No abstract

No abstract

Thirty-two mothers and 25 fathers described their coping efforts during the initial weeks of their preterm infants' hospitalization in a neonatal intensive care unit. Utilizing procedures developed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) in which coping is linked with a specific stressful event, parents reported what they did to cope with the stressor they perceived to be the most stressful. They also completed the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988). Results showed that there were similarities and differences in the types of coping strategies used by mothers and fathers. In addition, factors such as neonatal morbidity and appraisal of control were differentially associated with the use of certain types of coping strategies. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

Ratings of importance to the respondent and ratings of degree of implementation of items in the three areas were uniformly high. Mothers and nurses had significantly higher ratings than neonatologists in implementation of caregiving. In addition, mothers and nurses rated importance higher than implementation for the areas of information exchange and relationships.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has provided the impetus to educate all children in more inclusive settings. With the move toward inclusion has come the recognition that changes must occur in the manner in which teachers are prepared. Since the 1970s, efforts have been made to ensure that general educators have some content in their preservice preparation programs related to disabilities either through modifying existing courses or by adding special education courses to the curriculum. However, research suggests that such practices have not resulted in adequately prepared general educators for inclusive settings. A more recent early childhood education trend in preparing preservice students for inclusive settings is to unify general and special education curricula in universities/colleges. An overview of efforts toward unification and a summary of the limited research in this area are provided. The remaining articles in this topical section are introduced with a discussion of the need for further research related to unification.