Parent–child negative emotion reciprocity and children's school success: An emotion‐attention process model

Research has demonstrated that emotions expressed in parent–child relationships are associated with children's school success. Yet the types of emotional expressions, and the mechanisms by which emotional expressions are linked with children's success in school, are unclear. In the present article, we focused on negative emotion reciprocity in parent–child interactions. Using structural equation modeling of data from 138 parent to child dyads [children's mean age at Time 1 (T1) was 13.44 years, SD = 1.16], we tested children's negative emotionality (CNE) at T1 and low attention focusing (LAF) at Time 2 (T2) as sequential mediators in the relation between parent and child negative emotion reciprocity at T1 and children's grade point average (GPA) and inhibitory control at T2. Our findings supported an emotion‐attention process model: parent–child negative emotion reciprocity at T1 predicted CNE at T1, which predicted children's LAF at T2, which was, in turn, related to low inhibitory control at T2. Findings regarding children's GPA were less conclusive but did suggest an overall association of negative reciprocity and the two mediators with children's GPA. Our findings are discussed in terms of emotion regulation processes in children from negatively reciprocating dyads, and the effects of these processes on children's ability to obtain and use skills needed for success in school.     

THE DECLINE OF THE MONDRAGON COOPERATIVES

The Mondragon producers cooperatives in Basque Spain represent the classic case of alternative industrial organisation. While the cooperatives received a great deal of scholarly attention during the 1970s and 1980s, relatively little has been published on recent developments at Mondragon. It is time to update the Mondragon story. In 1991, 100 cooperatives joined to become the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation. This super-structure has permitted an important degree of centralised control over member cooperatives. Yet, it has also been the source of substantial challenges, both structural and ideological, to this alternative form of industrial organisation. We appear to be witnessing the cooperatives' decline, the end of a great experiment in favour of just another capitalist enterprise. This story is important both for cooperativism in Mondragon itself and for scholars and practitioners worldwide who find in Mondragon proof than an alternative, less exploitative approach to industrial organisation is possible.     

The Negotiation of Child Care and Employment Demands Among Low-Income Parents

Low-income working mothers face significant child care challenges. These challenges are particularly salient in an era of welfare reform, when welfare recipients are under increased pressure to find a job. The current study examines how child care demands are negotiated for an urban sample of low-income mothers. The sample includes a racially and ethnically diverse group of 57 respondents with and without welfare experience who are mothering children under 13 years of age and working in entry-level jobs. Findings suggest that respondents seek arrangements that are affordable, convenient, and safe, and informal arrangements may be most compatible with convenience and cost considerations. Informal care is not universally available, however, andmay be less reliable. Implications for child care policy are discussed.     

Social Capital in Rural and Urban Communities1

Abstract Conventional wisdom says that social capital is more common among families in rural communities than urban communities. Using data from the 1988 wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we compare the prevalence, type, and extent of social exchanges in these places. Results indicate that families living in rural areas are more likely to exchange exclusively with kin than are families living in urban areas. In particular, families living in rural areas are more likely to receive money help from kin than families in urban areas. Results on patterns of giving are more complex, with rural origin families with younger household heads more likely to give support to kin, and rural origin families with older heads less likely to provide such support, as compared to otherwise similar families of urban origin. Finally, only modest urban-rural differences in amounts exchanged (in dollars) are found among otherwise similar families. Overall, some of the urban-rural differences in patterns of exchange are explained by different family characteristics; however, key urban-rural differences remain, probably reflecting differences in norms and the availability of institutional support services in different areas.     

The carver in Africa: Individually acclaimed artist or anonymous Artisan?

This paper explores a number of issues raised by William Burton's annotated photographs of professional artists (or craft specialists) taken at his mission station in Katanga province in the 1930s. It focuses, in particular, on why Burton recorded the names of two carvers, one a chief, the other a court sculptor attached to the Nkulu chieftainship. The questions raised by this decision leads me to consider the relationship between indigenous consumer attitudes to African artists, and changing perceptions of the identity and status of these artists by foreign buyers and art historians since the early 20th century. In the course of this discussion I draw attention to the fact that it is only in context‐specific studies of patronage that meaningful attempts have been made to address the ways in which artists themselves have responded to the increasingly complex marketplace in which they now work.