Adverse caregiving in early life: The trauma and deprivation distinction in young children

Knowledge and understanding about the impact of cumulative adverse experiences on the health and wellbeing of children, adolescents, and adults has rapidly expanded over the past 30 years. Despite the invaluable attention and support this proliferation has drawn to the importance of early childhood experiences, we believe that it is time to move beyond broad indices of risk and toward more specific and individualized understanding of how risk exposures are linked to clinical outcomes in young children. Within infant and early childhood mental health, there is a need for greater specificity in linking adverse caregiving experiences in early life to psychopathology in children. We highlight a framework distinguishing experiences of trauma from experiences of deprivation and use the examples of posttraumatic stress disorder and reactive attachment disorder to demonstrate how greater specificity in our understanding of early adverse caregiving can lead to more accurate and targeted diagnosis and treatment for young children. Both researchers and clinicians benefit from an approach to gain a greater appreciation of the links between specific types of experiences and outcomes in the children that we serve.     

Sex differences in jealousy: the (lack of) influence of researcher theoretical perspective

The sex difference in jealousy is an effect that has generated significant controversy in the academic literature (resulting in two meta-analyses that reached different conclusions on the presence or absence of the effect). In this study, we had a team of researchers from different theoretical perspectives use identical protocols to test whether the sex difference in jealousy would occur across many different samples (while testing whether mate value would moderate the effect). In our samples, we found the sex difference in jealousy to occur using both forced choice and continuous measures, this effect appeared in several different settings, and, we found that mate value moderated participant responses. The results are discussed in light of the controversy surrounding the presence of the effect.     

Stereotypical attitudes amongst black students at a rural historically black South African university

This study investigated stereotypical attitudes towards race amongst Black students (N=274) attending a historically Black South African university (females=62%; mean age of 22.15 years; SD=3.00 years). Data on group stereotyping by race were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The data were analysed for themes using discourse analysis. The findings indicated that Black students from a rural background stereotyped those from urban centres as lacking in African culture and being overly westernised. Conversely, rural Blacks from urban settings stereotyped those from rural areas as respectful, cultured and materially poor. Regardless of geographical origin, the Black students perceived English-speaking Whites as competent and friendly, while Afrikaans-speaking Whites were stereotyped as racist, aggressive and hardworking. The Black students perceived Indian South Africans as unethical and deceitful whilst Coloureds were noted to lack culture and to be aggressive. Findings suggest stereotypical racist language or discourse to be persistent among a student population with historical disadvantage.     

Making Space Behind the Veil: Black Agency within a Predominantly White Religion

The work of W.E.B. Du Bois highlights the significance of Christian religion in Black American life. According to Du Bois, the Black Church serves as a site of self-formation and affirmation, and the White Church as a source of racist beliefs and justifications for inequality. In this paper, we expand Du Bois’ inquiry about the influence of religion with a study of Black Americans who belong to a predominantly White religion. For those whose religious experience is almost wholly within the “white world,” what role does religion play in their lives? We analyze a set of 52 public accounts by Black Americans discussing their experiences as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). We find that for many Black LDS, membership in the LDS Church is characterized by contrast and contradiction, yielding spiritual conviction, joy, and meaningful communion on one hand, and racism and isolation on the other. We also find that Black LDS respond to these contradictions in a variety of ways. We classify these agentic responses into five types and examine the sociological significance of the observed variation. We conclude with a discussion of implications for scholarship on race and religion.     

Infants' enumeration of actions: numerical discrimination and its signature limits

Are abstract representations of number – representations that are independent of the particular type of entities that are enumerated – a product of human language or culture, or do they trace back to human infancy? To address this question, four experiments investigated whether human infants discriminate between sequences of actions (jumps of a puppet) on the basis of numerosity. At 6 months, infants successfully discriminated four‐ versus eight‐jump sequences, when the continuous variables of sequence duration, jump duration, jump rate, jump interval and duration, and extent of motion were controlled, and rhythm was eliminated. In contrast, infants failed to discriminate two‐ versus four‐jump sequences, suggesting that infants fail to form cardinal number representations of small numbers of actions. Infants also failed to discriminate between sequences of four versus six jumps at 6 months, and succeeded at 9 months, suggesting that infants’ number representations are imprecise and increase in precision with age. All of these findings agree with those of studies using visual–spatial arrays and auditory sequences, providing evidence that a single, abstract system of number representation is present and functional in infancy.     

The Role of Cultural Worldviews and Message Framing in Shaping Public Opinions Toward the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Mandate

This research examines the influence of cultural worldviews and message framing on public opinions toward the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination mandate. Consistent with the cultural theory of risk, we found that individuals with a hierarchical (vs. egalitarian) worldview perceived the HPV vaccination mandate as less beneficial and riskier. The hierarchy‐egalitarianism dimension of cultural worldview also interacted with message framing to influence support for the mandate. For individuals with a hierarchical worldview, a loss‐framed (vs. gain‐framed) message resulted in greater support for the mandate and more positive thoughts, whereas the reverse was found for those with an egalitarian worldview. Results concerning the individualism‐communitarianism dimension of cultural worldview showed a different pattern, however. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Loving and angry? Happy and sad? Understanding and reporting of mixed emotions in mother–child relationships by 6‐ to 12‐year‐olds

The Evaluative Space Model of emotions allows for the coactivation of positive‐appetitive and negative‐avoidant systems, but few studies have examined mixed emotions in child development. Existing research suggests children's understanding of opposite valence emotion combinations emerges by approximately 11 years of age. However, it is not yet clear whether various opposite valence combinations are understood at different ages, nor whether children can understand them in others before they have experienced such mixed emotions themselves. Semi‐structured interviews with 97 children investigated whether they regarded six combinations of opposite valence mixed emotions as possible, could provide reasons for them, and report their own experience of each in the context of mother–child relationships. Both understanding that such combinations are possible and ability to provide reasons for them increased after age 6 and up to age 11, but were still incomplete in 12‐year‐olds. Understanding of different opposite valence combinations developed at different rates. At each age, fewer children who showed understanding of these combinations in others reported having had a similar experience themselves. The findings suggest a need to systematically examine a range of mixed emotions in order to develop a comprehensive theory of the development of mixed emotion understanding. They also suggest extending research into adolescence.