How Can You Pull Yourself up by Your Bootstraps, if You Don't Have Boots? Work-Appropriate Clothing for Poor Women

Clothing plays a role in impression formation and may affect poor women's ability to obtain a good job. Style of dress affects perceptions of, expectations for, and responses to job applicants. Clothing worn by a job applicant is a sign of status, power, and ability and may determine success on the interview and/or on the job. Most poor women lack the financial resources necessary to enhance their outward appearance as an impression management technique. A number of programs have been designed to help poor women obtain job-appropriate clothing, but these programs are limited in scope. This study reports on a convenience sample of women (N =10) from a state program that provides clothing to women entering the job market. Comprehensive services that take into account the multiple challenges faced by poor women entering the workforce have yet to be developed. Recommendations for corporate and individual action are provided.     

Employer-sponsored temporary labour migration schemes in Australia,Canada and Sweden: enhancing efficiency,compromising fairness?

For governments concerned with enhancing labour market efficiency, employer-sponsored temporary labour migration schemes have become increasingly popular. However, the equity implications of these arrangements, which constrain the mobility of migrant workers, have largely been ignored. This paper assesses the factors affecting the vulnerability of employer-sponsored migrant workers and addresses the question of whether these schemes comply with ethical principles relating to fair treatment. It draws upon migration ethics, political economy and socio-legal perspectives to evaluate visa schemes in Australia, Canada and Sweden. The paper argues that there is an ethically justifiable case for selectively restricting certain rights of migrant workers within clearly defined parameters. However, policies facilitating worker mobility, restricting sponsorship to higher-skilled occupations, promoting enforcement and worker representation, and providing accessible opportunities for permanent residency and citizenship help to ensure that employer-sponsored temporary labour migration schemes comply with ethical principles relating to the fair treatment of workers.     

Voting and the Scottish referendum: perspectives of people with intellectual disabilities and their family and paid carers

Voting is a human right for every citizen yet many people with intellectual disabilities do not vote or have little support to exercise their right to vote. This article explores views on the wider aspects of voting against the backdrop of the Scottish referendum using focus groups involving people with intellectual disabilities (n = 12), family carers (n = 7) and paid carers (n = 5). Findings revealed that people with intellectual disabilities had similar concerns to the general population about the referendum. Regarding voting, all groups identified the need to discuss issues and for practical support and accessible information to ensure informed choices were made when voting.     

“Are You Really Sad?” Infants Show Selectivity in Their Behaviors Toward an Unconventional Emoter

We examined whether 18‐month‐olds understand how the emotional valence of people's experiences predicts their subsequent emotional reactions, as well as how their behaviors are influenced by the reliability of the emoter. Infants watched a person express sadness after receiving an object that was either inappropriate (conventional emoter) or appropriate (unconventional emoter) to perform an action. Then, infants’ imitation, social referencing, and prosocial behaviors (helping) were examined when interacting with the person. Results showed that during the exposure phase, the unconventional group showed visual search patterns suggesting hypothesis testing and expressed less concern toward the person than the conventional group. In the social referencing task, the conventional group preferred to search for the target of a positive expression as opposed to the disgust object. In contrast, the unconventional group was more likely to trust the person's negative expression. As expected, no differences were found between the groups on the instrumental helping tasks. However, during the empathic helping tasks, the conventional group needed fewer prompts to help than the unconventional group. These findings provide the first evidence that the congruence between a person's emotional responses and her experiences impacts 18‐month‐olds’ subsequent behaviors toward that person.     

Latino Parents’ and Adolescents’ Perceptions of the Needs and Issues of Adolescents in Their Community

Data from The Community Needs Assessment Survey were examined to understand the issues parents and adolescents felt were most important to address for the adolescents in their community. The sample of 1,784 Latino respondents consisted of 892 parent/adolescent dyads. Factor analyses found parents and adolescents identified and prioritized the same six factors: education and career planning, abuse and victimization, adolescent behavior problems, adolescent sexuality, socioeconomic stressors, and relationships. However, parent ratings for all factors were higher, indicating a higher level of concern. The article analyzes differences by age/generation (parents versus adolescents), by immigrant versus native status, and by type of dyad based on the latter (i.e., US born adolescent/US born parent, US born adolescent/immigrant parent, immigrant adolescent/immigrant parent). The authors discuss the complex interaction of these factors and the implications for practice and research.     

Child,Mother, Father,and Teacher Beliefs About Child Academic Competence: Predicting Math and Reading Performance in European American Adolescents

Beliefs about child competence in math and reading have important implications for academic performance in adolescence. However, it is unclear whether children's own beliefs are the most important predictor of their academic performance or whether parents’ and teachers’ beliefs about child competence influence child academic performance. We assessed mothers’, fathers’, teachers’, and children's beliefs about European American children's (N = 189) competence in math and reading at age 10 and children's math and language performance at ages 10, 13, and 18 years. Confirmatory factor models demonstrated that children's and teachers’ beliefs had lower loadings on a latent variable of child competence in math and reading than mothers’ beliefs. Children's self‐competence beliefs in math and reading were not significantly correlated, suggesting children may use dimensional comparisons when assessing their own competence. Mothers’, fathers’, and teachers’ assessments of child competence in math were strongly correlated with their assessments of child competence in reading. Controlling for stability in academic performance, family socioeconomic status, and other reporters, mothers and fathers who rated their children's math competence higher had adolescents who performed better in math, and fathers who rated their children's reading competence higher had adolescents who performed better in language tasks. However, children who rated their own competence higher in math and reading had lower math and language (for girls only) performance in adolescence. European American children may use dimensional comparisons that render them poorer judges of their math and reading competence than parents.