Language Matching Among Mother‐child Dyads: Associations with Child Attachment and Emotion Reactivity

Links between mother‐infant affective matching and attachment security are well‐documented, but research on other types of behavioral matching and attachment security are lacking, as are studies that examine these constructs later in children's development. We examine language style matching (LSM) between mothers and their school‐aged children (N = 68), using interviews with each dyad member. As predicted, regressions revealed that higher mother‐child relational LSM was associated with greater child attachment security (operationalized as high security, low dismissal), and that higher LSM predicted smaller increases in children's electrodermal response to a relational probe 1.5 years later. Further, mother‐child relational LSM was a mediator in the indirect path between children's attachment security and children's reactivity. We discuss the potential utility of LSM as a measure of relationship quality and future studies that could refine our understanding of parent‐child language matching.     

Patterns of family service needs and caregiver–child relationships among families at risk of child welfare involvement

Caregivers at risk of involvement in the child welfare system report high levels of need for multiple types of services, and their children have high levels of mental health need. Caregivers from families with more service needs, as well as unmet needs, are less likely to be engaged with child welfare services and may have diminished capacity to care for their child. This study takes a family‐centered approach by using latent class analysis to identify patterns of both caregiver and child service needs among families at risk of child welfare involvement. Using data from the LONGSCAN consortium (N = 957), we identified 4 classes of service needs among child welfare‐involved families. We then examined differences between the 4 classes based on demographics, maltreatment histories, unmet service needs, and caregiver–child relationship. The caregivers were split fairly evenly among the 4 classes: low needs, medical needs, poverty support, and high needs. There were significant differences between classes on assessed variables, with higher levels of needs associated with diminished caregiver–child relationships.     

Religion and Fertility in Contemporary Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has been and continues to be deeply divided on the basis of religion. This paper examines and compares contemporary fertility in the two communities given the sharp declines that have occurred in recent decades. The data are drawn from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study and cover 108,000 women aged 16–44 in the period 1997–2007. A logit analysis of births in the period is undertaken based on individual demographic data and also the characteristics of the locality in which the woman is resident. The effect of religion is measured by its individual marginal effect averaged over the total sample, over time and by the age of the woman. The estimated average marginal effect is 4 % of the probability of a woman having a birth over the entire period. The effect peaks when the woman is between 29 and 30 years and is stable over time. When the fertility behaviour of each religious group is compared separately with those women that came from the same background but had lost their religion, it is found to differ substantially. Thus, community background is rejected as a possible explanation of the difference in fertility between declared Catholics and Protestants. Although the fertility rates of former Catholics and Protestants appear to be converging, the size of these groups is relatively small. There is no evidence to suggest that the small but distinct difference in the fertility rates of the two religious communities is likely to change in the immediate future.