Gender stereotypes underlie child custody decisions

Using hypothetical divorce cases we examine the role of gender stereotypes in decisions about child custody. Good mothers received greater custody allocations than did good fathers across a tightly matched pair of vignettes in three culturally distinct samples: Argentina, Brazil, and the United States (Study 1). Two follow-up studies indicated that the warmth dimension of stereotype content partly accounted for the asymmetry in custody awards: The proportion of maternal-primary custody was predicted by the tendency to ascribe warmth-related traits—such as friendliness, generosity, or trustworthiness—to mothers (Study 2) and associate them with female over male nouns (Study 3). We also found that endorsing shared custody mitigated the asymmetry in custody awards documented in our studies. Together, these results highlight the interplay of stereotyped attitudes and egalitarian commitments in the context of judicial decisions about child custody.     

Decoding emotions from nonverbal vocalizations: How much voice signal is enough?

Motivation and Emotion - How much acoustic signal is enough for an accurate recognition of nonverbal emotional vocalizations? Using a gating paradigm (7 gates from 100 to 700 ms), the...     

Gender and age differences in parent–child emotion talk

This study examined gender differences in emotion word use during mother–child and father–child conversations. Sixty‐five Spanish mothers and fathers and their 4‐ (M = 53.50, SD = 3.54) and 6‐year‐old (M = 77.07, SD = 3.94) children participated in this study. Emotion talk was examined during a play‐related storytelling task and a reminiscence task (conversation about past experiences). Mothers mentioned a higher proportion of emotion words than did fathers. During the play‐related storytelling task, mothers of 4‐year‐old daughters mentioned a higher proportion of emotion words than did mothers of 4‐year‐old sons, whereas fathers of 4‐year‐old daughters directed a higher proportion of emotion words than did fathers of 4‐year‐old sons during the reminiscence task. No gender differences were found with parents of 6‐year‐old children. During the reminiscence task daughters mentioned more emotion words with their fathers than with their mothers. Finally, mothers' use of emotion talk was related to whether children used emotion talk in both tasks. Fathers' use of emotion talk was only related to children's emotion talk during the reminiscence task.     

A Qualitative Exploration of Counselor Educators' Collaborative Authorship Perceptions and Practices

Limited research exists that examines the ethics of counselor educators' collaborative authorship practices. The study purpose was to explore the collaborative authorship decision-making perceptions and practices of counselor educators (N = 11). We identified six themes: (a) human process and communication, (b) context and nature of relationships, (c) learning experiences about authorship, (d) academic and career stage expectations, (e) collaborative authorship practices, and (f) philosophy of authorship. Implications and recommendations for research are discussed.     

Intra-couple similarity in dyadic coping and partners’ adjustment to the birth of a child

Unlike individual perceptions of a couple's functioning, couple-level protective factors against poor adjustment to the birth of a child have rarely been studied. This study examined similarity or reciprocal exchanges in dyadic coping (DC) during pregnancy (T1) and at 6 weeks postpartum (T2) and its associations with both partners’ adjustment at 6–9 months postpartum (T3). Ninety-two Portuguese couples provided data on DC, internalizing symptoms, dyadic adjustment and parenting stress. An individual's perceived similarity at T1 positively predicted his or her own internalizing symptoms at T3. One partner's perceived similarity at T2 negatively predicted the other partner's internalizing symptoms and parenting stress at T3. These associations controlled for stereotype effects (i.e., similarity due to shared cultural norms and values). Both partners’ adjustment seems to benefit from unique similarity within the couple after childbirth, while complementarity in DC during pregnancy appears to be more beneficial in the long term. Our findings suggest important refinements to DC-based interventions already aimed to promote similarity in DC.