Interactional Associations of Gender on Savings Behavior: Showing Gender’s Continued Influence on Economic Action

This study looks at how gender relates to a critical economic behavior—savings activity. We start with the proposition that gender is not merely an additional variable to explain savings choices. Gender is the primary type of social categorization in the U.S. today. Therefore, other variables will be differently relevant to savings depending on gender. We use a national survey, the 2006 Economic Decision Making Survey conducted by Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, to examine the proposition. Basic frequencies reveal nonsignificant differences in savings participation across gender, but regression analysis including interactions of gender with other key variables reveals that multiple aspects of individuals’ lives are influenced by gender to predict savings plan participation.     

Modeling the Effects of Expressed Emotion,Psychiatric Symptomology,and Marital Quality Levels on Male and Female Verbal Aggression

Previous research has linked expressed emotion (EE) levels and psychiatric symptomology, whereas other empirical efforts have examined the relationship between EE and marital relationship variables. Still other research has linked psychological conditions with acts of aggression, and the impact of marital issues within this domain of inquiry also has been explored. The study presented here examined the combined effects of EE, marital quality, and psychiatric symptomology on displays of verbal aggression by both relationship partners. Both husbands' and wives' reports of marital quality were predictive of both husbands' and wives' verbal aggression levels; here, reports of lower marital quality were associated with higher levels of verbal aggression. Additionally, husbands' and wives' reports of psychological symptomology in self and partner were important paths to marital quality, as were husbands' and wives' reports of EE levels. Further, some evidence was generated that supports the mediating role of marital quality with regard to EE and psychological symptomology. However, the overall fit indices of the models tested in this empirical effort were modest. Limitations that concern the instruments utilized in the present study are discussed in this regard.     

Gender Competition and the Preservation of Community in the Allocation of Administrative Positions in Small Rural Towns in Montana: A Research Note1

Abstract Assignment of administrative positions in a sample of rural towns is demonstrated to be significantly associated with gender. Most civil administrators are women, while most legal and educational administrators are men. The difference indicates structural assignment of positions by gender. Gender and administrative position are demonstrated to have zero-order correlations with perceptions of two important behaviors for community: migration and social problems. The characteristics of the occupation and of the administrators are qualitatively different. The data are compiled from interviews with seventy administrators in five pairs of small towns in Montana, ranging in size from about 200 to approximately 7,000 residents. Each pair contains one agricultural and one scenic recreational town. Comparatively, more women were employed in agricultural towns. Many rural women who become administrators, particularly long-term administrators, may be selected for reasons that help preserve the community by providing opportunities for themselves and their families.     

Interparental Conflict and Preschoolers' Peer Relations: The Moderating Roles of Temperament and Gender

The relations between destructive interparental conflict (IPC) and three‐ to six‐year‐olds’ (N = 62) peer relations were examined as a function of child temperament and gender. Regression analyses indicated that effortful control moderated the relations of IPC with children's amount of peer interaction as well as with their problematic relations with peers. Specifically, high IPC was associated with low amount of interaction and high problematic relations for preschoolers low in effortful control, but it was related to high amount of interaction and low problems for those high in effortful control. Additionally, gender differences in the relations between IPC and the amount of peer interaction indicated that IPC was negatively related to the amount of interaction for girls but positively related to the amount for boys. The findings highlight the need for examining individual differences in the relations between IPC and the development of early peer relations.     

Catholicism, Job Security Regulations and Female Employment: A Micro-level Analysis of Esping-Andersen's Social Catholicism Thesis

This article explores the religious roots of job security regulations in Western democracies by putting Esping-Andersen's famous social Catholicism thesis to the test. Esping-Andersen argues that due to religious socialization, Catholics exhibit more conservative family values, i.e. they tend to support the male breadwinner model. To sustain this model of family organization, Catholics are expected to support job security regulations. These regulations have been described in the literature as important determinants of gender-segregated labour markets and low female employment rates. Data from this article show that while Catholics indeed support more conservative family models, so do Reformed Protestants and religious persons in general. Furthermore, no relationship between religious denomination and preferences for job security regulations can be observed. The analysis thus refutes Esping-Andersen's social Catholicism thesis.     

The Interpretation of Line of Regard by Prelingually Deaf Children

The ability of 5- to 12-year-old deaf children to utilise and interpret another person's visual line of regard (where the eyes are looking) was studied in four experiments using cartoon faces. The children had little difficulty in determining whether or not a face was looking directly at them. They had more difficulty, however, with more complex tasks requiring them to infer mental states of desire and intention from line of regard and to ignore line of regard when it was inappropriate to attend to this cue. Deaf children raised in a hearing environment appear to have more difficulty with these more complex tasks than hearing children. The results are discussed in terms of the special difficulties facing some deaf children in the development of skills involving utilisation of line of regard and the implications for the development of joint attentional behaviour, theory of mind and dyadic social interaction in deaf and hearing children.     

The influence of riparian corridor width on ant and plant assemblages in northern Sydney,Australia

Protecting riparian corridors is a commonly applied environmental policy in urban landscapes. However, empirical data demonstrating their efficacy for biodiversity conservation outcomes is scarce. In this study we investigated whether riparian corridor width influences the diversity and community structure of ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and vascular plant assemblages therein. Eighteen corridors of differing widths were selected from within the Ku-ring-gai Local Government Area, Sydney Australia. Ants were sampled using pitfall traps positioned within rectangular vegetation transects (30 × 10 m). Both ant and plant species richness, when standardised for sampling effort, were unrelated to riparian corridor width. However, significant compositional differences between sites were evident with increased width up to ~50 m. Narrow corridors contained greater abundances of opportunistic ant species and higher proportions of exotic plants. We interpret this to be the result of the greater disturbance/edge influence derived from adjacent upland urban environments. Site beta diversity did not increase with corridor width, suggesting that the exclusion of novel upslope habitats in narrow riparian corridors is not a significant cause of community assemblage modification at these sites. To minimise the impact of deleterious edge effects on ant fauna, environmental managers should seek to retain riparian corridors wider than ~50 m. However, we observed substantial between-site variability of biotic assemblages, irrespective of corridor width. Therefore we recommend that environmental management practice needs to take a catchment-wide approach and consider other parameters that may contribute to riparian health so as to optimise the protection of riparian biodiversity.     

Mental Rotation of Dynamic,Three‐Dimensional Stimuli by 3‐Month‐Old Infants

Mental rotation involves transforming a mental image of an object so as to accurately predict how the object would look if it were rotated in space. This study examined mental rotation in male and female 3‐month‐olds, using the stimuli and paradigm developed by Moore and Johnson (2008) . Infants were habituated to a video of a three‐dimensional object rotating back and forth through a 240° angle around the vertical axis. After habituation, infants were tested both with videos of the same object rotating through the previously unseen 120° angle, and with the mirror image of that display. Unlike females, who fixated the test displays for approximately equal durations, males spent significantly more time fixating the familiar object than the mirror‐image object. Because familiarity preferences like this emerge when infants are relatively slow to process a habituation stimulus, the data support the interpretation that mental rotation of dynamic three‐dimensional stimuli is relatively difficult—but possible—for 3‐month‐old males. Interpretation of the sex differences observed in 3‐ and 5‐month‐olds’ performances is discussed.