Rudimentary Reading Repertoires via Stimulus Equivalence and Recombination of Minimal Verbal Units

We report a study with sixteen low-SES Brazilian children that sought to establish a repertoire of relations involving dictated words, printed words, and corresponding pictures. Children were taught: (1) in response to dictated words, to select corresponding pictures; (2) in response to syllables presented in both visual and auditory formats, to select words which contained a corresponding syllable in either the first or the last position; (3) in response to dictated-word samples, to “construct” corresponding printed words via arranging their constituent syllabic components; and (4) in response to printed word samples, to construct identical printed words by arranging their syllabic constituents. After training on the first two types of tasks, children were given tests for potentially emergent relations involving printed words and pictures. Almost all exhibited relations consistent with stimulus equivalence. They also displayed emergent naming performances––not only with training words but also with new words that were recombinations of their constituent syllables. The present work was inspired by Sidman''s stimulus equivalence paradigm and by Skinner''s functional analysis of verbal relations, particularly as applied to conceptions of minimal behavioral units and creativity (i.e., behavioral flexibility) in the analytical units applied to verbal relations.     

Marital Conflict Behaviors and Implications for Divorce Over 16 Years

This study examined self‐reported marital conflict behaviors and their implications for divorce. Husbands and wives (N = 373 couples; 47% White American, 53% Black American) reported conflict behaviors in Years 1, 3, 7, and 16 of their marriages. Individual behaviors (e.g., destructive behaviors) and patterns of behaviors between partners (e.g., withdrawal‐constructive) in Year 1 predicted higher divorce rates. Wives' destructive and withdrawal behaviors decreased over time, whereas husbands' conflict behaviors remained stable. Husbands reported more constructive and less destructive behaviors than wives, and Black American couples reported more withdrawal than White American couples. Findings support behavioral theories of marriage demonstrating that conflict behaviors predict divorce and accommodation theories indicating that conflict behaviors become less negative over time.     

Generational Structure and Social Resources in Mid-Life: Influences on Health and Well-Being

The influence of generational structure on well-being in mid-life is examined in a regional representative sample of 807 adults aged 30–64. Results indicate that those who lack the personal and social resources of education and marriage, and have parents but no children, report higher levels of well-being than those with only child(ren) or both parent(s) and child(ren). Findings suggest that elders may serve as a key resource to adult children who lack personal and social resources in mid-life. Adults increasingly follow less traditional paths in life (e.g., those without children and/or never married), and hence, these findings have implications for current and future policies directed toward aging and family well-being.