Contributions of Maternal Adult Attachment to Socialization of Coping

This research examined whether maternal adult attachment predicted the coping suggestions mothers made to their children. A sample of 157 youth (M age = 12.42, SD = 1.20) and their maternal caregivers completed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires in a two-wave longitudinal study. Results revealed that maternal insecure attachment predicted fewer engagement coping suggestions (orienting toward stress) and heightened disengagement coping suggestions (avoiding or denying stress) both concurrently and over time. These associations were found after adjusting for other relevant characteristics of the child, mother, and family context. This study contributes to our understanding of the implications of adult attachment for parenting behavior, suggesting that insecure attachment undermines a parent's ability to provide adaptive coping guidance to their children.     

Symbols Build Communication and Thought: The Role of Gestures and Words in the Development of Engagement Skills and Social‐emotional Concepts during Toddlerhood

Social skills and symbol skills are positively associated in middle childhood, but the relation between these domains is less clear in newly verbal toddlers. Vygotsky proposed that symbols are both tools for interaction and mental tools for thought. Do symbols help even very young children build skills for interacting with and conceptualizing the social world? Longitudinal data from 108 children and mothers were collected when children were 14, 24, and 36 months. Children's gestures and words during mother–child interactions were used as symbol skill indicators to predict children's abilities to engage others and the number of social‐emotional concepts children portray during play. In a series of growth models, words had a stronger effect on engagement skills whereas early gesture use predicted later development of social‐emotional concepts. Therefore, even in early development, symbols serve as both communication tools and mental tools to construct understanding of the social‐emotional world.     

How Latinos Are Transforming the United States: Research, Theory, and Policy

The United States is entering a new era, a period marked by some important demographic changes in the composition of the population, most especially significant increases in the Latino and Latino immigrant segments of society. These population shifts require corresponding interpersonal, organizational, and structural changes. The present issue bridges research and theory across disciplines and includes studies incorporating a variety of methodologies to examine these important areas. These articles begin to fill some of the voids where a systematic and robust corpus of knowledge is lacking. The contributions address topics ranging from issues of identity and interpersonal relations to pressing matters of educational significance to general approaches to navigating the cultural transitions that mark fluid transnational adaptations. Finally, each contribution delineates the policy implications resulting from the processes and literatures that are examined.     

Differentiated leader–member exchange,justice climate,and performance: Main and interactive effects

Leaders form different quality leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships with their subordinates. This variable treatment termed LMX differentiation can have negative effects on individuals' behavior and attitudes. In this study, we examined the cross-level main effect of justice climate on task performance and the moderating role of justice climate on the relationship between LMX differentiation and task performance. We tested these two hypotheses using a field study of 90 subordinates nested under 27 supervisors. Procedural justice climate, not distributive justice climate, was found to positively influence subordinate task performance. Further, distributive justice climate, not procedural justice climate, was found to moderate the LMX differentiation–task performance relationship; such that the relationship was positive when distributive justice climate was high and negative when distributive justice climate was low. Findings and future directions are discussed.     

Treatment Choice With Trial Data: Statistical Decision Theory Should Supplant Hypothesis Testing

Abstract

A central objective of empirical research on treatment response is to inform treatment choice. Unfortunately, researchers commonly use concepts of statistical inference whose foundations are distant from the problem of treatment choice. It has been particularly common to use hypothesis tests to compare treatments. Wald’s development of statistical decision theory provides a coherent frequentist framework for use of sample data on treatment response to make treatment decisions. A body of recent research applies statistical decision theory to characterize uniformly satisfactory treatment choices, in the sense of maximum loss relative to optimal decisions (also known as maximum regret). This article describes the basic ideas and findings, which provide an appealing practical alternative to use of hypothesis tests. For simplicity, the article focuses on medical treatment with evidence from classical randomized clinical trials. The ideas apply generally, encompassing use of observational data and treatment choice in nonmedical contexts.     

Leadership of highly creative people in highly creative fields: A historiometric study of scientific leaders

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the study of the influence of leadership on creativity, and the effects of this relationship on organizational performance. While a number of explanations have been broached with regard to the positive effects of leadership on creativity, many of these studies propose different, and often contradictory, methods for leaders to achieve these positive effects on creativity within their organizations and work groups. Additionally, little work has been done examining the effects of leadership on highly creative people in fields requiring creativity. The purpose of this study is to examine two existing leadership theories with regard to their viability as models to explain creative performance of eminent scientists. Eminent scientists represent a population of leaders of highly creative individuals in a field that values the production of innovative ideas and products as a marker of performance. Ninety-three excerpts from the biographies of scientists were content coded for leader behaviors and performance criteria. The results of this analysis indicate that a model based on strategic planning and product championing may serve to explain the positive effects of leadership on creativity in a highly creative population.