club Penguin, Barbie Girls, and Poptropica are wildly popular, with registered user bases that number in the millions (Compete, Inc., 2009). In spite of the sheer numbers of children who frequent such DOI: 10.4018/ijgbl.2011040104 International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 1(2), 52-64, April-June 2011 53 Copyright

A Brief Program Improves Counseling of Mothers With Children Who Have Persistent Aggression

Objective: To assess whether a multimedia program can affect counseling behavior related to one of the strongest risk factors for violence later in life, persistent early childhood aggression. Method: The design was a controlled trial with unobtrusive measurement in a clinic setting. A researcher, pretending to be the mother of a 2 ½ year old boy, called 19 pediatric residents during clinic hours and requested advice on how to manage her child’s persistently hurtful behavior. The intervention was a 40-min lecture focusing on a multimedia program, Play Nicely, which teaches accepted strategies for managing aggression in young children ages 1-7 years. Residents’ responses were blindly assessed to determine the treatment effect of the intervention. Results: Compared with the control group (C), residents in the intervention (I) group were more likely to recommend setting the rule (I: 100% vs. C: 31%, p = .01), redirecting (I: 83% vs. C: 8%, p = .003), promoting empathy (I: 50% vs. C: 0%, p = .02), and more likely to discourage the use of physical punishment (I: 83% vs. C: 31%). These are the primary strategies encouraged by the intervention. The magnitude of the effect size was very large for each of these three strategies, ranging from d = 1.1 to 2.3. Conclusions: A brief intervention can improve the counseling behavior of primary care physicians regarding persistent childhood aggression. The findings have implications for child abuse prevention, violence prevention, medical education, and how to improve anticipatory guidance within primary care.

Strictly by the Facebook: Unobtrusive Method for Differentiating Users

A large proportion of Facebook studies are based on self-report data. However, survey measures may not meaningfully differentiate Facebook use. From computer and phone logs and Facebook activity data, we found a simple item - how important participants rate Facebook - may be one way to distinguish between Facebook consumers and producers.