Transmission of the Communicative Competence: Genetic,Cultural, When,and How?

Several recent contributions from various disciplines have improved the interpretation of determinants influencing the interrelated processes of speech acquisition, and cognitive and emotional development. The existence of precursors of abstract symbolisation and of words in the animal world suggest a continuity in the evolution of communicative capacities. In man, evolution has not only favoured a specific precocity in communicative development in infants, but also the co-evolution of a species-specific environmental support for speech acquisition in caretakers. Thus, speech acquisition results from both biogenetic predispositions and environmental support as it becomes evident in micro-analysis of parent-infant interactions and experimental verifications. The preverbal period of communicative development appears in a new light from theoretical and clinical views.     

A Crisis of Competence: Benevolent Sexism Affects Evaluations of Women’s Competence

Sex Roles - People higher in benevolent sexism often outwardly endorse gender equality, but support men over women for challenging positions and experiences. Reflecting shifting standards (a...     

Interracial Friendships, Multicultural Sensitivity, and Social Competence: How Are They Related?

The present study used sociometric questionnaires to examine the relationship between interracial friendships, multicultural sensitivity, and social competence in fifth-grade children. Participants completed four questionnaires that provided information about who their friends were, friendship quality, racial and ethnic attitudes, and social competence. Results indicated that fifth-grade girls with high-quality interracial friendships indicated less minority rejection, more diverse social networks, and more sociability and leadership characteristics than their peers with no or low-quality interracial friendships. Similar results were not found for boys in the study. These findings have important educational and clinical implications.     

“To Cook, Sew, to Be a Man”: The Socialization for Competence and Black Men's Involvement in Housework

The context in which Black children do housework and its effect on adult behavior have been relatively unexplored. This article presents analyses of the recollections of 45 Black fathers of young children about performing household chores when they were children and its relevance for their involvement in housework as adults. The fathers' relatively high involvement in housework is traced to the ‘socialization for competence’ that most of them experienced as boys. Four dimensions in the socialization for competence are discussed: the actual household chores done in childhood, the ways of performing them, the rationale for assigning them, and parents' justifications for making children engage in housework. Although the childhood socialization for competence does not translate uniformly into men's sharing housework equally, it takes away ineptitude as an excuse for resisting housework as adults.     

Who Likes Competent Women? Competence,Sex-Role Congruence of Interests,and Subjects' Attitudes Toward Women as Determinants of Interpersonal Attraction1

Men (N= 264) and women (N= 343) students were shown one of 4 videotape versions of a female stimulus person (SP) being interviewed. The SP portrayed a Competent or Incompetent individual who was Feminine or Masculine in her interests. The S s, who had previously been given an Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS, Spence & Helmreich, 1972) rated the SP on several characteristics, including likability. A 2 × 2 ANOVA indicated that women S s significantly preferred the Competent and the Masculine SPs. For men, the variables interacted significantly, the Masculine-Competent SP being liked most, the Masculine-Incompetent least, and the two Feminine SP s being intermediate and similar to each other. When S s' AWS scores (high, medium, or low) were included, complex interactions were found between AWS and experimental condition, especially in the male groups.     

“Accept Me,or Else…”: Disputed Overestimation of Social Competence Predicts Increases in Proactive Aggression

It has been proposed that aggressive behavior may result from unrealistically positive self-evaluations that are disputed by others (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996). The present three studies tested this proposition concurrently and longitudinally for the domain of self-perceived social competence (SPSC) in 3-6th grade children on two continents. Each study tested whether aggressive behavior is related to general overestimation of SPSC compared to competence as perceived by peers, or to disputed overestimation, that is, overestimation disputed through rejection by peers. Specificity of relations with reactively or proactively aggressive behavior patterns was assessed and the predictive value of overestimation to the development of these types of aggressive behavior was investigated. Concurrently, disputed overestimation explained more variance in aggressive behavior than general overestimation, and was uniquely related to proactive aggression. Longitudinally, disputed overestimation also uniquely predicted changes in proactive, not reactive aggression.     

The Impact of an Operation Purple Camp Intervention on Military Children and Adolescents’ Self-Perception of Social Acceptance,Athletic Competence,and Global Self-Worth

In a pilot study we examined the effect of a one-week Operation Purple Camp intervention with children and adolescents (N = 48) in military families on their self-perception of social acceptance, athletic competence, and global self-worth. Adolescents’ showed significant improvement post-intervention in perceptions of social acceptance (p < .05) and athletic competence (p < .05) while children showed a significant improvement in perception of global self-worth (p < .05). These findings lend support for the effectiveness of this intervention for improving outcomes for children and adolescents in military families.     

Promoting Preschoolers’ Emotional Competence Through Prosocial TV and Mobile App Use

This study explored the relationship between preschoolers’ exposure to Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood television programming and its accompanying mobile app and preschoolers’ emotion knowledge and use of emotion regulation strategies. An experiment involving 121 parent-child dyads from 3 US metro areas found that children who played with the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood app, and those who both played with the app and watched episodes of the program, employed the emotion regulation strategies taught by Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood media more frequently 1 month later than children in a control condition. Preschoolers (3- and 4-year-olds) also exhibited higher levels of emotion knowledge 1 month after playing with the app. In addition, watching Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood TV episodes in the home led to increases in parents’ provision of active mediation. Implications for families, educators, and producers of educational media content are discussed.     

The Beavers-Timberlawn Model of Family Competence and the Circumplex Model of Family Adaptability and Cohesion: Separate,but Equal?

An empirical examination of the association between instruments measuring the Beavers-Timberlawn Model of family competence and the Circumplex Model of adaptability and cohesion is presented. Even when triangulated measures were utilized to control for the divergent methods of data collection traditionally employed to operationalize these models of family health, family competence as measured by the Beavers-Timberlawn Family Evaluation Scales was either minimally (mothers) or not associated at all (fathers and children) with balanced and thereby optimal dimensions of adaptability and cohesion as measured by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales. Methodological and substantive explanations for the surprising lack of association between measures of these two prominent family assessment models are explored and short- and long-range implications for the growth and practice of family therapy are discussed.     

School Competence among Adolescents in Low-Income Families: Does Parenting Style Matter?

In the present study, we investigated parenting styles and self-perceived school competence among low-income adolescents in Norway. The purpose of the study was threefold: (1) to identify differences, if any, in self-perceived school competence between low-income ethnic Norwegians and low-income ethnic minorities; (2) to determine differences, if any, in the perception of parenting styles between the groups; and (3) to determine if parenting styles predict self-perceived school competence in the two groups. The sample consisted of 253 adolescents 12–18 years of age; 130 adolescents were ethnic Norwegians, and 123 were from ethnic minorities. Self-perceived school competence was measured using the Scholastic Competence subscale of Harter’s Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Perception of parenting style was measured with the following three scales: support, monitoring and neglect. An independent-samples t-test revealed that ethnic minorities reported higher levels of self-perceived school competence than did ethnic Norwegians. No significant difference between the groups in their perception of parenting styles was observed. Support and monitoring were positively correlated with school competence, whereas neglect was negatively correlated with school competence. When all three parenting styles were entered separately into standard multiple regression analyses for the two groups, a high degree of perceived neglect significantly predicted low self-perceived school competence in both groups. This finding indicates how schools and policy makers can explore the types of support that families may need to adopt better upbringing styles.     

Applying “Place” to Research Ethics and Cultural Competence/Humility Training

Research ethics principles and regulations typically have been applied to the protection of individual human subjects. Yet, new paradigms of research that include the place-based community and cultural groups as partners or participants of environmental research interventions, in particular, require attention to place-based identities and geographical contexts. This paper argues the importance of respecting “place” within human subjects protections applied to communities and cultural groups as part of a critical need for research ethics and cultural competence training for graduate research students. These protections and benefits are extensions of the Belmont Principles and have been included in recent recommendations from research regulatory committees.     

A Longitudinal Study of Child Maltreatment, Mother–Child Relationship Quality and Maladjustment: The Role of Self-Esteem and Social Competence

This study examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations of mother-child relationship quality, self-esteem, social competence, and maladjustment among maltreated (n = 206) and nonmaltreated (n = 139) school-aged children from low-income families. Results of the path analysis using structural equation modeling revealed that maltreatment at Time 1 was related to internalizing and externalizing symptomatology at Time 1, both directly as well as indirectly, through its influence on social competence at Time 1. Regardless of maltreatment status, secure mother-child relationship quality was negatively related to internalizing symptomatology at Time 1 and to internalizing and externalizing symptomatology at Time 2 via its influence on self-esteem at Time 1. The results are discussed as suggestive of the role of self-esteem and social competence as mediating mechanisms in the link between relational risks and children's maladjustment.     

Disadvantaged by Diversity? The Effects of Diversity Goals on Competence Perceptions1

This research examined how efforts to ensure demographic diversity in a work group affected perceptions of the competence of individuals who are likely targets of such efforts. In three experiments, 262 undergraduates gave their impressions and performance expectations of members of a group assembled to work on a task. When a diversity rationale rather than a merit rationale was provided for how the work group was assembled, both women (Studies 1 and 2) and Black men (Study 3) were perceived as less competent and were expected to be less influential. This effect occurred regardless of the proportional representation of women or the degree of the groups' heterogeneity. The diversity rationale also produced more negative characterizations than did another non‐merit‐based rationale: scheduling convenience.     

Frequency and Intensity of Emotional Expressiveness and Preschool Children’s Peer Competence

Children’s emotional expressiveness with peers was examined as a predictor of social competence. Data were collected from 122 preschool children (57 boys, 65 girls; 86 European American, 9 African American, 17 Hispanic, and 10 other ethnicity) over a period of two?years. Observations of children’s peer interactions in Year 1 were coded for frequency and intensity of happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. Sociometric interviews and teacher ratings provided assessments of children’s peer competence in both Years 1 and 2. Frequent expression of happiness in Year 1 predicted higher social competence scores in Year 2, whereas frequent anger in Year 1 predicted lower peer competence Year 2. More intense anger and sadness in Year 1 predicted lower peer social competence scores in Year 2. Frequency and intensity of emotional expressiveness in Year 1 accounted for unique variance in peer competence in Year 2.     

A Review of “Relational Competence Theory: Research and Mental Health Applications”

Within the Couple and Family Therapy literature, there are few articles directly linking theory to treatment within the lesbian community. Utilizing contextual theory, the author presents a gay affirmative therapeutic approach to work with lesbian couples. The fundamental concepts of contextual therapy are uniquely suited for work with lesbian clients; particularly the four dimensions of individual psychology, relational ethics, systemic interaction, and facts. A case study is presented to highlight this therapeutic process. This article is one step in a larger systemic change related to the challenge of adapting theoretical methodology and gathering evidence for effective treatment of marginalized groups.     

Exploring the Relationship Between Pedagogy and Counselor Trainees’ Multicultural and Social Justice Competence

The authors evaluated the acquisition of 6 constructs related to multicultural and social justice competence for 60 counselors-in-training (CITs) in 3 multicultural counseling courses. Each course was assigned a unique pedagogical approach: didactic, experiential, or community service learning. Statistical analyses indicated that pedagogical approach had the greatest impact on CITs’ growth in multicultural relationship, multicultural skills, and social justice advocacy constructs. Analyses also indicated growth across all 3 pedagogies for multicultural knowledge and multicultural awareness constructs. The authors explore patterns of pedagogical impact, discuss practical implications, and make suggestions for further research.     

The Relationship Between Sexualized Appearance and Perceptions of Women’s Competence and Electability

Women do not have a uniform or standardized “suit” to wear in the workplace so they must make daily decisions about what to wear. Some propose that women should dress in a sexualized way to gain power and influence, but sexy attire is related to lower perceptions of competence for women in leadership positions. We explored the effect of revealing or conservative attire on perceptions of women’s leadership competence. We also used eye-tracker technology to determine whether looking at sexualized body parts (i.e., breasts, hemline) was related to lower perceptions of leadership competence and electability. A female candidate for a student senate presidency at a U.S. university wearing revealing clothing was perceived by 191 college students as less honest and trustworthy, electable, and competent than one wearing conservative clothing. Sexualized body parts were looked at longer when the candidate was wearing revealing clothing compared to conservative clothing. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that the revealing clothing led participants to gaze at sexualized body parts, which, in turn, led to perceiving the candidate as less honest/trustworthy, which lowered their evaluations of her competence and electability. These findings suggest that viewing a woman in a sexy outfit can lead others to stare more at her body and make negative evaluations of her personal attributes. This finding has implications for the choices women make in workplace and leadership contexts.