Maternal Sensitivity and the Learning‐Promoting Effects of Depressed and Nondepressed Mothers' Infant‐Directed Speech

The hypothesis that aspects of current mother‐infant interactions predict an infant's response to maternal infant‐directed speech (IDS) was tested. Relative to infants of nondepressed mothers, those of depressed mothers acquired weaker voice‐face associations in response to their own mothers' IDS in a conditioned‐attention paradigm, although this was partially attributable to demographic differences between the 2 groups. The extent of fundamental frequency modulation (ΔF₀) in maternal IDS was smaller for infants of depressed than nondepressed mothers, but did not predict infant learning. However, Emotional Availability Scale ratings of maternal sensitivity, coded from videotapes of mothers and infants engaged in a brief play interaction, were significant predictors of infant learning, even after maternal depression, its demographic correlates, and antidepressant medication use had been taken into account. These findings are consistent with a role for experience‐dependent processes in determining the effects of IDS on infant learning.     

The political economy of alternative trade: Social and environmental certification in the South African wine industry

Despite recent critical analyses of the nature and impacts of social and environmental certification, the increasingly complex landscape of voluntary, industry and third-party codes and certification processes that have emerged in specific sectors is poorly understood. In particular, little is known about the potential threats posed by an increasingly complex and contested ‘ethical’ landscape in undermining radical initiatives designed to bring about improvements to material and social well-being. In response, this paper explores the current dynamics of social and environmental certification in the South African wine industry. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK and Western Cape, the paper analyses the overlapping and sometimes conflictual processes of social and environmental certification, and the role of key drivers in establishing them within the wine industry. It explores whether attempts to capture a portion of the expanding market for ‘ethical’ wines and the expansion of corporate interests in ‘responsibility’ and ‘ethics’ work to depoliticize the meaning and nature of transformation. The implications of the findings are that, in the absence of legislative requirements to transform the wine industry, social codes and civic conventions are likely to remain significant, but that greater understanding is required of the different meanings and outcomes of transformation and empowerment being deployed within the industry. The paper concludes that a significant problem facing transformation and alternative trade in the wine industry, and more broadly, lies in the growing gap between the abstract ethical discourse of corporate actors, on the one hand, and the moral experience of workers on the other.     

Quilting as a generative activity: Studying those who make quilts for wounded service members

A qualitative study of 24 quilters examined their experiences creating and delivering quilts to wounded service members who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Using Erikson’s (1963) perspective on generativity and Baumeister and Vohs’s (2002) theory of motivation as theoretical frameworks, along with McCracken’s (1988) five-step analysis model, we looked at the part motivation played in this process. The results were that respondents wanted to supply quilts in response to their own family histories of military involvement, to support friends/acquaintances with family in the military, and to make a difference to those who seemed young and badly wounded. Some respondents described being affected by the reactions of quilt recipients and of healing from their own traumas and grief.     

Two‐Year Follow‐up Outcomes in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: An Investigation of Relationship Satisfaction and Attachment Trajectories

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT; The practice of emotionally focused couple therapy: Creating connection. New York, NY: Brunner‐Routledge) is an evidence‐based couple therapy that aims to create lasting change for couples (Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 6(1), 67–79). Although studies have demonstrated strong results in follow‐up (Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 28(4), 391–398), less is known about relationship functioning across time after therapy has ended. We modelled change in relationship satisfaction and attachment from pre‐therapy through 24 months follow‐up in 32 couples. HLM results confirmed a significant growth pattern demonstrating increases in relationship satisfaction and secure base behaviour and decreases in relationship specific attachment anxiety over the course of therapy and across follow‐up at a decelerated rate. These findings support the theoretical assumption that EFT helps couples engaged in therapy create lasting relationship satisfaction and attachment change.     

International female students’ experiences of navigating the Canadian health care system in a small town setting

Abstract

This pilot study explored the international female (IF) students’ (n = 17) lived experiences of health care accessibility while studying in a small town in Canada. Analysis guided by a phenomenological method resulted in three major themes – (1) after arriving to attend university, IF students experienced challenges in staying healthy, such as learning how Canadian medical insurance works and how to access medical help, (2) IF students developed a support system over time, consisting of their university’s student advisors, host families and friends and (3) as IF students became familiar with living in Canada, they developed self-directed care strategies such as taking care of each other if they became sick. They also became comfortable reaching out through social media to ask questions and connect with others who were also new to Canada. Recommendations included providing (1) alternative times for IF students to access medical care on campus, (2) a fund where IF students could borrow the upfront costs to see a doctor and (3) health care knowledge dissemination through various media throughout the school year. The outcomes of this study are generally encouraging and may assist IF students to make effective health care decisions while in Canada resulting in a less stressful academic experience.     

Humanitarian Melodramas,Globalist Nostalgia: Affective Temporalities of Globalization and Uneven Development

Abstract

The formal conventions of global humanitarianism when performed as melodrama, structured around temporal devices such as peripeteia, deferral, delay, and missed chances, reveal some of its affect-making roles in globalization. The melodramatic flourishing of Live Aid commemorative events and commodities in the twenty-first century suggests there is a melancholic attachment to Euro-American global hegemony, retroactively and repetitively constructed as a missed chance to do good that always meant well. The melodramatic enactment at Live 8 of the ‘end’ of global poverty promised by Live Aid patches over the discontinuities between the era of development internationalism and neoliberal globalization, creating a moralized image of Euro-American globalization as a ‘long-standing’ form of humanitarian power that can be lamented in place of confronting the absence of any alternative explanatory framework for escalating processes of uneven development. By suspending time, melodrama creates a fantasmatic site for aspiration, ambivalence, melancholy, and nostalgia without resolving their contradictions.     

The Role of Return Home Welfare Interviews in Responding to the Needs of Young Runaways

When children and young people run away from home or care it is most often indicative of problems in their lives. Reporting on the findings of a recent evaluation, this study considers the role, delivery and impact of ‘return home welfare interviews’ (RHWIs) in identifying children and young people in need. It concludes that RHWIs function as an effective screening mechanism and can be facilitative in creating multiple pathways for referral to appropriate services. It challenges assumptions about the unsuitability of the police in undertaking RHWIs and highlights the importance of context, training and appropriate resourcing to the success of police delivery.     

Health Care Needs and Care Utilization Among Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Populations in New Jersey

The purpose of this study was to explore prevalent health issues, perceived barriers to seeking health care, and utilization of health care among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations in New Jersey. A cross-sectional online survey was administered to 438 self-identified LGBT people. Results identified health needs, which included management of chronic diseases, preventive care for risky behaviors, mental health issues, and issues related to interpersonal violence. Barriers to seeking health care included scarceness of health professionals competent in LGBT health, inadequate health insurance coverage and lack of personal finances, and widely dispersed LGBT inclusive practices making transportation difficult. There is a need for better preparation of health care professionals who care for LGBT patients, to strengthen social services to improve access and for better integration of medical and social services.