The development of gaze following in monolingual and bilingual infants: A multi-laboratory study

Determining the meanings of words requires language learners to attend to what other people say. However, it behooves a young language learner to simultaneously encode relevant non-verbal cues, for example, by following the direction of their eye gaze. Sensitivity to cues such as eye gaze might be particularly important for bilingual infants, as they encounter less consistency between words and objects than monolingual infants, and do not always have access to the same word-learning heuristics (e.g., mutual exclusivity). In a preregistered study, we tested the hypothesis that bilingual experience would lead to a more pronounced ability to follow another's gaze. We used a gaze-following paradigm developed by Senju and Csibra (Current Biology, 18, 2008, 668) to test a total of 93 6- to 9-month-old and 229 12- to 15-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants, in 11 laboratories located in 8 countries. Monolingual and bilingual infants showed similar gaze-following abilities, and both groups showed age-related improvements in speed, accuracy, frequency, and duration of fixations to congruent objects. Unexpectedly, bilinguals tended to make more frequent fixations to on-screen objects, whether or not they were cued by the actor. These results suggest that gaze sensitivity is a fundamental aspect of development that is robust to variation in language exposure.     

Attachment‐facilitating interactions in non‐kin foster families

This study aims to analyse the interaction between children in foster care and their main caregivers during a microcoded co‐construction task, focusing on the verbal and non‐verbal behaviours that the adults use to promote a secure attachment in the child. It also examines how children and caregivers' socio‐demographic variables relate to the interaction. The sample is made up of 28 Spanish children between 4 and 9 years old in long‐term non‐kin foster care and their foster families. The building task was administered to 28 dyads, composed of the child and the main caregiver in each family. Our results showed that the caregivers' use of attachment‐facilitating behaviours was frequent during the interaction. Moreover, children tended to display a positive attitude when adults used these attachment‐facilitating behaviours. We also found some differences in the interaction according to the caregivers and children's age, the child's gender and the caregivers' satisfaction with the child's development. These results offer us a better understanding of the functioning of the adult–child relationships in foster families, which helps us make more efficient interventions to improve the caregivers' sensitivity towards the children's needs and difficulties.     

The Characteristics of Takeover Targets: The Spanish Experience 1991–1997

In this paper we analyse the characteristicspresented by Spanish firms that have been thesubject of takeover bids that allow them to bedifferentiated from other firms. To that end,we use a sample made-up of 69 non-financialfirms that were the subject of takeover bids inSpain during the period 1991–1997, togetherwith a further 69, selected randomly on anindustrial and time basis, that were not. Theresults show that the firms that were subjectto a takeover bid were not, in general,characterised by having lower profitability ora worse market valuation than other firmsoperating in the same sector. This resultmakes it difficult to argue that takeovers inSpain have in their majority been driven bydisciplinary or speculative motives. Bycontrast, certain variables that exert aninfluence over the cost of the transaction,such as the size and the ownership structure ofthe firm, do appear to play a relevant role inthe selection of the target on the part of thebidding firm.     

Physical Activity (PA) Among Middle-Aged Women: Initial and Current Influences and Patterns of Participation

This study investigated the initial and current influences for doing physical activity (PA), current levels of PA participation, and future plans for it. Participants were 200 women aged 45 to 64 years old. Factor loadings of influences were explored using Principal Components Analysis. Pearson bivariate correlations, t-test, and ANOVA were used to show the differences among the influences, sociodemographic characteristics, and present/future PA participation. Personal fulfillment was the main initial influence, while health benefits/self-care, and outdoor/family activities were the most important current influences. The results highlight the factors that best explain present PA participation and also plans for activity in the future.     

The social support in kinship foster care: a way to enhance resilience

This paper analyses how social support enhances family resilience in kinship foster families by involving the families in an educational group programme. Sixty‐two kinship foster families from Spain participated in the research. The data were collected before the programme (interviews) and after the programme (interviews and focus groups), and these were analysed by content analysis with the programme Atlas.ti. The results show that the factors that contribute most to the development of family resilience are as follows: (i) feeling able to look for solutions when facing problems; (ii) an increase of their network of formal support; (iii) being able to offer support to other foster families; and (iv) feeling that the support they give to parents' foster children is socially recognized.     

Listening to children: Evaluation of a positive parenting programme through art-based research

This paper presents data from a unique programme evaluation of the parenting programme titled ‘Learning together, growing as a family’ applied in 14 cities in Spain and targeting families at risk of neglectful behaviour. The programme evaluation is based on the voices of children using the qualitative methodology of art-based research. Eighty-six children 6–12 years of age were interviewed in groups. The outcomes of the evaluation reveal that children perceive improvements in the parental competencies of their parents and in themselves and that these changes serve as a catalyst for positive family change.     

Assessing physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated by intimate male partners toward women: a Spanish cross-sectional study

There have been many studies on the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on women's health, there being agreement on its detrimental effect. Research has focused mainly on the impact of physical violence on health, with few studies assessing the effect of sexual and psychological violence. Furthermore, there are many differences in the way violence experienced by women is assessed. While some researchers use available instruments, others develop their own questionnaires. This article gives detailed information about physical, sexual, and psychological violence, lifetime history of women's victimization, and aspects of women's behavior and feelings obtained with the questionnaire used in a Spanish cross-sectional study. Our results corroborate that IPV is not homogeneous, it being necessary to ask women about each type of violence they have experienced. Furthermore, to accurately assess the impact of IPV on women's health, it is necessary to control for other variables that also have detrimental effects on health.     

Experience with research paradigms relates to infants’ direction of preference

Interpreting and predicting direction of preference in infant research has been a thorny issue for decades. Several factors have been proposed to account for familiarity versus novelty preferences, including age, length of exposure, and task complexity. The current study explores an additional dimension: experience with the experimental paradigm. We reanalyzed the data from 4 experiments on artificial grammar learning in 12-month-old infants run using the head-turn preference procedure (HPP). Participants in these studies varied substantially in their number of laboratory visits. Results show that the number of HPP studies is related to direction of preference: Infants with limited experience with the HPP setting were more likely to show familiarity preferences than infants who had amassed more experience with this paradigm. This evidence has important implications for the interpretation of experimental results: Experience with a given method or, more broadly, with the laboratory environment may affect infants’ patterns of preferences.