Electrophysiological Brain Responses of Six‐Month‐Old Low Risk Premature Infants

This study sought to examine the electrophysiological correlates of visual perceptual priming in a sample of low risk preterm infants. We compared the ERP data of 20 healthy preterm infants at the age of 6 months (corrected age: 4 months) to those of 20 six‐month‐old and 20 four‐month‐old full term infants. The comparison groups represented the preterm infants' chronological and corrected ages respectively. The results showed that the brain responses of the preterm infants at the age of 6 months, specifically the topography and the latency of the Nc component, are more similar to those of their corrected age peers than to those of the chronological age controls.     

Stress,Social Resources,and Depression among Never‐Married and Divorced Rural Mothers*

Abstract While the impact of single parenting on women and children has long been a concern, very little research has focused on single parents living in rural areas. Based on a probability sample of 508 single mothers aged 18–39 living in rural Northern New England, the present study: (1) examines the impact of several domains of stress on mothers' depression, (2) considers potential buffering effects of social resources, and (3) identifies variations in conditions and outcomes for divorced and never‐married mothers. Findings highlight the importance of multiple forms of stress exposure, showing independent significant effects of lifetime adversity, recent life events, and chronic stressors on current depressive symptoms. Although emotional support reduces depression, neither support nor living arrangements moderate the impact of recent and current stressors. Divorced women experience more stress exposure, greater vulnerability to stress, and do not benefit from family support to the same extent as never‐married mothers. Possible differences in the meanings that divorced and never‐married mothers attach to current life circumstances are discussed.     

Fitting and comparing seed germination models with a focus on the inverse normal distribution

This paper reviews current methods for fitting a range of models to censored seed germination data and recommends adoption of a probability‐based model for the time to germination. It shows that, provided the probability of a seed eventually germinating is not on the boundary, maximum likelihood estimates, their standard errors and the resultant deviances are identical whether only those seeds which have germinated are used or all seeds (including seeds ungerminated at the end of the experiment). The paper recommends analysis of deviance when exploring whether replicate data are consistent with a hypothesis that the underlying distributions are identical, and when assessing whether data from different treatments have underlying distributions with common parameters. The inverse normal distribution, otherwise known as the inverse Gaussian distribution, is discussed, as a natural distribution for the time to germination (including a parameter to measure the lag time to germination). The paper explores some of the properties of this distribution, evaluates the standard errors of the maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters and suggests an accurate approximation to the cumulative distribution function and the median time to germination. Additional material is on the web, at http://www.agric.usyd.edu.au/staff/oneill/ .     

Contemporaneous Versus Retrospective Reports of Cohabitation in the Fragile Families Survey

We compare contemporaneous and retrospective reports of cohabitation among unmarried mothers in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing survey (N =2,524). We find that (a) many mothers revise their reports of whether they cohabited at the time of the birth of their child and (b) revisions in reports are systematically related to individuals’ characteristics and the quality and trajectory of parents’ relationships. These results have important implications for analyses of determinants and consequences of family structure using these data and, potentially, any retrospective data on relationships and family structure.     

Childhood body mass index gain during the summer versus during the school year

The nationwide increase in obesity affects all population sectors, but the impact on children is of special concern because overweight children are prone to becoming overweight adults. Contrary to the opinion of experts, research suggests that schools may be more part of the solution than the problem. Recent seasonal comparison research (comparing children's outcomes during the summer and during school year) reports that children gain body mass index (BMI) nearly twice as fast during the summer as during the school year. Whereas most children experience healthier BMI gain during the school year than the summer, this is especially the case for black and Hispanic children and for children already overweight.     

Precarious employment experiences and their health consequences: towards a theoretical framework

Fundamental shifts in the structure of labour markets, work systems, and employment relations of industrialized countries have outpaced changes in legislative, social and political mechanisms. As a result, a growing number of workers are exposed to precarious employment experiences, which we define as experiences that give rise to instability, lack of protection, insecurity, and social and economic vulnerability. These experiences represent a potentially significant occupational health risk. Our central objective is to develop a detailed framework that outlines the key aspects of work experiences that makes them precarious, and to consider links between these aspects and downstream health effects.     

The changing contribution of smoking to educational inequality in female mortality

The negative association between education and mortality is well established in international research. The harmful effect of smoking on health is well known. However, the contribution of smoking to educational inequality in mortality varies across studies, and in some studies, the contribution is negligible. This paper demonstrates the use of an analytical approach to provide one explanation for this phenomenon. Analysing nationally representative survey data for two cohorts of Australian women born in 1920–1928 and 1945–1951 respectively, we found that in the 1994–2006 period, the less educated are subject to higher mortality by 38–50 %. In the total sample, the smoking contribution to excess mortality due to lower education is negligible. However, when the cohorts are analysed independently, the smoking contribution ranges from ?13 % among those born in 1920–1928 to +23 % among those born in 1945–1951. The smoking contribution is only seen in the cohort-specific analysis because smoking is more prevalent among tertiary degree holders in the earlier cohort but more prevalent among less educated women in the later cohort. The disaggregated analytical approach taken here deserves further attention in research on inequality.     

Caregiving Around the Clock: How Women in Nursing Manage Career and Family Demands

Nursing is considered a woman friendly profession; however, career advancement in nursing, as in other fields, is predicated on masculine models of promotion, making mobility difficult for working mothers. To learn more about how women negotiate caregiving responsibilities at home and at work, focus groups were conducted with 26 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, and aides. Three themes emerged from these discussions: tension between the value nurses assigned to paid caregiving and societal devaluation of this work; "costs" of paid caring and emotional labor on family life; and the presence of both obstacles to and opportunities for career advancement. Caregiving experiences were shaped by professional status. Implications for women's well being and career advancement are discussed.     

Reflexivity, its Meanings and Relevance for Social Work: A Critical Review of the Literature

The concept of ‘reflexivity’ has become increasinglysignificant in social work literature in relation to socialwork education, theory and practice. However, our reading ofthe literature indicates that there is a lack of clarity aboutthe concept in terms of who is being exhorted to be ‘reflexive’,when and how. This article addresses these questions througha critical review of social work literature since the 1990sthat discusses the concept of ‘reflexivity’. Giventhat many authors seem to use the concepts of ‘reflexivity’and ‘(critical) reflection’ interchangeably, wealso apply this analysis to ‘reflection’ and ‘criticalreflection’. This article raises important questions abouthow the concepts of ‘reflexivity’, ‘criticalreflection’ and ‘reflectivity’ are definedand the different consequences such definitions might have forsocial work education, theory and practice.