The Impact of Perceived Teacher Support on Anti-Immigrant Attitudes from Early to Late Adolescence

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Although research has shown that school context has consequences for intergroup attitudes, few studies have examined the role of teacher qualities, such as...     

Self-Esteem and National Identification in Times of Islamophobia: A Study Among Islamic School Children in The Netherlands

Despite strong debates about the role of Islamic education in Western societies, very little is known about the ways these schools can affect how Muslim children feel about these societies and themselves. This research examined how the self-esteem and national identification of Islamic schools students in a non-Muslim country (N?=?707; M_age?=?10.02; SD?=?1.25; 56.9% girls) depend on their perceptions of religious discrimination and the student-teacher relationship, as well as their teachers’ religious background and implicit religious attitude. Children reported substantially more religious discrimination against their group than against themselves. Religious discrimination was associated with lower self-esteem and weaker national identification, whereas a close bond with the teacher was associated with higher self-esteem and stronger national identification. Children with a non-Muslim teacher reported more national identification than students with a Muslim teacher, but less so if this teacher had a comparatively positive attitude toward Muslims. Results provide insights on how self-esteem and national identification can be encouraged within the context of Islamic education.     

The psychometric properties of the Anger Bodily Sensations Questionnaire (ABSQ)

The Anger Bodily Sensations Questionnaire (ABSQ) is a newly developed self-report instrument for measuring bodily sensations related to anger in interpersonal situations. In this study, we investigated the psychometric properties of the ABSQ in a sample of 70 offenders and a sample of 100 secondary vocational students. Results indicated that the internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the instrument were good. An explorative factor analysis carried out on the ABSQ data of the combined sample yielded three factors. Support was found for the concurrent validity of the instrument. In both samples, the total score of the ABSQ showed positive correlations with measures of bodily awareness, social anxiety, anger, and aggression. Altogether, results suggest that the ABSQ appears to be a reliable and valid questionnaire. Further research is needed to examine the psychometric properties of the ABSQ in larger offender and non-clinical samples.     

Validation of a microchip electrophoresis system as a DNA amplification control

As part of the normal procedure in a forensic DNA laboratory, a quality control step of the amplified DNA is often implemented to ensure the correct amplification of the sample before it is analysed in downstream applications. A validation study was undertaken to investigate a new microchip electrophoresis system (MultiNa, Shimadzu Corporation) claiming high resolution and sensitivity compared to routine polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). An array of STR multiplexes (AmpFISTR™ SGM+, GenePrint^® FFFL, PowerPlex™ 16, PowerPlex™ Y, an in-house Y-STR multiplex and AmpFISTR™ Profiler) was tested under both standard and low copy number PCR parameters to evaluate the accuracy, reproducibility and sensitivity of this technique. These tests showed that the microchip system did not have improved sensitivity compared to PAGE though had increased resolution and high reproducibility between samples.