Using machine learning to identify early predictors of adolescent emotion regulation development

As 20% of adolescents develop emotion regulation difficulties, it is important to identify important early predictors thereof. Using the machine learning algorithm SEM-forests, we ranked the importance of (87) candidate variables assessed at age 13 in predicting quadratic latent trajectory models of emotion regulation development from age 14 to 18. Participants were 497 Dutch families. Results indicated that the most important predictors were individual differences (e.g., in personality), aspects of relationship quality and conflict behaviors with parents and peers, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Relatively less important were demographics, bullying, delinquency, substance use, and specific parenting practices—although negative parenting practices ranked higher than positive ones. We discuss implications for theory and interventions, and present an open source risk assessment tool, ERRATA.     

Schedule flexibility in hourly jobs: unanticipated consequences and promising directions

This article considers the challenge of extending conventional models of flexibility to hourly jobs that are often structured quite differently than the salaried, professional positions for which flexibility options were originally designed. We argue that the assumptions of job rigidity and overwork motivating existing flexibility options may not be broadly applicable across jobs in the US labor market. We focus specifically on two types of flexibility: (1) working reduced hours and (2) varying work timing. We first review central aspects of the US business and policy contexts that inspire our concerns, and then draw on original analyses from US census data and several examples from our comparative case-study research to explain how conventional flexibility options do not always map well onto hourly jobs, and in certain instances may disadvantage workers by undermining their ability to earn an adequate living. We conclude with a discussion of alternative approaches to implementing flexibility in hourly jobs when hours are scarce and fluctuating rather than long and rigid.     

Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Models,Metaphors and Maps for Applying Theoretical Perspectives to Practice

From Diagnosis to Treatment in Child Psychiatry. Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. (New York: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1974.)

Psychotherapeutic Approaches to the Resistant Child. Dr. Richard Gardner. (New York: Jason Aronson, 1975.)     

Differentiating Processes of Control and Understanding in the Early Development of Emotion and Cognition

In this study, we examined the hypothesis that preschoolers' performance on emotion and cognitive tasks is organized into discrete processes of control and understanding within the domains of emotion and cognition. Additionally, we examined the relations among component processes using mother report, behavioral observation, and physiological measures of emotion control. Participants were 263 children (42 percent non‐White) and their mothers. Results indicated that the three approaches of measuring emotion control were unrelated. Regardless of the measurement method, a four‐factor solution differentiating emotion control and understanding and cognitive control and understanding fits the data better than did either of two two‐factor models, one based on domains of emotion and cognition across processes, and one based on processes of control and understanding across domains. Results of this research replicate those of Leerkes et al. in describing a differentiated underlying structure of emotion and cognition processes in early childhood while also extending these conclusions across samples and across measurement approaches for assessing emotion control.     

Loneliness and Peer Relations in Adolescence

The present study examined whether adolescent loneliness would be lower within the context of positive relationships with peers. The core conceptual model predicted that hypothesized links between peer‐rated social behaviors or victimization and loneliness would be mediated by social acceptance. Relationship experiences (i.e., social acceptance, reciprocal liking, and romantic relationship history), also were hypothesized to serve as protective factors in the links between social behaviors/victimization and loneliness. Finally, we examined sociometric status group differences in loneliness. Participants were 2091 11th grade students (61 percent girls). As expected, adolescent loneliness was positively associated with shyness, even when social acceptance was controlled. Additionally, loneliness was positively correlated with victimization and inversely related to prosocial and disruptive behavior. The link between victimization and loneliness was fully mediated by social acceptance; no other mediational models were supported. Also, the three relationship experience variables were unique predictors of loneliness (with social acceptance explaining the bulk of the variance in loneliness). There was no evidence, however, that social acceptance moderated the links between social behavior or victimization and loneliness. Sociometric analyses revealed that neglected and shy‐rejected, but not aggressive‐rejected adolescents, were lonelier than average peers.     

Relational Aggression in Middle Childhood: Predictors and Adolescent Outcomes

This study examined gender differences in the level and developmental course of relational aggression in middle childhood, as well as early predictors and outcomes of relational aggression, after controlling for concurrent physical aggression. Relational (RAgg) and Physical aggression (PAgg) scores for 558 boys and 545 girls at the ages of eight to 11 in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) were created by combining the highest rating for each item across mother and teacher reports. Longitudinal analyses were conducted using latent curve models of RAgg with PAgg as a time‐varying covariate, with all parameters allowed to vary by gender. Boys and girls had different growth parameters of RAgg. Girls' RAgg intercept was higher, and the slope was not different from zero; boys' RAgg intercept was lower, and the slope declined. Mother–child conflict in early childhood predicted RAgg intercept for both boys and girls, but maternal harsh control and sensitivity were also uniquely predictive for girls whereas center care was uniquely predictive for boys. RAgg intercept predicted adolescent self‐reports of depression for girls and delinquency and risk‐taking for both boys and girls; the magnitude of the association with risk taking was significantly greater for boys.     

Fraternally yours: the union architecture of Oskar Stonorov and Walter Reuther

For architect Oskar G. Stonorov (1905–70) and labour leader Walter P. Reuther (1907–70) unions were not simply instruments for collective bargaining. They were also agents for transforming established social practices that denied the working class access to decent housing, parks and art; discriminated against African Americans; and destroyed the natural environment. Architecture and site planning were key to this transformation as they addressed concerns of social justice and environmental quality. Stonorov and Reuther shared an aesthetic agenda as well – to expose workers to the emancipating beauty of modern design – as they believed well-designed housing contributed to both their personal lives and productivity at work. From 1941 until their deaths in 1970 they devised plans for workers' housing and town planning, sculpture, urban renewal and environmentally sensitive site planning. They sought to involve workers in the design process, mark union territory on former elite-owned properties, give control of housing production to organized labour and advance workers' educational opportunities. This article examines their architectural endeavours as part of a labour narrative and as an index of the turbulent social and political changes taking place from the inter-war years to 1970.     

‘We’re Civil Servants’: The Status of Trauma-Informed Care in the Community

ABSTRACT

Trauma-informed care (TIC) in social service organizations means that the organizations operate with the understanding that everyone involved has possibly experienced trauma in their lifetime. This qualitative study examined local service organizations’ usage of the 5 main principles of TIC: safety, trustworthiness, collaboration, empowerment, and choice (as developed by Fallot & Harris, 2006). Ten focus groups (n = 69) and 6 individual interviews (n = 6) with employees from administration through management were interviewed such that almost all facets of each agency were represented. The participants were asked about their agencies’ policies and practices for utilizing the 5 principles of TIC. The results suggest that the vast majority of organizations in this study implemented many of the principles of TIC with clients, though they had not labeled their practices as “trauma-informed.” However, although clients were receiving TIC, some of the principles were neglected as they pertain to staff, such as choice and empowerment. The findings of this study suggest that agencies are unaware of the relevance of TIC as it relates to staff. It is recommended that future research examine whether the use of TIC in agencies prevents “burnout,” high turnover rates, and vicarious traumatization of staff.