Ascan F. Koerner

In a series of studies in four phases, responses from over 27,000 undergraduate students were collected to evaluate reliability and validity evidence for the Core Competencies Assessment Scales (CCAS) designed to measure development of 10 core competencies indicating career readiness in undergraduate liberal arts students. The competencies were identified through a thorough review of extant literature and with feedback from key stakeholders. Each assessment scale consists of 10 - 16 items asking students to indicate how often they engage in behaviors indicative of the intended competency. Results of the studies provide evidence of score reliability and measurement invariance across academic level, sex, and race/ethnicity, as well as content, convergent, and predictive validity. In aggregate, we demonstrate that the CCAS are well suited to measure students’ core competencies in a convenient and scalable way, allowing students to track their career readiness development and informing college faculty on curricula and course design.

Growing use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) has resulted in an elevated twin birth rate, and a burgeoning population of IVF twins who are now aging into adolescence and beyond. This study tests a model examining whether parental conformity expectations have differential effects on twins' versus singletons' parent–adolescent relationship satisfaction, and if this effect is indirectly associated with relative changes in twins' and singletons' internalizing and externalizing behavior from middle childhood to adolescence. Using a sample of 278 IVF twins and singletons, path models demonstrate that twin status and conformity expectations interact to influence parent–adolescent relationships. Although there was an association between twin status and mother–adolescent relationship satisfaction among parents with high conformity expectations (r = .25, p < .01), this relationship was nonsignificant among parents with low conformity expectations (r = .05, p = .85). The differential effect of conformity expectations on parent–adolescent relationship satisfaction for twins and singletons was indirectly associated with relative changes in twins' and singletons' externalizing behavior from middle childhood to adolescence. Results demonstrate that higher levels of parental conformity expectations may not have the same effect on adolescent twins and singletons.

Family communication patterns theory (FCPT) explores how family members communicate to create a shared social reality via conversation and conformity orientations. Recently, scholars have noted that the current conceptualization and operationalization of conformity orientation is unnecessarily narrow in scope by representing conformity as controlling and repressive, rather than as cultivating homogenous attitudes, beliefs, and values among family members. To address these concerns, we tested the factor structure of the most common measure in FCPT research, the Revised Family Communication Patterns scale (Study One). Based on theoretical and methodological concerns that emerged from Study One, we then created and validated a new scale in Study Two – the Expanded Conformity Orientation Scale (ECOS). Findings from Study Two demonstrated concurrent and discriminant validity. Implications for the use of the ECOS in future studies are discussed.

STUDY QUESTION Compared to families with IVF singletons, what are parental depressive, parent–adolescent interaction and adolescent adjustment outcomes in families with 11–17-year-old IVF twins? SUMMARY ANSWER No differences were detected for any measured outcome between families with 11–17-year-old IVF twins and those with IVF singletons, despite high statistical power. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY When IVF twins are younger than 5-years-old, parents tend to have more mental health difficulties and poorer parent–child interactions relative to IVF singletons. By middle childhood, these differences may no longer exist and available studies with middle childhood-aged IVF twins challenge the expected long-term implications of the early concerns. IVF twins may even have more optimum adjustment than IVF singletons in middle childhood. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Study of 280, 11–17-year-old IVF children (n = 122 twins and n = 158 singletons) from 195 families at a US reproductive endocrinology clinic. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHOD At Wave 1, clinic patients with an IVF child born between 1998 and 2004 were invited to participate in an online survey. In this follow-up study, mothers and fathers provided information on each of their 11–17-year-old IVF adolescents. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE There were no differences between 11- and 17-year-old IVF twins and IVF singletons in parent depressive symptoms, parent–adolescent interactions or adolescent adjustment outcomes. LIMITATIONS REASONS FOR CAUTION Although the family demographics are representative of IVF patients, participants were drawn from one US clinic. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Study results provide reassurance that by adolescence IVF twins and their families function as well as IVF singletons and their families. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) University of Minnesota (UMN) Agriculture Experiment Station (MN-52-107), UMN Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship, UMN College of Education and Human Development Research Development Investment Grant, UMN Women's Philosophic Leadership Circle Award, UMN Eva Miller Endowed Fellowship. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

This volume provides a graduate-level introduction to communication science, including theory and scholarship for masters and PhD students as well as practicing scholars. The work defines communication, reviews its history, and provides a broad look at how communication research is conducted. It also includes chapters reviewing the most frequently addressed topics in communication science. This book presents an overview of theory in general and of communication theory in particular, while offering a broad look at topics in communication that promote understanding of the key issues in communication science for students and scholars new to communication research. The book takes a predominantly "communication science" approach but also situates this approach in the broader field of communication, and addresses how communication science is related to and different from such approaches as critical and cultural studies and rhetoric. As an overview of communication science that will serve as a reference work for scholars as well as a text for the introduction to communication graduate studies course, this volume is an essential resource for understanding and conducting scholarship in the communication discipline.

Objective: To examine the moderating effect of parents’ approach to sharing information with children on the outcomes of information-sharing about in vitro fertilisation (IVF) conception. Background: Mental health professionals encourage parents to share information about IVF conception with their children, but limited research is available on associations among information-sharing, parent–child relationship quality and child adjustment. Predictions based on Communication Privacy Management Theory suggest that how parents share private information with children will moderate the association between sharing information about a child’s IVF conception and parent–child relationship quality and indirectly affect child adjustment. Method: Study hypotheses were tested using a sample of 175 families with 246 6- to 12-year-old children conceived using IVF. Path models hypothesised associations among information-sharing, parent privacy orientation, parent–child relationship satisfaction and child behavioural and emotional adjustment. Results: The results supported the proposed process. Among parents with an ‘open’ privacy orientation, IVF information-sharing with children positively related to parent–child relationship quality (r = .19, p = .03). This association was negative when parents had a ‘restricted’ privacy orientation (r = –.34, p = .01). In turn, relationship quality affected child adjustment. Conclusion: Children conceived using IVF report wanting to know about their conception method and infertility counsellors often recommend information-sharing. These findings support the need to better understand IVF information-sharing processes, and parents who favour a ‘restricted’ privacy orientation may require additional support to promote open communication with children about their IVF conception.