Extended households and the life course of young mothers: understanding the associations using a sample of mothers with premature, low birth weight babies

This paper examined whether the greater average schooling and employment, and lower parenting competence, of young mothers who reside with adult relatives reflect preexisting differences versus potential causal mechanisms. The sample included 554 young mothers (ages 13 to 25; nearly two thirds African American) from the Infant Health and Development Program (IHDP) a random-assignment intervention study of premature, low birth weight babies followed 8 times from birth to age 3. Ordinary least squares, fixed-effects, and random-effects models indicated that young mothers of low birth weight babies sorted into extended households based on preexisting characteristics that were correlated with their lower parenting skills and knowledge. In contrast, coresidence predicted greater schooling or employment across models, with some variations for different subgroups.     

Spontaneous recovery after reversal and partial reinforcement

Six experiments used magazine approach in rat subjects to explore changes with time in responding for stimuli brought to a common moderate level of performance through acquisition or extinction. They found no evidence for increases with time in behavior during stimuli given simple acquisition. However, stimuli brought to that same level by reversal learning, repeated reversal, or partial reinforcement all showed increases in responding with time. These results suggest that the decremental process established by nonreinforcement endures through subsequent reinforcement and is especially sensitive to the passage of time.     

God's beliefs versus mother's: the development of nonhuman agent concepts

Little research exists on how children understand the actions of nonhuman agents. Researchers often assume that children overgeneralize and attribute human properties such as false beliefs to nonhuman agents. In this study, three experiments were conducted to test this assumption. The experiments used 24 children in New York (aged 2,11-6,11 years), 52 children in Michigan (aged 3,5-6,11 years), and a second group of 45 children in Michigan (3,4-8,5 years) from Christian backgrounds. In the first two experiments, children participated in false-belief tests in which they were asked about human and various nonhuman agents including animals and God. Experiment 3 consisted of a modified perspective-taking task, also including nonhuman agents. The results of the study suggest that children do not consistently use human agent concepts but instead can use different agent concepts for some nonhuman agents like God and special animals. Children are not bound to anthropomorphize, but they often do.     

Parental coping with children's negative emotions: relations with children's emotional and social responding

This study examined the relation between parents' reactions to children's negative emotions and social competence. Additionally, the role of parental emotional distress in children's emotional socialization was examined. The emotional reactions of 57 preschoolers (33 girls, 24 boys; M age = 59.2 months) were observed during their free-play interactions. Parents (mostly mothers) completed questionnaires about their reactions to children's negative emotions. An index of children's social competence was obtained from teachers. Results indicated that the relation between harsh parental coping strategies and children's emotional responding was moderated by parental distress. In addition, the relation of the interaction of parental coping and distress to children's social competence was mediated by children's level of emotional intensity. It was concluded that distressed parents who use harsh coping strategies in response to children's negative emotions have children who express emotion in relatively intense ways. In turn, these children find it relatively difficult to behave in a socially competent manner.     

Evaluating conditioning of related and unrelated stimuli using a compound test

Three experiments used a compound test procedure to evaluate whether superior conditioning results from the pairing of stimuli that are related to each other. In each case, a stimulus compound was tested after its component conditioned stimuli (CSs) had been conditioned by the same unconditioned stimuli (USs) arranged such that either related or unrelated CSs and USs were paired. Experiment 1 explored auditory and gustatory stimuli conditioned by LiCl or shock, using rats. Experiments 2 and 3 used second-order conditioning in pigeons to pair stimuli that were similar by virtue either of qualitative features or of shared physical location. In each case, the compound test provided clear evidence that pairing related stimuli produces superior associative learning.     

Raising the bar: the importance of hospital library standards in the continuing medical education accreditation process

The Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS) reviews and accredits the continuing medical education (CME) programs offered by Connecticut's hospitals. As part of the survey process, the CSMS assesses the quality of the hospitals' libraries. In 1987, the CSMS adopted the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) "Minimum Standards for Health Sciences Libraries in Hospitals." In 1990, professional librarians were added to the survey team and, later, to the CSMS CME Committee. Librarians participating in this effort are recruited from the membership of the Connecticut Association of Health Sciences Librarians (CAHSL). The positive results of having a qualified librarian on the survey team and the invaluable impact of adherence to the MLA standards are outlined. As a direct result of this process, hospitals throughout the state have added staffing, increased space, and added funding for resources during an era of cutbacks. Some hospital libraries have been able to maintain a healthy status quo, while others have had proposed cuts reconsidered by administrators for fear of losing valuable CME accreditation status. Creating a relationship with an accrediting agency is one method by which hospital librarians elsewhere may strengthen their efforts to ensure adequate library resources in an era of downsizing. In addition, this collaboration has provided a new and important role for librarians to play on an accreditation team.