Derived Equivalence Relations of Geometry Skills in Students with Autism: an Application of the PEAK-E Curriculum

The present study evaluated the efficacy of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) as described in the PEAK-E curriculum (Dixon, 2015) for promoting the emergence of derived geometry skills in two children with high-functioning autism. The results suggested that direct training of shape name (A) to shape property (B) (i.e., A-B relations) was effective for both participants. Following A-B training, both participants demonstrated emergent relations that are consistent with symmetry (B-A), as well as emergent shape name (A) to shape picture (C) relations that are consistent with transitivity (A-C). The results expand on existing literature by demonstrating the emergence of an A-C relation when neither A nor B stimuli were ever trained to C stimuli and illustrate the efficacy of EBI for training geometry skills.

     

Emotion Identification Skill and Social Support During Adolescence: A Three‐Year Longitudinal Study

Emotion identification skill (EIS) has been correlated with social support, but little research has examined the extent that EIS is a developmental precursor to supportive relationships. The present study investigated the longitudinal relationships between EIS and social support in adolescence. Participants were 903 (464 males; 439 females) Australian high school students, with 314 participating in all four waves. Students completed questionnaires annually from Grade 9 to Grade 12, including self‐report measures of (1) EIS, (2) social support network size, and (3) quality of social support. Cross‐lagged structural equation modeling supported a reciprocal influence model, with social support and EIS mutually influencing each other's development. We discuss the implications of this finding for the positive development of EIS and social support.     

Ethnic Identity,Stereotype Threat,and Perceived Discrimination Among Native American Adolescents

In this study, ethnic identity, stereotype threat, and perceived discrimination were examined in relationship to academic achievement and hopelessness in a sample of 129 Native American adolescents aged 14–19. Regression analyses with self‐reported data indicated two major findings. Ethnic identity interacted with stereotype threat to predict academic achievement, where participants with high ethnic identity and low stereotype threat scores reported higher grade point averages. Ethnic identity also interacted with perceived discrimination to predict hopelessness, where participants with low ethnic identity and high perceived discrimination scores were higher in hopelessness. Findings are discussed in light of the joint role that ethnic identity and perceived bias have in relationship to developmental outcomes in Native American adolescents.     

HOTEL DEMAND BEFORE,DURING, AND AFTER SPORTS EVENTS: EVIDENCE FROM CHARLOTTE,NORTH CAROLINA

This paper uses daily hotel occupancy data to examine the effects of a wide variety of political and sporting events on the hotel room market of Charlotte, North Carolina from 2005 to 2014. Two political conventions and NASCAR auto races are associated with large increases in hotel occupancy, prices, and revenue, but many other events have no discernable effect on Charlotte's hotel market. The results also indicate that occupancy effects before or after most events are modest at best. Back‐of‐the‐envelope calculations show incremental hotel‐tax receipts fall short of the debt service incurred in constructing and maintaining the city's sports venues. (JEL H71, Z23, Z28)     

Is there still a frontier? The 1890 US census and the modern American West

An omnibus section in the 1890 Census, ‘Progress of the Nation’, analyzed the course of US settlement since the first Census in 1790. The essay concluded that the American frontier was fast diminishing as the post-Civil War settlement of the West expanded; and that the frontier was thus no longer worth measuring. Frederick Jackson Turner made the document the starting point for his famous 1893 essay on the significance of the frontier. Turner invoked ‘Progress of the Nation’ to declare that the frontier was gone.Researchers have neglected ‘Progress of the Nation’ as a primary source, exploring it mostly as it influenced Turner. Yet its main approach — tracking the distribution of population densities at decade intervals — yields a precise method for understanding low-density frontier settlement.We use the 1890 Census's density-based method to chart the frontier's historical and contemporary evolution. We show that a vast frontier endures. The frontier never closed; instead it changed. After spending nearly the entire 19th century shifting quickly west, the frontier gradually moved east, to the point where large stretches of the Great Plains have now reverted to frontier.We also demonstrate that the modern-day West owes its distinctive form to land-use and urbanization patterns that appeared as early as the 1840s and were evident in ‘Progress of the Nation’. The region, with its big cities enveloped by a huge frontier, embodies its own 150-year-old settlement tradition.     

Mothers with Physical Disabilities Caring for Young Children

Seventy-one U.S. mothers with a physical disability who had a child aged 0 to 3 years responded to a survey about the system of care used for their child. Results indicated that mothers participated in all different types of care (physical, comforting, playing, limit setting, and taking the child outside the home). Partners and participants’ mothers provided the most assistance with care. Mothers were generally satisfied with assistance received from others. This article explores how mothers remain central to their children with others assisting with the child’s care and the impact of such assistance on mothers’ relationships with partners and children.     

Giving birth: Expectations of first time mothers in Switzerland at the mid point of pregnancy

Problem and background

Despite a generally affluent society, the caesarean section rate in Switzerland has steadily climbed in recent years from 22.9% in 1998 to 33.7% in 2014. Speculation by the media has prompted political questions as to the reasons. However, there is no clear evidence as to why the Swiss rate should be so high especially in comparison with neighbouring countries.

The Impact of Having a Baby on the Level and Content of Women’s Well-Being

The primary objective of this study was to more fully understand the impact of having a baby on women’s well-being by attending to both the level and the content of well-being. To cover the judgemental and affective aspects of well-being we included global measures of life satisfaction and well-being and affective experience measures derived from the day reconstruction method. In a sample of 19 first-time mothers no differences between pre and postnatal reports of general life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and experienced positive and negative affect were found, suggesting that the arrival of the newborn baby does not universally impact on women’s level of well-being. Changes in the content of well-being were studied by examining changes in the way women experience specific activities and interactions with various social partners. There appeared to be an upward shift in experienced positive affect during active leisure and a slight decrease in negative affect during time spent with relatives. The results are discussed in light of previously documented changes across the transition to motherhood in negative mood states, time use, women’s evaluation of various aspects of daily life, and relational satisfaction.     

Richard Easterlin receives IZA Prize in Labor Economics

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Richard Easterlin receives IZA Prize in Labor Economics