Adverse and positive childhood experiences and their associations with dark personality traits

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are linked to psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, while positive parenting practices correlate with narcissism. Objective: We investigated whether ACEs and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) predict Dark Tetrad traits, and whether PCEs moderate these relationships. Participants and Setting: A total of 931 participants (283 men, 632 women, 16 non-binary; Mage = 35.72 years, SD = 12.52) completed an online survey. Method: Participants completed the NPI, SRP-III, Mach-IV, SIS, CES-17, and the BCES. Results: ACEs predicted psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism, while PCEs were positively associated with narcissism. PCEs moderated the relationships between ACEs and (a) psychopathy, and (b) sadism. Conclusions: The findings highlight the protective role PCEs play in the development of certain Dark Tetrad traits. © 2025 The Author(s

The influence of adverse and positive childhood experiences on facets of empathy

Background: Although Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been associated with empathy, research findings have been incongruous. In contrast, positive parenting practices have been consistently, and positively, associated with empathy. Objective: The current study investigated whether the relationship between ACEs and facets of empathy (i.e., perspective taking, empathic concern, personal distress, fantasy) were moderated by Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs). Participants and setting: A sample of 923 participants completed an online survey. Method: Participants completed online versions of the Childhood Experiences Scale-17, the Benevolent Childhood Experiences Scale, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Results: We found that ACEs were not significantly associated with any facet of empathy. PCEs, on the other hand, were positively associated with fantasy, empathic concern, and perspective taking, and moderated the relationships between (a) ACEs and empathic concern, and (b) ACEs and perspective taking. Conclusions: These results provide a more nuanced understanding of the role ACEs and PCEs play in empathy. Specifically, PCEs appear to be a protective factor when ACEs are low, but when people experience above average levels of childhood adversity, PCEs have little influence on empathic concern or perspective taking. © 2024 The Author

Troubling identities: teacher education students` constructions of class and ethnicity

Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers and teacher educators recognizing and valuing difference. Too often, in teacher education programs, when markers of identity such as gender, ethnicity, \u27race\u27, or social class are examined, the focus is on developing student teachers\u27 understandings of how these discourses shape learner identities and rarely on how these also shape teachers\u27 identities. This article reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnicity and socio-economic status. In a preliminary stage of the research, we asked eight Year 3 teacher education students who had attended mainly Anglo-Australian, middle class schools as students and as student teachers, to explore their own ethnic and classed identities. The complexities of identity are foregrounded in both the assumptions we made in selecting particular students for the project and in the ways they constructed their own identities around ethnicity and social class. In this article we draw on these findings to interrogate how categories of identity are fluid, shifting and ongoing processes of negotiation, troubling and complex. We also consider the implications for teacher education.<br /

Bourdieu : La rencontre d’un itinéraire de recherche en sociologie en Australie

Cet itinéraire de recherche en sociologie de l’éducation présente l’apport essentiel des concepts de Bourdieu à la compréhension de la situation du système universitaire australien et à son accès inégal en fonction de l’origine sociale des étudiants et fonction doublée par l’origine scolaire. En effet, la structure du système éducatif australien s’organise selon une opposition forte entre  les établissements privés des zones géographiques privilégiées et les établissements publics des zones géographiques désavantagées avec une position intermédiaire qu’occupent les établissements catholiques. À ce cadre structurel s’ajoute le contrôle du curriculum par les universités et les réformes successives de ce dernier en ont complexifié l’entrée et les règles du jeu par l’augmentation du nombre des filières et par un basculement progressif  des filières sélectives traditionnelles que sont les Humanités classiques vers les filières sélectives d’aujourd’hui que sont les mathématiques, la physique et la chimie et aussi l’économie. Dans un contexte et selon une histoire fort différente, on peut toutefois affirmer qu’il a existé et existe encore des Héritiers australiens.  Mots-clés: Bourdieu; Sociologie de l’education; Australie; Cursus; Université.

Web-based Interactive Video Vignettes Create a Personalized Active Learning Classroom for Introducing Big Ideas in Introductory Biology

The typical “flipped classroom” delivers lecture material in video format to students outside of class in order to make space for active learning in class. But why give students passive material at all? We are developing a set of high-quality online educational materials that promote active, hands-on science learning to aid in teaching of core concepts for introductory biology at the college level. Interactive video vignettes (IVVs) incorporate evidence based teaching strategies to address known areas of confusion for entering students. Each IVV includes a live action scenario with undergraduates investigating a biological problem with a realistic experiment that users participate in. Through the course of each 10-20 minute video, users are required to make predictions, answer questions, collect data and draw conclusions. Branching and reflection of previous answers allows each user to have a personalized experience. Research into how students learn with these tools is being used to develop entire modules that will incorporate the IVV as a priming activity to be done as homework, along with suggested activities to be done in class that take the introduced concepts deeper and/or broader

Bourdieu e o encontro de um itinerário de pesquisa em sociologia na Austrália

Este itinerário de pesquisa em sociologia da educação conta com a contribuição essencial dos conceitos de Bourdieu à compreensão da situação do sistema universitário australiano e ao acesso desigual a este sistema em função da origem social dos estudantes, função esta duplicada pela origem escolar. Na verdade, a estrutura do sistema educacional australiano se organiza segundo uma forte oposição entre os estabelecimentos privados das zonas geográficas privilegiadas e os estabelecimentos públicos das zonas geográficas desfavorecidas, ocupando uma posição intermediária os estabelecimentos católicos. A este quadro estrutural somam-se o controle do currículo pelas universidades e as reformas sucessivas deste último tornando ainda mais complexos o ingresso e as regras do jogo devido ao aumento do número de cursos e às transformações progressivas dos cursos seletos tradicionais que eram as Humanidades clássicas para os cursos de hoje que são a matemática, a física, a química e também a economia. Num contexto e segundo uma história muito diferenciada, pode-se afirmar que existiu e ainda existem Herdeiros australianos.Palavras-chave: Bourdieu; Sociologia da educação; Austrália; Currículo; Universidade

Masculine identity negotiation in everyday Australian life: An ethno-discursive study in a gym setting

Identity formation and negotiation is a key contributor to the health and wellbeing of men and much is still to be learnt about how identity processes operate in everyday life. This study used an ethno-discursive methodology informed by critical discursive psychology to investigate adult male identity in an everyday gym setting in inner city Melbourne. Analysis of interview data showed that men identified with shared hegemonic definitions of masculinity, such as autonomy, independence, and potent heterosexuality. Our ethnographic analysis also showed that the men used reflective processes to negotiate, subvert, and exaggerate these discourses. The findings further demonstrate the utility of safe male environments such as gymnasiums and men's sheds where men can share friendships, common activities, and negotiate masculine pressures

UPPS-P facets of impulsivity and alcohol use patterns in college and noncollege emerging adults

Background: Alcohol use and related problems reach a peak in emerging adulthood. Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct known to be involved in emerging adult alcohol use. Few studies have examined impulsivity and alcohol use across both college attending and noncollege attending emerging adults. Objectives: To clarify the multifaceted nature of impulsivity and its links to emerging adult alcohol use, this study investigated whether the five distinct facets of the UPPS-P model of impulsivity were predictive of three different behavioral outcomes: alcohol intake, alcohol related problems and binge drinking. In addition, the moderating effects of college attendance were tested. Methods: A community sample comprising 273 Australian college and noncollege attendees (58.6% women; 41.4% men) aged between 18 and 30 years (Mage = 23.71, SD = 2.81). Results: Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that lack of premeditation predicted alcohol intake and binge drinking behavior, whilst positive and negative urgency predicted alcohol related problems. Moderation analyses revealed that the effects of impulsivity on alcohol patterns were consistent for college and noncollege attending emerging adults. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of impulsive urgency (both positive and negative) in emerging adult problematic alcohol use, and support the generalizability of college samples to broader emerging adult populations. Emerging adults may use alcohol to avoid negative mood states and further enhance positive mood states. Improved emotional regulation may help both college and non-college emerging adults reduce their alcohol use

Using Online Interactive Physics-based Video Analysis Exercises to Enhance Learning

As part of our new digital video age, physics students throughout the world can use smart phones, video cameras, computers and tablets to produce and analyze videos of physical phenomena using analysis software such as Logger Pro, Tracker or Coach. For several years, LivePhoto Physics Group members have created short videos of physical phenomena. They have also developed curricular materials that enable students to make predictions and use video analysis software to verify them. In this paper a new LivePhoto Physics project that involves the creation and testing of a series of Interactive Video Vignettes (IVVs) will be described. IVVs are short webbased assignments that take less than ten minutes to complete. Each vignette is designed to present a video of a phenomenon, ask for a student’s prediction about it, and then conduct on-line video observations or analyses that allow the user to compare findings with his or her initial prediction. The Vignettes are designed for web delivery as ungraded exercises to supplement textbook reading, or to serve as pre-lecture or pre-laboratory activities that span a number of topics normally introduced in introductory physics courses. A sample Vignette on the topic of Newton’s Third Law will be described, and the outcomes of preliminary research on the impact of Vignettes on student motivation, learning and attitudes will be summarized