Developmental Experiences Research Articles

The association between experiencing homelessness in childhood or youth and adult housing stability in Housing First

BackgroundResearchers have pointed out the paucity of research investigating long-term consequences of experiencing homelessness in childhood or youth. Limited research has indicated that the experience of homelessness in childhood or youth is associated with adverse adjustment-related consequences in adulthood. Housing First (HF) has acknowledged effectiveness in improving housing outcomes among adults experiencing homelessness and living with serious mental illness, although some HF clients struggle with maintaining housing. The current study was conducted to examine whether the experience of homelessness in childhood or youth increases the odds of poorer housing stability following entry into high-fidelity HF among adults experiencing serious mental illness and who were formerly homeless.MethodsData were drawn from the active intervention arms of a HF randomized controlled trial in Metro Vancouver, Canada. Participants (n = 297) were referred to the study from service agencies serving adults experiencing homelessness and mental illness between October 2009 and June 2011. The Residential Time-Line Follow-Back Inventory was used to measure housing stability. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator was used to estimate the association between first experiencing homelessness in childhood or youth and later housing stability as an adult in HF.ResultsAnalyses indicated that homelessness in childhood or youth was negatively associated with experiencing housing stability as an adult in HF (aOR = 0.53; 95% CI = 0.31–0.90).ConclusionsFurther supports are needed within HF to increase housing stability among adult clients who have experienced homelessness in childhood or youth. Asking clients about the age they first experienced homelessness may be of clinical utility upon enrollment in HF and may help identify support needs related to developmental experiences. Results further emphasize the importance of intervening earlier in life in childhood and youth before experiencing homelessness or before it becomes chronic. Findings also contribute to a limited knowledge base regarding the adverse long-term consequences of childhood and youth homelessness.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials: ISRCTN57595077 and ISRCTN66721740. Registered on October 9, 2012.

Preface

The ICAPS 2021 (The 3rd International Conference on Applied and Practical Sciences), after the successful ICAPS-2017 and ICAPS-2018, has been organized to be held both in virtual and physical by Malaysian Youth Researchers to be held at Q Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 18th & 19th of February 2021. This conference aims to bring together scientists, researchers, professors, academicians, industry and policy makers of applied and practical sciences. The gathering of such high profile delegates enables you to exchange and discuss the original research results, practical developmental experiences, technological advancements of applied and practical research areas.Because of the COVID-19 and guidelines from Malaysian Government, we had to organize the conference all in virtual model. There were 5 plenary speeches (20 minutes for each including 3-5 minutes of Q&A) followed by 42 live presentations (15 minutes for each including 3-5 minutes of Q&A) by participants of ICAPS 2021.As the organizing committee of the ICAPS 2021, we would like to thank all the authors who contributed to ICAPS 2021 and also the technical program committee members and reviewers who contributed to the event giving their valuable suggestions and comments to improve the manuscripts.The papers of ICAPS 2021 are published in this Book. Please check http://www.icaps.asia for further news and the dates of next ICAPS in 2022.Technical Committee are available in the pdf

Childhood Teaching and Learning among Savanna Pumé Hunter-Gatherers : Mismatch between Foraging and Postindustrial Societies.

Research in nonindustrial small-scale societies challenges the common perception that human childhood is universally characterized by a long period of intensive adult investment and dedicated instruction. Using return rate and time allocation data for the Savanna Pumé, a group of South American hunter-gatherers, age patterns in how children learn to become productive foragers and from whom they learn are observed across the transition from childhood to adolescence. Results show that Savanna Pumé children care for their siblings, are important economic contributors, learn by doing rather than by instruction, and spend their time principally in the company of other children. This developmental experience contrasts with that of children in postindustrial societies, who are dependent on adults, often well past maturity; learn in formal settings; and spend much of their time in the company of adults. These differences raise questions about whether normative behaviors observed in postindustrial societies are representative of human children. This comparison also identifies the potential mismatch between hunter-gatherer and postindustrial societies in the extent to which children may be well adapted to learn from and teach each other. In particular, spending time in autonomous work and play groups develops the cooperation and coordination skills that are foundational to human subsistence and growing up to be socially and productively adept adults and parents.

A Systematic Review of Neighborhood Ethnic–Racial Compositions on Cultural Developmental Processes and Experiences in Adolescence

A Systematic Review of Neighborhood Ethnic–Racial Compositions on Cultural Developmental Processes and Experiences in Adolescence

The Role of Racial and Developmental Experience on Emotional Adaptive Coding in Autism Spectrum Disorder

ABSTRACT Sensitivity to emotional face aids in rapid detection and evaluation of others, such that by school-age, children and youth exhibit adult-like patterns when the prolonged viewing of an emotional face distorts the perception of a subsequent face. However, the developmental considerations of this phenomenon (known as emotional adaptive coding) are unclear given ongoing maturational and experiential changes, including the influence of own-race experiences or the lack of face expertise, as is evident in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study addressed whether emotional adaptive coding is sensitive to factors of face perception expertise, specifically self-race and developmental experience, in adults (age 19–28 years) and youth (age 10–16 years). Emotional adaptive coding was not influenced by race expertise (i.e., other versus same race identity) in White and Asian adults. Emotional adaptation coding during childhood and adolescence is consistent with adults, though youth with ASD exhibited stronger adaptor after-effects in response to other-race faces, relative to TD youth and adults. By extending prior work to examine the integration of race and emotional adaptive coding in ASD, we discovered that the strength of response in ASD is atypical when viewing other-race faces, which clarifies the role of racial and facial experience on emotional face adaption.

Resilience in the age of COVID-19

SUMMARYResilience is broadly defined as the ability to bounce back from adversity or trauma. Recent advances in resilience research have shifted away from merely describing individual characteristics towards focusing on the complex interactions between individuals and their dynamic personal, community and cultural contexts. It is clear that resilience involves both neurobiological and cultural processes. Neurobiological contributions include genes, epigenetics, stress-response systems, the immune system and neural circuitry. Culture helps to elucidate collective systems of belief and accepted positive adaptations. Importantly, resilience can also be affected by evidence-based interventions and deliberate practice on the part of the individual. This review seeks to understand resilience as a complex and active process that is shaped by neurobiological profiles, developmental experiences, cultural and temporal contexts, and practical training. It uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a case example to better understand individual and group responses to tragedy. We suggest practical recommendations to help populations around the world cope and recover from the global threat of COVID-19.

The Impact and Sequelae of Sexual Victimization of Graduate and Professional Students

Background: Sexual misconduct on university campuses is rampant and underreported, particularly among graduate and professional students. To combat this, the entire university community, especially campus clinicians, must be trauma-informed, allowing for reduction of stigma, an increase in reporting rates, and an acceptance that trauma will be treated within the academic theater. Yet, this environment is rare. Despite the laws passed, procedures enacted, and resources allocated, many victims are still met with a university response that creates further trauma, ultimately discouraging disclosures. The probability that a student will report is dependent on diverse factors at the institutional level. Compounding this further is the complexity of graduate and professional students themselves. These individuals regularly navigate numerous, sometimes simultaneous roles within the university structure (e.g., student, staff, faculty, and employee), engaging in relationships with clear power imbalances. Moreover, factors like age, cultural and ethnic background, need for recommendations, desire for future employment, developmental experiences, and personal distal/proximal relationships also contribute to their inherent vulnerability. Objective: The authors of this paper have gathered and reviewed published information on graduate and professional students who are victims of sexual misconduct while in the academic environment and discuss systemic and individual strategies to ameliorate the impact. Conclusion: Gaps in the literature include current, large-scale studies on the prevalence of sexual misconduct among graduate and professional students, universal protocols for preventive and treatment strategies, the framing of education as a climate-shifting opportunity for empowerment, and a holistic model that addresses the needs of the entire academic universe.

Tetrode Recording in the Xenopus laevis Visual System Using Multichannel Glass Electrodes.

The Xenopus tadpole visual system shows an extraordinary extent of developmental and visual experience-dependent plasticity, establishing sophisticated neuronal response properties that guide essential survival behaviors. The external development and access to the developing visual circuit of Xenopus tadpoles make them an excellent experimental system in which to elucidate plastic changes in neuronal properties and their capacity to encode information about the visual scene. The temporal structure of neural activity encodes a significant amount of information, access to which requires recording methods with high temporal resolution. Conversely, elucidating changes in the temporal structure of neural activity requires recording over extended periods. It is challenging to maintain patch-clamp recordings over extended periods and Ca2+ imaging has limited temporal resolution. Extracellular recordings have been used in other systems for extended recording; however, spike amplitudes in the developing Xenopus visual circuit are not large enough to be captured by distant electrodes. Here we describe a juxtacellular tetrode recording method for continuous long-term recordings from neurons in intact tadpoles, which can also be exposed to diverse visual stimulation protocols. Electrode position in the tectum is stabilized by the large contact area in the tissue. Contamination of the signal from neighboring neurons is minimized by the tight contact between the glass capillaries and the dense arrangement of neurons in the tectum. This recording method enables analysis of developmental and visual experience-dependent plastic changes in neuronal response properties at higher temporal resolution and over longer periods than current methods.

Dual Credit and Advanced Placement Students in Developmental Education: What Happened?

Despite their better-than-average preparation, former dual credit and advanced placement students have placed into developmental education upon entering higher education. In this phenomenological study, six students were randomly selected to be interviewed from a group of 562 who placed into developmental education at one Texas university during a 6-year time frame, Fall 2009 through Summer 2015. Six themes, Utility of Developmental Class, Test Taking, Self- Awareness, Obstacles, Emotions, and Academics, and 20 sub-themes emerged from the interview data. The thoughts expressed by the students in this study suggest that developmental placement was a disorienting experience for many of them. Perhaps this was due to their newly acknowledged underpreparedness that necessitated they develop habits and skills more conducive to the college environment. Regardless of the source, in the end the students acknowledged various forms of personal growth as a result of the developmental course experience. Keywords: developmental education, dual credit, advanced placement, developmental student perception

Perspective, control, and confidence: perceived outcomes of using psycho-behavioural skills in the developmental trauma experience

ABSTRACT While psycho-behavioural skills play a crucial role in negotiating and growing from developmental trauma, the precise outcomes which these skills enable has been underexplored. Accordingly, six senior international performers were interviewed to explore what such skills led to when negotiating and growing from traumatic experiences. It was subsequently found that psycho-behavioural skills supported a sense of perspective, control, and confidence in participants, all of which contributed to a predominantly constructive rather than illusory growth process. These findings add to our understanding of skills-based development by highlighting what psycho-behavioural skills can precisely help to facilitate in young performers, as part of their efforts to cope with and subsequently grow from traumatic experiences. Significantly, and, contrary to other research, the findings of this study also question the length of time which may be needed for constructive growth to be achieved.

Deafness Weakens Interareal Couplings in the Auditory Cortex

The function of the cerebral cortex essentially depends on the ability to form functional assemblies across different cortical areas serving different functions. Here we investigated how developmental hearing experience affects functional and effective interareal connectivity in the auditory cortex in an animal model with years-long and complete auditory deprivation (deafness) from birth, the congenitally deaf cat (CDC). Using intracortical multielectrode arrays, neuronal activity of adult hearing controls and CDCs was registered in the primary auditory cortex and the secondary posterior auditory field (PAF). Ongoing activity as well as responses to acoustic stimulation (in adult hearing controls) and electric stimulation applied via cochlear implants (in adult hearing controls and CDCs) were analyzed. As functional connectivity measures pairwise phase consistency and Granger causality were used. While the number of coupled sites was nearly identical between controls and CDCs, a reduced coupling strength between the primary and the higher order field was found in CDCs under auditory stimulation. Such stimulus-related decoupling was particularly pronounced in the alpha band and in top–down direction. Ongoing connectivity did not show such a decoupling. These findings suggest that developmental experience is essential for functional interareal interactions during sensory processing. The outcomes demonstrate that corticocortical couplings, particularly top-down connectivity, are compromised following congenital sensory deprivation.

Sex differences in the development and expression of a preference for familiar vocal signals in songbirds.

Production and perception of birdsong critically depends on early developmental experience. In species where singing is a sexually dimorphic trait, early life song experience may affect later behavior differently between sexes. It is known that both male and female songbirds acquire a life-long memory of early song experience, though its function remains unclear. In this study, we hypothesized that male and female birds express a preference for their fathers' song, but do so differently depending on the developmental stage. We measured preference for their father's song over an unfamiliar one in both male and female Bengalese finches at multiple time points across ontogeny, using phonotaxis and vocal response as indices of preference. We found that in males, selective approach to their father's song decreased as they developed while in females, it remained stable regardless of age. This may correspond to a higher sensitivity to tutor song in young males while they are learning and a retained sensitivity in females because song is a courtship signal that is used throughout life. In addition, throughout development, males vocalized less frequently during presentation of their father's song compared to unfamiliar song, whereas females emitted more calls to their father's song. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of why songbirds acquire and maintain such a robust song memory.

Enjoy the pain that you cannot avoid: Investigation on the relationship between developmental job experience and employees’ innovative behavior

This study investigates the positive and negative effects of developmental job experience (DJE) on employees’ innovative behavior. Relying on transactional stress theory, we hypothesize the mediating roles of psychological capital and burnout in the relationship between DJE and innovative behavior as assessed by team leaders. The results reveal that DJE is only indirectly related to innovative behavior via psychological capital and burnout when employees’ perceived job mobility within an organization (PJM) is low (moderated mediation). We also find that employees’ PJM significantly and differentially moderates the relationships between DJE and psychological capital and between DJE and burnout. Our study provides both theoretical and practical guidance on how to utilize developmental jobs to promote employees’ innovative behavior.

Positive Youth Development in Croatia: School and Family Factors Associated With Mental Health of Croatian Adolescents.

IntroductionA framework for understanding the interrelationship of individual and environmental factors that influence adolescent health and well-being, as well as opportunities for policy-level interventions, is known as Positive Youth Development (PYD). The current study represents one of the largest studies of Croatian adolescents to date, and aimed to examine associations between school and family factors linked to PYD, and mental health outcomes experienced by Croatian youth.MethodsA multi-site survey study was conducted among adolescents (N = 9,655) residing in the five most populous cities in Croatia, with the aim of examining cross-sectional associations of family and school factors with adolescent mental health. The mean age of participants was 16.3 years (SD = 1.2), and 52.5% of participants were female. School and family factors included school attachment, school commitment, family communication, and family satisfaction. Depression, anxiety, and stress were assessed as outcomes. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine relations of interest among female and male adolescents.ResultsAmong school factors, increased school attachment was found to be significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress for female adolescents, and with decreased depression and stress for male adolescents. Increased school commitment was significantly associated with decreased depression and anxiety for female adolescents; conversely, an increase in school commitment was associated with an increase in anxiety and stress for male adolescents. Increases in family communication were significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress only for male adolescents, while increased family satisfaction was significantly associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress for female adolescents and with decreased depression and stress for male adolescents.ConclusionFindings suggest that interventions for mental health promotion and prevention of internalizing problems should address both school and family contexts, and may be more effective when accounting for differing developmental experiences of female and male adolescents.

Sex- and time-specific parental effects of warming on reproduction and offspring quality in a coral reef fish.

Global warming can disrupt reproduction or lead to fewer and poorer quality offspring, owing to the thermally sensitive nature of reproductive physiology. However, phenotypic plasticity may enable some animals to adjust the thermal sensitivity of reproduction to maintain performance in warmer conditions. Whether elevated temperature affects reproduction may depend on the timing of exposure to warming and the sex of the parent exposed. We exposed male and female coral reef damselfish (Acanthochromis polyacanthus) during development, reproduction or both life stages to an elevated temperature (+1.5°C) consistent with projected ocean warming and measured reproductive output and newly hatched offspring performance relative to pairs reared in a present‐day control temperature. We found female development in elevated temperature increased the probability of breeding, but reproduction ceased if warming continued to the reproductive stage, irrespective of the male's developmental experience. Females that developed in warmer conditions, but reproduced in control conditions, also produced larger eggs and hatchlings with greater yolk reserves. By contrast, male development or pairs reproducing in higher temperature produced fewer and poorer quality offspring. Such changes may be due to alterations in sex hormones or an endocrine stress response. In nature, this could mean female fish developing during a marine heatwave may have enhanced reproduction and produce higher quality offspring compared with females developing in a year of usual thermal conditions. However, male development during a heatwave would likely result in reduced reproductive output. Furthermore, the lack of reproduction from an average increase in temperature could lead to population decline. Our results demonstrate how the timing of exposure differentially influences females and males and how this translates to effects on reproduction and population sustainability in a warming world.

Psychological processes mediating the association between developmental trauma and specific psychotic symptoms in adults: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Experiencing psychological trauma during childhood and/or adolescence is associated with an increased risk of psychosis in adulthood. However, we lack a clear knowledge of how developmental trauma induces vulnerability to psychotic symptoms. Understanding the psychological processes involved in this association is crucial to the development of preventive interventions and improved treatments. We sought to systematically review the literature and combine findings using meta‐analytic techniques to establish the potential roles of psychological processes in the associations between developmental trauma and specific psychotic experiences (i.e., hallucinations, delusions and paranoia). Twenty‐two studies met our inclusion criteria. We found mediating roles of dissociation, emotional dysregulation and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (avoidance, numbing and hyperarousal) between developmental trauma and hallucinations. There was also evidence of a mediating role of negative schemata, i.e. mental constructs of meanings, between developmental trauma and delusions as well as paranoia. Many studies to date have been of poor quality, and the field is limited by mostly cross‐sectional research. Our findings suggest that there may be distinct psy­chological pathways from developmental trauma to psychotic phenomena in adulthood. Clinicians should carefully ask people with psychosis about their history of developmental trauma, and screen patients with such a history for dissociation, emotional dysregulation and PTSD symptoms. Well conducted research with prospective designs, including neurocognitive assessment, is required in order to fully understand the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying the association between developmental trauma and psychosis.

Looking out whilst considering what lies within: engaging in further thought about one’s own relationship with diversity and difference

ABSTRACT This paper consists of a collection of individual learning and developmental experiences in the area of diversity and difference, based on the author’s participation in the ‘difference; identity; diversity’ workshop, as part of the Tavistock Clinic’s child psychotherapy training. There is a discussion here of how this learning took place, through a consideration of relevant theory, historical context, and clinical examples within the workshop’s individual seminars. In the seminars, the exploration of all these components was further enhanced by individual and group reflective processes, which formed part of the workshop. The paper highlights how the facilitating environment that was created through the containing net of all these components within the workshop allowed for my individual exploration of and learning about both internal and external diversity. This kind of learning is not commonplace in child psychotherapy trainings, which is to the detriment of child psychotherapists’ individual development, the training process itself, and the profession as a whole.

Autonomy-supportive teaching: Its malleability, benefits, and potential to improve educational practice

Autonomy-supportive teaching is the adoption of a student-focused attitude and an understanding interpersonal tone that enables the skillful enactment of seven autonomy-satisfying instructional behaviors to serve two purposes—support intrinsic motivation and support internalization. Using self-determination theory principles and empirical findings, researchers have developed and implemented numerous teacher-focused and methodologically-rigorous interventions to provide teachers with the professional developmental experience they need to learn how to become more autonomy supportive. The findings from 51 autonomy-supportive teaching interventions (including 38 randomized control trials) collectively show that (1) teachers can learn how to become more autonomy supportive during instruction (autonomy-supportive teaching is malleable) and, once learned, (2) this greater autonomy-supportive teaching produces a wide range of educationally important student, teacher, and classroom climate benefits (autonomy-supportive teaching is beneficial). Recognizing this, the article shows how the recent surge in autonomy-supportive intervention research has advanced the conceptual understanding of the nature of autonomy-supportive teaching and clarified its potential to improve educational practice.

Working with Autistic Children and their Families from a Mentalization Based Therapy for Children (MBT-C) Approach

Work with children on the autistic spectrum and their families is described and illustrated from a mentalization-based therapy lens. Focus on the importance of working with parents from a therapeutic stance that models an interactive style and on the capacity to “find and be with” a child on the autistic spectrum is described. The MBT intervention seeks to offer an alternative model of relationship which fits both the child’s “regulation profile” and his caregiver’s capacity to learn and generalize a new way of connecting and communicating. These aims are achieved through the application of a scaffolding approach, one that seeks to provide a developmental experience within a secure and predictable, yet flexible, therapeutic framework with the central aim of improving psycho-social functioning and increased emotional regulation skills for this population.

Analiza upotrebe udžbenika u četvrtom i petom razredu osnovne škole

A modern trend in quality textbooks is to stimulate different areas of student development social , cognitive, moral, and emotional, considering students' learning specifics. Textbooks are adapted to students if they consider their developmental level, experience and level of understanding ; use appropriate language; encourage reading through comprehension, and include illustrations in the text (Marentič Požarnik, 2016). The quality of learning resources that students can also use to learn independently is important. The main purpose of the Slovenian project The Quality of Slovenian Textbooks (KaUč) is to develop textbook quality indicators for practical use in validation and evaluation processes. As part of the KaUč project, an empirical research was conducted on the research sample of 505 students, with its research aim to analyse the use of textbooks and workbooks in 4th and 5th grades of primary school. Based on the performed analyses, we can determine that the use of printed textbooks prevails in all educational subjects. Textbooks are most often used for the first foreign language subject, science and technology, and for social studies.