Laura Nathans | Penn State Worthington Scranton (original) (raw)

Papers by Laura Nathans

Societies, Nov 15, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Proceedings of the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting

Proceedings of the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting

Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting

Journal of Public Child Welfare, May 19, 2022

Societies, 2022

This study explored item-level change in pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward teacher- and pare... more This study explored item-level change in pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward teacher- and parent-initiated parent involvement across four diverse universities. Pre-service teacher (N = 1658) attitudes toward parent involvement were measured before and after exposure to the online Parent Teacher Education Connection (PTEC) curriculum which provides information about Epstein’s six types of parent involvement. The four universities infused this curriculum differently into their coursework. Results showed that items demonstrated change related to how the four universities infused parent involvement curriculum into coursework. Overall, teacher-initiated involvement items showed more changes than parent-initiated items. Across the whole sample, there was change in items related to all six types of parent involvement. Results highlighted the importance of infusing parent involvement into the curriculum or teaching a full course, including activities placing pre-service teachers in the r...

Research on Social Work Practice

Purpose This study involved an evaluation of the role of the Independent Living Coordinator (ILC)... more Purpose This study involved an evaluation of the role of the Independent Living Coordinator (ILC) in a. Email multi-domain Independent Living program (ILP). It focused on the intangible domains of health/mental health, support, and prevention. Method One hundred and nineteen ILP plans from 97 foster youth were coded to determine which goals were achieved for foster youth between the ages of 14 and 21. Quotations from case notes and IL plans were selected to illustrate the role of the ILC. Results Results demonstrated that ILCs were effective in achieving goals regarding mental health counseling and medication management and practical support for finances and transportation. ILCs struggled to promote peer support, romantic relationships, and use of birth control. Discussion ILCs play roles in supporting foster youths’ transition into adulthood. ILCs were successful based on the types of goals, their understanding of developmental needs, and access to resources. Future research should...

SAGE Open, 2021

This study involved validating the structure of the Attitude Toward Parent Involvement Survey (AT... more This study involved validating the structure of the Attitude Toward Parent Involvement Survey (ATPIS). The survey was administered 1,729 times to preservice teachers along with Knowledge assessments at the beginning and end of a course on parent involvement. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to validate the factors using more sophisticated statistical software. The analysis was conducted to validate the structure of the instrument and compare the factor structure with the factor structure obtained in a previous factor analysis. The main dimensions that the survey evaluated were parent involvement activities initiated by the teacher and parent involvement activities initiated by the parent. It replicated the original three factors and showed a strong fit. Fit statistics supported the three-factor structure in a confirmatory factor analysis. The three factors were Partners in Learning, Teacher-Initiated Activities, and Parent-Initiated Activities. Concurrent and predictive ...

Early Human Development, 2012

This study examines change in the synchrony between mothers' and infants' physiology as 25 infant... more This study examines change in the synchrony between mothers' and infants' physiology as 25 infants (11 males; 4 to 10 months of age) participate in a 5-day inpatient sleep training program in which they learn to self-settle through extinction of crying responses during the transition to sleep. The mothers' and infants' experience during the extinction protocol was "yoked" by the infants' behavioral signaling during the sleep transition period. Saliva was sampled for mothers and infants at initiation of infants' nighttime sleep and following infants' falling to sleep on two program days and later assayed for cortisol. As expected on the first day of the program, mothers' and infants' cortisol levels were positively associated at initiation of nighttime sleep following a day of shared activities. Also, when infants expressed distress in response to the sleep transition, mother and infant cortisol responses were again positively associated. On the third day of the program, however, results showed that infants' physiological and behavioral responses were dissociated. They no longer expressed behavioral distress during the sleep transition but their cortisol levels were elevated. Without the infants' distress cue, mothers' cortisol levels decreased. The dissociation between infants' behavioral and physiological responses resulted in asynchrony in mothers' and infants' cortisol levels. The findings are discussed in relation to understanding the determinants and implications of maternal-infant physiological synchrony in early childhood.

Online Submission, May 7, 2004

Abstract: Previous research has documented associations between young children's social deve... more Abstract: Previous research has documented associations between young children's social development and both temperament and child care quality. The preponderance of research in this area has focused on preschool-age and older children, resulting in few studies focusing on these variables during infancy. In the current investigation, temperament and child care quality were measured through interviews with mothers of 4-to 19-month-olds. Results demonstrated associations between infant personal-social development and both ...

Early Education and Development

This study examines the long-term effects of a home visiting program, Home Instruction for Parent... more This study examines the long-term effects of a home visiting program, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, on students from mostly low-income, Latino families (n = 254). Children who were in the home visiting program during their early years were compared with a similar demographic group who participated in prekindergarten in the same inner-city area but did not participate in home visiting. Data linked participation in home visiting to state test scores and other information from public schools through the end of elementary school. Research Findings: Secondary data analyses tested for intervention effects on reading and math achievement in an urban school district using 4 waves of data covering kindergarten through 5th grade. Growth curve modeling showed that participation in home visiting predicted higher academic achievement through the 5th grade. Practice or Policy: Parent-focused intervention during early childhood appears to have a lasting impact on children's achievement. In addition to parent engagement, quality school curriculum and quality instruction affect achievement in elementary school. A comprehensive curriculum focus throughout the early school years should be implemented regardless of preparation for high-stakes testing.

Journal of Social Service Research

Children and Youth Services Review

Journal of Community Psychology, 2017

This study builds upon the work of Nathans, Oswald, and Nimon (2012) to demonstrate how to apply ... more This study builds upon the work of Nathans, Oswald, and Nimon (2012) to demonstrate how to apply variable importance metrics to an analysis of a national dataset. The paper (a) reviews the variable importance metrics; (b) details the strengths and weaknesses of national datasets as well as issues the analyst must confront when using them; (c) presents an integrated write-up of how to interpret variable importance metrics in analysis of fall of kindergarten math achievement from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort dataset; and (d) discusses how variable importance metrics inform the extant substantive literature on kindergarten math achievement. ultiple regression (MR) is a commonly employed statistical technique in social science research. Its purpose is to determine the "predictive power" of individual, as well as sets of independent variables (IVs), in explaining variance in a single dependent variable (DV) (Pedhazur, 1997). Researchers commonly rely upon beta weights when assessing the contributions of specific IVs to variance in the DV (Nimon, Gavrilova, & Roberts, 2010). As Nathans, Oswald, and Nimon (2012) and Zumbo (2012) pointed out, sole reliance on beta weights in interpreting MR findings provides limited, and potentially inaccurate, information regarding IVs' contributions to regression models. Shared variance between variables, a statistical phenomenon referred to as multicollinearity, may distort or minimize the contribution of an IV to an MR equation as reflected in beta weight values (Courville & Thompson, 2001; Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). Accordingly, researchers need to rely on other measures of IVs' contributions to MR models to "yield the richest and most complete picture regarding the relationships between independent variables and the dependent variable" (Nathans et al., p. 2). Nathans et al. (2012) highlighted several measures of variable importance in their guidebook. They noted that variable importance must be operationalized in terms of a specific measure of a variable's contribution to a regression equation, rather than employed as a "blanket term" (p. 2) that has general applicability when interpreting regression findings. As such, a brief outline of variable importance metrics utilized in said guidebook will be applied to the example in the current study. Metrics for Variable Importance Standardized Beta Weight. The first measure discussed is the standardized beta weight, which quantifies in standard deviation units, the expected change in the DV given a one standard deviation unit increase in the corresponding IV (Pedhazur, 1997). Beta weights are best used as a "beginning step" in the analysis of regression findings. However, because beta weights do not present a complete picture of how shared variance impacts a regression equation, integration of other variable importance measures in regression analyses is warranted. Zero-Order Correlation. The second measure included in the guidebook is the zero-order correlation, which reflects the magnitude and direction of the bivariate relationship between the IV and the DV without controlling for other IV contributions to the regression equation. Squaring the zero-order correlation reflects the amount of variance shared between the IV and the DV. Pratt Index. The third measure is Pratt's (1987) product measure, which partitions the regression effect by multiplying the zero-order correlation and beta weight for each IV. By partitioning the regression effect, the sum of all product measure values, unlike beta weight values, is equivalent to the amount of variance explained by the regression equation. The product measure is the most easily computed method of partitioning regression equation variance in the presence of correlated predictors, although not necessarily the most accurate, particularly when the value of the zero-order correlation or beta weight is negative. Structure Coefficient. The fourth measure is variable importance, or the structure coefficient, which reflects the bivariate correlation between each IV and the predicted (y-hat) value resulting from the MR model (Courville & Thompson, 2001). We concur with Courville and Thompson's assertion that structure M

Practical Assessment Research Evaluation, Apr 1, 2012