Infants’ abilities to respond to cues for joint attention vary by family socioeconomic status

The influence of socioeconomic variability on language and cognitive development is present from toddlerhood to adolescence and calls for investigating its earliest manifestation. Response to joint attention (RJA) abilities constitute a foundational developmental milestone that are associated with future language, cognitive, and social skills. How aspects of the family home environment shape RJA skills is relatively unknown. We investigated associations between family socioeconomic status (SES) —both parent education and family percentage of the federal poverty level (FPL)— parent depressive and anxiety symptoms and infant RJA performance in a cross-sectional sample of 173 infants aged 8–18 months and their parents from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Results suggest that, correcting for age and receptive language, infants in families with greater economic resources respond to relatively less redundant, more sophisticated cues for joint attention. Although parent depressive and anxiety symptoms are negatively correlated with SES, parent depressive and anxiety symptoms were not associated with infant RJA. These findings provide evidence of SES-related differences in social cognitive development as early as infancy, calling on policymakers to address the inequities in the current socioeconomic landscape of the United States.     

Promotions and the pattern of grocery shopping time

The histograms of interpurchase times for frequently purchased packaged goods have consistently shown pronounced seven-day cycles. Evidence supports that the weekly spike phenomenon is the result of consumers' regular shopping trip schedules. We explore the implications of this peculiar regularity on the issue of consumer purchase timing acceleration. Data for five product categories are examined. Promotions are found to have little effect in accelerating purchase timing. In contrast, conventional interpurchase time models are shown to overstate the effect of promotions.     

The increase in marital status differences in mortality up to the oldest age in seven European countries, 1990-99

We investigate mortality differentials by marital status among older age groups using a database of mortality rates by marital status at ages 40 and over for seven European countries with 1 billion person-years of exposure. The mortality advantage of married people, both men and women, continues to increase up to at least the age group 85-89, the oldest group we are able to consider. We find the largest absolute differences in mortality levels between marital status groups are at high ages, and that absolute differentials are: (i) greater for men than for women; (ii) similar in magnitude across countries; (iii) increase steadily with age; and (iv) are greatest at older age. We also find that the advantage enjoyed by married people increased over the 1990s in almost all cases. We note that results for groups such as older divorced women need to be interpreted with caution.     

Ethnic stratification in Northwest China: Occupational differences between Han Chinese and national minorities in Xinjiang, 1982–1990

The debate on market reforms and social stratification in China has paid very little attention to China’s ethnic minorities. We explored rising occupational stratification by ethnicity in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Analyses of census data from 1982 and 1990 pointed to educational disadvantages faced by ethnic minorities as the most plausible explanation for the change. Multivariate analysis revealed a significant increase in the effect of education on high-status occupational attainment but no change in the effect of ethnicity. Net of education, ethnic differences in high-status occupational attainment were negligible. In contrast, large ethnic differences in manufacturing and agricultural occupations persisted after education and geography were statistically controlled.     

Childhood trauma and problem behavior: Examining the mediating roles of experiential avoidance and mindfulness processes

Objective: Childhood trauma is associated with a variety of risky, unhealthy, or problem behaviors. The current study aimed to explore experiential avoidance and mindfulness processes as mechanisms through which childhood trauma and problem behavior are linked in a college sample. Participants: The sample consisted of college-aged young adults recruited November-December, 2016 (N = 414). Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of childhood trauma, current problem behavior, experiential avoidance, and mindfulness processes. Bootstrapped mediation analyses examined the mechanistic associations of interest. Results: Mediation analyses indicated that experiential avoidance was a significant mediator of the association between childhood trauma and problem behavior. Additionally, multiple mediation analyses indicated that specific mindfulness facets–act with awareness and nonjudgment of inner experience–significantly mediated the same association. Conclusions: Interventions for college students who have experienced childhood trauma might profitably target mechanisms such as avoidance and mindfulness in order to minimize engagement in problem behavior.     

Infant‐Directed Speech Facilitates Word Segmentation

There are reasons to believe that infant‐directed (ID) speech may make language acquisition easier for infants. However, the effects of ID speech on infants' learning remain poorly understood. The experiments reported here assess whether ID speech facilitates word segmentation from fluent speech. One group of infants heard a set of nonsense sentences spoken with intonation contours characteristic of adult‐directed (AD) speech, and the other group heard the same sentences spoken with intonation contours characteristic of ID speech. In both cases, the only cue to word boundaries was the statistical structure of the speech. Infants were able to distinguish words from syllable sequences spanning word boundaries after exposure to ID speech but not after hearing AD speech. These results suggest that ID speech facilitates word segmentation and may be useful for other aspects of language acquisition as well. Issues of direction of preference in preferential listening paradigms are also considered.     

Risk Perception in an Interest Group Context: An Examination of the TMI Restart Issue1

Human response to environmental hazards and risks has been the subject of considerable research by social scientists. Work has traditionally focused on either individual response to the risks of an ongoing or future threat (hazards research), or group and organizational response to a specific disaster event (disaster research). As part of a larger investigation of the restart of the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island (TMI), we examined the response of interest groups active in the restart issue to the continued threat of TMI and to future risks due to restart. After reviewing the restart issue in general, the paper examines the local dimensions of the restart issue from interest group perspectives. A method for defining appropriate issues at the community level is reviewed. We then discuss differences in the perceived local impacts of alternative decisions, and systems of beliefs associated with differing perceptions. Finally, we discuss the implications of interest group versus individual perceptions of local issues for decision making about TMI, in particular, and about technological hazards management, in general. Associated implications for determining socially acceptable risk levels are identified. Our research led us to three major conclusions: (1) in contrast to other types of hazards, interest groups are a critical unit of analysis for understanding how beliefs and behaviors form in response to the presence of technological hazards; (2) the divergence of positions between groups, even though they may have shared the same physical experience, is understandable if not always predictable, (3) the resolution of policy debates where risks are a major focus of the arguments should recognize the legitimacy of these divergent positions by allowing participation of the various interest groups in the decision process. Such participation helps ensure that the decision strategy is responsive to local concerns, thereby increasing the likelihood of acceptance of the ultimate decision and thus producing a publicly acceptable level of risk.