Understanding the Relationship between Preschool Teachers' Well-Being, Interaction Quality and Students' Well-Being

A substantial body of research shows that teacher-student interactions have a significant impact on student outcomes. However, to our knowledge, less is known about the association between teachers' and students' well-being and the implications for teacher-child interactions, particularly in the preschool context. Research Findings. Using ordinary least squares regression, we investigated the association between affective balance and burnout among 28 preschool teachers and the emotional and behavioral problems of 593 students between three and four years old. We found that teacher affective balance-not teacher burnout-was associated with fewer emotional and behavioral problems in children. Furthermore, the different domains of interaction quality affected children's well-being in different ways. Practice or Policy. In initial teacher training and continuing professional development, teachers should be provided with support and strategies to help them manage their mental health and children well-being. Some interventions which have shown encouraging results are discussed.

COVID-19 and the right to education in Chile: An opportunity to revisit our social contract

The COVID-19 pandemic is pushing the world into a devastating economic and social scenario. The consequences of this crisis largely impact children and teenagers, both now and in the future. School closures have particularly affected vulnerable children, deepening the effects of their unequal socio-economic circumstances. In this context, the actions governments are taking to protect their citizens' right to education will be crucial to reducing or exacerbating inequality in the long term. The authors of this article analyse the case of Chile, one of the most successful countries in Latin America regarding educational achievement and enrolment, as well as the most segregated educational system among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). How is the right to education being guaranteed for all during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are the measures taken by the Ministry of Education mitigating or intensifying long-term inequalities? Based on the 4-A scheme described by Katarina Tomasevski, which conceptualises national governments' obligations to guarantee the right to education, the authors examine the normative basis of Chile's market-oriented educational system (1980-2013) as well as the latest educational reform (2014-2017), which aimed to promote the right to quality education, and critically analyse the measures adopted by the Chilean Ministry of Education in response to the pandemic. The authors conclude that Chile is facing a major challenge to ensure the right to education for all. A new social contract is required to reduce structural inequalities, and to avoid a potential setback in human rights.

Survey data on the impact of COVID-19 on parental engagement across 23 countries

This data article describes the dataset of the International COVID-19 Impact on Parental Engagement Study (ICIPES). ICIPES is a collaborative effort of more than 20 institutions to investigate the ways in which, parents and caregivers built capacity engaged with children's learning during the period of social distancing arising from global COVID-19 pandemic. A series of data were collected using an online survey conducted in 23 countries and had a total sample of 4,658 parents/caregivers. The description of the data contained in this article is divided into two main parts. The first part is a descriptive analysis of all the items included in the survey and was performed using tables and figures. The second part refers to the construction of scales. Three scales were constructed and included in the dataset: 'parental acceptance and confidence in the use of technology', 'parental engagement in children's learning' and 'socioeconomic status'. The scales were created using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Multi-Group Confirmatory Analysis (MG-CFA) and were adopted to evaluate their cross-cultural comparability (i.e., measurement invariance) across countries and within sub-groups. This dataset will be relevant for researchers in different fields, particularly for those interested in international comparative education.

Classroom ability composition and the role of academic performance and school misconduct in the formation of academic and friendship networks

This paper examined the association between friendship and academic networks and how the connections these networks have with academic performance and school misconduct differ when comparing three types of classrooms where students were grouped based on their academic ability (i.e., high-, low-, and mixed-ability). The sample was composed of 528 seventh to ninth graders (M_age = 15; 64.1% girls) from 12 classrooms (four in each category of ability grouping) across two waves in five schools in Chile. The effects of academic performance and school misconduct on receiving academic and friendship nominations were examined, as well as the interplay between academic and friendship relationships. Furthermore, the extent to which similarity in adolescents' academic performance and school misconduct contributed to the formation and maintenance of academic and friendship relationships was examined. Sex, socioeconomic status, and structural network features were also taken into account. Longitudinal social network analyses (RSiena) indicated that (1) in high-ability classrooms students chose high-achieving peers as academic partners; (2) in high-ability classrooms students avoided deviant peers (i.e., those high in school misconduct) as academic partners; and (3) academic relationships led to friendships, and vice versa, in both high- and low-ability classrooms. Whereas the interplay of friendship and academic relationships was similar in high- and low-ability classrooms, the formation and maintenance of academic networks unfolded differently in these two types of classrooms.

Aftershocks of Chile's earthquake for an ongoing, large-scale experimental evaluation

Evaluation designs for social programs are developed assuming minimal or no disruption from external shocks, such as natural disasters. This is because extremely rare shocks may not make it worthwhile to account for them in the design. Among extreme shocks is the 2010 Chile earthquake. Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), an ongoing early childhood program in Chile, was directly affected by the earthquake. This article discusses (a) the factors the UBC team considered for deciding whether to put on hold or continue implementation and data collection for this experimental study; and (b) how the team reached consensus on those decisions. A lesson learned is that the use of an experimental design for UBC insured that the evaluation's internal validity was not compromised by the earthquake's consequences, although cohort comparisons were compromised. Other lessons can be transferred to other contexts where external shocks affect an ongoing experimental or quasi-experimental impact evaluation.

[Clinical predictors of ventricular arrhythmia storms in Chagas cardiomyopathy patients with implantable defibrillators]

OBJECTIVES

To define the predictive factors of electrical storm (ES) in patients with Chronic Chagas Heart Disease (CCh) with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We retrospectively studied 21 consecutive patients with CCh in whom an ICD was implanted between April 2005 and December 2008, with a mean follow up of 867 days. Patients were classified into two groups according to the presence of electrical storm episodes. We compared baseline characteristics, medical treatment and determinants of ventricular function. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Of the 21 patients with CCh there were eight women (37%), mean age 61 years and an EF of 30%. It was noted at least one episode of arrhythmic storm in 9 cases (incidence of 43%). The total number of episodes of arrhythmic storm was 13 and the number of ventricular arrhythmias in each episode of arrhythmic storm was 15.6 (range 3-61). A trigger was identified in only two cases (pulmonary infectious process and decompensation of chronic heart failure). After analyzing the possible predictors of arrhythmic storm was found that a greater percentage of subjects with this complication had an EF <35% (89% vs. 50%, p = 0.01) and NYHA functional class III (66% vs. 8.3%, p = 0.001). In contrast, a lower percentage of subjects with arrhythmic storm were under beta-blocker treatment (55% vs. 100%, p = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

In subjects with CCh with an ICD, the following variables are predictive of arrhythmic storm: EF <35%, NYHA functional class III-IV and absence of beta-blocker treatment.