Temperament,mothers' reactions to children's emotional experiences,and emotion understanding predicting adjustment in preschool children

It is expected that both children and their parents contribute to children's development of emotion knowledge and adjustment. Bidirectional relations between child temperament (fear, frustration, executive control) and mothers' reactions to children's emotional experiences were examined to explore how these variables predict children's emotion understanding, social competence, and problem behaviors. Preschool‐aged children (N = 306) and their mothers were assessed across four‐time points. Children's temperament and mothers' non‐supportive reactions to children's emotional experiences were assessed when children were 36 and 45 months of age. Emotion understanding was assessed when the children were 54 months of age and teachers reported on children's problem behaviors and social competence when the children were 63 months of age. Covariates included family income, child cognitive ability, gender, and child adjustment at 36 months. Results from path analyses demonstrated that bidirectional relations between children's temperament and mothers' non‐supportive reactions were not significant. However, mother's non‐supportive reactions directly predicted fewer problem behaviors, and children's emotion understanding mediated the relation between children's executive control and their later social competence. As such, emotion understanding appears to be one mechanism through which executive control might impact social competence.     

Identifying and Explaining Different Poverty Trajectories Using a Group‐based Trajectory Analysis – A Case Study of South Korea

In this study, we propose a group‐based trajectory analysis to examine why and how people fall into and out of poverty despite spiralling public expenditure on anti‐poverty policies. By analyzing the poverty experiences of 1,001 low‐income households between 1999 and 2008 in Korea, we identify five groups based on their poverty trajectories: exiting, declining, slowly rising, rapidly rising and chronic. Household members in each group demonstrate heterogeneous labour market experiences, educational levels and demographic factors. The exiting group has a high proportion of full‐time workers, high school graduates, and younger and male‐headed households, whereas the chronic group has more part‐time workers, high school dropouts, and older and female‐headed households. Among the declining, slowly rising and rapidly rising groups, educational background, age and sex are factors that differentiate the poverty dynamics of household members. Lastly, a number of social policies for helping low‐income households to leave and stay out of poverty are proposed.     

The Role of Emotional Reactivity,Self‐regulation,and Puberty in Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors

This study was designed to examine the roles of emotional reactivity, self‐regulation, and pubertal timing in prosocial behaviors during adolescence. Participants were 850 sixth graders (50 percent female, mean age = 11.03, standard deviation = .17) who were followed up at the age of 15. In hierarchical regression models, measures of emotional reactivity, self‐regulation, pubertal timing, and their interactions were used to predict (concurrently and over time) adolescents' prosocial behaviors in the home and with peers. Overall, the findings provide evidence for pubertal and temperament‐based predictors of prosocial behaviors expressed in different contexts. Self‐regulation was positively related to both forms of prosocial behavior, concurrently and longitudinally. Emotional reactivity showed moderately consistent effects, showing negative concurrent relations to prosocial behavior with peers and negative longitudinal relations (4 years later) to prosocial behavior at home. Some curvilinear effects of temperament on prosocial behaviors were also found. Effects of pubertal timing were found to interact with gender, such that boys who were early maturers showed the highest levels of prosocial behavior at home concurrently. Discussion focuses on the role of temperament‐based mechanisms in the expression of prosocial behaviors in different contexts in adolescence.     

A prospective study of adolescent mothers’ social competence,children's effortful control and compliance and children's subsequent developmental outcomes

Previous work has established that caregiver and child temperamental characteristics are associated with child compliance. Given the critical role that parents play in this process, and that children of teen mothers are at risk for poorer developmental outcomes, it is important to understand the development of compliance in the context of at‐risk parenting such as adolescent motherhood. The current study examined child compliance (Wave 5; W5) as a mediator of the association between adolescent mothers’ social competence (Wave 4; W4) and children's behavioral and academic outcomes (Wave 6; W6), and whether this mediation varied depending on children's effortful control (W4) in a sample of 204 Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers (M_age at W4 = 19.94, SD = .99) and their children (M_age at W4 = 36.21 months, SD = .45). Adolescent mothers reported on their own social competence and their children's effortful control and externalizing problems; compliance was assessed using observational methods; and academic readiness was assessed using standardized developmental assessments. Findings based on structural equation modeling revealed that adolescent mothers’ social competence was positively related to children's compliance among children with high effortful control, but not among those with low effortful control. Moreover, child compliance mediated the longitudinal association between adolescent mothers’ social competence and child externalizing problems and academic readiness. Discussion focuses on the importance of considering the role of child temperament in understanding how adolescent mothers’ social competence is subsequently associated with children's social and academic adjustment.     

Longevity insurance annuities: China adopts a benefit innovation from the past

Longevity insurance annuities are deferred annuities that begin payment at advanced older ages, such as at age 80. Such annuities would benefit some older retirees who have drawn down their savings, but the private sector has problems in providing them. Originally, social insurance old‐age benefits programmes in some countries were structured as longevity insurance programmes, with 50 per cent or less of those entering the workforce surviving to receive the benefits. Over time, however, as life expectancy has improved, the benefits these programmes provide have slowly transformed into benefits that most people entering the workforce ultimately receive. This article argues that the reintroduction of longevity insurance benefits as part of social insurance old‐age benefit programmes could be an important policy innovation, in particular because this benefit is generally not provided by the private sector. China has introduced longevity insurance benefits as part of its social insurance system, offering a model for other countries, particularly those providing modest social insurance old‐age benefits.     

Social support in single parents' transition from welfare to work: Analysis of qualitative findings1

Cook KE. Social support in single parents' transition from welfare to work: Analysis of qualitative findings Since 1995, single parents have been required to participate in welfare‐to‐work activities. While quantitative meta‐analyses have consolidated the social and economic impacts of such transitions, no attempt has yet been made to synthesise the qualitative evidence. In this article, I offer an analysis of 16 qualitative articles that explore the role of social support in the lives of single mothers making the transition from welfare to work. By focusing on the functions and reciprocal nature of social support, this study examined how welfare‐to‐work programmes shift women's dependence from the state onto family and friends, many of whom are in similarly impoverished situations and/or are unable to provide adequate support. Furthermore, women are often required to reciprocate the support they receive, which creates additional barriers to a successful welfare‐to‐work transition.     

Associations Between Behavioral Inhibition and Children's Social Problem‐solving Behavior During Social Exclusion

The current study examined the associations between the early childhood temperament of behavioral inhibition and children's displays of social problem‐solving (SPS) behavior during social exclusion. During toddlerhood (the ages of two to three), maternal report and behavioral observations of behavioral inhibition were collected. At the age of seven, children's SPS behaviors were observed during a laboratory social exclusion task based on the commonly used Cyberball game. Results showed that behavioral inhibition was positively associated with displayed social withdrawal and negatively associated with assertive behavior during the observed social exclusion task at seven years of age. These results add to our understanding of inhibited children's SPS behaviors during social exclusion and provide evidence for the associations between toddler temperament and children's social behavior during middle childhood.     

Social work and the shadow father: lessons for engaging fathers in Northern Ireland

The legislative framework of social work practice has consistently highlighted the need to work in partnership with parents, with far‐reaching implications for families. However, the importance of engaging fathers in social work practice is an issue that has received limited attention within academic debate and research. A research study undertaken across six family centres, investigated paternal involvement in family centre social work in Northern Ireland. The study involved 46 semi‐structured interviews with social workers, fathers and mothers. This paper presents the views of 22 social workers on the barriers to paternal involvement in family centre interventions. A range of factors were identified which served to inhibit or promote engagement of fathers. There were substantially more deterrents than promoters, a clear indicator of the problematic nature of paternal involvement. The findings highlight that both attitudes and practices of social workers influence the engagement of fathers. Recommendations drawn from the findings are presented for the development of father – inclusive social work practices and research.     

Getting down to earth: Finding a place for nature in social work practice

Heinsch M. Getting down to earth: Finding a place for nature in social work practice According to Wilson's biophilia hypothesis, people have an innate need to associate with the natural world, and this connection can enhance their physical and psychological well‐being. This hypothesis has sparked an interest in the health benefits of human connection with non‐human nature across a wide range of disciplines backed by evidence of the role of the natural environment in enhancing human well‐being. This article summarises the literature on the health benefits of nature, arguing for the application and positive impact of a nature‐based approach in social work. It challenges practitioners to recognise and articulate the role of the physical environment in their day‐to‐day practice. Implications for social work are identified in recommendations for enhancing opportunities to include non‐human nature in future social work practice.     

Gender Moderates the Progression from Fearful Temperament to Social Withdrawal through Protective Parenting

Child gender may exert its influence on development, not as a main effect, but as a moderator among predictors and outcomes. We examined this notion in relations among toddler fearful temperament, maternal protective parenting, maternal accuracy in predicting toddler distress to novelty, and child social withdrawal. In two multi‐method, longitudinal studies of toddlers (24 months at Time 1; Ns = 93 and 117, respectively) and their mothers, few main effect gender differences occurred. Moderation existed in both studies: only for highly accurate mothers of boys, fearful temperament related to protective parenting, which then predicted later social withdrawal. Thus, studying only main‐effect gender differences may obscure important differences in how boys and girls develop from fearful temperament to later social withdrawal.     

Connections between preschoolers' temperament traits and social behaviors as observed in a preschool setting

A growing literature has focused on the role children's temperament traits play in social behavior, but associations have traditionally been explored through informant report. We utilized a longitudinal, observational approach to (a) examine how children's traits related to their social behaviors when aggregated across the school year; (b) explore how traits and social behavior relate to children's age and sex; and (c) test how prior traits predicted subsequent change in solitary, reticent, and social play, above and beyond mean‐level change in play behavior over the course of the year. Fifty‐three children were observed in their preschool classroom, where coders rated children's traits and social behaviors over the course of one school year (N = 26,673 observations). Results found positive age‐related associations for positive emotionality (PE) and social play. In addition, aggregated traits explained a significant amount of the variance for every social behavior. Prior levels of lower PE, higher negative emotionality (NE), and higher effortful control (EC) predicted more subsequent time spent in reticent play, while NE and EC approached significance as predictors of solitary play. These results emphasize the role of early disposition on mean levels and rates of change in social behavior in a classroom.     

Vicarious ostracism and control in young children

After observing ostracism or social exclusion, older children, adolescents and adults report decreased satisfaction of the need for control. Attempting to regain control can motivate aggression in ostracized adults. Research has shown that the onset of ostracism’s harmful effects on children’s behavior is at preschool age. We investigated whether preschoolers would exert more control after witnessing ostracism. A sample of 53 children (Mage = 5 years, 5 months) first watched priming videos either showing ostracism or not. Subsequently, they participated in two ball games. In both of the games (order counterbalanced), children could control the flow of a ball’s motion, either live between two people (i.e., social control) or between two bars on a laptop screen (i.e., non‐social control). Overall, children understood social exclusion when it was displayed in the videos. We found an effect of observed ostracism only on social control. Four‐ to five‐year‐old boys who witnessed ostracism stopped a ball game between two persons longer than boys who did not witness ostracism. Our results suggest that observing social exclusion elevates young boys’ need for control over a social situation. Girls showed a different pattern but their responses did not differ significantly between ostracism and non‐ostracism conditions.     

Building Social Work Education and the Profession in a Transition Country: Case of Nepal

Drawing on interviews and personal accounts of the author working in Nepal for the last 7 years, this paper discusses the evolution of social work education and challenges for its growth in Nepal, a country that is going through a series of transitions and is emerging from a recent decade‐long armed conflict. Due to a lack of formal recognition and commitment from state and non‐state actors, the future of social work in Nepal is in the hands of university‐affiliated colleges and the few social work graduates and educators. Their commitment, strategies, and passion are crucial to the survival and growth of social work in conflict‐stricken, transition Nepal in South Asia.     

Dynamic relationships between children’s higher‐order regulation and lower‐order reactivity predict development of attention problems

Dual‐process theories contend that interplay between higher‐order (i.e., regulatory) and lower‐order (i.e., reactive) systems influences the development of attention in early childhood. We therefore investigated interactions between an aspect of children's top‐down self‐regulation (i.e., effortful control; EC) and positive reactivity (indexed by observed positive affectivity; PA) and negative reactivity (indicated by cortisol stress reactivity and observed fear) in predicting children's early attention problems. We found that observed EC at the age of three predicted lower attention problems 2 years later, controlling for attention problems at baseline. Importantly, the predictive effect of EC was more pronounced for children higher in cortisol stress reactivity at the age of three; this pattern was not found for observed PA or fear. Findings align with dual‐process developmental theories that emphasize the dynamics between regulatory and reactive processes in shaping child development. Our study provides the first evidence supporting dual‐process interactions in the domain of attention problems and has implications for identifying early risk markers and informing early prevention programs for children at greater risk for attention problems.     

Connections between Temperament and Social Development: A Review

This paper critically reviews the literature on the links between temperament and social development in children and adolescents. Social development is broadly defined to include externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems, prosocial behaviour and social competence. It concludes that there are clear links between specific dimensions of temperament and particular aspects of social development. Examples include the association of negative reactivity with externalizing behaviour problems, inhibition with internalizing behaviour problems, and attention regulation with school functioning. Theoretical and methodological issues to be confronted in future research are identified, including the need to investigate further the interactions between temperament and social context. Analysis of patterns of change in temperament, in relation to physiological changes and to such factors as parenting and socio‐cultural expectations of children, promise to refine our understanding of how temperament works in context. Some practical implications which can be drawn from the research are also discussed.     

For an integrative theory of social behaviour: Theorising with and beyond rational choice theory

Most sociologists are not content with merely relating macrosocial phenomena to preceding macrosocial causes in their causal explanations of social phenomena. Instead they are seeking to provide (non‐reductive) microfoundations with which they can corroborate and make understandable the connection between macrosocial phenomena. In order to do so a theory (or theories) of human action is required. One such theory, rational choice theory (RCT), has long been viewed with strong suspicion in sociology. I show such suspicion to be partially justified. RCT cannot be a general theory of social behaviour. Nonetheless, there are important insights in various versions of RCT that should not be discarded. In order to improve upon RCT and move toward a more unified or integrative theory of action social‐psychological research has to be taken note of. I demonstrate how dual‐process theories and the research on heuristics can help sociologists move beyond RCT without contradicting some of its more basic insights.     

Researching Quality of Life in Early Old Age: The Importance of the Sociological Dimension

Measurement of quality of life has become a major feature of much social and epidemiological research in health and social care settings. It is seen as an important alternative to more process‐based outcome measures but remains poorly defined. A major weakness is the absence of any coherent theoretical underpinning whether sociological, psychological or philosophical. Into this conceptual vacuum proxies for quality of life have been introduced. Quality of life [QoL] research into older populations has focused on measures of health and illness as equivalents of QoL. This paper argues that this response is inadequate as it reduces old age to a dimension of health, disability and disease. Instead, we argue that it is necessary to create a theoretically based measure of QoL in early old age which relates to those aspects of later life that are not defined by health. We present a model of QoL that is derived from aspects of contemporary social theory as they relate to the ontology of late modernity. In particular, we utilize a model based upon needs satisfaction. The model contains four domains: Control, Autonomy, Pleasure and Self‐realization. The measure consists of a 19‐item scale. The four domains load on to a single latent QoL factor. We argue that the CASP 19 scale offers an approach to QoL that integrates a sociologically based model of quality of life with a meaningful and valid research instrument.     

The Role of Maternal Behavior in the Relation between Shyness and Social Reticence in Early Childhood and Social Withdrawal in Middle Childhood

The moderating effect of maternal behavior in the relations between social reticence and shyness in preschool and subsequent social withdrawal was investigated. Eighty children (47 females) were judged for degree of social reticence during play with unfamiliar peers at the age of four and mothers completed the Colorado child temperament inventory (CCTI). At the age of seven, the children were coded for degree of social withdrawal during peer play and mothers and children were observed during structured and unstructured activities. Two significant interaction effects indicated that maternal report of shyness was a positive predictor of age‐seven social withdrawal when mothers lacked positivity; whereas observed social reticence was associated with higher degrees of social withdrawal when mothers were highly negative. Maternal positivity and negativity differentially influenced the development of social withdrawal in childhood, such that maternal negativity is associated with poor social functioning in children who have an established history of social withdrawal; whereas maternal positivity is associated with better social outcome for preschoolers who are viewed as temperamentally shy.     

Temperament,Parenting, and Moral Development: Specificity of Behavior and Context

This longitudinal study highlights the role of specific parenting behaviors in specific contexts when predicting moral development in children of varying temperament types. A sample of mother–child dyads took part in a competing demands task involving differing ‘do’ and ‘don't’ contextual demands when the child was 2 years of age. Child temperament was also assessed at this time, yielding inhibited, exuberant, and low‐reactive temperament groups. Children's moral behavior was assessed at 5.5 years of age. Models examining the interaction of temperament and mother behaviors in each context indicated that mother's reasoning/explanation and ignoring in the ‘do’ context predicted later moral behavior in inhibited children whereas redirection and commands in the ‘don't’ context predicted moral behavior in exuberant children.