Children and adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis: emotional reactions, coping mechanisms, and self-esteem.

The main aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship among emotional responses of children and adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis towards their physical state, the coping mechanisms they used, and their self-esteem and the treatment condition of their disorder, i.e., the use of a brace or not. 82 children and adolescents ages 7 to 17 years who were attending an outpatient scoliosis clinic were administered two questionnaires; one evaluated emotional and behavioral factors linked to coping with stressful situations, and the second assessed self-esteem. Analysis showed that, after adjusting for emotion-focused coping, general self-esteem, and age, the effect of the use of brace as a treatment technique on the participants' emotional reactions was not significant.

Preliminary investigation of relations between young students' self-regulatory strategies and their metacognitive experiences.

The present study investigated second-graders' self-regulative behav ior during task engagement and its relations to performance and to students' on-line metacognitive experiences. Participants were 25 individually examined Greek second graders (13 boys and 12 girls; M age: 7.6 yr., SD = 0.2). Students' use of cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational regulatory strategies while performing a cognitive task were directly observed and recorded by two independent observers. Students' task-specific performance was also evaluated. Finally, students' feeling of satisfaction with the solution produced, their estimate of effort expenditure, and estimate of the solution's correctness were assessed. Analysis showed these second grade students' use of self-regulatory strategies and feeling of satisfaction were significantly associated with their performance. However, metacognitive experiences reported after the solution were only slightly related to the students' actual self-regulative behavior during the task, implying that the relations of students' regulatory efforts with their metacognitive processes are still developing at such a young age.

Roles of protein kinase A (PKA) and PKC on corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)-induced elevation of cytosolic calcium from extra-and intra-cellular sources.

Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) affects cytosolic calcium ion levels. The aim of the present work was to examine the role of protein kinase A (PKA)- and PKC-dependent signalling pathways in mediating the effect of CRH on calcium ion influx (from extra-cellular sources) and calcium ion mobilization (from intra-cellular stores). In this study, we employed a well-known model of neural crest-derived cells, the PC12 rat pheochromocytoma cell line. We found that CRH increased the concentration of cytosolic calcium ions in calcium-rich and in calcium-free media. In both conditions, an inhibitor of PKA phosphorylation abolished the effect of CRH. In contrast, the inhibitor of PKC phosphorylation blocked the effect of CRH only in calcium-free conditions. The phorbol ester PMA, activator of PKC, accelerated the steep of the curve of cytosolic calcium ion increase from intra-cellular stores. These data suggest that: (a) CRH induces calcium ion entrance into the cytoplasm from both extra-cellular sources (influx) and from intra-cellular stores (mobilization); (b) the PKA-dependent signalling pathway mediates both effects of CRH; and (c) the PKC-dependent signalling pathway mediates only the CRH-induced mobilization of calcium ions from intra-cellular stores. Thus, this is the first report demonstrating that distinct signalling pathways control the effects of CRH on calcium ion influx and on calcium ion mobilization from intra-cellular stores.

Participation motives in physical education: an expectancy-value approach.

This study applied an expectancy-value approach in examining participation motives of students in physical education. As predicted outcome expectancy, a variable formed by the combination of outcome value and outcome likelihood correlated significantly higher with motivational indices than these two factors.