Can Psychosocial Intervention Improve Peer and Sibling Relations Among War‐affected Children? Impact and Mediating Analyses in a Randomized Controlled Trial

Social resources are considered important protectors in traumatic conditions, but few studies have analyzed their role in psychosocial interventions among war‐affected children. We examined (1) whether a psychosocial intervention (teaching recovery techniques, TRT) is effective in improving peer and sibling relations, and (2) whether these potentially improved relations mediate the intervention's impacts on children's mental health. Participants were 428 Palestinian children [10–13 (mean = 11.29, standard deviation SD = .68)‐year‐old girls (49.4 percent) and boys (50.6 percent)], who were cluster‐randomized into the TRT and wait‐list control groups. They reported the quality of peer (friendship and loneliness) and sibling (intimacy, warmth, conflict, and rivalry) relations, and posttraumatic stress, depressive and psychological distress symptoms, as well as psychosocial well‐being at baseline (T1), postintervention (T2), and six month follow‐up (T3). Results showed gender‐specific TRT intervention effects: Loneliness in peer relations reduced among boys and sibling rivalry reduced among girls. The TRT prevented the increase in sibling conflict that happened in the control group. The mediating hypothesis was partially substantiated for improved peer relations, and beneficial changes in sibling relations were generally associated with improved mental health.     

A pilot qualitative study of the under-representation of Hispanics in public relations

This pilot study explored the under-representation of Hispanics/Latinos in the public relations profession by conducting focused interviews with Hispanic practitioners. The study found that public relations was not the Latinos’ initial career choice, identified three barriers to Hispanics entering the profession, elicited practical suggestions to attract more Hispanics, and also revealed opportunities for future scholarly research to address the under-representation of Hispanics in public relations.     

Using a “child's‐eye view” of social success to understand the importance of school readiness at the transition to formal schooling

Recent research into school readiness has highlighted the importance of not only children's cognitive and socio‐emotional skills, but also the degree to which they have family support in the home. The current study examines the association between social success upon school entry and teacher‐ratings of school readiness as assessed by the Brief Early Skills and Support Index (BESSI), controlling for language ability. Importantly, social success was assessed using a “child's‐eye view” with peer‐reported assessments of both social preference and reciprocated friendships. A total of 244 children (131 boys, M_age = 61 months, SD = 4.78 months) in their first year of formal schooling participated. Child school readiness was found to be important for social preference, with the association being more marked for boys versus girls. Family support was the only independent predictor of children's reciprocated friendships. The use of the BESSI, with its broad scope compared to other measures of school readiness, highlights the importance of focusing both on a child's cognitive and socio‐emotional skills at school entry and their family support when exploring the association of school readiness to children's social success at the transition to formal schooling.     

Social development quartet: When is parental supportiveness a good thing? The dynamic value of parents' supportive emotion socialization across childhood

This introduction to the Social Development Quartet summarizes four articles that examine age‐related and contextual shifts in the utility of parents' emotion socialization responses for children's social‐emotional development. The first two articles present evidence for age‐related changes in the benefits of parents' supportive responses and consequences of parents' nonsupportive responses to children's negative emotions between early and middle childhood. The next two articles consider contextual variations in this developmental shift by examining teacher reports of children's competence and family patterns of response among mothers and fathers. Together, these studies question the unilateral assumption that parental support of children's negative emotions is always a good thing, and provide a more nuanced understanding of when and in what contexts parents' responses are adaptive for children.     

Medieval propaganda, longue durée and New History: Towards a nonlinear approach to the history of public relations

This article offers a new perspective on the historical approach to public relations by drawing from the work of French medievalist Jacques Le Goff, who was the principal representative of the Nouvelle Histoire (New History) French historiographical movement. Based on the notions of mentality and longue durée, which Le Goff inherited from the Annales movement, we propose that a nonlinear approach to the history of public relations will help to extend its time scale back to the beginnings of civilization. This seeks to overcome the historical boundaries usually established between the prehistory (or proto-history) and the history of public relations as a profession.     

“印太”背景下的印日合作

"印太"概念经历了从地缘术语向战略构想的演变,且域内各国基于本国利益塑造"印太"构想的进程尚未结束,这使得相关研究需要不断转换视角并注重动态追踪。莫迪执政后,印度和日本升级两国战略伙伴关系,完善各层级对话机制,共同推动区域连通性与基础设施建设,并提出"亚非增长走廊"愿景。在深化海洋安全合作的基础上,实现军事演习全面覆盖与装备技术合作的纵深发展,注重地区问题的立场协调与强化美印日、美印日澳等多边磋商机制。"印太"发展契机、两国战略目标驱动、制衡中国需求以及美国战略推动构成了印日战略合作的基本动因。得益于双方战略对接的深入和适宜的国内政治环境,印日深化战略合作的势头还将持续,表现在防务合作模式的多元化和加速布局"印太"基建项目的趋势。国内条件限制、"印太"战略差异以及国际局势影响等制约性因素也给两国合作前景带来挑战。     

Filmic public relations for a global audience: The United Nations and The Blue Vanguard

The project investigates the use of documentary film as a public relations tool by the United Nations (UN) for worldwide promotion of its first peacekeeping intervention in response to the Suez crisis of 1956. Specifically, it undertakes a historical investigation into the communicative purpose of the 1957 documentary film, The Blue Vanguard, which was made by the UN Department of Public Information (UNDPI). Beyond the interest connected with the intervention in the Suez crisis, the film is significant in the history of the UN’s global public relations since it was one of the first films made for the UN by UK film director, Thorold Dickinson, who arrived as Chief of Film at the UN in October 1956.The author argues that Thorold Dickinson used the documentary to make a radical public information proposition to a global audience on behalf of the United Nations. Specifically, the public relations discourse and cinematicity in The Blue Vanguard reminded a global audience that achieving peace required a new level of cultural tolerance and global co-operation, involving codes of judgement beyond the nationalistically-determined registers of the time.     

马克思理论视阈中的“现实的人”——以《德意志意识形态》为文本考察

现实的人是马克思新哲学的出发点和落脚点，同时也是马克思对整个思想史上各种“片面人”的颠覆性阐释，是唯物史观与唯心史观和经验论决裂的标识。它不同于性恶论或性善论或既无善亦无恶论，也不同于黑格尔的“绝对精神”的人，更不同于费尔巴哈的“类”。与黑格尔思想及其青年黑格尔派和费尔巴哈等人思想交锋的过程中，马克思分别通过以所有制为轴线动态考察历史发展和以分工为轴线静态考察社会的结构性存在两条线索来阐释“现实的人”的内涵，并以生产工具为红线，对资本主义社会下“现实的人”的静态结构和动态发展予以微观透视。由此，按照唯物史观的基本立场、观点和方法来说，以经济决定政治、政治决定文化的序列构成的结构性存在来解释人才是马克思所谓的“现实的人”。     

Aged women,witchcraft, and social relations among the Igbo in South-Eastern Nigeria

Belief in the existence of witchcraft has remained a social phenomenon in Igbo society, especially with aged women who are often labeled witches. This study is exploratory and explains the implication of labeling an aged woman a witch and social relations in Igbo society in South-Eastern Nigeria. Twenty interviews were conducted with aged women who are victims of the witchcraft label and their relatives using qualitative methods of data collection, key informant interviews, and in-depth interviews. Data collected were analyzed using ethnographic content analysis. Findings reveal different social views attached to witchcraft and how it relates to aged women.     

Remaking the labour movement in Italy: the revival of strikes at Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles in 2015–17

ABSTRACT

After the Fiat-Chrysler merger in 2009, CEO Sergio Marchionne imposed a drastic reorganization of labour relations in Italy’s plants, precipitating a profound crisis of the system of industrial relations in the country. But between 2015 and 2017 a significant section of workers at Melfi, Atessa and Termoli plants went on strike against compulsory overtime and labour intensification, establishing links with grassroots unions that successfully organized in logistics. The metalworkers’ union FIOM-CGIL, however, delegitimized the union representatives who resisted Marchionne’s plans. In this article, we trace the context and development of these still little-known strikes. Because of their growing institutionalization, we argue, the confederal unions (CGIL, CISL, UIL) have both failed to mobilize workers and repressed workers’ attempts to resist the deterioration of their conditions. The strikes at FCA and in logistics, however, show that new forms of radical unionism are emerging, pointing to new possibilities for working-class organizing.