Does Brief Bradycardia at the Onset of Arm‐Restraint Predict Infants’ Emotional Reactivity During Restraint?

Using electrocardiogram data with 78 six‐month‐old infants, this study examined the presence or absence of brief orienting bradycardia during the onset of maternal arm‐restraint and subsequent differences between infants on behavioral organization during restraint. Results showed that 45 of the infants exhibited brief episodes of bradycardia at the onset of arm‐restraint. Group comparisons showed infants exhibiting bradycardia to have greater emotional reactivity during the arm‐restraint protocol, which included a shorter latency to cry, decreased orientation toward mother, increased escape attempts during restraint, greater intensity of crying, and longer duration of crying than non‐bradycardiac infants. These findings suggest that bradycardia at the outset of a mild perturbation episode may signal infants’ attention to the emotional content of novel dyadic interactions and the disruption of expectancies in ongoing interactions, leading them to become distressed more quickly, turn their attention away from mom, and attempt to escape the restraint with greater vigor.     

Figuring out whether they can be trusted: older widows' intentions relative to hired non-professional home-care helpers

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of older women relative to trusting hired non-professional home-care helpers. Open-ended interviews were done about the home-care experience with 25 women over three years, and 14 women (age 80-93) shared data about hiring and trusting helpers. The women perceived risks to personal safety that adversely influenced willingness to seek new helpers. After hiring a helper, the women were still trying to discern whether the helper could be trusted. Primary-care providers should enable older women to recognize and reduce the risk of having helpers and to monitor helpers' behavior, as well as assessing the psychosocial status of women who have such helpers.     

LIVE AID REVISITED: LONG‐TERM IMPACTS OF THE 1984 ETHIOPIAN FAMINE ON CHILDREN

In 1984, the world was shocked at the scale of a famine in Ethiopia that caused over half a million deaths, making it one of the worst in recent history. The mortality impacts are clearly significant. But what of the survivors? This paper provides the first estimates of the long‐term impact of the famine 20 years later, on the height of young adults aged 19–22 years who experienced this severe shock as infants during the crisis. An innovative feature of the analysis is that famine intensity is measured at the household level, while impacts are assessed using a difference‐in‐differences comparison across siblings, and compared with an IV cross‐section, using rainfall as an instrument for the shock. We find that by adulthood, affected children who were aged of 12‐36 months at the peak of the crisis are significantly shorter than the older cohort, and their unaffected peers, by at least 5 cm. There are no significant effects on those in utero during the crisis, although we cannot rule out that for this cohort, the selection effect dominates scarring. Indicative calculations show that for the affected group such height loss may lead to income losses of around 5% per year over their lifetime. The evidence also suggests that the relief operations at the time made little difference to those who survived.     

Bilingualism And The Myths Of Culture

Les propositions pour un bilinguisme planifie et les politiques mises de 1'avant pour le realiser sont audacieuses dans leur conception. A travers la structure linguistique, on vise a realiser une veritable revolution sociale.
On retrouve dans les deux rapports de la Commission deux themes fonda-mentaux: (1) le Canada est constitue de deux cultures et societes distinctes, Tune francaise et l'autre anglaise, et (2) puisque la societe et la culture francaises sont menacees dans leur existence, elles doivent etre protegees. Toutefois, on ne considere pas comme un probleme serieux l'americanisation de la culture et de la societe canadiennes anglaises.
La Commission d'enquete a rendu un fier service en rejetant l'idee que le dualisme canadien etait compose d'une alliance unique de la societe francaise et anglaise. En detruisant ce mythe, elle a suscite un separatisme intellectuel et social qui remet en question 1'unite canadienne.
La validite et 1'utilite des propositions de la Commission sont liees a la possibilite de trouver des definitions unanimes des concepts de culture et de societe. Cependant, les commissaires ne reussissent ni a donner une definition claire de la notion de culture ni a presenter le Canada comme societe globale qui aurait une structure et une coherence propres.