Interpretations of Child Emotion Expressions and Coercive Parenting Practices Among Adolescent Mothers

This study examined the relation between adolescent mothers' interpretations of various child emotion expressions and coercive parenting practices (n = 4 mother-child dyads, child ages = 10–34 mos.). The more coercive mothers decoded a range of child emotion expressions as exhibiting greater anger, and attributed greater defiant intentions to the child, compared to less coercive mothers. The findings for attributions of defiance were robust, as they were independent of both emotion decoding and level of child difficulty. Findings are discussed with regard to (a) mothers' basic assumptions about the child; (b) the robust character of attributions of defiance in relation to coercive parenting; (c) the potential implications of this study for research with adult mothers; and (d) investigation of temporal precedence and developmental pathways in the interrelations among child behavior, maternal cognition, and parenting behavior.     

Scoring Rules,Condorcet Efficiency and Social Homogeneity

Theory and Decision - In a three-candidate election, a scoring rule λ, λ∈[0,1], assigns 1,λ and 0 points (respectively) to each first, second and third place in the individual...     

Do Infants Recognize Engagement in Social Interactions? The Case of Face‐to‐Face Conversation

This study explores 12‐month‐olds' understanding of face‐to‐face conversation, a key contextual structure associated with engagement in a social interaction. Using a violation‐of‐expectations paradigm, we habituated infants to a “face‐to‐face” conversation, and in a test phase compared their looking times between “back‐to‐back” (conceptually novel) and “face‐to‐face” (conceptually familiar) conversations, while simultaneously manipulating perceptual familiarity in a 2 × 2 factorial design. We also analyzed dynamic changes in pupil dilation, which are considered a reliable measure of cognitive load that may index processing of social interactions. Infants looked relatively longer at perceptual changes (new speaker positions) but not at conceptual change (back‐to‐back conversation), suggesting that face‐to‐face conversation may not elicit particular expectations, and so may not carry any particular conceptual significance. Moreover, on the first test trial, larger pupil dilation was observed for familiar conditions, suggesting that familiarity with perceptual features could enhance processing of conversations. Thus, this study undermines assertions regarding infants' conceptual understanding of the social signals underlying engagement. Infants may rather recognize such signals through their perceptual familiarity and associated positive feelings. This may then increase their engagement when observing and participating in others' collaborative activities, in turn allowing for the development of knowledge regarding others' intentions.     

Child welfare workers' practice in cases involving domestic violence

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory and qualitative study of child welfare workers' practice in cases involving domestic violence. The research aimed to focus on child welfare workers' interventions with families experiencing domestic violence, elements influencing the child welfare workers' decisions, and the factors facilitating and creating obstacles for intervention. An analysis of the qualitative data showed that child welfare workers have different ways of intervening in cases involving domestic violence. Also, the interventions were especially centred on women victims of violence and they were held responsible for protecting their children. Finally, the dilemmas and difficulties which child welfare workers face in these cases are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accentuation of Individual Differences in Social Competence During the Transition to Adolescence

Using a sample of individuals (277 males, 315 females) studied since birth in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the present study investigated how early pubertal maturation and school transition alter youth trajectories of social competence during the transition to adolescence. Social competence showed strong continuity, with the most socially competent children remaining so in adolescence. Early pubertal maturation and school transitions accentuate individual differences, increasing social competence among more competent youth, but further diminishing social competence among less competent individuals. In essence, facing challenges that require social competence may further separate competent individuals from less competent peers. Thus, the psychosocially rich become richer, while the psychosocially poor become poorer.