The distinction between provoked and unprovoked aggression in toddlerhood,and associations with empathy-related processes

Physical aggression in toddlerhood has received considerable attention in the past 20 years. The underlying theme has been that toddlers behave aggressively due to not yet being able to regulate their frustration. However, there is some evidence to suggest that early aggression can occur for other reasons. In this study, we tested the distinction between provoked and unprovoked aggression in toddlerhood, and examined whether different empathy-related processes would show unique associations with each type of aggression. Participants were 200 mothers of children aged 15–21 months (M_age = 18.32 months, SD = 1.75) who completed measures of provoked and unprovoked aggression, and empathy-related processes. We found that the two-factor aggression model fit the data well. In addition, when controlling for the overlap between other-oriented empathy and personal distress, other-oriented empathy demonstrated a negative association with unprovoked aggression, and personal distress showed a positive link with provoked aggression. Our findings underscore the importance of studying early physical aggression in a more nuanced way to better understand different functions it may serve in toddlerhood.     

From where do legislators draw scientific knowledge? Organizations as scientific authorities in four countries' parliamentary debates

Organizations far beyond traditional academic institutions have become prolific science producers, with many now providing evidence-based advice for national governments and policy-makers. Neo-institutional sociology explains organizations' growing investment in research activities and research-based policy advice by the all-embracing scientization and the expansion of the educated population, phenomena observable throughout the world. There is, however, considerably less knowledge about how the organizations' increased knowledge production and the supply of science-based policy advice are reflected in national policy-making, including the legislative work of parliaments, and to what extent distinct organizations are deemed authoritative in different countries. In this paper, we examine how different organizations are used as scientific authorities in parliamentary debates over new legislation. Drawing on analyses of 576 parliamentary debates from Australia, Finland, Kenya, and the United Kingdom, we study what organizations are acknowledged as scientific authorities and the relative weight of different organization types in the context of political debates over new legislation. The results reveal that while organizations in general are frequently evoked as scientific authorities in all four countries, there is remarkable variation in the types of organizations considered authoritative in different national contexts. We elaborate these findings by analysing ways in which politicians evaluate organizations as sources of scientific authority. While the same set of evaluative schemas are used in all four countries, each is typically applied to certain types of organization. The results suggest that both the supply of scientific policy advice and political culture shape legislators' rhetorical practices when drawing on organizations' scientific authority.     

Social investments in the knowledge economy: The politics of inclusive,stratified, and targeted reforms across the globe

As countries transition from industrial to post-industrial knowledge economies, education and skills are crucial. Consequently, policy-makers around the globe have increasingly focused on social investment, that is, policies aiming to create, mobilize, or preserve skills. Yet, countries around the globe have developed social investments to different degrees and in highly different forms. Our goal is twofold: First, we introduce a new typology of social investment policies, distinguishing nine types along two dimensions: three distributive profiles (inclusive, stratified, targeted) and three functions (skill creation, preservation, mobilization). This differentiation allows fine-grained analyses of the causes and consequences of different kinds of social investments, thus offering a perspective to study the relationship between efficiency and inclusiveness in a way that goes beyond the mere discussion how social investment policies grosso modo affect inequalities (‘equalizing’ versus ‘Matthew Effects’). Second, we theorize on the politics of social investment. We argue that the interaction of policy legacies and socioeconomic factors is the main explanation for which functions of social investment policies are introduced, whereas their distributive profiles are crucially shaped by political coalitions. We illustrate with empirical material from democracies around the globe.     

Smaller net or just fewer to catch? Disentangling the causes for the varying sizes of minimum income schemes

The number of social assistance recipients varies significantly between welfare states. Social assistance is a last-resort residual benefit, so a high number of receipts may be related to policies for first-tier benefits, social assistance and their implementation, as well as need factors (unemployment rate and low income). Considering the strong political will to diminish the receipt of last-resort benefits, we demonstrated a way to decompose the reasons for eligibility in a cross-national analysis of two Nordic countries, namely Finland and Sweden. By using administrative register microdata, eligibility simulations and policy swaps, we found that the legislative features of social assistance, such as more extensive benefit norms and earning disregard, contribute to Finland's higher eligibility rate and likely explain some of the reasons for its higher number of recipients. Finland also exhibited lower non-take-up rates among those eligible, which implies better access to benefits than in Sweden.     

Aggression in toddlers: Associations with temper loss and parent-child conflict

Using a normative US sample of 477 mothers of 6- to 24- month-old children, we explored the relations among toddlers’ physical aggression, child temper loss, and parent-child conflict to gain a better understanding of how aggression develops from infancy to toddlerhood. An inventory of specific aggressive acts was subject to factor analysis to test whether the acts clustered as hypothesized. Consistent with our hypothesis, confirmatory factor analyses supported the distinction between the two types of aggression, directed and exploratory physical aggression. Although the two types were correlated, they showed differential associations with temper loss and parent-child conflict consistent with theory. Directed aggression had a relatively stronger relation with child defiance and temper loss than did exploratory aggression. Moreover, the association between directed aggression and defiance was stronger for older children. The findings from this cross-sectional study provide preliminary support for two forms of early aggression that may differ in trajectory and context.     

A multivariate extension of the Lorenz curve based on copulas and a related multivariate Gini coefficient

The Journal of Economic Inequality - We propose an extension of the univariate Lorenz curve and of the Gini coefficient to the multivariate case, i.e., to simultaneously measure inequality in more...