Positive coparenting previous to the COVID-19 pandemic can buffer regulatory problems in infants facing the COVID-19 pandemic

Coparenting can be a development-enhancing or risk-promoting environment for infant regulatory capacity, mainly in the presence of adversity. This study aimed to analyze the association between positive and negative coparenting previous to the COVID-19 pandemic and infant regulatory capacity in the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, an adverse condition. A sample of 71 first-born infants and their mothers and fathers from a longitudinal cohort in Portugal were assessed at 2 weeks postpartum before the COVID-19 pandemic and again at 6 months postpartum, before (n = 35) or during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 36). Parents completed measures of positive and negative coparenting and infant regulatory capacity in both assessment waves. Results revealed that the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic moderates the association between mothers' and fathers' positive coparenting previous to the COVID-19 pandemic and infant regulatory capacity at 6 months. The association between positive coparenting and regulatory capacity was stronger in infants facing the COVID-19 pandemic, than in infants who did not face the COVID-19 pandemic. Positive coparenting previous to the COVID-19 pandemic may be a development-enhancing environment for infant regulatory capacity in the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Positive coparenting may buffer regulatory problems in infants facing adverse conditions.     

Mother-infant emotional availability through the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining continuity,stability, and bidirectional associations

The COVID-19 pandemic may impact the development of infants' social communication patterns with their caregivers. The current study examined continuity, stability, and bidirectional associations in maternal and infant dyadic Emotional Availability (EA) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 110 Israeli mother-infant dyads (51% girls) that were assessed prior to (Mage = 3.5 months) and during (Mage = 12.4 months) the pandemic. At both time points, mother-infant interactions were observed during play (nonstressful context) and tasks designed to elicit infant frustration (stressful context). Maternal and child EA were coded offline. Maternal EA demonstrated no significant mean-level changes from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas infant responsiveness and involvement increased over time. Stability and bidirectional associations in EA differed by context and were evident only in the stressful context. Mothers' perceived levels of social support further moderated these associations. Specifically, infants' pre-pandemic responsiveness and involvement predicted maternal EA during the pandemic only when mothers reported low levels of social support. Our findings suggest that maternal and child EA were not adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, patterns of EA demonstrated moderate-to-no stability over time, suggesting considerable individual differences in trajectories of EA.     

Infant regulation during the pandemic: Associations with maternal response to the COVID-19 pandemic,well-being,and socio-emotional investment

In the transition to parenthood, the COVID-19 pandemic poses an additional strain on parental well-being. Confirmed infections or having to quarantine, as well as public health measures negatively affect parents and infants. Contrary to previous studies mainly focusing on the well-being of school-aged children and their parents during lockdown periods, the present study investigated how mothers of infants respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and whether this is related to maternal well-being, maternal socio-emotional investment, and infant regulation. Between April and June 2021, 206 mothers of infants (M_age = 7.14 months, SD_age = 3.75 months) reported on COVID-19 infections, their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, their well-being, socio-emotional investment, and their infant’s regulation. Exploratory factor analyses yielded five dimensions of maternal response to the COVID-19 pandemic: social distancing, worrying about the child, birth anxiety, distancing from the child, and information on COVID-19-related parenting behavior and support. These dimensions were related to mother-reported infant regulatory problems. Path analyses revealed paths via reduced maternal well-being and maternal socio-emotional investment. Maternal perceptions of infant regulatory problems are related to how the mothers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Better information about COVID-19-related parenting behavior and support might buffer against these effects.     

Greed and fear: Competitive and charitable priming in a threshold volunteer's dilemma

In the “k-volunteer's dilemma” benefit accrues to all members if at least k members volunteer, and receive nothing otherwise. We use experiments to examine (a) volunteering behavior when threshold k increases from 1 to 2, and (b) whether volunteering behavior shifts toward norms associated with one of two primed identities—charitable or competitive. We find that increasing the threshold increases an individual's probability of volunteering, but the likelihood of good provision is lower. Neither priming affects volunteering behavior when k = 1, but competitive priming effectively increases volunteering when k = 2. Both greed and fear of non-provision appear to affect volunteering.     

I was,I am,I will be: Identity and time perspective before and during COVID-19

The ways in which youth reach a stable identity, a core developmental task of emerging adulthood, are intertwined with their perceptions of the past, present, and future. Additionally, these dynamics are embedded in and are strongly influenced by the socio-historical context and concurrent events, such as COVID-19. This study examines how different groups of emerging adults (university students and workers) engage in identity processes in educational/vocational and interpersonal domains and frame their perspective of time before (N = 299, M_age = 21.90; 51.4% females) and during the pandemic (N = 497; M_age = 23.11; 68.2% females). Significant differences in identity processes and time perspective emerged between the two cohorts. Moreover, significant associations between identity and time perspective were found to be similar across different identity domains and cohorts.     

Legacy Volunteering: A Test of Two Theories of Intergenerational Transmission

Sociological theory suggests two reasons that volunteering runs in families. The first is that parents act as role models. The second is that parents who volunteer pass on the socioeconomic resources needed to do volunteer work. Panel data from two generations of women (N = 1,848) are analyzed to see how much influence family socioeconomic status and mother's volunteering have on daughter's volunteer careers. More highly educated women and women whose mothers volunteered donate more hours initially, but only family socioeconomic status increases volunteering over the life course.     

The Impact of Work and Volunteer Hours on the Health of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Objective: To examine the impact of work and volunteer hours on 4 health issues among undergraduate college students. Participants: Full-time undergraduate students (N = 70,068) enrolled at 129 institutions who participated in the Spring 2011 American College Health Association–National College Health Assessment II survey. Methods: Multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression were used to examine work and volunteer hour impact on depression, feelings of being overwhelmed, sleep, and physical activity. Results: The impact of work and volunteer hours was inconsistent among the health outcomes. Increased work hours tended to negatively affect sleep and increase feelings of being overwhelmed. Students who volunteered were more likely to meet physical activity guidelines, and those who volunteered 1 to 9 hours per week reported less depression. Conclusions: College health professionals should consider integrating discussion of students' employment and volunteering and their intersection with health outcomes into clinical visits, programming, and other services.     

Gender and the blurring boundaries of work in the era of telework—A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study analyses gender and the blurring boundaries of work during prolonged telework, utilising data gathered during the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic caused a major change in the knowledge work sector, which has characteristically been more prone to work leaking into other parts of life. The study examines the blurring boundaries of telework: between time and place, care and housework, and emotional, social, spiritual and aesthetic labour. The experiences of different genders regarding the blurring boundaries of work during long-term telework are scrutinised using a mixed methods approach, analysing two surveys (Autumn 2020: N = 87, and Autumn 2021: N = 94) conducted longitudinally in a consulting company operating in Finland. There were several gendered differences in the reported forms of labour, which contribute to the blurring boundaries of work. Some boundary blurring remained the same during the study, while some fluctuated. The study also showed how the gendered practices around the blurring boundaries of work transformed during prolonged telework. Blurring boundaries of work and attempts to establish boundaries became partially gendered, as gender and life situation were reflected in knowledge workers' experiences of teleworking.     

Adolescents' Civic Engagement: Concordant and Longitudinal Associations Among Civic Beliefs and Civic Involvement

Associations between adolescent civic and organized activities (volunteering, standard political, social movement, school/community, religious) and civic beliefs (comprised of should, obligation, and respect judgments) were examined. Cross‐sectional models (N = 703, M_age = 15.87) indicated domain specificity between adolescent civic beliefs and behaviors. Longitudinal models (n = 219, M_age = 15.39) indicated that adolescents' standard political beliefs predicted greater levels of standard political involvement one year later, and school/community activities predicted greater standard political beliefs a year later. Youth volunteering predicted lower standard political beliefs, and standard political involvement predicted lower community service beliefs one year later. Findings support the assessment of adolescent sociomoral civic beliefs and demonstrate how civic experiences and civic beliefs can mutually promote each other during adolescence.     

Volunteer Work and Hedonic,Eudemonic, and Social Well‐Being

Using two waves of panel data from the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), we examine the relationship between volunteer work and three dimensions of well‐being: hedonic (e.g., positive mood), eudemonic (e.g., purpose in life), and social (e.g., feeling of belonging to the community). We test for the effects of volunteering measured as a binary and a continuous variable. Results show that volunteering enhances eudemonic and social well‐being (but not hedonic well‐being) although the number of hours contributed makes no difference. Conversely, people who have greater hedonic, eudemonic, and social well‐being are more likely to volunteer and, in the case of hedonic and eudemonic well‐being, volunteer more hours.     

Infant externalizing behavior and parent depressive symptoms: Prospective predictors of parental pandemic related distress

Understanding predictors and effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic is a top-priority in research endeavors. The impact of COVID-19 on all components of family life and mental health cannot be overstated. This study emphasizes the need to investigate predictors of parents' responses to disaster by conceptualizing the depth of the impact of the pandemic using Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Systems Model. We evaluate parents of infants as the center of the microsystem and discuss the importance of parents' responses to the pandemic for children's development. Specifically, utilizing a prospective design involving a sample of 105 infant-mother-father triads, we test the predictive effects of mothers' and fathers' mental health and infant externalizing behavior assessed prior to the pandemic when infants were 16-months on later pandemic related distress (PRD) approximately 1 year later. Results indicate that for both mothers and fathers, more depressive symptoms during their child's infancy predicted more PRD. Although mothers' reports of more child externalizing behavior significantly predicted more PRD, fathers' reports of externalizing were strongly, positively correlated with their concurrent depressive symptoms but not directly related to PRD. We demonstrate the importance of pre-existing mental health and parents' perceptions of their children's behavior as early as 16 months, in coping with disaster.     

The association of infant crying,feeding, and sleeping problems and inhibitory control with attention regulation at school age

Regulatory problems in infancy and toddlerhood have previously been associated with an increased risk of developing attention problems in childhood. We hypothesized that early regulatory problems are associated with attention problems via reduced inhibitory control. This prospective study assessed 1,459 children from birth to 8 years. Crying, feeding, and sleeping problems were assessed at 5 and 20 months via parent interviews and neurological examinations. At 20 months, inhibitory control was tested with a behavioral (snack delay) task. Attention regulation was assessed at 6 and 8 years using multiple instruments and informants. Detrimental effects of crying, feeding, and sleeping problems on attention regulation were partly mediated by children's ability to inhibit unwanted behaviors (β = ?0.04, p = 0.013). Accounting for cognition diminished this indirect effect (β = ?0.01, p = 0.209). Instead, the effects of crying, feeding, and sleeping problems on attention regulation were fully mediated by children's cognitive functioning (β = ?0.10, p < 0.001). These results support that inhibitory control abilities partly mediate effects of crying, feeding, and sleeping problems. However, these effects may be accounted for by children's general cognitive abilities. Early regulatory problems may set infants on a course of under control of behavior into school age, and such trajectories are highly associated with general cognitive development.     

The impact of face masks on infants' learning of faces: An eye tracking study

This preregistered study examined how face masks influenced face memory in a North American sample of 6- to 9-month-old infants (N = 58) born during the COVID-19 pandemic. Infants' memory was tested using a standard visual paired comparison (VPC) task. We crossed whether or not the faces were masked during familiarization and test, yielding four trial types (masked-familiarization/masked-test, unmasked-familiarization/masked-test, masked-familiarization/unmasked-test, and unmasked-familiarization/unmasked-test). Infants showed memory for the faces if the faces were unmasked at test, regardless of whether or not the face was masked during familiarization. However, infants did not show robust evidence of memory when test faces were masked, regardless of the familiarization condition. In addition, infants' bias for looking at the upper (eye) region was greater for masked than unmasked faces, although this difference was unrelated to memory performance. In summary, although the presence of face masks does appear to influence infants' processing of and memory for faces, they can form memories of masked faces and recognize those familiar faces even when unmasked.     

‘COVID taught me…’: Examining child-radio productions in the COVID-19 pandemic

Framed by critical literacies, the author adapted ethnographic methods to virtual spaces to examine radio as an alternative way to enhance adult understanding of children's COVID-19 experiences. Drawing on a subset of child-produced radio segments from March 2021, she foregrounds how children in an extracurricular program strategically used radio to share their pandemic experiences with their community. Supplemented by 5 months of virtual observations, she identified how child-DJs used radio to share how—through the COVID-19 pandemic—they cared about and for their community. Ultimately, she argues radio is one tool for coming to know children as community change agents.     

The Development of Object Construction From Infancy Through Toddlerhood

Early in development, children explore and combine objects in increasingly complex ways. One manual skill, object construction, represents a major shift in how objects are explored relative to other objects. Despite recent connections with cognitive functioning such as spatial skills, the development of object construction ability has rarely been studied and its trajectory has not been adequately described. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of three types of object construction (stacking, nesting, and affixing) across 5 monthly infant visits and 7 monthly toddler visits using a longitudinal design and a large sample size. Infants (10–14 months, n = 131) and toddlers drawn from the infant sample (18–24 months, n = 65) were given sets of age‐appropriate toys each of which elicited at least one type of constructive play. We described success at different construction tasks and identified trends for construction skill for infant and toddler development using multilevel modeling. We found that each of the three construction actions developed in unique ways across the 10‐ to 24‐month period. Infant construction skill predicted the development of toddler skill, but toddler construction skill diverged from infant trajectories. We discuss the role of combination strategies in the development of object construction skill and how object construction could be related to other domains of development.     

How do International Volunteering Characteristics Influence Outcomes? Perspectives from Partner Organizations

This study examines how different types of international volunteering influence common program outcomes such as building organizational capacity, developing international relationships, and performing manual labor. Survey responses were collected from 288 development-oriented volunteer partner organizations operating in 68 countries. Data on the duration of volunteer service, the volunteers’ skill levels, and other variables were used to develop a rough typology of international volunteering. Binary logistic regression models then assessed differences in outcomes across five volunteering types. Findings suggest that future research needs to be more precise about how the nuances and complexity of diverse forms of international volunteering influence outcomes.     

Attachment to Volunteering

We propose that volunteers' attachment to their work is determined by the level of resources they bring to it, the rewards they derive from it, and the context in which the work is carried out. We test this theory using two waves of the Americans' Changing Lives panel study (1986–1989). The resources part of the theory is supported: the likelihood of remaining in the volunteer labor force across the two waves is greater for the more highly educated, those who report higher rates of formal and informal social interaction, and those who have children in the household—the last effect is stronger for women. Respondents reporting an increase in regular working hours across the two waves are more likely to cease volunteering. However, declining functional ability has no effect on attachment. The reward part of the theory is not consistently supported. Commitment to volunteer work in the first wave (measured by hours volunteered) predicts being a volunteer in the second, but enjoying the work has no effect, and being satisfied with the results of the work decreases attachment. Compared to a number of other work contexts, church-related volunteering in the first wave is the strongest predictor of being a volunteer in the second.     

Early Adolescents' Development of Academic Self‐Concept and Intrinsic Task Value: The Role of Contextual Feedback

In this study, we investigate the extent to which achievement‐related feedback in two academic domains (mathematics and language) originating from two contexts (school and family) predicts early adolescents' domain‐specific academic self‐concept and intrinsic task values in Germany (N = 1,190, age range 10–13) and the United States (N = 1,953, age range 10–14). We examined the mediating role of both parents' competence perceptions and the early adolescents' academic self‐concepts linking grades and intrinsic value. Within‐ and cross‐domain effects were tested at each stage of the mediation. As predicted, in both countries the associations of grades with the academic self‐concepts are mediated by the parents' competence perceptions. The association of academic feedback with intrinsic task value is mediated through the students' academic self‐concepts.     

Who is a volunteer? A cultural and temporal exploration of volunteerism

This study’s purpose was to develop a temporal and cultural definition of volunteering in China. Using a comparative mixed-methods approach, N₁ = 218 Chinese students in Hong Kong were surveyed about their perceptions of volunteering. These quantitative data were compared cross-culturally with a sample of adults in the United States who used the same instrument called Who is a Volunteer? Subsequently, N₂ = 40 of these same students voluntarily participated in a series of focus groups, to further explore more in-depth their opinions about volunteering. The main quantitative results revealed that at the extreme ends of the volunteer scale, both the U.S. and Chinese samples could readily distinguish what volunteering was or was not. The more nuanced empirical differences on the scale (24% of the 21 items) were explained either by unique cultural differences, or the longer and more prominent history that volunteering has had in North America versus China. Main qualitative findings revealed additional between-group cultural differences exemplified by (1) a more family-centric and collectivist Chinese culture versus a more individualistic American culture, (2) a role blurring about volunteer activities versus paid work activities, and (3) that both organizational and cultural context must be seriously considered when defining volunteerism. This study adds to the growing definitional literature on this transformational concept and represents the largest comparative empirical investigation on this subject from East Asia.     

Perceived family impact of volunteering among reintegrating post-9/11 Veterans

Family issues are common among returned post-9/11 Veterans. Traumatic brain injury (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression are each independently related to divorce whereas community ties and social support are protective factors for the family during reintegration. Evidence from elders on the benefits of one intervention, community volunteering, may indicate “spillover effects” of these benefits into the family. Few measures exist to assess the impact of military Veteran volunteering on the family. The authors report (1) an adaption of a benefits measure from elders to Veterans, (2) its preliminary reliability and validity, and (3) differences among subgroups. Reintegrating post-9/11 Veterans (N = 346) who completed a 6-month, stipended volunteer program were surveyed. Perceived impact of volunteering on the family was assessed after completion of the program using an 11-item self-report measure. Rank-based nonparametric tests were used to detect significant differences among subgroups. Preliminary findings support the scale’s adaptation to Veterans, internal consistency, and construct validity. At least one perceived family impact indicator differed significantly (p < .05) between subgroups based on demographic and psychological factors. Veterans in this civic service program perceived that their volunteering may have affected their families.