What Do You Think? The Relationship between Person Reference and Communication About the Mind in Toddlers

The present studies examined the relationship between children's use of grammatical structures indicating self–other differentiation (i.e., personal pronouns, verb conjugation) and their ability to use language to express their own and others' mental states (MSL). In Study 1, 104 parents of two‐ to three‐year‐old children filled out online checklists assessing children's vocabulary, their use of MSL, and first‐ and second‐person pronouns and verb forms. In Study 2, 77 mothers of 1.5‐ to 2.5‐year‐old children filled out the MacArthur–Bates communicative development inventory, and additional checklists for MSL and verb conjugation. Results of both studies showed that children's use of grammatical person reference is strongly related to their level of grammatical abilities. Importantly, pronominal and inflectional references to others were correlated with children's discourse about the mind. Thus, linguistic tools that are used to distinguish self from others are not only indicators of children's grammatical development, but also their level of sociocognitive understanding.     

The effects of multilevel governance on the rights of migrant domestic workers in Singapore

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the effects of multilevel governance (MLG) on the rights of migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore, focusing in particular on the case of Filipino MDWs. The paper argues that in the highly centralised, authoritarian setting of Singapore, there are very few instances of MLG in the field of migrant domestic work. The Singapore state has resisted the diffusion of norms and initiatives regarding labour migration at the international and regional levels into the national level, and the dispersion of authority to non-state actors such as civil society. However, there are a limited number of cases of MLG in this area, such as unilateral initiatives of the Philippines to protect its overseas workers, and an agreement between the Philippine Embassy and an association of employment agencies in Singapore. The paper contends that while these initiatives can provide an ad hoc and limited improvement of the working conditions of Filipino MDWs, they do not contribute to improved rights of all MDWs in Singapore. Instead, they increase the inequalities between the different national groups of MDWs, and they may have the effect of perpetuating Singapore’s existing policies with regard to MDWs.     

The Politics of Temporality: An Analysis of Leftist Youth Politics and Generational Contention

Based on focus groups and in-depth interviews with young leftist political party activists in Uruguay, this article analyzes the dilemmas faced by young people as they use images from the past to interpret and orient their situation in the present and their aspirations for the future. They are the heirs to a highly romantic image of what it means to be a political activist on the Left; in this sense, the shadow of the radical Sixties and the omnipresent image of armed struggle and military dictatorship define them. But the reality of politics in contemporary democratic Uruguay is that of pressing for incremental and routine social reform inside a ‘Broad Front’ where ideological definitions for the future have become hazy. This paper explores the various ways that young Uruguayan Leftists work to reconcile these different senses of time and how these mediate their relationships with ‘significant generational others’. In so doing, I place the concept of time, of the perceived and socially constructed sense of acting in the current of a particular historical time, at the center of analysis.     

Zeit- und Ziele-Management für Nachwuchswissenschaftler/innen

Within a vocational program at the University of Göttingen, the authors developed and evaluated an online-coaching in order to enhance the self-management, the work-life-balance and the job opportunities of junior researchers. 50 participants first attended an assessment center, 60 participants proceeded with an online-coaching of two weeks duration. The 3-month-follow-up included detailed feedbacks to every participant. Quantitative and qualitative analysis showed that media competencies affected the self-perception of training outcomes. Though female participants reported less media competencies than males, men and women benefited equally and sustainably in the enhancement of time options, work-life-balance, and self-management.     

Applying a Community Violence Framework to Understand the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Threat on Latino Children

Heeding the call put out by the New England Journal of Medicine (2017), we utilize an ecological–transactional model as a conceptual framework for understanding existing literature and for guiding future research on immigration enforcement threat and Latino child development. Using the World Health Organization's definition of violence, we draw on literature from psychology, medicine, social work, and developmental psychology to outline how the anti-immigrant climate in the United States and the threat of immigration enforcement practices in everyday spaces are experienced by some Latino children as psychological violence. Researchers, teachers, and practitioners are encouraged to be aware of how uncertainty and threat regarding familial safety adversely impacts the lives of Latino children in immigrant households, especially in charged, anti-immigrant climates.     

A Test of the Emergent Norm Theory of Collective Behavior

Objective: The paper uses the timing of evacuation behavior of occupants of the World Trade Center at the time of the explosion of February 26, 1993, to test predictions from Emergent Norm Theory. Method: It uses ordinary least square multiple regression analysis to examine data from a survey done in the first week in May 1993 of 415 people who worked at the World Trade Center. Results: The theory's predictions regarding the additive effects of size of group and preexisting social relationships on the timing of evacuation are supported. However, the findings document important and unexpected interaction effects of these two variables on the effects of perceived threat, resources, and cooperativeness on the timing of evacuation. Conclusion: The results augment the theory by showing the continued importance of enduring social relationships as determinants of collective behavior. Enduring social relationships are not only useful to differentiate collective behavior from institutionalized behavior but also specify the dynamics attending the occurrence of collective behavior.     

Assessing companies' decent work practices: An analysis of ESG rating methodologies

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) rating agencies, as non-financial data providers, have become central actors in the field of responsible investment. Although research has explored the construction of ESG metrics, little is known about how agencies evaluate decent work. Building on the analysis of six rating agencies, this article investigates how these actors measure and assess companies' performance in terms of decent work and related areas and identifies the challenges they face in this endeavour. The authors seek to better understand the capacity of responsible investment and ESG ratings to promote and improve decent work within companies.