Multi‐type maltreatment and the long‐term adjustment of adults

Multi‐type maltreatment refers to the experience of more than one form of child maltreatment (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect and witnessing family violence). Researchers have largely ignored the presence of other types of child abuse and neglect when examining the adjustment problems associated with a particular form of maltreatment. The association between ‘multi‐type maltreatment’ and adjustment was explored in the current study. Retrospective data were obtained on (a) the degree to which maltreatment types co‐occurred, (b) childhood family characteristics and (c) adjustment problems in adulthood in an Australian self‐selected community sample (N=175). As hypothesized, a large degree of overlap was reported in the experience of the five types of maltreatment. Family characteristics—particularly family cohesion and adaptability—discriminated between respondents reporting single‐type and multi‐type maltreatment. Greater adjustment problems were associated with reports of a larger number of different maltreatment types. Multi‐type maltreatment should be recognized as a crucial aspect of the nature and impact of child maltreatment and considered in the development of programmes for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Clients’ perceptions of marriage and family therapists’ way‐of‐being: a phenomenological analysis

Previous research highlights the influence of therapist factors on treatment outcomes. One therapist factor proposed as fundamental to the process of therapy is the therapist's way‐of‐being, a relational concept that refers to how the therapist regards a client—either as a person or object (Fife et al., [2014] Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 40, 20–33). Although this case has been made conceptually, there is little empirical research on therapists’ way‐of‐being with clients. The primary purpose of this research is to investigate clients’ perceptions of their therapists’ way‐of‐being. Utilizing a common factors perspective, the study seeks to explore: (a) how clients experience their therapists’ way‐of‐being and (b) the influence therapists’ way‐of‐being has on clients’ engagement. Phenomenological methods were used to gain a nuanced understanding of the phenomenon. Qualitative data were collected through semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews with clients (N = 10) who received individual therapy from a marriage and family therapist. Results were organized into two main themes: core tenets (attunement, congruency, and aligning with clients) and operational tenets (providing affirmation and validation, balancing flexibility and structure, and accomplishing goals). Findings are used to make a case for adding the concept of way‐of‐being as an overarching construct for several well‐established therapist factors. Clinical and training implications are discussed.     

Poverty and Material Hardship in Grandparent‐Headed Households

Using the 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation, the current study examines poverty and material hardship among children living in 3‐generation (n = 486), skipped‐generation (n = 238), single‐parent (n = 2,076), and 2‐parent (n = 6,061) households. Multinomial and logistic regression models indicated that children living in grandparent‐headed households experience elevated risk of health insecurity (as measured by receipt of public insurance and uninsurance)—a disproportionate risk given rates of poverty within those households. Children living with single parents did not share this substantial risk. Risk of food and housing insecurity did not differ significantly from 2‐parent households once characteristics of the household and caregivers were taken into account.     

Negative (But Not Positive) Parenting Interacts with Infant Negative Affect to Predict Infant Approach: Evidence of Diathesis‐Stress

Temperament by parenting interactions may reflect that individuals with greater risk are more likely to experience negative outcomes in adverse contexts (diathesis‐stress) or that these individuals are more susceptible to contextual influences in a “for better or for worse” pattern (differential susceptibility). Although such interactions have been identified for a variety of child outcomes, prior research has not examined approach characteristics—excitement and approach toward pleasurable activities—in the first year of life. Therefore, this study investigated whether 6‐month maternal reported infant negative affect—a phenotypic marker of risk/susceptibility—interacted with 8‐month observed parenting behaviors (positive parenting, negative parenting) to predict 12‐month infant behavioral approach. Based on a sample of mothers and their infants (N = 150), results indicated that negative parenting was inversely associated with subsequent approach for infants with high, but not low, levels of negative affect. Similar results did not occur regarding positive parenting. These findings better fit a diathesis‐stress model rather than a differential susceptibility model. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.     

Recording and Interpreting Work‐Related Daydreams: Effects on Vocational Self‐Concept Crystallization

This mixed‐methods study examined the effects of recording and interpreting work‐related daydreams on vocational self‐concept crystallization and attitudes toward daydreams. Fifty‐one college students were assigned to 1 of 2 experimental groups—daydream journal group (n = 15) and daydream interpretation group (n = 18)—and a control group (n = 18). Data were analyzed using analyses of covariance. At posttest, both experimental groups showed higher levels of vocational self‐concept crystallization than the control group, and the daydream interpretation group perceived their daydreams as more relevant than the control group. Qualitative data were collected via written postintervention surveys and embedded as a supplement to the quantitative design. The qualitative data support the findings that participants in the experimental groups gained a greater awareness and clarity regarding their vocational self‐concepts and a greater belief in the relevancy of work‐related daydreams.     

A Population‐Based Study of Alcohol Use in Same‐Sex and Different‐Sex Unions

The present study advances research on union status and health by providing a first look at alcohol use differentials among different‐sex and same‐sex married and cohabiting individuals using nationally representative population‐based data (National Health Interview Surveys 1997–2011, N = 181,581). The results showed that both same‐sex and different‐sex married groups reported lower alcohol use than both same‐sex and different‐sex cohabiting groups. The results further revealed that same‐sex and different‐sex married individuals reported similar levels of alcohol use, whereas same‐sex and different‐sex cohabiting individuals reported similar levels of alcohol use. Drawing on marital advantage and minority stress approaches, the findings suggest that it is cohabitation status—not same‐sex status—that is associated with elevated alcohol rates.     

How could conditional cash transfer programme conditionalities reinforce vulnerability? Non‐compliers and policy implementation gaps in Uruguay's Family Allowances

Influential research shows that conditionalities could incentivize recipients of conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) to send their children to school and to regular health check‐ups. However, a growing literature is elucidating the risks of conditional transfers, from both a philosophical and an empirical perspective. This article highlights the varied deficits that have accompanied the implementation process in some Latin American countries, as well as the consequences that these deficits might have on the beneficiaries. In particular, it suggests that, rather than reducing vulnerability by improving access to services, conditionalities could be reinforcing vulnerability among non‐compliers if non‐compliance leads to the immediate suspension of the cash transfer and if this sanction is poorly implemented. While this hypothesis has gained attention and is part of both an academic and a political debate, empirical research around it is scarce. This article is an attempt to start filling this gap by focusing on the implementation process of conditionalities in a CCT programme in Uruguay (Family Allowances) and how this is experienced by a group of recipients who failed to comply with the conditionalities and were sanctioned with the suspension of the benefit. In particular, it identifies the main reasons why these beneficiaries did not comply, how they experience the sanction and how they managed—when they do—to apply for the benefit to be restored. Based on a qualitative design of in‐depth interviews, it provides empirical evidence to unpack causal relationships linking conditionalities to increased vulnerability among non‐compliers. Our findings offer evidence on the role played by the conditionalities in reinforcing vulnerability and the possible causal mechanisms that could be operating between both phenomena. This picture of policy implementation constraints that could lead conditionalities to reinforce vulnerability among recipients could be relevant to policy‐makers having to deal with non‐compliance and managing sanctions in CCTs.     

DO GENDER‐VARIANT PREFERENCES FOR COMPETITION PERSIST IN THE ABSENCE OF PERFORMANCE?

The well‐established gender gap in preferences for competition has been attributed to gender‐variant feelings about performing in competitive environments. Using a novel task with agency, in which subjects experience competition but cannot perform, we find evidence that performing may be sufficient but not necessary to generate gender‐variant preferences for competition. This suggests that the gender‐gap cannot be eliminated by correcting beliefs alone; that eliminating performance—for example, routinizing tasks—may not eliminate the gender gap; and that there may be heretofore unidentified determinants of preferences for competition—for example, men may prefer payment schemes that are based on social comparison. (JEL J16, C91, J24)     

STEREOTYPE THREAT AND THE STUDENT‐ATHLETE

Achievement gaps may reflect the cognitive impairment thought to occur in evaluative settings (e.g., classrooms) where a stereotyped identity is salient (i.e., stereotype threat). This study presents an economic model of stereotype threat that reconciles prior evidence on how student effort and performance are influenced by this social‐identity phenomenon. This study also presents empirical evidence from a framed field experiment in which students at a selective college were randomly assigned to a treatment that primed their awareness of a negatively stereotyped identity (i.e., student‐athlete). This social‐identity manipulation reduced the test‐score performance of athletes relative to non‐athletes by 12%. These negative performance effects were concentrated among male student‐athletes who also responded to the social‐identity manipulation by attempting to answer more questions. (JEL I2, C9, D0)     

Self‐Destructive Symptomatic Frames in Clinical Adolescents: Is the Same Different?

This study examines individual and family predictors of different self‐destructive patterns—only suicidal ideation, only nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI), or suicide attempts (that may also include both suicide ideation (SI) and NSSI)—in a sample of outpatient adolescents (N = 42; 86% females) with mean age of 16 years (SD = 1.86). Results indicated that there are differences in youngsters with self‐destructive behaviors in their perception of paternal rejection and maternal control, when compared with youngsters reporting only SI. Adolescents from the groups with self‐destructive behaviors differ only in age. Together, these data highlight the relevance of adopting an ecosystemic perspective, which includes both the patients and their families, regarding treatment and prevention of self‐destructive symptomatic frames.     

Employment and the Risk of Domestic Abuse Among Low‐Income Women

This paper uses data from 2 randomized evaluations of welfare‐to‐work programs—the Minnesota Family Investment Program and the National Evaluation of Welfare‐to‐Work Strategies—to estimate the effect of employment on domestic abuse among low‐income single mothers. Unique to our analysis is the application of a 2‐stage least squares method, in which random assignment enables us to control for omitted characteristics that might otherwise confound the association between employment and domestic abuse. We find that increased maternal employment decreases subsequent reports of domestic abuse in both studies. In the Minnesota Family Investment Program—a program with an enhanced income disregard that allowed welfare mothers to keep a portion of their welfare income as earnings rose—an increase in household incomes appears to have contributed to reductions in reports of domestic abuse.     

The Experience of Academic Non‐Mothers in the Gendered University

In this article we report on data from an empirical study concerned to explore the experience of women academics managing non‐motherhood and work in the gendered university. Although there is a growing body of work on the gendered experience of higher education in general and the experience of mothers as academics in particular, as yet there is little on non‐mothers and work. Drawing on our data we suggest that non‐mothers as well as mothers are affected by the ideology of motherhood and this has consequences for non‐mothers as workers within the academy. In addition to being perceived by students and other staff as ‘natural’ carers because they are women, academic non‐mothers are expected to put in the time and energy that mothers can not. However, as our data demonstrate, non‐mothers often have caring responsibilities outside the institution too. Overall, we argue that non‐motherhood needs to be recognized for the complex identity that it is.     

HEAPING‐INDUCED BIAS IN REGRESSION‐DISCONTINUITY DESIGNS

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that regression‐discontinuity designs arrive at biased estimates when attributes related to outcomes predict heaping in the running variable. After showing that our usual diagnostics may not be well suited to identifying this type of problem, we provide alternatives, and then discuss the usefulness of different approaches to addressing the bias. We then consider these issues in multiple non‐simulated environments. (JEL C21, C14, I12)     

Infants Experience Perceptual Narrowing for Nonprimate Faces

Perceptual narrowing—a phenomenon in which perception is broad from birth, but narrows as a function of experience—has previously been tested with primate faces. In the first 6 months of life, infants can discriminate among individual human and monkey faces. Though the ability to discriminate monkey faces is lost after about 9 months, infants retain human face discrimination, presumably because of their experience with human faces. The current study demonstrates that 4‐ to 6‐month‐old infants are able to discriminate nonprimate faces as well. In a visual paired comparison test, 4‐ to 6‐month‐old infants (n = 26) looked significantly longer at novel sheep (Ovis aries) faces, compared to a familiar sheep face (p = .017), while 9‐ to 11‐month‐olds (n = 26) showed no visual preference, and adults (n = 27) had a familiarity preference (p < .001). Infants’ face recognition systems are broadly tuned at birth—not just for primate faces, but for nonprimate faces as well—allowing infants to become specialists in recognizing the types of faces encountered in their first year of life.     

The Role of Dyadic Coordination in Organizing Visual Attention in 5‐Month‐Old Infants

In human infants, the ability to share attention with others is facilitated by increases in attentional selectivity and focus. Differences in early attention have been associated with socio‐cognitive outcomes including language, yet the social mechanisms of attention organization in early infancy have only recently been considered. Here, we examined how social coordination between 5‐month‐old infants and caregivers relate to differences in infant attention, including looking preferences, span, and reactivity to caregivers’ social cues. Using a naturalistic play paradigm, we found that 5‐month‐olds who received a high ratio of sensitive (jointly focused) contingent responses showed strong preferences for objects with which their caregivers were manually engaged. In contrast, infants whose caregivers exhibited high ratios of redirection (attempts to shift focus) showed no preferences for caregivers’ held objects. Such differences have implications for recent models of cognitive development, which rely on early looking preferences for adults’ manually engaged objects as a pathway toward joint attention and word learning. Further, sensitivity and redirectiveness predicted infant attention even in reaction to caregiver responses that were non‐referential (neither sensitive nor redirective). In response to non‐referentials, infants of highly sensitive caregivers oriented less frequently than infants of highly redirective caregivers, who showed increased distractibility. Our results suggest that specific dyadic exchanges predict infant attention differences toward broader social cues, which may have consequences for social‐cognitive outcomes.     

High Hopes but Even Higher Expectations: The Retreat From Marriage Among Low‐Income Couples

This study examines why low‐income, unmarried parents who say that they plan to marry at the time their child is born do not follow through on their plans. We use data from a nationally representative birth cohort survey—the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N =3,710)—combined with data from an embedded qualitative study—Time, Love, Cash, Caring, and Children (n =47)—to explore the reasons behind this apparent discrepancy. We find that some of the difference between parents’ expectations and behavior may be because of the overstatement of intentions at the time of the birth. Most of the discrepancy, however, results from parents’ perceived social and economic barriers to marriage. Specifically, unmarried parents have a long list of financial and relationship prerequisites they believe must be met in order for them to wed. Combined with other factors, these standards lead to an indeterminate delay in marriage.     

Child Support Obligations and Low‐Income Fathers

Using the 1994–1998 waves of the Current Population Survey—Child Support Supplement (N =5,387), the aims of this study are to document child support obligation rates of nonresident fathers, to examine the effect of the obligation rate on child support compliance, and to calculate the trade‐off between fathers’ financial responsibility and children's well‐being, paying particular attention to low‐income fathers. The results indicate that low‐income fathers have high child support obligation rates, which significantly reduce their child support compliance. Although lowering the obligation rate for these fathers may improve their compliance, it does not fully offset the lowered obligation amounts and leads to a 30% net payment loss for welfare mothers and a 43% loss for nonwelfare mothers. Policy implications are discussed.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST OF THE PERSISTENCE OF GENDER‐BASED STEREOTYPES

This paper experimentally investigates the role of gender‐based stereotypes in the forecasting of risk attitudes. Subjects predict the gamble choice of target subjects in one of three treatments: (1) Visual—the predictor can only observe the target; (2) Information—the predictor has individuating information about the targets' response to two statements from a risk‐preference survey; and (3) Combined—the predictor both observes the targets and has the targets' two responses to the risk‐preference survey. Our results suggest that stereotypes play a considerable role in forming predictions about others' risk attitudes and that these stereotypes persist even when individuating information is available. (JEL C91, D8, J16)     

Social (Dis)Approval and Collective Action Participation: Re‐evaluating the Positive Linearity Thesis

Survey‐based studies on collective action generally assume that social approval of participation in collective action has a positive and linear effect on actual participation. However, this assumption has not yet been subjected to a genuine empirical evaluation. This article investigates the positive linearity thesis, using survey data on participation and non‐participation in a street demonstration in The Hague in 2011. Statistical analyses provide evidence in support of a curvilinear relation between social approval and participation—an increased rate of participation in case of both approval and disapproval by peers. We discuss two processes underlying the observed relation: one pertaining to rebelliousness and the other regarding political awareness. The article generally illustrates the need for further empirical research on social influence and participation in collective action.     

Parents' Family Time and Work Schedules: The Split‐Shift Schedule in Spain

This study used data on couples from the 2003 Spanish Time Use Survey (N = 1,416) to analyze how work schedules are associated with family, couple, parent–child, and non‐family leisure activities. Spain is clearly an interesting case for the institutionalized split‐shift schedule, a long lunch break rooted in the traditional siesta that splits the workday between morning and evening. Results showed strong negative associations between the split shift and both family and parent–child activities. The evening shift was negatively associated with couple and family time, but not with parent–child time. Women spent much more time than men in parent–child activities for all work categories, and they were more responsive to the spouse's work hours. Men were substantially more active than women in non‐family leisure, considering both individuals' and their spouses' work schedules. Altogether, this study has important implications for scientific and public policy debates.