COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION IN A TWO‐STAGE GAME

We study the impact of communication on behavior in a two‐stage coordination game with asymmetric payoffs. We test experimentally whether individuals can avoid a head‐to‐head confrontation by means of coordinated strategies. In particular we analyze whether and how quickly a conflict‐avoidance take turn strategy can emerge. First, our results show that players learn to solve the conflict by choosing opposite options at both stages of the game. Second, many adopt a take turn strategy to sustain coordination over time and alleviate the inequality induced by the asymmetry of payoffs. Third, communication increases the likelihood of conflict resolution regardless of whether communication is unilateral or bilateral. (JEL C91, D74, L15, H71)     

Recommendations for International Gambling Harm-Minimisation Guidelines: Comparison with Effective Public Health Policy

Problem gambling represents a significant public health problem, however, research on effective gambling harm-minimisation measures lags behind other fields, including other addictive disorders. In recognition of the need for consistency between international jurisdictions and the importance of basing policy on empirical evidence, international conventions exist for policy on alcohol, tobacco, and illegal substances. This paper examines the evidence of best practice policies to provide recommendations for international guidelines for harm-minimisation policy for gambling, including specific consideration of the specific requirements for policies on Internet gambling. Evidence indicates that many of the public health policies implemented for addictive substances can be adapted to address gambling-related harms. Specifically, a minimum legal age of at least 18 for gambling participation, licensing of gambling venues and activities with responsible gambling and consumer protection strategies mandated, and brief interventions should be available for those at-risk for and experiencing gambling-related problems. However, there is mixed evidence on the effectiveness of limits on opening hours and gambling venue density and increased taxation to minimise harms. Given increases in trade globalisation and particularly the global nature of Internet gambling, it is recommended that jurisdictions take actions to harmonise gambling public health policies.     

Positive Interactions and Avoidant and Anxious Representations in Relationships with Parents,Friends, and Romantic Partners

We examined associations between positive interactions and avoidant and anxious representations in relationships with parents, friends, and romantic partners. Two hundred adolescents completed questionnaires, observations, and attachment interviews. From a between‐person perspective, those adolescents with more positive interactions overall had less avoidant representations. Within persons, the more positive interactions were relative to one's own average level in relationships, the less avoidant representations were for that type of relationship. Adolescents were less anxious about a particular type of relationship if they had positive interactions in their other types of relationships. Finally, representations were primarily predicted by interactions in the same type of relationship; interactions in other relationships contributed little. The findings underscore the importance of examining representations of particular types of relationships.     

Interventions that Foster Healing Among Sexually Exploited Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Sexual exploitation of children and adolescents is a pressing, yet largely under-recognized form of child abuse. The goals of this review were to identify interventions that have been implemented with sexually exploited children and adolescents and to better understand their effectiveness for fostering healing with this population. Our systematic search generated 4,358 publications of which 21 met our inclusion criteria. Based on their objectives and delivery, we organized the interventions into five categories: (a) focused health and/or social services, (b) intensive case management models, (c) psychoeducational therapy groups, (d) residential programs, and (e) other. Most programs were gender-specific, targeting girls and young women with just one being for boys and young men only. Studies reported on a range of outcomes including psychosocial outcomes, risky behaviors, trauma responses, mental health, protective factors, and public health outcomes. Despite differences in delivery, most of the interventions did, to some degree, appear to foster healing among sexually exploited children and adolescents. Findings from this review have implications for researchers, policy and program developers, and frontline practitioners who, through partnerships with one another, can advocate for the creation of evidence-informed, purpose-built, and thoughtfully delivered interventions.     

Maternal Neurobiological Processing of Negative Adolescent Stimuli: Relations With Positive Parenting and Relationship Quality

We examined associations between maternal affective neurobiology and positive parenting in a study of 20 mothers of adolescents. Mothers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotion image task, rated parent‐adolescent relationship quality, and completed an adolescent interaction task in which positive parenting behaviors were observed. Maternal structure was associated with lower responsivity in emotional processing regions in the general negative image contrast and was related to greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to negative adolescent images. Parent‐adolescent relationship quality was associated with lower precuneus activation to negative adolescent images. Findings are among the first to connect functional brain processing with observed parenting behaviors for parents of adolescent children, and underscore the relative importance of affective processing in parenting older children.     

Beyond liberal vs liberating: women’s economic empowerment in the United Nations’ Women,Peace and Security agenda

This article is about women’s economic empowerment within the United Nations (UN) Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Based on analysis of the core agenda-setting documents, it traces where two different versions of women’s economic empowerment, “liberal” (including women in the formal economy) and “liberating” (women collectively mobilizing to challenge the status quo), appear in the WPS agenda. It argues that the two exist in uneasy tension in the UN’s aspirations for women’s economic security post-war, but that when it comes to actual activities and achievements, the liberal version dominates over the liberating version. The article argues that it is important not to overstate the divide between the two approaches, and that the seeds of a liberating approach can be found within the liberal. It is initiatives to facilitate women’s economic empowerment that contain opportunities for collective action to transform the structures of the economy that WPS advocates should advocate. This would strengthen the WPS agenda and its ability to contribute to security as feminists envisage it, as encompassing freedom from want as well as freedom from fear.