The Effects of Early Institutionalization on the Discrimination of Facial Expressions of Emotion in Young Children

The current study examined the effects of institutionalization on the discrimination of facial expressions of emotion in three groups of 42‐month‐old children. One group consisted of children abandoned at birth who were randomly assigned to Care‐as‐Usual (institutional care) following a baseline assessment. Another group consisted of children abandoned at birth who were randomly assigned to high‐quality foster care following a baseline assessment. A third group consisted of never‐institutionalized children who were reared by their biological parents. All children were familiarized to happy, sad, fearful, and neutral facial expressions and tested on their ability to discriminate familiar versus novel facial expressions. Contrary to our prediction, all three groups of children were equally capable of discriminating among the different expressions. Furthermore, in contrast to findings at 13–30 months of age, these same children showed familiarity rather than novelty preferences toward different expressions. There were also asymmetries in children’s discrimination of facial expressions depending on which facial expression served as the familiar versus novel stimulus. Collectively, early institutionalization appears not to impact the development of the ability to discriminate facial expressions of emotion, at least when preferential looking serves as the dependent measure. These findings are discussed in the context of the myriad domains that are affected by early institutionalization.     

Anger and Approach Motivation in Infancy: Relations to Early Childhood Inhibitory Control and Behavior Problems

The relations among infant anger reactivity, approach behavior, and frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry, and their relations to inhibitory control and behavior problems in early childhood were examined within the context of a longitudinal study of temperament. Two hundred nine infants’ anger expressions to arm restraint were observed at 4 months of age. Infants’ approach behaviors during play with an unpredictable toy and baseline frontal EEG asymmetry were assessed at 9 months of age. Inhibitory control during a Go/No‐Go task and parent report of behavior problems were evaluated at 4 years of age. High anger‐prone infants with left, but not right, frontal EEG asymmetry showed significantly more approach behaviors and less inhibitory control relative to less anger‐prone infants. Although a link between anger proneness in infancy and behavior problems in early childhood was not found, a combination of low approach behaviors and poor inhibitory control was predictive of internalizing behaviors.     

Reshaping Clinical Practice for the New Millennium

In the new millennium, oppression will continue to affect social workers’ clients. This article discusses training clinical practitioners to address oppression. Drawing on poststructural, postmodern, feminist, and social constructivist theories, the article argues that to challenge oppression, clinical practice must address the dialectical relationship between private troubles and public issues while transforming professional relationships that disempower clients. The article describes a second-year MSW clinical practice sequence taught from feminist, poststructuralist, postmodern, and social constructionist perspectives, where students learn to assess the impacts of oppression, discover clients’ strengths, and respond in personal, social, and political contexts.     

THE UNRELENTING SIGNIFICANCE OF MINORITY STATUSES: GENDER,ETHNICITY, AND ECONOMIC ATTAINMENT SINCE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and based on the split-class theory of racial and ethnic discrimination, this research examines the effects of gender, ethnicity, education, family characteristics, and geographic residence over time on economic attainment. While gender and family poverty status had greater impacts on overall economic attainment, results reveal that being an ethnic minority is significantly associated with lower wages. Moreover, results reveal that the disadvantage to racial and ethnic minorities has expanded over time or becomes more important at advanced ages. The results lend support to split-class theory and the arguments of Charles V. Willie that race/ethnicity has become a more important, rather than becoming less important indicator of poverty and income. Further, the results refute the notions that Affirmative Action has accomplished its goals or that it leads to reverse discrimination against White males.     

The athlete as model minority subject: Jose Bautista and Canadian multiculturalism

The discourse of multiculturalism disguises complicated racial dynamics in nations such as Canada. Although white privilege persists, it tends to be mediated through non-white figures who can engender consent from other minority members. These figures have been called model minorities, a role that is well-tailored to celebrated athletes. Athletes who fill the role of model minority represent the ideal immigrant citizen: English-speaking, middle class/bourgeois, disciplined, and hard-working. As such, they serve a disciplinary function for other immigrants by demonstrating how it is they should act and producing a standard against which they are evaluated. The model minority has become a crucial representational figure for multicultural nations like Canada because the political economy of these states requires cheap labour that can be hyper-exploited through the dehumanization of racialization. Drawing on articles in Toronto's most prominent newspapers, I argue that Toronto Blue Jays baseball star Jose Bautista has recently assumed the status of a model minority. I elaborate the functions of the model minority through a reading of Bautista's representation.     

Health and the educational attainment of adolescents: evidence from the NLSY97

This article examines the mechanisms linking health to the educational attainment of adolescents. In particular it investigates the role of cognitive/academic achievement and a variety of psychosocial adjustment factors in explaining this relationship. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (NLSY97), we estimate models of timely high school completion and of post-secondary enrollment using both standard logit estimation and sibling fixed-effects models. We find that, net of sociodemographic background and stable unobserved family characteristics, adolescents who experience worse health are substantially less likely to complete high school by their 20th birthday and to transition to post-secondary education. Cognitive/academic achievement and psychosocial factors appear to explain a large portion of these health-related educational deficits. However adolescent health continues to be significantly associated with these key educational transitions. The findings highlight a potentially important role of health selection processes in generating socioeconomic inequalities in early adolescence to young adulthood.     

The quality–quantity trade-off in fertility across parent earnings levels: a test for credit market failure

The dominant economic theory of the family explains the negative correlation between family size and child achievement, a ‘quality–quantity trade-off’, through borrowing constraints and credit market failure. This paper presents a model in which the opportunity cost of time spent with children is increasing, thus creating a trade-off even in economies with perfect credit markets. While both produce a family size effect, temporal and financial constraints predict different patterns for the trade-off across levels of parent income. Using data from the National Child Development Study, the trade-off is found even among high-earning families who presumably do not face credit constraints. Moreover, the trade-off does not grow as parent earnings diminish. Both of these findings suggest that temporal and not financial constraints explain the quality–quantity trade-off.

A unified approach to interpolation and graduation

The subject of interpolation and graduation is customarily treated by finite difference formulas of great variety and complexity, these having been developed with the convenience of hand calculation in mind. The cheapening of computation which has occurred in the past few years permits a simplification and unification of the subject. This is accomplished by linear equations which express conditions it is desired to impose on the interpolating curve and the elimination of the constants resulting in a determinantal equation. A computer program which evaluates a determinant then suffices for nearly any problem of graduation, interpolation, numerical differentiation and integration, as well as for the calculation of the remainder term or error of any of these.