Race/Ethnicity/Nativity Differentials and Changes in Cause-Specific Infant Deaths in the Context of Declining Infant Mortality in the U.S.: 1989–2001

Using data from the national linked birth/infant death cohort files, we examined race/ethnicity/nativity disparities and changes in infant mortality due to the five leading causes of infant death between 1989 and 2001. Our results indicate substantial decreases in infant mortality from three causes (congenital anomalies, sudden infant death syndrome, and respiratory distress syndrome) for which specific perinatal health innovations emerged or were expanded. However, for these three causes, the relative disparities in infant mortality between infants born to U.S.-born black women as compared to infants of U.S.-born white women increased following the introduction (or expansion) of beneficial interventions. Among infants of U.S.-born Mexican American mothers, the findings differed. In the static comparisons, our results show the often-reported similarity in the risk of death of these babies compared to those born to non-Hispanic white mothers. However, when changes over time were modeled, there was an erosion of the relatively favorable survival chances of Mexican American infants. Our models show little change in the relative risk of death for infants of immigrant women. Regarding the other two causes (disorders relating to short gestation and unspecified low birth weight and maternal complications) for which no efficacious innovations occurred, either little change or actual increases in risks were observed. Future studies and health policy efforts should be geared toward further understanding and aggressively working to close infant mortality gaps, especially for infants of U.S.-born black mothers—an effort that will be facilitated by research focused on cause-specific infant mortality.     

Why is the sex gap in feelings of depression wider in high gender equity countries? The effect of children on the psychological well-being of men and women

This study uses data from 23 countries in the World Values Survey and the National Survey of Families and Households and finds that the sex gap in feelings of depression is wider in high gender equity societies even though overall levels of feelings of depression are lower. Using hierarchical logistic modeling, we find that the sex difference in feelings of depression is wider in high gender equity societies because children increase depression for women in high gender equity societies, while they reduce depression for women without paid employment in low gender equity societies. There is little difference in the effect of children on feelings of depression for men across societies.     

Empirically Supported Mental Health Interventions with Groups: Using Research to Support Vulnerable Students in Schools

This paper discusses the use of empirically-supported mental health interventions to support vulnerable students in schools. It gives an overview of the empirically-supported intervention (ESI) approach and its goodness of fit with schools. Factors that influence whether schools adopt an ESI approach, such as national education reform policies and the availability of resources are explored. Two ESI’s that have been shown to improve the lives of vulnerable youth are presented within a school social work case example. The paper concludes with implications and suggestions for future research, including efforts to educate school staff on the importance of adopting an ESI approach, where to locate ESI’s, and further research on the cost-effectiveness of ESI’s.     

Doing the daily grind: The effects of domestic labor on professional,managerial, and technical workers’ earnings

Using two waves of data from the National Survey of Families and Households, I examined how domestic labor tasks including daily grind tasks, female-type and male-type tasks affected the earnings of workers in professional, managerial, and technical occupations in the short and long term. The results show that performing daily grind tasks reduces the earnings of college-educated workers in high prestige occupations immediately and over time. Further, domestic labor explained an additional 19 percent of the gap between the earnings of women and men in professional, managerial, and technical occupations. These results suggest that despite having jobs that offer higher pay and more autonomy, the time spent doing the daily grind, negatively affects earnings, especially for women in professional, managerial, and technical occupations. Rebecca S. Powers ia an assistant professor at East Carolina University. Her research interests include social inequality, gender, immigration, and work. Currently, she is examining differences in gender norms and studying relationships between employers and Hispanic workers in new destination sites.     

Gender as an element in the intersubjective field: The female therapist and the male patient

Gender identity is a fundamental component of core identity and it lays the ground plan for the creation of the specifics of the individual's self representation through varied early self- and object experience. This paper seeks to illuminate some of the unconscious dynamics emerging out of profound developmental differences between women and men. The effects of these unconscious dynamics upon the relationship between the male patient and the female therapist are examined, drawing upon transferential and extratransferential phenomena. Illustrations are presented, demonstrating interpretive work directed toward resolution of conflicts around male identity and aimed at fostering self-object differentiation.Revised version of a paper presented at the Third National Clinical Conference of the Committee on Psychoanalysis     

Requests, refusals, and reasons in children's negotiations

Conflict situations were studied as indicators of children's socio-cognitive knowledge and the transmission of values in relation to negotiation. Concepts and paradigms from studies of requests were combined with those from studies of refusals. Puppets were used to create situations that varied (a) as to whether the child makes a request and encounters opposition (requests) or receives a request and offers opposition (refusals), (b) whether the adult offers or does not offer a reason. Children aged 3–5 years (Sample 1, N = 24; Sample 2, N = 24) were encouraged to make a series of attempts at resolving the conflict. Their responses were scored for the level of politeness or strategic skill shown. Request situations elicited higher levels of politeness and strategic skill than did refusal situations. In contrast to disputes in which the other party did not use reasons, the use of a reason by the other party elicited higher level strategies and, when the children were refusing, greater politeness. Some children were able to improve on their first attempt. The improvement was most marked when children were requesting and the adult gave a reason.     

Positional information and preference aggregation

A new version of independence (I⁺) is proposed for social welfare functions based on the following notion of agreement. Two weak orders R and R’ on a finite set S agree on a pair {x,y}, denoted byif R|_{x,y} = R’|_{x,y} and [z R*x and z R*y for some z∈S] if and only if [z’ (R’)* x and z’(R’)*y for some z’∈S]. The last part says that x and y are strictly under z with respect to R exactly when x and y are strictly under z’ with respect to R’. Some examples and results on social welfare functions that satisfy (I⁺), Pareto, and nondictatorship are given.I am grateful for the comments and suggestions made by an anonymous referee on an earlier version of this paper.