Long‐Term Effects of Fathers' Depressed Mood on Youth Internalizing Symptoms in Early Adulthood

While an accumulating body of research has documented increased risk of psychopathology among children of depressed fathers, most studies have used cross‐sectional design, and little is known about offspring outcomes beyond childhood. Using prospective data from a community sample (N = 395), we found that paternal depressive symptoms when children were in early adolescence (age 13) predicted offspring depressive and anxiety symptoms at age 21, controlling for baseline youth symptoms, maternal depressive symptoms, and other known correlates of internalizing problems in early adulthood. Associations were not moderated by maternal depressive symptoms or child gender. These results suggest that the unique and long‐term effects of paternal depression on children's risk of mood disorders may persist into adulthood.     

A spatial model for the needle losses of pine-trees in the forests of Baden-Württemberg: an application of Bayesian structured additive regression

Summary.  The data that are analysed are from a monitoring survey which was carried out in 1994 in the forests of Baden-Württemberg, a federal state in the south-western region of Germany. The survey is part of a large monitoring scheme that has been carried out since the 1980s at different spatial and temporal resolutions to observe the increase in forest damage. One indicator for tree vitality is tree defoliation, which is mainly caused by intrinsic factors, age and stand conditions, but also by biotic (e.g. insects) and abiotic stresses (e.g. industrial emissions). In the survey, needle loss of pine-trees and many potential covariates are recorded at about 580 grid points of a 4 km × 4 km grid. The aim is to identify a set of predictors for needle loss and to investigate the relationships between the needle loss and the predictors. The response variable needle loss is recorded as a percentage in 5% steps estimated by eye using binoculars and categorized into healthy trees (10% or less), intermediate trees (10–25%) and damaged trees (25% or more). We use a Bayesian cumulative threshold model with non-linear functions of continuous variables and a random effect for spatial heterogeneity. For both the non-linear functions and the spatial random effect we use Bayesian versions of P -splines as priors. Our method is novel in that it deals with several non-standard data requirements: the ordinal response variable (the categorized version of needle loss), non-linear effects of covariates, spatial heterogeneity and prediction with missing covariates. The model is a special case of models with a geoadditive or more generally structured additive predictor. Inference can be based on Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques or mixed model technology.     

Negotiations,Work Objects,and the Unborn Patient: The Interactional Scaffolding of Fetal Surgery

This article examines the interactional scaffolding of fetal surgery, an emergent medical specialty focused on the unborn patient. Drawing on work in symbolic interaction, especially that of Mead and Strauss, the article focuses on the social organization of work in a Fetal Treatment Unit at an urban teaching hospital. The major types of interactions among participants are cooperation and conflict, illustrating the many differences among actors in this social world and their need to work together to successfully build their specialty. Differences discussed in this article center on the work object in fetal surgery (who is considered the patient?), criteria for patient selection, and definitions of disease and treatment. Actors must continually negotiate these and other differences as they create the social order of fetal surgery in a politicized context, both locally at Capital Hospital and for the specialty more generally.     

Changes in the Transition to Adulthood in Less Developed Countries

Over the past century, there have been significant changes in the prevalence, density, and complexity of transitions to adulthood in the United States and Europe. Analyses of change in less developed countries have largely focused on one or two transitions in isolation. This article examines whether recent increases in female school participation, the timing of marriage, and socio-economic changes in Africa and Latin America have influenced the timing and pattern of the entire transition to adulthood. Using data from countries with Demographic and Health Surveys 12–15 years apart, we analyze how the distribution of status combinations (education, employment, marriage, and childbearing) has changed over this period for women aged 15–30. Heterogeneity analysis is used to describe the changes in the complexity of status combinations. Although we find little change in transition complexity for women older than 20, there is evidence for shifts in the distribution of status combinations at any given age.     

Sticks and Stones: Evaluations of Responses to Childhood Teasing

The present study addresses children's assessments of responses to teasing. Participants viewed videotaped interactions in which one child was being teased by two other children and responds in one of three ways (i.e., with humor, by ignoring, or with hostility). Participants rated the humorous response to teasing as the most effective way to respond to teasing, followed by ignoring. The hostile response was rated the least effective. The target's response to teasing significantly affected perceptions of the friendliness and popularity of the teasers and target. In addition, participants' previous experiences with teasing, as both victim and teaser, significantly affected their perceptionsof the teasing interaction. Results are discussed as they relate to understanding childhood teasing and effective ways of responding to teasing.     

Relations Between Mother‐Child Interactions and the Neural Correlates of Face Processing in 6‐Month‐Olds

Developmental studies of face processing have revealed age‐related changes in how infants allocate neurophysiological resources to the face of a caregiver and an unfamiliar adult. We hypothesize that developmental changes in how infants interact with their caregiver are related to the changes in brain response. We studied 6‐month‐olds because this age is frequently noted in the behavioral and neurophysiological literature as a time of transition in which infants begin to discriminate more readily between caregivers and unfamiliar adults. We used infants' behavioral responses to an original behavioral paradigm to predict event‐related potential (ERP) responses to pictures of the mother's face and a stranger's face in the same group of participants. Our results suggest that individual differences in infants' proximity‐seeking behaviors during interactions with the mother correlate with their neurophysiological responses to the mother's face as opposed to an unfamiliar face for the Nc component of the ERP. These results have implications for understanding the role of the changing infant‐caregiver relationship on the development of the face processing system in early infancy.     

Civility, Rituals, and Exclusion: The Emergence of American Golf during the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

This study examines the relationship between golf and civility and advances the work of Norbert Elias by providing a theoretically informed analysis of the ritual dynamics involved in the civilizing process. Employing content analysis of texts and other forms of data, the authors examine the origins of American golf between 1894 and 1920 and the way various attributes of civility were expressed in this newly emerging recreational pursuit. This research demonstrates that social characteristics of civility found in European noble pastimes were also present in the American game of golf. These qualities dictated a civilized code of conduct and etiquette that included self–restraint, practice, courteousness, proper decorum, compliance, and honorable behavior. Such a code of conduct distinguished the upper class from those of lower rank and designated the game of golf for the former while discouraging others from participating in this pastime.     

THE SOCIAL CONTROL OF EMOTIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THERAPY RELATIONS

A study of therapy relations demonstrates how emotions are shaped by the more powerful member, the therapist. Emotional expressions are encouraged and regulated by the therapist in such a way that they support the nascent commitment structure. The targets of emotional expression shift as the therapeutic relationship takes shape until, in the final stage, they construct a shared sentiment regarding the relationship itself. This analysis identifies emotions as more than an indicator of power in a relationship, but as a tool in the development of power and commitment.