Crawling is Associated with Mental Rotation Ability by 9‐Month‐Old Infants

The present experiment examined whether 9‐month‐old infants’ mental rotation ability was related to their crawling ability. Forty‐eight 9‐month‐old infants were tested; half of them crawled for 7.1 weeks on average. Infants were habituated to a video of a simplified Shepard–Metzler object rotating back and forth through a 240° angle around the longitudinal axis of the object. Infants were tested with videos of the same object rotating through the previously unseen 120° angle and with the mirror image of that display. The results showed that the crawlers looked significantly longer at the mirror object than at the familiar object. The results support the interpretation that crawling experience is associated with 9‐month‐old infants’ mental rotation ability.     

Women’s Timing of Receipt of Social Security Retirement Benefits

The 2000–2006 waves of Health and Retirement Study data were used to estimate the effects of human capital characteristics and income sources on women’s timing of receipt of Social Security retirement benefits. Using logistic regression, the likelihood of early election of benefits was increased by earnings regardless of marital status; and, for married women, by husband’s age being greater than wife’s, and by other income. For married women, education decreased the likelihood of electing early benefits. For unmarried women, IRA/annuity income reduced the likelihood of early receipt of benefits. Using multinomial logistic regression, the likelihood of combinations of expected and actual benefit receipt options were estimated. A greater percentage of married, compared to unmarried, women expected and elected early benefits.     

Identifiability and estimation of recursive max‐linear models

We address the identifiability and estimation of recursive max‐linear structural equation models represented by an edge‐weighted directed acyclic graph (DAG). Such models are generally unidentifiable and we identify the whole class of DAG s and edge weights corresponding to a given observational distribution. For estimation, standard likelihood theory cannot be applied because the corresponding families of distributions are not dominated. Given the underlying DAG, we present an estimator for the class of edge weights and show that it can be considered a generalized maximum likelihood estimator. In addition, we develop a simple method for identifying the structure of the DAG. With probability tending to one at an exponential rate with the number of observations, this method correctly identifies the class of DAGs and, similarly, exactly identifies the possible edge weights.     

Subclinical Psychopathic Traits and Romantic Attachment in Treatment-Seeking Couples

Subclinical psychopathic personality traits have been associated with multiple indicators of couple distress and romantic attachment insecurities but essentially in community samples. This study examined dyadic associations between primary and secondary psychopathy and attachment anxiety and avoidance, assessed with self-reported measures, in 183 French-Canadian cohabiting partners seeking couple therapy. Two Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were tested: Model 1 considered psychopathic traits as independent variables and Model 2 treated attachment insecurities as independent variables. Analyses revealed that in both partners, secondary psychopathy was associated with attachment anxiety and avoidance (Models 1 and 2), while primary psychopathy was not only associated with attachment anxiety (Model 2; actor associations). Partner effects between primary and secondary psychopathy in men and women's attachment anxiety were also found in both models. These findings complement those reported in community samples and have clinical implications for treatment-seeking couples.     

Mother–infant Interaction Quality and Infants' Ability to Encode Actions as Goal‐directed

The current study investigated the relationship between mother–child interaction quality and infants' ability to interpret actions as goal‐directed at 7 months in a sample of 37 dyads. Interaction quality was assessed in a free play interaction using two distinct methods: one assessed the overall affective quality (emotional availability), and one focused on the mother's proclivity to treat her infant as an intentional agent (mind‐mindedness). Furthermore, infants' ability to interpret human actions as goal‐directed was assessed. Analyses revealed that only maternal emotional availability, and not maternal mind‐mindedness, was related to infants' goal‐encoding ability. This link remained stable even when controlling for child temperament, working memory, and maternal education. These findings provide first evidence that emotionally available caregiving promotes social‐cognitive development in preverbal infants.     

Effects of receipt of Social Security retirement benefits on older women’s employment

Labor force participation of women has declined since 1999; however, labor force participation of women 62+ has increased. The 2000–2006 waves of Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data, the initial years of the continuing upward trajectory, were used to test the effects of receipt of Social Security retirement benefits on older women’s employment. The models tested: (a) the effect of receipt of Social Security retirement benefits on whether employed; and (b) for women receiving Social Security retirement benefits, the effect of age elected receipt of benefits on whether employed. Both models included the effects of human capital characteristics and income sources. Receipt of Social Security benefits, pension income, and current age reduced the likelihood of employment; while educational level, good to excellent health, and nonmarried marital status increased the likelihood of employment. The older the woman was when she elected Social Security benefits, the more likely she was to be employed.     

Break-out im türkischen Lebensmittelhandel

Based on a qualitative-empirical study of the Turkish food retail sector in Vienna, this article discusses the social embeddedness of break-out-processes. In socio-scientific literature, the term “break-out” is used to describe the process by which immigrant entrepreneurs leave their “ethnic enclave economy” by gaining consumers beyond their own community. While research appears to reduce break-out to an individual and economically driven marketing strategy, the social dimension has been neglected so far. Our findings demonstrate that the entrepreneurs’ market orientation is located between the contradictory contexts of different expectations—those of the immigrant community as well as those of the majority community. On basis of a typology of different ways of dealing with these expectations we want to reveal the interrelationships between economic and social factors and, furthermore, to contribute to a deeper understanding of the social embeddedness of immigrant economies.