Nature’s Experiment? Handedness and Early Childhood Development

In recent years, a large body of research has investigated the various factors affecting child development and the consequent impact of child development on future educational and labor market outcomes. In this article, we contribute to this literature by investigating the effect of handedness on child development. This is an important issue given that around 10% of the world’s population is left-handed and given recent research demonstrating that child development strongly affects adult outcomes. Using a large, nationally representative sample of young children, we find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not significantly related to child health at birth, family composition, parental employment, or household income. We also find robust evidence that left-handed (and mixed-handed) children perform significantly worse in nearly all measures of development than right-handed children, with the relative disadvantage being larger for boys than girls. Importantly, these differentials cannot be explained by different socioeconomic characteristics of the household, parental attitudes, or investments in learning resources.     

Religion in the everyday lives of second‐generation Jains in Britain and the USA: resources offered by a dharma‐based South Asian religion for the construction of religious biographies,and negotiating risk and uncertainty in late modern societies

While the growth of spiritualties is associated with post‐traditional societies and the ability of individuals to engage in reflexive construction of religious biographies in late modernity, these arguments ignore various dimensions of reflexivity and processes of re‐traditionalization. In this article I explore linkages and affinity between social discourses in late modernity and a religion, with a distinctive ontology, originating in South Asia. Drawing on qualitative data, I examine processes involved in the construction of a religious self among second‐generation Jains in Britain and the USA. Living in late modern societies, young Jains have established a reflexive habitus. Such reflexivity has affinity with a neo‐orthodox tendency in Jainism that rejects the authority of ascetics and rituals while elevating one's own knowledge, discipline and insights in the construction of a Jain biography. I find that neo‐orthodox Jainism provides resources for young Jains to constantly reflect on and actively choose how to be a Jain; to enact cataphatic reflexivity in the construction of a Jain self. For some second‐generation Jains, the Jain tradition also provides resources to enact a non‐instrumental, apophatic reflexivity; a calm equanimous state that enables them to create ontological security in the face of risks and uncertainty in late modernity.     

A multivariate analysis of adverse childhood experiences and health behaviors and outcomes among college students

Objective: This study investigated associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) prior to age 18 years and multiple health behaviors (eg, cigarette and other substance use) and outcomes (eg, obesity, depression) for a large college sample. Participants: 2,969 college students from seven universities in the state of Georgia were included in the analysis. Methods: Web-based surveys were completed by students (45–60 minutes) during the spring semester, 2015. Results: Findings indicate that more ACEs are associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, ADHD symptoms, cigarette use, alcohol use, marijuana use, and BMI, in addition to lower levels of fruit and vegetable intake, and sleep. Conclusion: ACEs may carry forward in the lifespan to influence a range of unhealthy outcomes among college students. College intervention programs may benefit by recognizing the pervasiveness of ACEs and their associations with health behaviors and outcomes, and include interventions across more than one health behavior.     

PREDICTING RETIREMENT SAVINGS USING SURVEY MEASURES OF EXPONENTIAL‐GROWTH BIAS AND PRESENT BIAS

In a nationally representative sample, we predict retirement savings using survey‐based elicitations of exponential‐growth bias (EGB) and present bias (PB). We find that EGB, the tendency to neglect compounding, and PB, the tendency to value the present over the future, are highly significant and economically meaningful predictors of retirement savings. These relationships hold controlling for cognitive ability, financial literacy, and a rich set of demographic controls. We address measurement error as a potential confound and explore mechanisms through which these biases may operate. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that eliminating EGB and PB would increase retirement savings by approximately 12%. (JEL D91, D14)     

‘Away with the fairies?’ Disability within primary‐age children's literature

This article outlines the findings of a new study that explores the portrayal of disability within a sample of the primary‐age children's literature most readily available to UK schools. The kind of literature to which children are exposed is likely to influence their general perceptions of social life. How disability is handled by authors is therefore important from the standpoint of disability equality. Findings suggest that whilst there are some good examples of inclusive literature ‘out there’, discriminatory language and/or negative stereotypes about disability continue to be present in a range of more contemporary children's books. Clearly, more still needs to be done to ensure that schools and teachers are provided with information relating to the best examples of inclusion literature and efforts must continue to be made to inform authors, publishers and illustrators about how to approach the issue of disability.     

Motivating Participation: The Symbolic Effects of Latino Representation on Parent School Involvement*

Objective. Decades of research suggest that parental involvement is vital for positive student academic achievement and thus one often‐proposed solution to alleviate the poor educational outcomes of minority students is to increase their parents' participation in school. Building on a psychological motivation argument, I investigate how the symbolic effects of minority representation impact minority parent involvement. Method. I test my hypotheses with original survey data from 324 Latino parents in Chicago. Results. My analysis suggests that, as hypothesized in the symbolic representation literature, Latinos in positions of power within schools send important heuristic cues to Latino parents that change their orientations to participation and ultimately manifest as increased school involvement. Conclusions. These results support education policies that attempt to increase the minority presence in schools at the administrative and governance levels, and highlight the need for greater enforcement of current diversity requirements under NCLB.     

On the choice of optimality criteria in comparing statistical designs

We formulate in a reasonable sense a class of optimality functionals for comparing feasible statistical designs available in a given setup. It is desired that the optimality functionals reflect symmetric measures of the lack of information contained in the designs being compared. In view of this, Kiefer's (1975) universal optimality criterion is seen to rest on stringent conditions, some of which can be relaxed while preserving optimality (in an extended sense) of the so-called balanced designs.     

The Experiences of Sleep Disruption in Families of Technology‐dependent Children Living at Home

This paper examines the sleep disruption experienced by 36 families of technology‐dependent children living at home in the United Kingdom. The paper begins with an overview of the qualitative study in which parents' experiences of sleep disruption emerged as a major theme. We then describe the nature of and reasons for the sleep disruption, the help families received with care overnight, and the effects of sleep disruption on parents in particular. This is followed by discussion of the implications of the findings for policy and practice as well as future research.     

Pakistani workers in the Middle East: volume,trends and consequences

The migration of workers from Pakistan to the Middle East is examined. Both the positive and negative aspects of this migration for the country of origin are considered. The study is based on secondary data from published sources.     

Value relevance of advertising expenditure: A review of the literature

This paper presents a review of the relevant empirical literature on advertising value relevance. The current dominant accounting practice is to treat advertising as a current period expense. There has been growing evidence, however, to suggest that advertising should be viewed as an investment in long‐term brand equity. While the primary focus is on the valuation studies of advertising expenditure, the paper also provides an overview of various other studies that relate advertising to profitability or sales of the firm or industry to investigate the effects of advertising expenditure. As a consequence, it is emphasized that there has been a recent shift to the use of valuation models in exploring the nature of advertising expenditure. Since market value captures both the current and future profitability effects of advertising, valuation models are often seen as a better alternative in exploring the intangible nature of advertising expenditure. It is found that the bulk of evidence on advertising value relevance comes from the US, where there has historically been greater disclosure of advertising expenditure. There appears to be little evidence on this matter in the UK, however. This may largely be attributed to the lack of advertising data availability in the UK.