Statistical word segmentation: Anchoring learning across contexts

The present experiments were designed to assess infants' abilities to use syllable co-occurrence regularities to segment fluent speech across contexts. Specifically, we investigated whether 9-month-old infants could use statistical regularities in one speech context to support speech segmentation in a second context. Contexts were defined by different word sets representing contextual differences that might occur across conversations or utterances. This mimics the integration of information across multiple interactions within a single language, which is critical for language acquisition. In particular, we performed two experiments to assess whether a statistically segmented word could be used to anchor segmentation in a second, more challenging context, namely speech with variable word lengths. The results of Experiment 1 were consistent with past work suggesting that statistical learning may be hindered by speech with word-length variability, which is inherent to infants' natural speech environments. In Experiment 2, we found that infants could use a previously statistically segmented word to support word segmentation in a novel, challenging context. We also present findings suggesting that this ability was associated with infants' early word knowledge but not their performance on a cognitive development assessment.     

Voting is Social Work: Voices From the National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign

ABSTRACT

The National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign, also known as Voting is Social Work, involved social work faculty, field educators, practitioners, and students in a nonpartisan voter engagement drive. Following the 2018 elections, researchers surveyed Campaign participants in social work schools and agencies to document their voter engagement activities.The study reported extent and amount of their involvement. The survey distinguished between the voter engagement participation of school- versus agency-based social workers, which has not been studied elsewhere. Participants also reported the benefits of political participation to individuals, communities, and the profession and perceived barriers such as organizational constraints, fears of appearing partisan, and distrust of politics. Presented in historical context, the findings highlight the need to mainstream voter engagement throughout social work education.     

Internal Working Models of Attachment and Postdivorce Coparent Relationships

Stable coparenting relationships postdivorce have been shown to combat the negative effects on child development. There are three types of coparental relationships postdivorce: stable, conflicted and cut off. Each type of interaction has different effects on the children and other family members, with the stable coparent relationship being the most functional. Attachment theory explains the differences between the coparenting styles. Individuals in stable coparent relationships are more likely to have a secure internal working model; conflicted coparents are more likely to have an anxious-ambivalent internal working model; and disengaged coparents are more likely to have an avoidant internal working model.     

Young Adults' Attitudes Toward Polygamous Marriage as a Function of Gender,Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage,and Other Sociopersonality Constructs

U.S. citizens are overwhelmingly opposed to the legalization of polygamous marriage, but specific reasons for this opposition remain unclear. In this study we examined young adults' (n = 814) attitudes toward polygamous marriage as a function of myriad variables. Particular attention was given to the presumed association between attitudes toward same-sex marriage and polygamous marriage. Results indicated that, overall, young adults' attitudes toward polygamous marriage were neutral. Also, attitudes toward same-sex marriage significantly correlated with attitudes toward polygamous marriage. However, not all pro–same-sex marriage participants were pro-polygamous marriage. Moreover, opposition to same-sex marriage, (female) gender, higher levels of authoritarianism, and endorsement of traditional family values conjointly and individually predicted opposition to polygamous marriage. Implications of the findings are discussed, particularly in the context of U.S. discourse over the legalization of same-sex marriage.     

Individual and systemic/structural bias in child welfare decision making: Implications for children and families of color

The factors contributing to observed racial disproportionality and disparity in the child welfare system have been the subject of national discourse for decades. This qualitative study used focus groups to engage child welfare and collaborating system decision makers, community partners, and families in a subjective interpretive analysis of racial disproportionality and disparity that had been demonstrated by a previous quantitative analysis of Oregon's child welfare system. Thematic analysis yielded eleven themes from the participant focus groups, four of which clustered around individual and structural/systemic bias and are examined in this paper: visibility bias; cultural bias and insensitivity; personal influences on determination of minimally adequate care; and foster and adoptive parent recruitment and licensing practices. Participants offered recommendations to improve outcomes for children and families of color in light of these observations: increase awareness of bias, create checks and balances in decision-making, contract with and hire culturally and racially diverse professionals, and increase funding for training.     

Inhabiting her space

Reflecting on interview-narratives and exilic poetry, this article is focused on the lived experiences of Iranian-American women in the context of migration and exile after the incursion of the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979. Iranian women in the USA have experienced the challenging geo-cultural journey that eventually, and at times significantly, distanced them from the culture of their place of birth and prepared them to embrace new multi-layered and composite spaces of identity and belonging. The article is based on in-depth interviews with twenty-five Iranian women immigrants. The focus of the inquiry is on developing a theoretical framework to understand the physical, psychological and emotional challenges of exile and displacement for this population, grounded in the exilic narratives of the women interviewed, as well as in the expression of three Iranian-American women poets. The analysis emphasizes the narrative and poetic passages as repositories of identity and belonging, and deconstructs these texts as epitomes of in-betweenness in the light of post-colonial and feminist theories.     

Immigration Policy and Employment Conditions of US Immigrants from Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic1

Prior studies suggest that the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986 signalled a deterioration in the labour market conditions of Mexican migrants. In this paper, we examine whether and how labour market conditions worsened for Dominicans and Nicaraguans after 1986, and the extent to which these shifts were comparable to those experienced by Mexicans. Our analysis relies on a new source of data that offers comparable data across the three national origins. We estimate multivariate models that capture the effects of demographic attributes, human and social capital, migration‐specific human and social capital, legal status, period of trip, national origin, and other controls on the hourly wages earned by household heads and whether they received cash wages on their last US trip. Models with interaction terms reveal significant pre‐ and post‐1986 wage effects, but few differences in these effects between Mexicans and Dominicans or Nicaraguans. In contrast, group differences appear in the risk of cash receipt of wages. Dominicans and Nicaraguans experienced a greater increase in this risk relative to Mexicans pre‐ and post‐1986. Together, these findings depict a broader, negative impact of IRCA on Latino migrant wages than has been documented elsewhere.