Prenatal Reflective Functioning and Accumulated Risk as Predictors of Maternal Interactive Behavior During Free Play,the Still‐Face Paradigm,and Two Teaching Tasks

This study examined whether prenatal reflective functioning (RF) was related to mothers’ interactive style across contexts with their 6‐month‐old infants (M age = 6.02 months, SD = 0.41, 54% boys), and to what extent quality of prenatal RF could account for the influence of accumulated risk on maternal interactive behavior. Accumulated risk was defined as the sum‐score of a selection of risk factors that have been associated with suboptimal infant development. Mother–infant dyads (N = 133) were observed during free play, two teaching tasks, and the Still‐Face Paradigm (SFP). Better prenatal RF was associated with more positive maternal behavior in all settings and less negative behavior during teaching and SFP reengagement. Accumulated risk and prenatal RF predicted shared variance in maternal interactive behavior (with unique predictive effects observed only for RF on sensitivity during teaching and SFP play, and for accumulated risk on sensitivity and positive engagement during SFP play, and internalizing‐helplessness during SFP reengagement). Accumulated risk had an indirect effect on maternal sensitivity during teaching and SFP play through prenatal RF. These findings suggest not only that RF may be targeted prenatally to improve mother–infant interactions, but also that enhancing RF skills may ameliorate some of the negative consequences from more stable perinatal risk factors that influence parent–child interactions.     

Do Associations Between Pleasure Ratings and Condom Use During Penile–Vaginal Intercourse Vary by Relationship Type?: A Study of Canadian University Students

Research suggests the relationship between pleasure and condom use during penile–vaginal intercourse (PVI) is associated with relationship status. This online study examined pleasure ratings and condom use at last PVI, stratifying by partner type, among a national sample of Canadian university students. Participants were 715 undergraduates (60.7% women, 39.3% men) who reported on their most recent sexual experience. Condom use decreased with level of relationship commitment, whereas ratings of pleasure increased. Overall, participants were more likely to rate their most recent PVI as Very pleasurable when condoms were not used compared to when condoms were used. However, when stratified by partner type, these differences largely disappeared. For women, with one exception, there were no differences in pleasure between PVI with and without condoms across most partner-type categories. Women in committed dating relationships were more likely to report their last PVI as very pleasurable if condoms were not used than women in these same relationships who had used condoms. Across relationship categories, men who did and did not use condoms did not differ in terms of their pleasure ratings. The results of this study suggest relationship context should be taken into account when assessing condom use experiences.     

A Psychometric Comparison of Three Scales and a Single-Item Measure to Assess Sexual Satisfaction

This study was designed to systematically compare and contrast the psychometric properties of three scales developed to measure sexual satisfaction and a single-item measure of sexual satisfaction. The Index of Sexual Satisfaction (ISS), Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction (GMSEX), and the New Sexual Satisfaction Scale–Short (NSSS-S) were compared to one another and to a single-item measure of sexual satisfaction. Conceptualization of the constructs, distribution of scores, internal consistency, convergent validity, test-retest reliability, and factor structure were compared between the measures. A total of 211 men and 214 women completed the scales and a measure of relationship satisfaction, with 33% (n = 139) of the sample reassessed two months later. All scales demonstrated appropriate distribution of scores and adequate internal consistency. The GMSEX, NSSS-S, and the single-item measure demonstrated convergent validity. Test-retest reliability was demonstrated by the ISS, GMSEX, and NSSS-S, but not the single-item measure. Taken together, the GMSEX received the strongest psychometric support in this sample for a unidimensional measure of sexual satisfaction and the NSSS-S received the strongest psychometric support in this sample for a bidimensional measure of sexual satisfaction.     

Academic Performance of Subsequent Schools and Impacts of Early Interventions: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Head Start Settings

The role of subsequent school contexts in the long-term effects of early childhood interventions has received increasing attention, but has been understudied in the literature. Using data from the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP), a cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in Head Start programs, we investigate whether the intervention had differential effects on academic and behavioral outcomes in kindergarten if children attended high- or low-performing schools subsequent to the preschool intervention year. To address the issue of selection bias, we adopt an innovative method, principal score matching, and control for a set of child, mother, and classroom covariates. We find that exposure to the CSRP intervention in the Head Start year had significant effects on academic and behavioral outcomes in kindergarten for children who subsequently attended high-performing schools, but no significant effects on children attending low-performing schools. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Fabulachia: urban,black female experiences and higher education in Appalachia

Abstract

This article draws on focus group conversations with black female college students attending a small, liberal arts institution in Kentucky. Based primarily on group interviews and discussions, as well as observations and analysis – a theoretical domain (referred to throughout the article as ‘Fabulachia’) emerged as a site-specific outcome of events and ideas regarding race, gender and identity experienced by the research participants. Specifically, ‘Fabulachia’ functions as a theoretical hybrid space in which urban (e.g. ‘ghetto fabulous’) black college student-voices find a sense of empowerment as they construct their own narratives of leaving ‘the hood’ to attend college in rural Appalachia. This project revises and updates previous research on race and rural identity/ies in order to situate the urban black female experience into an Appalachian context. Drawing on hip hop feminism and urban education based theoretical paradigms, the Fabulachia study seeks to give voice to black females in contemporary Appalachia, with attention to their self-proclaimed ‘ghetto fabulous’ identities honed in and through their urban upbringings. The unique experiences of (Fabulachian) black females are an important and largely absent part of larger conversations of the growing body of Urban education research that seeks to situate the black student/black youth and schooling experience in the US. In the Fabulachia study, a group of black female students shared personal narratives (part-oral history and part direct response) to prompts and queries about the role of hip hop culture, race and gender identity in their lives. They also discussed and debated what it means to be a black female in contemporary (often racist) Appalachia, and about how their families and urban surroundings influenced their processes of being and becoming in the context of higher educational achievement.     

Evaluating the Temporal Location of Feedback: Providing Feedback Following Performance vs. Prior to Performance

In order to make feedback as effective as possible, it is important to understand its function in the three-term contingency (TTC) and the impact of various factors involved in delivering feedback. Timing of feedback is one factor that can affect the impact of feedback on learner’s behavior. An analysis of timing of feeback may help us getting closer to better understanding how feedback functions in the TTC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of feedback at different temporal locations. Specifically, feedback was provided either immediately (a) after a teaching session or (b) before the following teaching session, on teaching performance of undergraduate psychology students. The results indicated that feedback provided before the teaching session was more effective in improving teaching skills than feedback that was provided after the session. These findings suggest that feedback may function primarily as an antecedent to future performance and not necessarily as a consequence for past performance. However, the behavioral mechanism that explains these results is not yet clear. Future studies should investigate this further by manipulating the content of feedback prior to the teaching performance.     

Municipal Law Enforcement Policy on Illegal Immigration Stops: Do Social Factors Determine How Aggressively Local Police Respond to Unauthorized Immigrants?

The devolution of immigration law has increased local police involvement in the enforcement of federal immigration law. But only some departments have responded by implementing policies that restrict their officers' involvement in order to protect residents from overzealous policing. We test theories of economic and ethnic threat to explore the structural characteristics of cities that explain this variation. Multiple regression results show that the most unequal cities that have large Hispanic populations are less likely to have a policy. Hispanic white segregation and high unemployment also reduce the likelihood of policy implementation. We discuss theoretical and policy implications.     

‘[S]he could … spare one ample breast for the profit of her owner’: white mothers and enslaved wet nurses’ invisible labor in American slave markets

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the market that white mothers created for enslaved wet nurses, the intimate labor that they performed in southern households, and the ways that this market intersected with slave marketplaces in the antebellum era. It argues that white mothers’ desires and demands for enslaved wet nurses transformed bondwomen’s ability to suckle into a largely invisible, yet skilled form of labor, and created a niche sector of the slave market. In these ways, white mothers were crucial to the commodification of enslaved women’s reproductive bodies, their breast milk, and the nutritive and maternal care they provided to white children.     

Best Practice Principles for Community Indicator Systems and a Case Study Analysis: How Community Indicators Victoria is Creating Impact and Bridging Policy,Practice and Research

Numerous community indicator projects have been developed over the past 30 years and are now present in many countries including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South America. However, creating influence and action using community indicators requires long-term effort strengthened by partnership, policy applications, training and research. This paper provides a reflective case study analysis that reviews the development of the community indicator system of Community Indicators Victoria in Australia. The analysis includes a review of best practice indicator principles guiding the development of current and future community indicator systems and describes how these factors influenced the development, establishment, and expansion of the Community Indicators Victoria system.