Children's trust in social workers: Scale development and relations to Children's engagement with social workers

This research aimed to develop the children's trust in general social workers (CTGSW) scale. Psychometric properties, structural validity, construct, and concurrent validity of the scale were evaluated. Both linear and quadratic patterns between children's trust beliefs in social workers and their engagement with social workers were examined. A sample of 112 Italian vulnerable children (M = 11.4 years, SD = 1 month) were administered the Italian‐Children's Generalized Trust Beliefs scale, the CTGSW scale, and a measure of engagement with social workers. The CTGSW scale demonstrated the expected (a) structure validity; (b) acceptable psychometric properties; (c) construct validity by correlations with trust in significant others; and (d) concurrent validity by associations with children's engagement with social workers. Reliability and honesty bases of trust in social workers were associated with engagement with social workers. In comparison to the middle range, children who held very low trust in social workers demonstrated very low quality of relation with social workers. The pattern was asymmetrical. Children who held high trust beliefs in social workers demonstrated a modest decrease in quality of relation with social workers. The findings demonstrated validity and utility of the CTGSW and yielded support for the basis, domain, and target framework.     

The Narcissism of Minor Differences as Distance Regulators in Core Intimacy Problems

Freud's narcissism of minor differences is explored in the context of couple therapy. The paper attempts to highlight how these minor differences manifest themselves in the development of major relationship crises. In particular an attempt is made to illustrate how these minor differences come to act as distance regulators in the delicate intimacy dance of the too‐near, too‐far dynamic.     

“Did I just do that?”—Six-month-olds learn the contingency between their vocalizations and a visual reward in 5 minutes

It has been shown that infants can increase or modify a motorically available behavior such as sucking, kicking, arm waving, etc., in response to a positive visual reinforcement (e.g., DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Millar, 1990; Rochat & Striano, 1999; Rovee-Collier, 1997; Watson & Ramey, 1972). We tested infants to determine if they would also change their vocal behavior in response to contingent feedback, which lacks the social, emotional, and auditory modeling typical of parent-child interaction. Here, we show that in a single five-minute session infants increase the rate of their vocalizations in order to control the appearance of colorful shapes on an iPad screen. This is the first experimental study to demonstrate that infants can rapidly learn to increase their vocalizations, when given positive reinforcement with no social element. This work sets the foundations for future studies into the causal relationship between the number of early vocalizations and the onset of words. In addition, there are potential clinical applications for reinforcing vocal practice in infant populations who are at risk for poor language skills.     

Enforcing alcohol policies on college campuses: reports from college enforcement officials

We assessed alcohol enforcement practices at 343 U.S. colleges via surveys of directors of campus law enforcement. We measured types and frequency of enforcement and barriers to enforcement. We found that 61% of colleges indicated nearly always proactively enforcing alcohol policies, with most frequent enforcement at intercollegiate sporting events and least frequent enforcement at fraternity/sorority events. Approximately half of the enforcement departments work closely with their local law enforcement agency but respondents indicated a greater need for cooperation with local law enforcement. Half of the respondents reported no barriers to alcohol enforcement on campus. Large colleges and public colleges tended to report greater enforcement levels. While many campuses report proactive alcohol enforcement, several areas of improvement in alcohol enforcement at colleges are indicated.     

Remarriage patterns among recent widows and widowers

Remarriage is one of the most important determinants of physical and economic well-being among the widowed. The goal of this study is to estimate how hazard rates for remarriage vary among widows and widowers on the basis of both observable and unobservable characteristics. The remarriage estimates rely on nationally representative samples of widows and widowers from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Continuous-time hazard rate regressions indicate strong age and duration dependence effects for middle-aged widows and widowers and for older widowers. Among middle-aged widows, blacks and those with dependent children in the home have lower rates of remarriage. For middle-aged widowers, living in urbanized areas limits the prospects of remarriage. For older widowers, education and, to some extent, economic status appear to have positive effects on the remarriage rates. Overall, age and time since widowhood have the strongest and most consistent effects on remarriage rates for different widowed groups.     

Intimacy and distance regulation: From Homeostasis to Structural Coupling and Coherence

An attempt is made to move from the previously described notion of homeostasis and the symptomatic distance regulator, to a more coherently systemic one, based on the work of Maturana and Dell. Maturana's concept of structure-determinism is used to explain how individuals who have consensually shared fears of being either too close or too distant in relationships to others become structurally coupled in such a way that a highly resonant system emerges that regulates itself in a way that is coherent with the structure-determined beliefs of the individual family members. These belief systems are seen as vital ingredients in understanding the process of structural coupling.     

Double jeopardy: Interaction effects of marital and poverty status on the risk of mortality

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hypothesis that marital and poverty status interact in their effects on mortality risks beyond their main effects. This study examines the epidemiological bases for applying an additive rather than a multiplicative specification when testing for interaction between two discrete risk factors. We specifically predict that risks associated with being nonmarried and with being poor .interact to produce mortality risks that are greater than each risk acting independently. The analysis is based on men and women who were ages 25–74 during the 1971–1975 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I (NHANES I) and who were traced successfully in the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study in 1982–1984. Overall, being both poor and nonmarried places nonelderly (ages 25–64) men, but not women, at risk of mortality greater than that expected from the main effects. This study shows that for all-cause mortality, marital and poverty status interact for men but less so for women; these findings exist when interaction is assessed with either a multiplicative or an additive standard. This difference is most pronounced for poor, widowed men and (to a lesser degree) poor, divorced men. For violent/accidental deaths among men, the interaction effects are large on the basis of an additive model. Weak main and interaction effects were detected for the elderly (age 65 +).     

Integrating Software into PRA: A Software-Related Failure Mode Taxonomy

Probabilistic risk assessment is a methodology to assess the probability of failure or success of a mission. Results provided by the risk assessment methodology are used to make decisions concerning choice of upgrades, scheduling of maintenance, decision to launch, etc. However, current PRA neglects the contribution of software to the risk of failure of the mission. Our research has developed a methodology to account for the impact of software to system failure. This article focuses on an element of the approach: a comprehensive taxonomy of software-related failure modes. Application of the taxonomy is discussed in this article. A validation of the taxonomy and conclusions drawn from this validation effort are described. Future research is also summarized.