Incidence of Social Accountability in Local Governance: The Case of the Network for Fair,Democratic and Sustainable Cities and Territories in Latin America

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In Latin America, the emergence of a series of civil society initiatives aimed at citizen engagement for social...     

Attachment and adaptive skills in children of international adoption

The attachment pattern of a sample of 168 internationally adopted children was explored in this study using the semi‐structured Friends and Family Interview. The pattern was analysed in relation to the development of adaptive skills as an expression of the children's resilience. The secure attachment pattern rates were slightly lower and the insecure attachment patterns were considerably higher than those of normative samples from the previous studies. The children from Eastern Europe demonstrated a more insecure attachment pattern (odds ratio [OR]= 2.46; confidence interval [CI]= 1.23–3.94), and their scores on the adaptive skills scales were lower than the scores of children from other countries (OR = 2.62; 95% CI = 1.02–6.72). These results help to identify the groups at risk of failing to develop secure attachment patterns and appropriate adaptive skills, and should provide valuable information for designing effective interventions.     

Double Generalized Spatial Econometric Models

The authors offer a unified method extending traditional spatial dependence with normally distributed error terms to a new class of spatial models based on the biparametric exponential family of distributions. Joint modeling of the mean and variance (or precision) parameters is proposed in this family of distributions, including spatial correlation. The proposed models are applied for analyzing Colombian land concentration, assuming that the variable of interest follows normal, gamma, and beta distributions. In all cases, the models were fitted using Bayesian methodology with the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm for sampling from joint posterior distribution of the model parameters.     

When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences

The explosion in the number of people coming from a multiracial heritage has generated an increased need for understanding the experiences and consequences associated with coming from a multiracial background. In addition, the emergence of a multiracial identity challenges current thinking about race, forcing scholars to generate new ideas about intergroup relations, racial stigmatization, social identity, social perception, discrimination, and the intersectionality of race with other social categories such as social class. The present issue brings together research and theory in psychology, sociology, education, culture studies, and public policy surrounding multiracial identity and introduces new advances in thinking about race, intergroup relations, and racial identity. In exploring multiracial identity, the issue will reexamine conceptualization of race and racial identification by examining the social experiences of multiracial individuals.     

Wandel von Arbeit — Wandel von Männlichkeiten

Whereas the current public interest in the relation of transformation of paid work and gender is focused a lot on men and masculinities, sociological analysis is mostly focused on women and feminity. Few studies on work and masculinity suggest that with the erosion of industrial working conditions traditional constructions of masculinity are challenged to the core. It is our thesis that three mechanisms are working in stabilizing the relationship between paid work and masculinity: reconfigured standard employment relationship, entrepreneurial self, and hegemonic masculinity. Supposably, the new adjusted social order opens a range between two poles: the adherence to traditional patterns of masculinity on the one hand, which tends do enforce insecurity, and a pattern of hegemonic masculinity on the other side, which is characterized by a proactive and positive attitudes of dealing with present tendencies of uncertainty, seeing change as chance of creating.     

Pathological Gambling and Couple: Towards an Integrative Systemic Model

This article is a critical literature review of pathological gambling focused in the family factors, particularly in the couple dynamics. Its main goal is to develop an explicative integrative systemic model of pathological gambling, based in these couple dynamics. To achieve that aim, a bibliography search was made, using on-line data bases (e.g., EBSCO Host) and recognized books in pathological gambling subject, as well as in the systemic approach in general. This process privileged the recent works (about 70 % of the reviewed literature was published in the last decade), however, also considered some classic works (the oldest one dates back to 1970). The guiding focus of this literature search evolves according to the following steps: (1) search of general comprehension of pathological gambling (19 references), (2) search specification to the subject “pathological gambling and family” (24 references), (3) search specification to the subject “pathological gambling and couple”(11 references), (4) search of systemic information which integrates the evidence resulted in the previous steps (4 references). The developed model is constituted by different levels of systemic complexity (social context, family of origin, couple and individual) and explains the problem as a signal of perturbation in the marital subsystem vital functions (e.g., power and control) though the regularities of marital dynamics of pathological gamblers. Furthermore, it gives theoretical evidence of the systemic familiar intervention in the pathological gambling.     

Performance and politics

The introduction to the issue ‘Performance Politics: spectacular productions of culture in contemporary Latin America’ looks at how performance practices shape contemporary debates and determine political outcomes in Latin America in the post-dictatorial present.     

Discursive Struggles Animating Individuals’ Talk About Their Parents’ Coming Out as Lesbian or Gay

The goal in the present study was to understand the discourses that animate children’s talk about having a parent come out and how these discourses interplay to create meaning. Data were gathered through 20 in-depth interviews with adults who remembered a parent coming out to them as lesbian or gay. One discursive struggle animated the participants’ talk about their parents’ coming out: the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as wrong vs. the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as acceptable. Analysis of participants’ talk about their familial identities revealed a range of avenues for resisting the negative discourses regarding lesbian and gay identities. The findings highlight discursive power in participants’ talk about their familial identities and how participants organize the conflicting messages they receive in their culture and in relationships regarding family identities.     

The Effects of Contingent Caregiver Imitation of Infant Vocalizations: a Comparison of Multiple Caregivers

The present study replicated and extended the Pelaez et al. (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 44:33–40, 2011) study, which examined the reinforcing effects of mothers’ contingent imitation of their infants’ vocalizations. Three infants aged 7–12 months who could vocalize sounds but not words participated with two caregivers for each infant (i.e., triads). During the intervention phase, the caregivers were asked to immediately imitate all vocalizations emitted by the child for a 3-min period. During the yoked control phase, the caregivers listened to an audio recording from the preceding condition and provided vocalizations non-contingently on the infants’ responses. The procedures yielded different results across participants; one infant emitted a higher frequency of vocalizations during the contingent imitation phases over the control phases, and the other two infants showed higher rates of responding during the control phases. However, all infants emitted more imitative return vocalizations during contingent reinforcement conditions compared with the yoked control condition.