Predicting Participation in Environmental Treaties: A World-System Analysis*

Which countries tend to sign international environmental treaties and why? This study tests the ability of quantitative cross-national political and economic analysis to predict participation in international environmental agreements over the period 1963–1987. Cross-sectional ordinary least squares regressions suggest that poor, highly indebted countries that are dependent on very few trading partners and that have repres-sive regimes are far more likely to be nonsignatories. The results suggest strategies for increasing the likelihood that nations will ratify hture environmental treaties.     

Gender Minority Stress: A Critical Review

ABSTRACT

Past studies that compare cisgender to transgender (or trans) and gender diverse people have found a higher prevalence of mental health problems among the latter groups. This article uses Testa’s gender minority stress framework, which is an expansion of minority stress theory, to assess minority stressors that are specific to the experiences of trans and gender diverse people. The concept of cisnormativity, an ideology that positions cisgender identities as a norm, is used in relation to the gender minority stress framework to describe the marginalizing nature of social environments for trans and gender diverse people. This article provides a critical review that integrates and expands on past theoretical perspectives on gender minority stressors and protective factors. Specifically, this article demonstrates the relevance of cultural and ethnic backgrounds to complement the application of intersectionality in research on health disparities experienced by trans and gender diverse people.     

Researching the Social Worlds of Autistic Children: An Exploration of How an Understanding of Autistic Children's Social Worlds is Best Achieved

Since United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, social research has encouraged the involvement of children in research concerning them. However, there is little evidence to demonstrate how autistic children can be involved. Little is known about which methods are appropriate to research the social worlds of autistic children: adult‐centred or child‐centred methods? Empirical research with autistic children is used to illustrate the contribution that methods which involve children, and methods that do not, can make to the understanding of autistic children's social worlds. I argue while autistic children's participation contributed towards greater understanding, the understanding was enriched for having parents and teachers participate too.     

The challenge of inclusive coproduction: The importance of situated rituals and emotional inclusivity in the coproduction of health research projects

Previous studies highlight that coproduced research initiatives are influenced by how individuals interact together and that group inclusivity amongst diverse members is crucial. However, it is not fully understood how inclusivity is sustained over time, particularly through routine encounters. Our study examines how coproduction occurs through routine and ritualistic patterns of everyday practices, which have the potential to facilitate sustainable and inclusive research initiatives. Using ethnographic data with four applied health research projects, we explored how everyday rituals generate and sustain inclusivity. Informed by interactional ritual change theory, we identify two types of interlinked inclusivity: relational, individuals routinely engaging together; and emotional, the feeling of being included. The process of producing and maintaining both types requires ongoing reflexivity from members. Groups with sustained inclusivity build interpersonal momentum through situated practices that enable them to mitigate external pressures and internal disagreements. Where groups experience a breakdown in inclusivity, they also experience a loss of momentum that makes them vulnerable to disintegration and collapse. Building and sustaining inclusivity are worked out through everyday interactions and operate as a feedback loop that sustains the cohesiveness of the network and supports coproduction of knowledge.     

The Effects of Licensing on the Wages of Radiologic Technologists

We analyze the effect that state licensing of radiologic technologists (RTs) has had upon RT wages with a unique dataset that allows us to control for place of work and job specialization. Using OLS and several measures of licensing, we find evidence that RTs working in states with licensing statutes earn as much as 3.3% more than RTs working in states without licensing. When we control for endogeneity using instrumental variables (IV) estimation, our estimate of the licensing premium doubles (6.9%). Our results provide further support for existing theories of the effects of occupational licensing on the wages of practitioners.

Still connecting the dots: An investigation into infants' attentional bias to threat using an eye-tracking task

An attentional bias toward threat has been theorized to be a normative aspect of infants' threat and safety learning, and an indicator of risk for internalizing psychopathology in older populations. To date, only four studies have examined this bias using the dot-probe task in infancy and the findings are mixed. We extended the literature by examining patterns of attention to threat in a culturally and linguistically diverse sample of infants aged 5–11 months old (N = 151) using all measures previously employed in the infant dot-probe literature. Given that an attentional bias toward threat is associated with higher risk of developing anxiety disorders later in life, we also examined how negative affect—an early correlate of later anxiety disorders—is related to attentional bias toward threat in infancy. This study was the first to use a consistent measure of negative affect across the whole sample. An eye-tracking dot-probe task was used to examine attentional bias toward threat (i.e., angry faces) relative to positive (i.e., happy faces) stimuli. Results showed that an attention bias to threat was not characteristic of infants at this age, and negative affect did not moderate the putative relationship between attention and emotional faces (angry, happy). These findings therefore suggest that attention biases to socio-emotional threat may not have emerged by 11 months old.