Maternal sensitivity and patterns of infant-mother attachment

48 12-month-old infants and their mothers were videotaped in the Ainsworth Strange Situation. Each infant-mother dyad was also filmed for 3 min while the mother completed a questionnaire and the infant was left to explore the room devoid of toys, a situation in which maternal compliance with the request to complete the questionnaire was expected to compete with attentional demands made on her by the infant. Infant-mother attachment was classified as secure, anxious-avoidant, or anxious-resistant on the basis of behavior in the Strange Situation. Assessment of maternal sensitivity during the questionnaire situation included behaviors classified as reflecting appropriate, insufficient, and intrusive responses to infant cues. 3 summary measures of maternal sensitivity, each of which distinguished between mothers of securely and anxiously attached infants in 1-way analysis of variance tests, were entered into a discriminant function analysis. Using the discriminant function coefficients for combining the maternal sensitivity scores, 94% of the infants were correctly classified as securely or anxiously attached on the basis of their mothers' behavior in the questionnaire situation.     

Effects of maternal absence due to employment on the quality of infant-mother attachment in a low-risk sample

Recent reports have suggested that day-care experience initiated prior to 12 months of age is associated with increased proportions of infants whose attachment to mother is classified as "insecure-avoidant." However, reviewers have questioned the generality of these findings, noting that samples in which associations between early day-care experience and avoidant attachment patterns have been reported come from high-risk populations, and/or that the infants' day-care settings may not have been of high quality. In the present study, effects of maternal absences on infant-mother attachment quality were assessed in a low-risk, middle-class sample (N = 110). In all instances, substitute care had been initiated at least 4 months prior to the infant's first birthday and was provided in the infant's home by a person unrelated to the baby. Infants were assessed using the Ainsworth Strange Situation when they were 12-13 months of age. Analyses indicated that a significantly greater proportion of infants whose mothers worked outside the home (N = 54) were assigned to the category "insecure-avoidant" as compared to infants whose mothers remained in the home (N = 56) throughout the first year of life. Analyses of demographic and psychological data available for the sample indicated that this relation is dependent upon maternal parity (primi- vs. multiparous mother). The association between attachment quality and work status was significant only for firstborn children of full-time working mothers. The results are interpreted as evidence that the repeated daily separations experienced by infants whose mothers are working full-time constitute a "risk" factor for the development of "insecure-avoidant" infant-mother attachments.     

Maternal employment and parent-infant interaction at one year

The purpose of this study was to ask if parent-infant interaction differs in middle-class families with employed and homemaker mothers. Home observations of mother, father, and infant were carried out on weekday evenings, and observations of mother and infant as a dyad were performed during the daytime. Findings indicated group differences in the mother-father-infant context only, in which infants in the homemaker-mother group smiled and laughed more and were engaged more often in mutual looking and object play. Furthermore, daughters in the employed-mother group, but sons in the homemaker-mother group, received more parental stimulation encouraging their attention of objects.     

农民工在职技能培训的决定因素——来自雇主和雇员匹配调查的证据

基于2016年广东省佛山市南海区“雇主-雇员”匹配调查数据,以在职培训识别工会教育职能对工会工资效应的影响及机制,发现：工会与在职培训均存在工资增益效应,以二者交互项衡量的工会教育职能还能进一步放大工会工资效应。进一步检验工会教育职能的存在性与净效应,通过机制分析发现：工会教育职能的正向工资效应源于企业业绩的提高。异质性分析表明,工会对不同技能水平的员工均具有工资溢价效应,而其教育职能则主要作用于低技能员工群体。对于其他福利而言,工会能够促进员工参与社保、获得劳保用品,同时降低员工工作时长;在职培训对员工参保情况无显著影响,但能提高员工获得劳保用品的相对概率,缩短员工工作时间;而工会教育职能则无上述作用。教育职能是我国工会兼顾劳资双方利益、实现互利共赢的手段之一。     

经济学视角下的大学生就业问题

大学生就业是一个综合而系统的社会工程,与社会经济发展阶段、产业结构、高等教育发展等诸多因素密切相关。从根本上提高大学毕业生就业率,需要将产业结构调整和优化高校教育质量相结合,二者需要相互拉动和引领,逐渐磨合出一个深度融合、优化配置的平台,扭转目前相互错位的发展状态,从深层次根源上消弭制约因素,促进大学生就业,保持社会健康稳定发展。     

Maternal employment, work schedules, and children's body mass index

Previous work has shown that mothers' employment is associated with increases in children's body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight for height. Nonstandard work (working evenings or nights, weekends, or an irregular shift) may also be associated with children's BMI. This article examines the association between maternal work and children's BMI and considers the influence of mothers' nonstandard work schedules. Using data from school-age children (approximately 8 to 12 years) in the NICHD's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 990), this study found that an increase in the total time a mother is employed is associated with an increase in her child's BMI; additionally, the association between maternal employment and children's weight is much stronger at 6th grade relative to younger ages. There was no evidence that maternal or home characteristics or children's time use mediated these associations, nor was there any evidence that nonstandard work was associated with children's BMI. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

家庭背景对大学生就业价值观影响的分析

目的:了解当今大学生的就业价值趋向,以及家庭背景和大学生就业观之间的关系,针对存在的问题提出相应对策。方法:以湖北省十堰地区三所高校在校生为研究对象,以家庭经济水平、父母的文化程度,父母的职业、家庭和睦程度为衡量家庭背景的指标,利用SPSS13.0软件分析。结果:得出家庭背景对子女就业观有一定的影响,差别有统计学意义(p<0.05)。结论:家庭背景对大学生就业观的影响具有两面性,我们应强化正面影响,弱化负面影响,协调两者关系,促进大学生的顺利就业。     

The effects of adult literacy on earnings and employment

This paper provides evidence of the effects of adult literacy on individuals’ income and employability in Brazil based on information obtained from the monthly employment survey (PME). The OLS results indicate that after controlling for observable characteristics, there is a 21.25% increase in wages for individuals who become literate; however, there is no significant impact on employability. Moreover, the findings show an 8.1% increase in the probability of being employed in the formal sector. We also explore the longitudinal structure of the dataset to control for unobservable fixed characteristics of individuals. The fixed-effects estimators show smaller effects compared to the OLS estimators. We find that literacy has a 4.4% effect on wages and a 4.3% impact on the probability of being formally employed. The effects are significantly different from zero.     

Learning biology and mathematics outdoors: effects and attitudes in a Swedish high school context

This research suggests that learning biology in an outdoor environment has a positive cognitive and affective impact on 13–15-year-old, Swedish high school pupils. Eighty-five pupils in four classes participated in a quasi-experimental design. Half the pupils, taking a biology course in ecology or diversity of life, had several lessons outdoors and the other half were taught indoors. All of the classes, but one, also had mathematics lessons outdoors once a week. Twenty-one pupils were interviewed five months after the course and all were positive towards the new learning environment they had experienced outdoors in biology and/or mathematics. They also valued the higher degree of interaction among the pupils. Other findings from the interviews were that the pupils from the outdoor classes showed a higher degree of long-term knowledge retention. They remembered both activities and contents better than the pupils in the indoor classes. An essay-type question assessing their biological understanding qualitatively according to the Structure of Observed Learning Outcome taxonomy revealed no differences between the groups. The results are discussed in the light of neurocognitive models of long-term memory.     

Keyboarding as general education: post-school employment and earnings effects

This study reports on the post-school attainment effects of offering courses in typing and keyboarding as part of general education. The analysis was designed to develop models to analyse the effects of keyboarding on employment, earnings, further educational attainment and related distributional and cost-effectiveness issues. We assess these models empirically using national survey data from the federal government's High School and Beyond data set. Results indicate significant positive ramifications on all aspects cited above.     

Evaluating climate change behaviors and concern in the family context

Abstract

Although research suggests that family dynamics likely play a role in shaping children’s behaviors, few studies focus on environmental behaviors, and none to our knowledge investigate how parents shape climate change mitigation behaviors among their children. We begin to fill this gap through a quantitative case study using matched household-level survey data from 182 coastal North Carolina families (n?=?241 parents aged 29–77; n?=?182 students aged 11–14) associated with 15 middle school science teachers. Family climate change discussions, parent behaviors, and children’s climate change concern levels predicted the degree to which children will participate in individual-level climate mitigation behaviors. These results provide evidence that promoting climate-related conversations within households may promote climate action even when parents are apathetic about climate change. Similarly, parental behaviors, but not their concern levels, were important predictors of adolescent behaviors. This study highlights novel ways that family dynamics may promote climate change mitigating behaviors and a new pathway to promoting climate mitigation at familial, and ultimately, societal levels.     

Spillover effects in environmental behaviors,across time and context: a review and research agenda

When implementing environmental education and interventions to promote one pro-environmental behavior, it is seldom asked if and how non-target pro-environmental behaviors are affected. The spillover effect proposes that engaging in one behavior affects the probability of engagement or disengaging in a second behavior. Therefore, the positive spillover effect predicts that interventions targeting one specific behavioral have the capacity to promote non-targeted and/or future pro-environmental behaviors. However, the negative spillover effect predicts that engaging in a first pro-environmental behavior will prevent or decrease a second pro-environmental behavior. Since the theoretical and empirical basis for positive and negative spillover effects are not sufficiently understood, the present paper (1) suggests a distinction between behavioral, temporal, and contextual spillovers (2) reviews the existing spillover research literature across a variety of environmental domains, (3) presents potential moderators governing the direction of spillover effects, and finally (4) discuss techniques to promote pro-environmental spillovers.     

The impact of maternal characteristics and contextual variables on infant-mother attachment

This prospective study examined the effects of maternal characteristics, social support, and risk factors on infant-mother attachment in a heterogeneous sample. Two hundred and six women between the ages of 18 and 40 were interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy and 1 year postpartum. Structural equation modeling revealed that maternal attachment experiences were significantly related to prenatal representations of the infant and of the self as a mother, which were significantly related to infant-mother attachment assessed by the Strange Situation. Maternal risk factors were significantly related to prenatal representations, and social support from other women predicted infant-mother attachment. The overall model indicated a good fit. Thus, both individual and contextual factors were important in explaining infant attachment security.     

家境殷实不积极就业学生的创业教育研究

就业问题是关系到社会进步和学生发展的重要问题。但就目前的实际情况来看,一些家境较为殷实的学生普遍存在着就业不积极的情况,因此,对家境殷实不积极就业学生的创业教育进行研究具有较为重要的现实意义。本文,笔者即通过对家境殷实学生的特点以及家境殷实学生就业现状进行分析,提出利用家境殷实学生自身特点和优势开展创业教育,以改变家境殷实学生不积极就业现象的相关措施。     

Learning science in an alternative context: The effects on a selected group of young science educators

The Ontario Science Centre is a popular alternative learning environment for science and technology. Using semi-structured interviews, the research underpinning this paper investigates the experiences and effects of working as a Host or exhibit interpreter at the Science Centre. It examines how the Hosts benefit from the program in terms of their knowledge about and attitudes toward science and technology. What is distinctive about learning in this context, and its implications for science and technology education in schools, are discussed. The dominant aspects of learning for the respondents tended to be inspirational and attitudinal, as well as cognitive. The comments of the respondents indicate that in order to encourage learning in science and technology, science education needs to focus on more than a narrow concern with curriculum content.     

Reactive attachment disorder in the context of the family

Abstract

Research pertaining to reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is reviewed to clarify existing knowledge about the diagnosis and to identify avenues for enhancing the lives of afflicted individuals and their immediate family members. An overview of literature pertaining to the diagnosis is provided initially. Family experiences associated with the presence of children with significant attachment problems are subsequently examined. The focus is on interrelationships among RAD behavioral characteristics and associated challenges to parents and siblings. Finally, relevant literature derived from different subareas within psychology and from related fields outside the discipline is organized and integrated with the goal of providing direction for future research and attempts to support families.     

The prevalence and context of family violence against children in Finland

The prevalence and context of violence against children in their families was surveyed as part of a study on the sexual abuse of children. A random sample of 409 comprehensive school classes with approximately 9,000 15-year-olds was asked to anonymously fill out questionnaires. The majority filled out the questionnaires in the privacy of the school nurse's office, the rest in their classrooms. Of the selected classes, 88.8% participated in the survey, and the response rate of the students in those classes was 96%. Mild violence (slapping, pushing, etc.) was reported by 72% of the respondents, and severe violence (hitting with a fist, kicking, use of weapons) was reported by 8%. Violence was committed by the parents sometime before the children reached age 14. Incidents of violence during the year preceding the survey were reported by 19% and 5%, mild and severe, respectively. Mild violence was committed slightly more often by mothers than fathers. Severe violence was perpetrated more frequently by fathers. Girls reported mild abuse more often than boys. Severe violence was experienced equally often by both sexes. Children living with single mothers reported less-than-average mild violence, but more frequent severe violence. The highest incidence of severe violence was found among youth living in families with a stepfather. Unemployment in a family tended to increase both mild and severe violence. Violence was reported least often by children living in farming families or Swedish speaking families (which make up about 6% of Finnish population). Overall the frequency of violence toward children in Finland is significantly lower than in the U.S. Comparison to Sweden seems to show an identical level of child abuse, although different study methods make comparisons difficult.