Associations Between Friendship,Sympathy, and Prosocial Behavior Toward Friends

The current study examined the associations between multiple aspects of the friend relationship (connection, companionship, psychological control) and global prosocial behavior toward friends. Participants included 467 early adolescents (M age of child = 13.32, SD = 1.05, 49% female, 69% European American), and data were collected at two time points, roughly 1 year apart. Structural equation modeling suggested that friend psychological control was negatively associated with prosocial behavior toward friends, while friend connection was positively associated (via adolescent sympathy). Discussion focuses on the friend relationship as an important influence on adolescent sympathy and prosocial behavior toward friends.     

Integrating Sociological and Psychological Perspectives on Coparenting

Rapidly changing demographics of American families have redefined coparenting and brought about the need for cross‐disciplinary measurement and theory integration that is grounded in a developmental, life course perspective. First, we briefly review sociological scholarship on coparenting, highlighting both qualitative and quantitative work. Second, we provide a brief historical overview of coparenting from the psychological perspective, focusing on its theoretical foundation, multiple components, and importance for individuals and families. Third, we highlight the strengths and weaknesses of sociological approaches to coparenting and discuss the benefits of integration. Finally, we suggest avenues for future interdisciplinary work on coparenting that are heavily shaped by the shifting demographics of American families.     

Infant Recognition of Hebrew Vocalic Word Patterns

The ability of infants to recognize phonotactic patterns in their native language is widely acknowledged. However, the specific ability of infants to recognize patterns created by nonadjacent vowels in words has seldom been investigated. In Semitic languages such as Hebrew, groups of multisyllabic words are identical in their nonadjacent vowel sequences and stress position but differ in the consonants interposed between the vowels. The goals of this study were to assess whether infants learning Hebrew show a preference for (1) a nonadjacent vocalic pattern or template, common in Hebrew nouns (CéCeC), over a nonattested nonadjacent vocalic pattern (CóCoC), and (2) a nonadjacent vocalic pattern common in Hebrew words (CaCóC) over an existing but less common pattern (CaCéC). Twenty Hebrew‐learning infants aged 8 to 11 months were presented with lists of nonsense words featuring the first two patterns (Experiment 1), and 20 were presented with nonsense words featuring the second two patterns (Experiment 2). The results showed longer listening to CéCeC than to CóCoC lists and to CaCóC than to CaCéC lists, suggesting that infants recognized the common nonadjacent vocalic patterns in both cases. The study thus demonstrates that Hebrew‐learning infants are able to disregard the intervening consonants within words and generalize their vocalic pattern to previously unheard nonwords, whether this pattern includes identical or different vowels and regardless of the rhythmic pattern of the word (trochaic or iambic). Analysis of the occurrence of the relevant vowel patterns in input speech in three Hebrew corpora (two addressed to children and one to adults) suggests that exposure to these patterns in words underlies the infants' preferences.     

Explaining the Mexican‐American Health Paradox Using Selectivity Effects

While typically socioeconomically disadvantaged, Mexican migrants in the United States tend to have better health outcomes than non‐Hispanic whites. This phenomenon is known as the “Hispanic health paradox.” Using data from Mexico and the United States, we examine several health outcomes for non‐Hispanic whites and Mexicans in the United States and in Mexico and employ Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions to help explain the paradox. We find evidence that selectivity is playing a significant role in the relatively healthy status of Mexican migrants in the United States. More importantly, there is evidence that health selectivity is a complex process and its effects typically do not work the same way for different health conditions and across genders. We also find evidence that some of migrants' health advantages are lost as they spend more time in the United States.     

Relational Ethics,Depressive Symptoms,and Relationship Satisfaction in Couples in Therapy

The purpose of this study was to examine depressive symptoms and relationship satisfaction as problems related to relational ethics in one's family of origin and current partner relationships in a sample of 68 other‐sex couples seeking therapy at a large university clinic. We used the Actor Partner Interdependence Model to analyze dyadic data collected prior to beginning therapy. Specifically, we found significant actor effects between relational ethics in one's family of origin and depressive symptoms, as well as between depressive symptoms and low relationship satisfaction for both male and female partners. We also found significant partner effects for relational ethics in current partner relationship, depressive symptoms, and low relationship satisfaction. Clinical application of contextual therapy theory is discussed.     

Neuroticism,Negative Thinking,and Coping With Respect to Career Decision State

Using structural equation modeling, the present study investigated relationships between neuroticism, coping strategies, and negative career thoughts within the context of attaining a positive career decision state. Results from the initial model, based on a sample of college students (119 women, 113 men; M = 20.3 years) enrolled in a career development course, revealed that coping strategies were not a significant contribution to the model. The final model, without coping strategies, showed that neuroticism had a significant indirect effect on career decision state through negative thinking and that the relationship between neuroticism and career decision state was also significant. Findings also indicate that in the presence of negative career thoughts, neuroticism becomes associated with a more positive career decision state. Practical implications include suggestions that counselors intervene on clients' negative career thoughts to potentially render their neurotic tendencies more productive in reaching a desired career decision state.     

Becoming a (Pan)ethnic Attorney: How Asian American and Latino Law Students Manage Dual Identities

Managing professional and personal identities often belabor upwardly mobile racialized individuals. I examine in this article how Asian American and Latino law students negotiate (pan)ethnic identities while learning to become lawyers. I contend that managing dual identities creates (pan)ethnic duty among Asian American and Latino law students. I focus on those planning to work in law firms, at least initially. While there are many career options for law students, most, irrespective of race, pursue initial careers at law firms. What leads them there? How do racialization and expectations play a role in this career aspiration? And how do students negotiate the pressure to give back, or manage the internally/externally imposed duty they feel to serve respective communities? I find that Asian American and Latino law students draw on a repertoire of strategies (marginal panethnicity, tempered altruism, and instrumental ethnicity) that encompass different accounts, identities, and roles enabling creativity and elasticity for professional and personal identities. The findings suggest that panethnicity remains salient for upwardly mobile individuals of color, even those who do not ostensibly appear to be concerned with panethnic communities and causes.     

A comparison of heritage language ideologies in interaction

In Canada, the notion of a heritage language ideology is often conceived of as a natural by‐product of official multiculturalism. By contrast, Germany has long struggled with its status as a multilingual and multicultural country. By comparing two corpora of interviews with immigrants to each of these two countries (Canadians of German heritage and Germans of Vietnamese heritage), this paper aims to explore to what extent these different language ideologies are reconstructed in the interviews. It will be argued that the interviewees construct different sociolinguistic spaces and take up different positions within them in terms of centre and periphery. Our analysis shows that the German‐Canadian interviewees construct public sociolinguistic spaces in which they position themselves as German even when they do not have an active knowledge of their heritage language. By contrast, despite the monolingual habitus in Germany, the German‐Vietnamese respondents endorse a heritage language ideology; the space they claim for speaking Vietnamese, however, is restricted to private or family conversations.     

Implementation of maximin efficient designs in dose‐finding studies

This paper considers the maximin approach for designing clinical studies. A maximin efficient design maximizes the smallest efficiency when compared with a standard design, as the parameters vary in a specified subset of the parameter space. To specify this subset of parameters in a real situation, a four‐step procedure using elicitation based on expert opinions is proposed. Further, we describe why and how we extend the initially chosen subset of parameters to a much larger set in our procedure. By this procedure, the maximin approach becomes feasible for dose‐finding studies. Maximin efficient designs have shown to be numerically difficult to construct. However, a new algorithm, the H‐algorithm, considerably simplifies the construction of these designs. We exemplify the maximin efficient approach by considering a sigmoid Emax model describing a dose–response relationship and compare inferential precision with that obtained when using a uniform design. The design obtained is shown to be at least 15% more efficient than the uniform design. © 2014 The Authors. Pharmaceutical Statistics Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.