Toddlers' Social‐emotional Competence in the Contexts of Maternal Emotion Socialization and Contingent Responsiveness in a Low‐income Sample

Early social‐emotional development occurs in the context of parenting, particularly via processes such as maternal emotion socialization and parent–child interactions. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that maternal contingent responsiveness partially mediated the relationship between maternal emotion socialization of toddlers (N = 119, ages 12–36 months) and toddlers' social‐emotional competence. Effect size was strongest for the direct path between maternal emotion socialization and toddler social–emotional competence. Toddler age and maternal demographic risk status (covariates) predicted toddler competence. Study results extend the previous literature on early competencies by focusing on toddlers rather than preschool‐aged children and by employing a contextual model in which both low‐income mothers' emotion socialization and their contingent responsiveness predicted toddlers' competencies.     

从历史经济学角度分析俄罗斯远东地区的中国移民

俄罗斯远东地区的中国移民历史上就有先例 ,最近 2 0年移民新浪潮就像一百年前一样 ,具有经济特征 ,而不像西方舆论说得那样 ,有什么政治企图。从历史经济学角度分析这个问题 ,用政治行政手段规范调节移民政策 ,有利于推动俄罗斯远东地区的经济发展 ,有利于亚洲太平洋地区经济一体化。     

The initial development of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale

Problem/background

Pregnancy-related anxiety is a distinct anxiety characterised by pregnancy-specific concerns. This anxiety is consistently associated with adverse birth outcomes, and obstetric and paediatric risk factors, associations generally not seen with other anxieties. The need exists for a psychometrically sound scale for this anxiety type. This study, therefore, reports on the initial development of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale.

Fertility and Distorted Sex Ratios in a Rural Chinese County: Culture,State, and Policy

This article explores how gender bias in population policies interacts with local culture to reinforce distortions in sex ratios among infants and young children in rural China. It argues that population policies introduce new sources of inequality into local culture while, conversely, gender inequalities embedded in local culture influence formal population policy and practice. Applying an institutional approach to the study of an agricultural county in Jiangxi province, southeast China, the analysis identifies four ways in which an interplay between gender bias in policy and culture produces gendered fertility outcomes: (1) the creation of gendered official categories such as “daughter‐only households”; (2) a male bias embedded in local government; (3) the use of local gender norms in state pedagogy; and (4) the reworking or subverting of official norms in ways that reinforce gender inequalities in local reproductive culture. The article concludes that despite indications of contestation of village patriarchy, discrimination against daughters is likely to persist.     

Kindergarten oral language skill: A key variable in the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status

In this paper we test whether oral language development during the preschool years helps explain the positive relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and children's elementary school performance. In particular, we test for the portion of the SES effect on 2nd to 4th grade reading, 3rd to 4th grade mathematics, and overall teacher-rated performance that is explained by oral language ability measured when kindergarten begins. We analyze a unique data set containing unusually comprehensive measures of kindergarten oral language ability. The data are for white Midwestern children and their families. Estimation via structural equation modeling shows that oral language skill at kindergarten entry explains most of the effect of SES on elementary school performance. Since other studies have shown that elementary school performance strongly determines later educational attainment, much of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status occurs when the child is very young.     

马克思与怀特海:对中国和世界的意义

文章通过分析马克思与怀特海的理论契合,揭示了以强调动态的变化、和谐的关系、整体思维和对人类社会的前进性发展抱有深刻的乐观态度为特征的马克思的社会哲学和怀特海的过程哲学对创造性地解决当代世界特别是中国社会和经济发展所面临的许多难题所具有的理论指导意义,提出中国应走一条整合式的发展道路。     

Waiting to Inhale: The Demographics of Toxic Air Release Facilities in 21st‐Century California*

Objectives. We examine the spatial distribution of toxic air releases and residential demographics in California using 2000 Census data and coeval information from the Federal Toxic Release Inventory for evidence of disproportionate exposure. Methods. We use spatial analysis using GIS, and multivariate regression analysis, including ordered and multinomial logit regressions, in our study. Results. Analytical results suggest a pattern of disproportionate exposure based on race, with the disparity most severe for Latinos, which holds in a series of multivariate regressions, including attempts to test for varying levels of pollution risk and to control for spatial dependence. Conclusions. The study corroborates earlier research focused in the Los Angeles area, and suggests that recent concerns about environmental inequities affecting Latinos in California may be well founded.     

Arab and Jewish Youth in Israel: Voicing National Injustice on Campus

Haifa University (HU) is the stage for a prolonged social drama between Arabs (20%) and Jews. 86 students (38 Arabs and 48 Jews) were interviewed on their experiences of injustice. Three major differences emerged. For the Arabs, 92% of injustice took place on campus compared to 40% for the Jews. Arabs attributed injustice to discrimination (60%), Jews to the actors' personal characteristics (58%); the Arabs transformed injustice events into a political struggle for national recognition, identity, and narratives. The analysis intimates that Arabs' "social being" is developing through the staging of negative expressive acts, namely, respect/contempt and power/weakness. Thus actors at HU can stage social processes, and change sites of surveillance and injustice into places of reconciliation and coexistence.     

Contact Theory Extended: The Effects of Prior Racial Contact on Current Social Ties

Objective . We address methodological limitations in tests of contact theory. Just as importantly, we extend its theoretical focus to behaviors. Linking insights from social and cognitive psychology with contact theory, we hypothesize that prior racial contact will have significant effects on the racial diversity of contemporary social ties. Methods . Using the 1999–2000 Lilly Survey of Attitudes and Social Networks, we conduct univariate and multivariate analyses to test our hypotheses. Results . Those who had experienced prior interracial contact in schools and neighborhoods were more likely, as adults, to have more racially diverse general social groups and friendship circles. They were more likely to attend multiracial as opposed to a uniracial religious congregations, and to be interracially married. In general, these findings applied not only to all Americans, but to whites, African Americans, and Hispanics separately. They did not apply to Asians. Conclusions . Contact theory can and should be extended, rendering it more fruitful for studying race relations. Except when groups are an extremely small percentage of the population, even limited prior contact in multiracial settings appears to have important effects on contemporary social ties. These findings have important policy implications.