Exploring the relation between maternal mind‐mindedness and children’s symbolic play: A longitudinal study from 6 to 18 months

Relations between mothers’ mind‐mindedness (appropriate attunement to their infants’ internal states) at 6 and 12 months and infants’ early symbolic play during infant–mother pretense at 12 and 18 months were investigated in a sample of 43 mothers and infants. Mothers’ appropriate mind‐related comments were associated with average level, length, complexity, and maturity level of symbolic play. Specific sub‐categories of appropriate mind‐related comments were identified as independent predictors of children's symbolic play. Appropriate comments about desires and cognitions at 6 months were associated with average level and length of episodes, as well as with maturity level of symbolic play at 12 months. Longitudinal stability in the appropriateness and content of mothers’ mind‐related comments was also investigated. The results are discussed in terms of the proposal that attunement to specific types of internal state should vary as a function of infant age in order to index mind‐mindedness.     

Developing Country Debt Research: Where Do We Go From Here?

Book reviewed in this article: Managing World Debt. Edited by S . Griffith-Jones International Capital Markets: Developments and Prospects. By an IMF Staff Team Multilateral Official Debt Rescheduling: Recent Experience. By P.M. Keller with N.E. Weerasinghe African Debt: The Case for Relief for Sub-Saharan Africa. By P.S. Mistry The International Debt Crisis of the Third World. By P. Nunnenkamp. The African Debt Crisis. By T.W. Parfitt and S.P. Riley Developing Country Debt: the Budgetary and Transfer Problem. By H. Reisen and A. van Trotsenburg Latin American Debt and the Adjustment Crisis. Edited by R. Thorp and L. Whitehead Voluntary Approaches to Debt Relief. By J. Williamson     

Labour Market Realism and the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees

The Global Compacts on Migration (GCM) and Refugees (GCR) include policy recommendations that aim to increase opportunities for legal labour migration, improve protections for migrant workers, and provide refugees with ‘complementary pathways’ to enhanced protection via labour mobility. This paper explains why there are large gaps between these policy recommendations and the labour market policies and realities in the countries that host most of the world’s migrant workers. These gaps between ideals and realities are likely to limit the effective implementation of the GCM/GCR recommendations on labour migration. More ‘labour market realism‘ is needed to incrementally but effectively improve protections for migrant workers.     

Industrial relations and adjustments to the crisis: A comparative micro‐statistical analysis of France and Great Britain

In this comparative study, the authors analyse the relationships between industrial relations and workforce or wage adjustments in response to the 2007–08 crisis, using two highly comparable establishment‐level surveys conducted in Great Britain (WERS) and France (REPONSE) in 2010–12. Notwithstanding contextual differences in the countries’ productive systems and the timing and impact of the crisis, the relationships between industrial relations and adjustment strategies appear to have been similar (trade union presence not preventing adjustments). Differences in industrial relations are therefore not found to provide an explanation for the different modes of adjustment observed at the macroeconomic level.     

Clinical and Supervisory Considerations for Transgender Therapists: Implications for Working with Clients

Transgender therapists have unique and valuable perspectives into how gender organizes the therapeutic process. Currently, in the MFT field, there is discussion of the cisgender therapist's experience in the therapy room, but no known articles on the transgender therapist's experience. This article provides insight into the experiences of transgender therapists around issues of self‐disclosure, social locations of both therapist and client, and clinical supervision. Drawing from our clinical experiences as transmen, we highlight special considerations for working with cisgender, queer, and transgender clients. Implications for supervision of transgender therapists are also discussed. As more gender diverse students seek MFT training, there is an urgent need to acknowledge their perspectives. This article is a call for beginning conversations in this direction.     

Clinical and Ethical Considerations for Delivering Couple and Family Therapy via Telehealth

Studies have generally supported telehealth as a feasible, effective, and safe alternative to in‐office visits. Telehealth may also be of particular benefit to couples/families interested in relational treatments, as it addresses some of the barriers that may be more prominent for families, such as childcare and scheduling difficulties. Therapists interested in expanding their practice to include telehealth should understand ethical and practical considerations of this modality. This article discusses areas unique to the delivery of telehealth to couples and families. Each broad domain is then elaborated upon with case examples from actual clinical practice and specific recommendations for addressing potential difficulties. Authors recommend further empirical research examining differences in modality outcome, as well as feasibility of the suggestions proposed here.     

The Mediating Effect of Resilience Between Social Support for Exercise and Resident Satisfaction in Assisted Living

This study examined whether residents' level of resilience mediated the relationship between social support for exercise from staff and resident satisfaction in assisted living. This was a secondary data analysis using baseline data from a function-focused care intervention study including 171 residents from four assisted living facilities. Using structural equation modeling, we found that mood and social support for exercise from staff were the only variables associated with resilience. Mood, gender, cognition, and social support for exercise from staff directly influenced resident satisfaction and explained 31% of the variance in the model. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Disrupting Sexual Norms: An Application of the Critical Interpersonal and Family Communication (CIFC) Framework in the Context of Vulvodynia

This study uses intersectional methodology to critically explore vulvodynia, chronic female genital pain, as it disrupts norms governing gender roles in heterosexual sex and reproduction. Interviews with 26 women with vulvodynia illuminate core tenets of the critical interpersonal and family communication (CIFC) framework, which include power; private and public sphere bidirectionality; the critique, resistance, and transformation of the status quo; and considerations of author reflexivity. As the author is herself a heterosexual woman navigating vulvodynia, reflexivity is particularly salient. Status quo social constructs are explicated. Results demonstrate how participants experience losses of relational power and problematic media depictions establishing standards for “normal” heterosexual sex. Discourses and practices concerning the perpetuation, resistance, and potential transformation of the status quo are described.     

Dual experiences of teenage parenting and homelessness among Native Hawaiian youth: A critical interpretative phenomenological analysis

Teenage parenting is a challenging venture—particularly when parenting while homeless. The present study explores in‐depth through case‐based analysis the lived experiences of three young homeless and parenting teens (one mother and two fathers). It is the first known study of teenage parenting and homelessness among Native Hawaiian youth, a key affected population. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of participants' individual interviews revealed three themes that characterize the experience of parenting as a teen while homeless: (a) They never raised me up (childhood experiences); (b) becoming mommy and daddy (early experiences of teen pregnancy and parenting while homeless); and (c) finding our place (current experiences of teen parenting and perspectives on teen pregnancy and homelessness). Implications for direct practice, social policy, and future research are discussed in the context of this complex reality.     

Celebrating Joan Acker: Sociologist,fearless feminist,friend

Joan Acker's life reflects a time when middle‐class women were expected to be satisfied with maintaining the home front, serving husbands and children, not having paid‐work careers. After living “the ideal” for 37 years, Acker took a new path by earning a Ph. D. and producing path‐breaking scholarship that challenged taken‐for‐granted beliefs about gender, family, work, and organizations. Acker spoke “truth to power” and was an academic heroine in posing feminist challenges to injustices involving gender, social class, and race/ethnicity, particularly (but not solely) related to the workplace. This overview lets Joan tell her story and offers reflections on her milestone publications as seen by Pat Martin.