European‐American and African‐American Mothers' Emotion Socialization Practices Relate Differently to Their Children's Academic and Social‐emotional Competence

The current study examines whether the relation between mothers' responses to their children's negative emotions and teachers' reports of children's academic performance and social‐emotional competence are similar or different for European‐American and African‐American families. Two hundred mothers (137 European‐American, 63 African‐American) reported on their responses to their five‐year‐old children's negative emotions and 150 kindergarten teachers reported on these children's current academic standing and skillfulness with peers. Problem‐focused responses to children's negative emotions, which have traditionally been considered a supportive response, were positively associated with children's school competence for European‐American children, but expressive encouragement, another response considered supportive, was negatively associated with children's competence for African‐American children. The findings highlight the need to examine parental socialization practices from a culturally specific lens.     

THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN COUPLES THERAPY: A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION

Open-ended interviews with 24 couples therapy clients regarding their experience of the process of change revealed shifts in clusters of affect, communication, and cognition. Six additional contextual preconditions for change were also identified. The change process within couples was uniformly reported to be gradual.     

The Courtship Dance: Patterns of Nonverbal Synchronization in Opposite-Sex Encounters

This study examines the existence of behavioral correlates of synchronization on different levels of analysis and methods. We were unable to demonstrate a relation between synchronization defined in terms of movement echo or position mirroring and subjective experience of pleasure and interest in opposite-sex encounters. Significant results were found for a phenomenon we describe as hierarchically patterned synchronization. These patterns were identified with the help of a newly developed search algorithm. If a female is interested in a male, highly complex patterns of behavior with a constant time structure emerge. The patterns are pair-specific and independent from behavioral content. This rhythmic structure of interactions is discussed in functional terms of human courtship.     

Caregiver substance abuse among maltreated children placed in out-of-home care.

Child protective services (CPS) case records of 639 children placed in out-of-home care due to maltreatment were reviewed, and substance abuse by the child's caregiver prior to the child's placement was evaluated systematically. Based on several different sources of information, 79% of the caregivers were found to meet the criteria for caregiver substance abuse (CSA). Children with and without evidence of CSA differed on age, ethnicity, family composition, and type of maltreatment. The importance of operational specificity in defining CSA and implications for policy and service delivery are discussed.     

Managing urban wetlands for multiple use: research,restoration, and recreation

Conservation of urban wetland habitat is challenging, because multiple uses must coexist. We use examples from California and Wisconsin to describe potential synergies among recreation, restoration and research activities (the 3 R's). Allowing passive recreation is often essential to garner public support for habitat protection, restoration, and research. In turn, restoration activities can improve the appearance of degraded sites, and designing the work as a research experiment can serve the scientific community. Two projects at Tijuana Estuary support the 3 R's. (1) Oneonta Tidal Linkage is a 0.7-ha tidal channel and salt marsh that was excavated from disturbed upland to bring wetland habitat closer to the Visitor Center (thereby reducing visitor intrusion into natural marsh habitat, where endangered species would be disturbed). It supports an ambitious field experiment that is testing the importance of species diversity in restoration; it also includes a bridge that serves the interpretive program, and it adds 0.7 ha of wetland habitat that helps restore regional biodiversity. (2) A larger excavation (8 ha) of former tidal wetland will soon add wetland habitat, while testing the importance of tidal creek networks in ecosystem functioning and offering views and interpretive opportunities. A third situation, at the 485-ha University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, concerns restored wet prairies, which provide habitat for native species and serve many hikers. Urban stormwater flows into and degrades the Henry Greene Prairie, allowing aggressive plants to invade. Research and restoration efforts are planned to sustain the habitat and recreation functions. These three models suggest that recreation, restoration, and research are compatible uses of urban wetland habitats.     

Family-Enterprise Initiatives as a Response to Socioeconomic and Political Change in Eastern and Central Europe

It is argued that family business enterprises can be an adaptive response to the transformations that recently have characterized Eastern and Central Europe. Family-centered initiatives are important for sustainable socioeconomic development. In this article, a family-enterprise incubator scheme for the stimulation of family and socioeconomic development is discussed. This approach incorporates resources, services, and supports beyond those conventionally offered.     

Employee exposure to coworker substance use and negative consequences: the moderating effects of work group membership.

The current study assesses: (1) whether the relationship between individual exposure to coworker substance use and negative consequences resulting from exposure depends on work group membership, and (2) whether group-level characteristics moderate the relationship between exposure and consequences. At the group-level, we assessed occupations involving safety risk or high mobility and social factors of drinking climate and group cohesiveness. We conducted Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) across two samples of municipal employees (ns = 650, 878; n of groups = 50, 49). Our results revealed that groups with higher proportions of jobs involving risk (e.g., machine work) and, to a lesser extent, groups with a higher level of drinking climate were those most vulnerable to consequences under conditions of exposure. Importantly, our findings controlled for individual risk factors (e.g., personal drinking, job stress). Our discussion examines the implications of this study for theory and policy related to workplace substance abuse.