There is little scientific research on the intergenerational transmission of trauma from parents to their offspring in violent households. There is also little knowledge about the importance of the...Show moreThere is little scientific research on the intergenerational transmission of trauma from parents to their offspring in violent households. There is also little knowledge about the importance of the gender of both the parents and the children in intergenerational trauma. It is important to find out more about influential factors on intergenerational trauma to be able to shape trauma treatment. This study aimed to investigate whether there is an association between the trauma symptoms of the parents and the trauma symptoms of their child. Further, there is investigated whether the gender of the child and the gender of the parents have a significant effect on intergenerational transmission of trauma. The sample consisted of 800 families with information about at least one parent (167 fathers and 633 mothers) and one child (397 boys and 403 girls). The parents’ age ranged from 18 to 55 years old (M= 3.90; SD= .81). The children were between 1 and 18 years old (M= 7.46; SD= 3.56). The following questionnaires were used: The trauma Symptoms Inventory (TSI), Trauma Symptom Checklist for Young Children (TSCYC), and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC). Results showed that the trauma symptoms of parents were a good predictor of the child’s trauma symptoms. Both the gender of the child and the gender of parents did not affect the intergenerational transmission of trauma symptoms from parents to their child. The results of the present study show that secondary trauma symptoms are a factor to consider in the treatment of trauma symptoms. More scientific research is needed to confirm the results of this study. Follow-up research must also focus on other influential factors, such as culture, resilience, and parenting style.Show less
This research focuses on the degree of credibility of educational texts with brain pictures and textual information about the brain, which are read by teachers. The seductive allure of neuroscience...Show moreThis research focuses on the degree of credibility of educational texts with brain pictures and textual information about the brain, which are read by teachers. The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations (SANE) effect is tested, which means that people judge a text as more credible due to the presence of information about the brain or a picture of the brain. The main question is: what role does information about the brain play to the extent to which teachers consider a text credible? To answer this question, a questionnaire was sent to teachers. This questionnaire contained eight texts, for each text the participants answered five statements about the credibility of the text. An average credibility score was calculated based on these statements. Results showed that there was also the SANE effect in teachers. The results showed that there is an effect in terms of years of teaching experience, with teachers with more years of teaching experience judging a text with a higher degree of credibility in general. Finally, there also appeared to be a difference with regard to the educational attainment of the teachers, with the teachers with a university education judging a text in general with a lesser degree of credibility. The sample distributions of the education type are uneven in this study, so the results of the present study should be interpreted with caution. Another limitation is that more non-university-trained teachers participated in the survey, resulting in an uneven distribution with regard to the educational level of the participants. Follow-up research should focus on preventing uneven distributions, by involving more university-trained teachers in the research.Show less
People within the general public are likely to judge texts as more credible when the texts are supported by neuroscientific evidence, even if this evidence is incorrect of irrelevant (SANE effect)....Show morePeople within the general public are likely to judge texts as more credible when the texts are supported by neuroscientific evidence, even if this evidence is incorrect of irrelevant (SANE effect). The SANE effect has also been demonstrated for texts about educational topics and this can be worrisome because teachers must be able to make responsible choices about whether or not to implement new teaching practices. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the SANE effect extends to teachers within Dutch primary, secondary and higher education. In addition, it is investigated whether there are teacher characteristics that could predict how credibly teachers rate texts in general and specific texts that include neuroscientific evidence. To investigate this, 343 teachers completed an online survey in which teacher characteristics were requested and in which they had to read eight texts about educational topics, with or without neuroscientific evidence. After each text, the teachers had to answer five questions about its credibility. The research has shown that the teacher’s experience and level of education were significant predictors of their credibility ratings of texts about educational topics in general. Results also showed that the SANE effect extends to teachers within the Dutch primary, secondary and higher education when reading texts about educational topics. However, there were no specific teacher characteristics that could predict the extent to which teachers were sensitive to the SANE effect. Based on these results, it is recommended to make teachers (in training) aware about the SANE effect and to help them develop the skills necessary to guard themselves against this effect.Show less
The aim of the present study was to examine whether students understand a text better if they pay more attention to a text while reading, and whether an interaction effect with the working memory...Show moreThe aim of the present study was to examine whether students understand a text better if they pay more attention to a text while reading, and whether an interaction effect with the working memory capacity would occur. The study is correlational and consisted of measuring the attention of 60 university students while they were reading a text using an EEG-headset. This attention was also measured using self-reports after reading the text. In addition, text comprehension was measured with comprehension questions and working memory capacity using a reading span task. The results show that both attention to the text and working memory capacity were not related to text comprehension. In addition, there was no interaction effect of attention and working memory on text comprehension. The two measurement methods of attention (i.e. self-report and the EEG-headset) did not lead to differences in the results.Show less
