How does the legal framework protect victims of dowry and domestic violence in India? A critical review

This paper critically reviews the performance of two legal measures to curb violence, abuse, and exploitation of women particularly within the domestic space in India. In a time when we are increasingly arguing for women empowerment to augment the forces of social and alternative development, there is tremendous rise even in the officially claimed number of all types of crimes committed against women in general and particularly against wives in matrimonial homes. The Indian state has, however, enacted several laws during the last 60 years to address issues related to gender violence in a society dominated by patriarchal values and practices. But the legal framework, although important, appears to be grossly inadequate even today. A review of two relevant laws proves that mere passing of laws has failed to guarantee any reduction in the number of violence against women and girl child. They also do not provide assurance for improvement in justice delivery system in the Indian context. Much remains to be done to ensure gender justice and equality in a patriarchal society. Discussion here is based on government statistics, newspaper reports and field data collected from different locations in West Bengal during 2005–2010.     

The Journey of Personal Growth: A Qualitative Exploration of Personal Growth Processes in Young Adulthood

The present study aimed at qualitative exploration of personal growth processes among young adults. It also explored the linkages of personal growth processes with implicit beliefs and possible selves. An extreme case sampling approach was used and it involved two groups of individuals, those high and low on action orientation. A semi structured interview was utilized to elicit subjective accounts of these individuals about their personal growth goals and related processes. A thematic analysis of the interview protocols that individuals actively striving towards personal growth often endorsed incremental theory beliefs (considered their current self as mutable) in comparison to people not working actively on their personal growth goals. As the study focused on malleable variables such as beliefs, strategies and manner of approach to life goals, it has implications in designing promotive intervention programs to help young adults discover ways of strengthening and sustaining their motivation and efforts in intentional pursuit of their personal growth goals.     

The Nuts and Bolts of Behavioral Observation of Marital and Family Interaction

Despite considerable discussion in the literature about the advantages of observational research and the relative benefits of different coding systems and strategies, little is written about the actual implementation of this assessment strategy. This paper presents an overall framework as well as the essential components involved in collecting (selection of task, setting, unit of analysis, and coding system) and coding (transcribing, selecting and training coders, transforming data, and analyzing reliability) of observational data. To achieve success with observational methods, we emphasize several issues, including (a) the research question as the motivator for all decisions, (b) the interrelatedness of tasks, and (c) the implications of decisions early in the process for later stages of analysis and interpretation. Investigators are encouraged to communicate the details of their observational and coding procedures so that these methods are readily accessible for purposes of replication and comparison.     

A Passage to Canada: The Differential Migrations of South Asian Skilled Workers to Toronto

Each year, Canada attracts thousands of skilled workers from ‘South Asia’; yet, relatively little is known about the complex reasons for and processes of migration of this immigrant cohort. The situation becomes even more acute when research ignores the internal diversities within this complex group and portrays a homogenised picture. Focussing on the experiences of 80 South Asian households who have entered Canada as skilled workers, this paper concludes that migration experiences differ between and within national groups (Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan). Various factors, including pre-migration political, economic and social contexts, transnational ties and social identities and hierarchies play an important role in motivating this highly mobile group and creating specific migration channels. In order to develop a wholistic and nuanced understanding of migration, the study advocates that, conceptually, it is imperative to move away from meta-narratives and models of migration, and methodologically, it is necessary to continue using mixed research methods.     

Association Between Body Mass Index and Motor Competence in Santal Children of Purulia District,India

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between body mass index and motor competence in Santal children 5–12 years old. A total of 816 Santal children were studied. Children's adiposity status was assessed by body mass index (BMI) for age z-score based on World Health Organization reference data. Motor competence was measured using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Competence (BOT-2). There was no significant difference in mean BMI z-score between Santal boys (0.13 ± 0.07) and girls (?0.14 ± 0.07). Healthy weight (HW) children scored higher (p < .05) in some individual motor subtests (bilateral competence, balance, running speed and agility, upper limb competence, and strength) and in total BOT-2 score (p < .05) compared with scores for underweight (UW) and overweight (OW) children. Nonlinear regression analysis showed that BMI is a significant independent predictor of motor competence (p < .01). Motor competence showed a curvilinear relationship with BMI-z-score, with the lowest point motor scores in strength and upper limb competence (p < .05) for both UW and OW children compared to HW children who scored highest. The results also indicated that gross motor skills, but not fine motor skills, were poorer among children who were UW or OW compared with HW children.     

It’s All About the Relationship: The Role of Attachment in Child-Parent Psychotherapy

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology -     

Prevention of Postpartum Depression in Low-Income Women: Development of the Mamás y Bebés/Mothers and Babies Course

A prenatal intervention designed to prevent the onset of major depressive episodes (MDEs) during pregnancy and postpartum was pilot tested at a public sector women’s clinic. The Mamás y Bebés/Mothers and Babies Course is an intervention developed in Spanish and English that uses a cognitive-behavioral mood management framework, and incorporates social learning concepts, attachment theory, and socio-cultural issues. The four goals of this project were to develop the intervention, assess its acceptability, test the feasibility of conducting a randomized trial with public sector patients, and obtain estimates of its effect size. Forty-one pregnant women at high risk for developing MDEs were randomized to the Mothers and Babies Course (n = 21) or a comparison condition (n = 20). Assessments occurred during pregnancy and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postpartum. Differences in terms of depression symptom levels or incidence of MDEs between the two groups did not reach statistical significance in this pilot trial. However, the MDE incidence rates of 14% for the intervention condition versus 25% for the comparison condition represent a small effect size (h = 0.28) that will be further examined in a larger scale study. The intervention was well received by the participants and implementation of a randomized trial appeared quite feasible as indicated by our follow-up rate of 91% at 12 months. Implications for the continuing development of preventive interventions for perinatal depression are discussed.     

Prosocial implicit trait policies underlie performance on different situational judgment tests with interpersonal content

ABSTRACT

This study tests the hypothesis that situational judgment tests (SJTs) with interpersonal content reflect implicit beliefs about the utility of prosocial action for job effectiveness and that agreeable people are more likely to believe that prosocial action is effective. Two hundred ninety-four undergraduates completed four different SJTs with interpersonal content and a measure of Agreeableness. Results show that the effectiveness of response options in these SJTs is positively correlated with the level of prosociality they express and that because of their prosocial elements, scores on different SJTs are correlated with one another and with Agreeableness. These results shed light on the construct-related validity of SJTs with interpersonal content and point to the possibility that they can assess prosociality in job settings different from those described in their items.     

Transfer to intermediate forms following concept discrimination by pigeons: chimeras and morphs

Two experiments examined pigeons' generalization to intermediate forms following training of concept discriminations. In Experiment 1, the training stimuli were sets of images of dogs and cats, and the transfer stimuli were head/body chimeras, which humans tend to categorize more readily in terms of the head part rather than the body part. In Experiment 2, the training stimuli were sets of images of heads of dogs and cats, and the intermediate stimuli were computer-generated morphs. In both experiments, pigeons learned the concept discrimination quickly and generalized with some decrement to novel instances of the categories. In both experiments, transfer tests were carried out with intermediate forms generated from both familiar and novel exemplars of the training sets. In Experiment 1, the pigeons' transfer performance, unlike that of human infants exposed to similar stimuli, was best predicted by the body part of the stimulus when the chimeras were formed from familiar exemplars. Spatial frequency analysis of the stimuli showed that the body parts were richer in high spatial frequencies than the head parts, so these data are consistent with the hypothesis that categorization is more dependent on local stimulus features in pigeons than in humans. There was no corresponding trend when the chimeras were formed from novel exemplars. In Experiment 2, when morphs of training stimuli were used, response rates declined smoothly as the proportion of the morph contributed by the positive stimulus fell, although results with morphs of novel stimuli were again less orderly.