Chinese Twin Children Reared Apart and Reunited: First Prospective Study of Co-Twin Reunions

China's one-child policy led to the abandonment of tens of thousands of infants. Included among these children were twins who were adopted and reared separately. Since 2006, 10 reunited twin sets participated in the first prospective study of twins reared apart. This exploratory study reports a qualitative analysis of the children's reactions to their first meeting with, and departure from, their co-twin. The majority of twins 18 months of age and older displayed strong attraction upon first meeting. Leave-taking included sadness, but responses varied across pairs. Theoretical interpretations of the findings and implications for parenting reared-apart adopted twins are provided.     

Albinism,spiritual and cultural practices,and implications for health,healthcare, and human rights: a scoping review

Persons with albinism – a disability found worldwide – are particularly at risk for human rights violations in Africa. The purpose of this scoping review was to establish the current state of knowledge on albinism, spiritual and cultural practices, and implications for health and health services. Electronic searches of nine databases were conducted. After screening, 40 articles were reviewed. Four themes emerged: health implications of albinism; health-related cultural and spiritual meanings attached to albinism; health-related experiences of persons with albinism; and human rights and albinism. The findings reveal that African ontologies, including witchcraft beliefs and practices, are implicated by their construction of the person with albinism as an ontologically different entity, although few studies explicated this relationship. How broader social structures influence persons with albinism disproportionately, resulting in health and social inequities, is another under-researched area. This scoping review lays the groundwork for intersectoral, interdisciplinary research.     

Rethinking twins and environments: possible social sources for assumed genetic influences in twin research

A central sociological problem is the extent to which genetics and the environment influence human behavior. Studies of twins are a core method in attempts to disentangle and to determine the comparative strength of genetic and environmental influences on psychosocial outcomes. A critical assumption of twin studies is that both monozygotic "identical" twins and dizygotic "fraternal" twins share common social environments. Therefore, any greater similarity of monozygotic than dizygotic twins is attributed to genetic influences. This paper tests the equal environment assumption by examining the extent to which greater concordance of adolescent monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins results from social, as well as genetic, influences. Bivariate comparisons indicate that monozygotic twins show greater similarity than dizygotic twins in socially-based characteristics including physical attractiveness, time spent in each other's company, the overlap in friendship networks, and friends' use of alcohol. Multivariate analyses indicate that measures of the social environment sometimes reduce or eliminate apparent genetic effects. In comparison with genetic indicators, social variables are usually stronger predictors of depression and alcohol use and abuse. These findings suggest that past twin studies could overstate the strength of genetic influences because some similarities in behavior among monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins stem from social influences.     

Health-Related Lifestyle Factors and Sexual Functioning and Behavior in Older Adults

This study explored associations between health-related lifestyle factors and sexual functioning and behavior in 6,916 adults aged 50 and over. Results showed that an active lifestyle was associated with a higher sex drive, more sexual activity, and lower levels of sexual dysfunction (with stronger associations among men). Poor sleep was associated with less sexual activity, higher levels of sexual dissatisfaction, and higher levels of sexual dysfunction. A healthier diet and a higher alcohol intake were associated with more sexual activity and a higher sex drive. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that health-related lifestyle factors are important for sexual functioning and behavior in older adulthood.     

Health-Related Adjustment of Adolescents in Various Postdivorce Family Structures With Main Focus on Father Custody With and Without a Stepmother

It is well established that adolescents living in father custody are more likely to be involved in antisocial behavior and substance use, as compared to adolescents living in mother custody. This study assessed whether these differences also pertain to a wider spectrum of health-related outcomes. A second aim was to investigate the role of a stepparent on adolescents' health-related adjustment. A total of 6,447 Norwegian adolescents between ages 11 and 16 participated in the study. The findings revealed that the differences between adolescents in father versus mother custody might be somewhat more comprehensive than previous studies have observed, indicating increased risks for adjustment problems among adolescents living with a single father on various health-related outcomes. Generally, a stepmother does not seem to compensate for the risks of adjustment problems, but might have a positive influence on certain health-related behaviors.     

The Covariation of Antisocial Behavior and Substance Use in Adolescence: A Behavioral Genetic Perspective

Multivariate genetic studies have revealed genetic correlations between antisocial behavior (ASB) and substance use (SU). However, ASB is heterogeneous, and it remains unclear whether all forms are similarly related to SU. The present study examines links between cannabis use, alcohol consumption, and aggressive and delinquent forms of ASB using a behavioral genetic approach. Participants were 1,688 adolescents (482 monozygotic twins, 852 dizygotic twins, and 354 nontwin siblings) aged 15–23 years old (M = 16.91), sampled from the community in the U.K. Multivariate model fitting revealed that the genetic components of alcohol consumption and cannabis use correlated with those of both aggression (.21 and .49, respectively) and delinquency (.35 and .69, respectively). Results suggest that both aggression and delinquency have genetic effects in common with alcohol consumption and cannabis use.     

Interventions for Internationally Adopted Children and Families: A Review of the Literature

Internationally adopted (IA) children are at increased risk for health-related, developmental, and behavioral difficulties. This article reviews the literature on various interventions currently used with IA populations; including health-related interventions provided by medical specialists, preparation programs provided by adoption agencies and other social service organizations, treatments for attachment and behavioral disorders, psychoeducational services, programs designed to improve children’s care prior to adoption, and parent-based initiatives. Surprisingly, very little systematic information exists regarding the effectiveness of interventions designed to prevent and remediate these difficulties in IA children. Recommendations for future research activity and for best practice approaches to intervention are discussed.     

Social Learning Theory and Behavioral Therapy: Considering Human Behaviors within the Social and Cultural Context of Individuals and Families

This article examines theoretical thoughts of social learning theory and behavioral therapy and their influences on human behavior within a social and cultural context. The article utilizes two case illustrations with applications for consumers. It points out the abundance of research studies concerning the effectiveness of social learning theory and the paucity of research studies regarding effectiveness and evidence-based practices with diverse groups. Providing a social and cultural context in working with diverse groups with reference to social learning theory adds to the literature for more cultural considerations in adapting the theory to women, African Americans, and diverse groups.     

Behavior of Infant Chimpanzees During the Night in the First 4 Months of Life: Smiling and Suckling in Relation to Behavioral State

This article reports the behavior of 3 newborn chimpanzees in the first 4 months of life, reared by their mothers and living in a community of 14 chimpanzees in a semi‐natural enriched environment. We focused on spontaneous activity during the night partly because sleeping behavior constitutes an essential part of the infants' activity. Observation during the night also had the advantage of keeping the influence of the mothers' activity as well as the environmental stimulation constant throughout the observation period. We report several interesting findings. Behavioral states defined through overt features such as open or closed eyes were variable during the night, with the rapid eye movement (REM) and non‐REM sleep patterns alternating much as they do in human infants. Although crying is one of the distinctive behavioral states in the case of human infants, the chimpanzee infants did not cry like humans. Suckling behavior was often accompanied by open eyes until the end of the first 2 months. Thereafter, suckling with the eyes closed became more prominent. Although there were no explicit stimuli, the newborns showed neonatal smiling with the eyes closed during REM sleep periods. However, neonatal smiling disappeared within the first 2 months and was replaced by social smiling with open eyes. Taken together, the results suggest a strong similarity between human infants and chimpanzee infants in terms of developmental changes in spontaneous activities at around 2 months of age.     

A cross-cultural investigation of consumer e-shopping adoption

This study examines how cultural values affect consumer decision-making with respect to e-commerce (on-line shopping) adoption in the United States and Korea. The findings suggest that cultural values are antecedents to perceived risk, perceived self-efficacy, and subjective norm. Furthermore, the findings indicate that while the overall behavioral mechanism underlying choice is similar for the two countries, there are differences in the relative importance of the factors determining consumers' intention to adopt e-commerce.     

Causal connections between socio-economic status and health: reciprocal effects and mediating mechanisms

Using structural equation modeling techniques on data from a nationally representative longitudinal survey, we first explored the reciprocal relationships between socio-economic status (SES) and health status. We then estimated the degree to which health-related lifestyles/behaviors and psychosocial distress are mediating mechanisms of these relationships. As predicted, SES positively affects health, and health positively affects SES. Although the causal path from SES to health is stronger than the reverse, these findings confirmed the hypothesis that both social causation and health selection contribute to social inequalities in health. In terms of the mediating mechanisms through which SES and health affect each other, more than a third of the overall SES-health relationship was accounted for by health-related lifestyles/behaviors and psychosocial distress. A notable part of the effect of SES on health is due to differences in psychological distress, with the effects of health-related lifestyles/behaviors being much smaller. On the other hand, in terms of the effects of health on SES, differences in weight and sleeping behavior are more important than psychological distress.     

A Multivariate Analysis of Bivariate Attitude-Behavior Relationships Based on Marginal Popularities*

The results of a contextual analysis of bivariate attitude-behavior findings, which is based on marginal popularities, are presented. The substantial rise in consistency as the popularity of behavior increases suggests that behavioral popularity has a strong contextual effect on the attitude-behavior relationship. Attitudinal popularity, however, is not positively related to consistency. The implications of the findings for the reference group approach to the attitude-behavior problem are considered, and it is suggested that the behavioral popularities may be indexing behavioral climates that are affecting consistency. An alternative individual-level behavioral competency interpretation of the results is also discussed.     

Implications of behavioral and cognitive reciprocity in social network data

Cognitive maps of social behavior are of interest for theoretical as well as methodological reasons. The issue that has primarily been addressed, in comparing cognitive with behavioral social network data, is whether the participants' level of accuracy in reporting their social behavior is high enough to warrant the use of cognitive data as a substitute for behavioral data. The present paper focuses, instead, on what these imperfectly matched sets of data may tell us about low level processes of cultural codification, namely, those revealed by the transformation of behavioral interaction to cognitive report. Specifically, the analyses undertaken here indicate that the discrepancies between the two kinds of data are systematic, and that the cognitive data reflect an integration of the participants' direct relationships with each other into the set of relationships they observe as well as participate in. Participants tend to discount their high-frequency co-interactants for whom they, in turn, are relatively low-frequency co-interactants, in favor of those with whom they are reciprocally high. Thus, in reporting their direct relationships, they are in effect codifying them in terms of indirect relationships - namely, the relationships their co-interactants have with others in the set.     

Maternal stress,family and health care of twins: With two case summaries of infants who died during the course of the study

SUMMARY. The family and professional care of a sequential series of 84 pairs of twins was compared with the care of singleton infants matched by birth date alone and with singleton infants matched demographically. Twin babies received more health visitor, but less family doctor, care than singletons; though any additional support had disappeared after the first three months. The findings suggested that increased levels of anxiety and depression (self-assessed) in mothers of twins are not specific to twinning but related to the total demands of young children. Two babies died during the course of the study, both were twins, presented as cot deaths, and occurred in excessively stressed families. The findings of the confidential enquiries into both these deaths are presented.     

Patient satisfaction in primary health care: a literature review and analysis.

This paper reviews the literature on patient satisfaction in primary health care settings. Definitions and models of satisfaction are considered first. Attention is given to the conceptualization of satisfaction by investigators concerned about consumers in general as well as by researchers focusing on consumers of medical services. Research findings are discussed and used to develop a model of patient satisfaction. The measurement of patient satisfaction and the findings of empirical studies are then reviewed, including summaries of effect sizes. It is concluded that patient satisfaction information can provide a dependent measure of service quality and serves as a predictor of health-related behavior. Issues deserving further investigation and recommendations regarding research strategies are presented.     

ADOLESCENCE AS CULTURAL TOOLKIT: High School Debate and the Repertoires of Childhood and Adulthood

Although adolescence was once treated as a distinct stage of development with distinctive behaviors, values, and beliefs, this model, in its strong form, has increasingly been discarded. Increasingly, scholars have come to recognize that adolescent identity, behavior, and culture are socially constructed, drawing upon disparate sources. Extending and elaborating this perspective, I suggest that adolescence represents a transitory temporal period in which young people draw upon behavioral repertoires characteristic of both adulthood and childhood, while creating cultural traditions that are recognizably distinctive to the period. During these years childhood behaviors have not been fully discarded as inappropriate for impression management, while behaviors of adults, as they are understood, are seen as self-enhancing. That those in the "teenage" years select from both pools of behaviors leads members of this age group to seem simultaneously adult and childish, and problematic in their boundary crossing. The expectations of adults both encourage and disparage drawing from these behavioral pools, dependent on assessments of situational appropriateness. To explore the process by which adolescents draw on alternate cultural toolkits to create selves and cultures that are self-satisfying and socially appropriate, I examine the domain of high school debate through ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews.     

The Relation between Observational Measures of Social Problem Solving and Familial Antisocial Behavior: Genetic and Environmental Influences

Deficits in social problem‐solving skills are often associated with antisocial behavior, particularly in children’s extrafamilial relationships. The current study was designed to examine this association in several new ways: the association was examined at two times in an adolescent sample within the context of the family; genetic models were used to estimate genetic and environmental effects on observational measures of problem solving and antisocial behavior and on the association between the two. The analyses were conducted as part of the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development project, consisting of 720 families at Time 1 (mean adolescent age: 14.5 years) and 440 families at Time 2 (mean adolescent age: 16.1 years). Genetic influence was found for antisocial behavior, but not for problem solving. The findings of shared environmental influences on these measures and their association are unusual in the behavioral genetic literature and are important in that respect.     

The Relationship Between Cultural Variables and Gambling Behavior Among Chinese Residing in Australia

Cultural variables (e.g., cultural values, acculturation and attitudes towards seeking professional assistance) have been found to play important roles in the initiation and maintenance of numerous mental health and substance related problems. However, there is a significant lack of empirical studies investigating the relationships between these cultural variables and gambling behavior. Thus, this study assessed whether these cultural variables could predict gambling behavior among 233 Chinese residing in Australia. Several questionnaires were used in the study including the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), the Asian Values Scale (AVS), Attitudes towards Seeking Psychological Help Scale (ATSPHS) and the modified version of the Cultural Life Style Inventory (CLSI). Results showed that although adherence to Asian values could not predict gambling behavior, acculturation (i.e., cultural shift and cultural incorporation) could negatively predict gambling behavior. Furthermore, the interpersonal openness subscale of ATSPHS could predict gambling behavior. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Accounting for the Performance of Environmentally Significant Behavior: The Symbolic Significance of Recycling

The scientific community has pronounced climate change unequivocal and its consequences disastrous. Yet Americans' behavioral response to the global social problem of environmental degradation has been largely confined to the individual act of recycling. This article examines why Americans are not doing more to address climate change and other environmental issues. Taking a cognitive sociological perspective, I describe how Americans think about environmental issues and pro‐environmental behavior. I draw on Swidler's concept of a “cultural tool kit,” to examine the cultural narratives Americans use to account for the small amount of pro‐environmental behavior they perform. The act of recycling functions as a synecdoche for pro‐environmental behavior in general, allowing individuals to over‐claim the significance of a modest amount of pro‐environmental behavior. I argue that Americans' failure to engage with environmental issues at a collective level is rooted in the individualized culture of American environmentalism.     

Academic and health-related trajectories in adolescence: the intersection of gender and athletics

This study takes a life course approach to adolescent academic and health-related behavior. Researchers have often studied academic achievement and substance use as unrelated, static, and de-contextualized phenomena. Applying latent growth curve modeling to a sample of 2,651 high school freshmen and sophomores in California and Wisconsin (1987-1990), this study treats achievement and substance use as dynamic trajectories, inter-related to each other, and influenced by proximate and structural contexts. In general, achievement is high at the start of high school and then declines. This downward trend is driven by male non-athletes. Substance use is initially low and then increases, with boys driving this increase. Finally, academic and health-related trajectories are most related among athletes, who experience long-term academic consequences from risky health-related behavior. Overall, gender-athletic status can serve as either protective or risk factor, depending on the behavior and the temporal perspective.