WILL GIRLS BE GIRLS? RISK TAKING AND COMPETITION IN AN ALL‐GIRLS' SCHOOL

We conduct an experiment that examines the relationship between girls only schooling and risk taking and competitive behavior. In it, we compare decisions made by students in an all‐girls' school to those made by students in a closely matched coeducational school. We further investigate the developmental nature of this behavior by comparing choices made by younger students (Grades 7 and 8) with those of older students (Grades 11 and 12). We focus on the differences between those who select into the all‐girls' school, and find that although girls educated in a single sex environment are the most risk averse, they are also among the most competitive. These results lend texture to the hypothesis that “nurture matters” in the gender differences debate. (JEL C93, J16, I21)     

Identity Formation in Children and Young People in Open Adoptions from Out-of-home Care in New South Wales,Australia

Semi-structured interviews were used to explore identity development for nine adoptees (aged 9–23 years) who were adopted by their foster carers in New South Wales, Australia. Adoptions were open, with court-ordered face-to-face contact with birth families. Findings suggest that participants had healthy adoptive identities, with coherent and meaningful narratives about their life histories. Adoption provided a sense of security and belonging. Openness provided information to build a self-narrative and encouraged discussion of adoption issues within adoptive families. Adoptive parents were critical in helping children understand their adoption and facilitating direct contact with birth families, thus laying foundations for positive identity development.     

When Father Steps Forward and Mother Steps Back: The Moderating Role of Simultaneity in Parents' Coparenting Behaviors in the Development of Anxiety in 4‐ to 30‐Month‐Olds

Infant negative affectivity predicts child anxiety. Coparenting might influence the development of anxiety by weakening this association in the case of supportive coparenting, or by strengthening this association in the case of undermining coparenting. Parents can display coparenting behaviors simultaneously (both parents being supportive or undermining), or divergently (only one parent being supportive or undermining). In our longitudinal study, we investigated whether coparenting moderated the relation between infant negative affectivity at 4 months and child anxiety symptoms 2 years later. Hundred‐sixteen couples dressed up their firstborn infants in a clothes‐changing task. We coded cooperative, mutual, neutral, and competitive coparenting behaviors. Both parents rated infant negative affectivity and child anxiety symptoms. Infant negative affectivity significantly predicted child anxiety. This association was moderated by parents' divergent cooperative coparenting: It was stronger when mothers were cooperative while fathers were neutral, and weaker when fathers were cooperative while mothers were neutral. When fathers step forward (i.e., being cooperative) and mothers step back (i.e., leaving space), they may protect their at‐risk child from developing anxiety.     

Corporate Quotas and Symbolic Politics in Advanced Democracies

ABSTRACT

This article identifies trends in the adoption and implementation of quotas for corporate boards, an underresearched topic in political science. Corporate quotas—like legislative quotas—constitute the “fast track” to gender equality but appear more commonly in advanced democracies. These corporate quotas fall into three categories: laws covering all companies; laws covering state-owned companies only; and nonbinding (voluntary) measures in corporate governance codes. Despite on-paper differences, these corporate quotas are largely toothless. First generation corporate quotas, like first generation legislative quotas, operate symbolically. By raising the specter of stringent legislation in the long run, corporate quotas induce firms into voluntary compliance in the short run.     

The Impact of Formal and Informal Respite Care on Foster,Adoptive, and Kinship Parents Caring for Children Involved in the Child Welfare System

This paper reports the results of a quantitative 42-item survey that explored foster, adoptive, and kinship parents’ (N = 160) utilization of different types of respite services (formal, informal, and a mixture of formal and informal), as well as their impressions of the impact of respite care on aspects of their lives related to family cohesion and stability, caring for their children, and their personal wellbeing. An exploratory cross-sectional, survey design was used to assess both the formal and informal respite care experiences of the foster, adoptive, and kinship caregivers. Two-tailed Fisher’s exact tests were used to examine the relationship between the type of respite received and caregivers’ respite experiences. Findings indicated that parent experiences differed depending on the type of respite services they received. Specifically, parents who used a mixture of formal and informal respite reported positive experiences related to respite more frequently than the other two types of respite groups, while those who received only informal respite reported less benefit than others. Parents who used formal respite (either alone or mixed with informal respite) reported greater stress reduction. The greatest increase in family stability was reported by parents who received a mix of informal and formal respite. While this study revealed clear benefits for families to using both informal and formal respite services, the findings suggest that formal respite care was helpful to parents regardless of whether used alone or in combination with informal care.     

NGO Networks,the Diffusion and Adaptation of NGO Managerialism,and NGO Legitimacy in Latin America

Nongovernmental organization (NGO) networks have become key instruments used by NGOs in Latin America. Because these networks have important roles to play in advocating for the sector, earning public support, and improving the provision of public goods and services, understanding these networks is important to understanding the NGO sector more broadly. The article examines how NGO networks use collective texts to diffuse and adapt managerial practices. NGO networks use elements of managerialism and their adaptations to signal quality, secure recognition in social development, identify strengths and weaknesses of the sector, and define civil society in order to garner sector legitimacy. While looking at managerialism from a critical perspective, the article finds that understanding NGOs networks and the diffusion and adaption of NGO practices can further pinpoint effective sources of sector legitimacy and help to strengthen the sector’s role in social development.     

Cultural Responsiveness: a framework for re-thinking students’ interculturality through study abroad

While intercultural competence is commonly a goal of university study abroad programmes, debates around criteria for assessing this competence have highlighted the challenges in appropriately identifying students’ intercultural learning in relation to specific university programmes. To overcome these issues, this research moves beyond conceptualising the intercultural in terms of ‘competence’ and instead proposes a framework termed Cultural Responsiveness to illustrate students’ intercultural learning. Through questionnaires and interviews, the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate students after a year of exchange in France or Switzerland were collected and analysed. Using the Cultural Responsiveness framework, three parameters of students’ intercultural experiences emerged: Awareness, Engagement and Bringing Knowledge Home.     

Factors associated with 'feeling suicidal': the role of sexual identity

This paper examines factors associated with feeling suicidal in a large sample of urban men in Sydney and Melbourne, aged 18-50, including heterosexual, gay and bisexual men, HIV antibody positive and HIV antibody negative. As in previous research, sexuality (being homosexual or bisexual) was found to be a major predictor of suicidality. The research went some way towards explaining the close relationship between feeling suicidal and sexual orientation. Sexuality interacts with feeling bad in that, once men feel moderately bad/depressed, they are more likely to feel suicidal if they are homosexual or bisexual than if they are heterosexual. In addition, the research found that experience of verbal abuse and physical assault (harassment) increased feeling suicidal for both heterosexual and gay/bisexual men, not just for homosexual men as suggested by previous research, and that social isolation in the form of living alone is a further risk factor. Seeking counseling help and taking sexual risks were also independently associated with feeling suicidal. These actions may result from feeling suicidal rather than the reverse, and their association with feeling suicidal warrants further research. Many of the 46 independent variables examined in the research, including HIV antibody status and closeness to the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, were related to feeling suicidal only through their association with being gay/bisexual. Celibacy and general risk taking were not related to feeling suicidal in this study.