Beyond talk: Contributions of quantity and quality of communication to language success across socioeconomic strata

Infants from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households hear a projected 30 million fewer words than their higher-SES peers. In a recent study, Hirsh-Pasek et al. (Psychological Science, 2015; 26: 1071) found that in a low-income sample, fluency and connectedness in exchanges between caregivers and toddlers predicted child language a year later over and above quantity of talk (Hirsh-Pasek et al., Psychological Science, 2015; 26: 1071). Here, we expand upon this study by examining fluency and connectedness in two higher-SES samples. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we sampled 20 toddlers who had low, average, and high language outcomes at 36 months from each of 2 groups based on income-to-needs ratio (INR; middle and high) and applied new coding to the mother–toddler interaction at 24 months. In the high-INR group, the quality of mother–toddler interaction at 24 months accounted for more variability in language outcomes a year later than did quantity of talk, quality of talk, or sensitive parenting. These results could not be accounted for by child language ability at 24 months. These effects were not found in the middle-INR sample. Our findings suggest that when the quality of interaction, fluency and connectedness, predicts language outcomes, it is a robust relation, but it may not be universal.     

The Psychodynamics of a Clinician's Hope: A Delicate Balance

A clinician's sense of hope is not easily maintained in the therapeutic situation. Exploring the psychodynamics of hope in two interviews—one focusing on a community mental health psychotherapist and the other on a school social worker—this paper proposes that maintaining hope requires an intense affect state, an active blend of emotional and intellectual reflections in the mind of the clinician. Ongoing hope is the product of a delicate balance between a clinician's tolerance for the tragic in life and the expectations of positive treatment outcome. These reflections occur in an intrapsychic space, a point of juncture between the clinician's primary process longings/fears and secondary process thoughts. Hope is constructed in this space. It gains its language, form, and substance from the integration of personal experience, client observation and clinical theory. Reflective activity helps a clinician avoid disabling transference to a client and promotes identifications that lead to realistic treatment goals.     

The Conjoint Session as a Tool for the Resolution of Separation-Individuation in the Adult Mother-Daughter Relationship

In the present article, two case reports are used to examine the adult mother-daughter relationship from the point of view of the mother. The two mothers, in midlife, looked to their adult daughters to perform selfobject functions. The daughters of these patients felt threatened by their mother's desire for emotional dependence and had emotionally distanced themselves from their mothers. Emotional estrangement from their daughters had caused these patients to experience feelings of depression severe enough to seek treatment. The article describes the use of a conjoint mother-daughter session within the context of the mother's individual treatment to help these mothers to recognize the unresolved separation-individuation in their relationships with their daughters and to promote a healthier connection in the mother-daughter relationship.     

A clustering procedure for mixed-type data to explore ego network typologies: an application to elderly people living alone in Italy

Statistical Methods & Applications - The analysis of ego networks has attracted a great attention recently and found application in many areas of the social sciences. In particular, the...     

Assimilation and Contrast Effects in General/Specific Questions1

Abstract Data from five surveys that included specific and general questions on a similar topic are examined. Results suggest that when specific and general questions are paired in surveys, significant patterns will appear. In each of the five studies, correlations between pairs of questions were significantly different when the general followed the specific item compared with the general/specific order. But there was no consistent pattern of assimilation (answers to second item agree with the first) or contrast (response to second question opposite that of the first). One study showed clear evidence of assimilation; the other four showed varying degrees of contrast effects.     

Depression and caregiver burden among rural elder caregivers

Family caregivers of older adults frequently experience feelings of burden and depression though they may not come to the attention to health and service providers until they are at a point of crisis. Through a simple screening tool, the Maine Primary Partners in Caring (MPPC) project identified individuals providing care to older adults through rural primary care practices, in order to provide upstream interventions before caregivers were in crisis. This paper describes a sample (n=62) of rural family caregivers identified through their physicians' offices. High levels of caregiver burden and depression were reported. Family support and knowledge of caregiver tasks predicted decreased caregiver burden and depression, while isolation predicted increased caregiver burden. Implications of these results for gerontological social workers are outlined.     

Tracing developmental trends in Ira Gordon's programs for children and families

Ira Gordon's work in the area of child and family services is traced for six of his programs according to two main trends: (1) perceptions of families through the years and the changing roles of parents in the education of their children; and (2) curriculum changes in activities brought into homes. Gordon's programs, some being initiated as early as 1966, focused upon parents, infants, toddlers, and school-age children and utilized home visitations as a major intervention strategy. Evidence of successes reported for these programs has shown the impact of early intervention upon children as well as their families, school, and community.     

Rural development and the regional state: Denying multifunctional agriculture in the UK

Under the emerging rural development paradigm, we argue that to be multifunctional an activity must add income to agriculture, it must contribute to the construction of a new agricultural sector that corresponds to the needs of the wider society and it must reconfigure rural resources in ways that lead to wider rural development benefits. By evaluating UK rural policies on the basis of whether or not they attempt to meet these conditions, this paper shows that an implicit recognition of agriculture's multifunctional character has occurred recently through the shift from a sectoral to a regional and territorial perspective that reintegrates farming into rural development. However, in practice, and especially in England, the UK government has been unable to turn multifunctional activities into a real rural development option. In fact, by continuing to support agri-industrial/retailer interests on the one hand, and post-productivist— environmental and amenity— interests on the other, the State is governing mostly by setting up competitively organized ‘projects’ and schemes that continue to justify the concentration (and limitation) of resources allocated to agriculture. Based upon a critique of policy developments over the past decade, this paper emphasizes the need for more innovative forms of state innovation that provide opportunities for new, creative and more spatially embedded forms of supply and demand management in agri-food. In the conclusions, the paper also argues that more critical research is needed to uncover the existing and potential role of both governments and producer networks in progressing sustainable rural development through agricultural multifunctionality.     

Socioemotional characteristics of minors in foster care: A comparison between the estimation of parents,teachers and children

During the child's first few years, it's of fundamental importance the presence of a strong emotional base as long as it creates the possibility to open themselves to physical and social world with confidence, and as it acts as a facilitator of cognitive development. For this reason, if the family cannot ensure such base, social services are forced to resort to foster care, a resource that has a lot of difficulties, leading to different implications in the development of the child and of the foster family. It is therefore important to analyze in depth the socio-emotional variables that characterize children who are in a situation of foster care in order to provide adequate assistance to optimize their development. For this 32 minors in foster care, 31 foster parents and 28 teachers from the city of Valencia, were administered the BASC. The results highlight that parents are evaluating children, in general, worse than tutors. Specifically they consider children more aggressive, they detect more behavioral and attention problems and recognize in them a greater tendency to externalize the problems, while the teachers consider these children as with more social and adaptive skills. There were no significant differences between the scores of parents, teachers and children. High levels of psychopathology (which are clinically significant in various cases) and the fact that host parents evaluate minors as more problematic, are indicators of parents' and minors' need of support from public organizations.