should i stay at home or should i go back to work? workforce reentry influences on a mother's decision‐making process

The authors examine the literature pertaining to women's life transitions and the difficult decision‐making process some women encounter when reentering the workforce after a period of staying at home with young children. On the basis of the unique challenges faced by this population, the authors created a conceptual framework (i.e., the Mother's Reentry Into the Workforce Conceptual Framework) to demonstrate this difficult decision‐making process. The framework examines driving forces, filters, and outcomes specific to this population. Implications for employment counselors are shared. Group employment counseling is suggested as an ideal format to provide support to women during this transitional period.     

Two ways to be complex and why they matter: implications for attitude strength and lying

Integrative complexity broadly measures the structural complexity of statements. This breadth, although beneficial in multiple ways, can potentially hamper the development of specific theories. In response, the authors developed a model of complex thinking, focusing on 2 different ways that people can be complex within the integrative complexity system and subsequently developed measurements of each of these 2 routes: Dialectical complexity focuses on a dialectical tension between 2 or more competing perspectives, whereas elaborative complexity focuses on complexly elaborating on 1 singular perspective. The authors posit that many variables have different effects on these 2 forms of complexity and subsequently test this idea in 2 different theoretical domains. In Studies 1a, 1b, and 2, the authors demonstrate that variables related to attitude strength (e.g., domain importance, extremism, domain accessibility) decrease dialectical complexity but increase elaborative complexity. In Study 3, the authors show that counterattitudinal lying decreases dialectical complexity but increases elaborative complexity, implicating a strategic (as opposed to a cognitive strain) view of the lying-complexity relationship. The authors argue that this dual demonstration across 2 different theoretical domains helps establish the utility of the new model and measurements as well as offer the potential to reconcile apparent conflicts in the area of cognitive complexity.     

Parent-early adolescent relationship quality and problem behavior in Hungary,the Netherlands,India, and Iceland

Higher parent-child relationship quality has been associated with less internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. However, it remained less clear whether these associations are universal or depend on the country under investigation. Furthermore, fathers are still understudied, even though there is increasing evidence of their important role in early adolescent development. Our study compared the association of mother-child as well as father-child relationship quality with early adolescents’ problem behavior in four culturally different countries, namely Hungary (N = 293; M_age = 11.22; 53% boys), the Netherlands (N = 242; M_age = 11.20; 48% boys), India (N = 230; M_age = 10.68; 61% boys), and Iceland (N = 261; M_age = 10.90; 53% boys). Early adolescents filled out questionnaires in their classroom, assessing warmth and conflict with fathers and mothers and internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. Stepwise multi-group path analysis demonstrated no cross-cultural differences in associations between quality of the parent-child relationship and problem behavior. We did not find any effects of maternal or paternal warmth. However, across samples conflict with mothers was associated with more internalizing and externalizing problem behavior, and conflict with fathers was associated with more externalizing problem behavior. Our findings highlight the need to target conflict with both fathers and mothers in interventions across different countries, especially when addressing externalizing problem behavior.     

Mother-Daughter Mutual Arousal Escalation and Emotion Regulation in Adolescence

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Adolescence is a period of heightened emotionality, and difficulties with emotion regulation during adolescence are associated with the...     

Maternal Parenting and Toddler Temperament: Predictors of Early School Age Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Related Behaviors

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Detection of early risk for developing childhood attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) symptoms, inattention and hyperactivity, may be...     

Reflective Writing about Near-Peer Blogs: A Novel Method for Introducing the Medical Humanities in Premedical Education

Narrative analysis, creative writing, and interactive reflective writing have been identified as valuable for professional identity formation and resilience among medical and premedical students alike. This study proposes that medical student blogs are novel pedagogical tools for fostering peer-to-peer learning in academic medicine and are currently underutilized as a near-peer resource for premedical students to learn about the medical profession. To evaluate the pedagogical utility of medical student blogs for introducing core themes in the medical humanities, the authors conducted qualitative analysis of one hundred seventy-six reflective essays by baccalaureate premedical students written in response to medical student-authored narrative blog posts. Using an iterative thematic approach, the authors identified common patterns in the reflective essays, distilled major themes, coded the essays, and conducted narrative analysis through close reading. Qualitative analysis identified three core themes (empathic conflict, bias in healthcare, and the humanity of medicine) and one overarching theme (near-peer affinities). The premedical students’ essays demonstrated significant self-reflection in response to near-peer works, discussed their perceptions of medical professionalism, and expressed concerns about their future progress through the medical education system. The essays consistently attributed the impact of the medical student narratives to the authors’ status as near-peers. The authors conclude that reading and engaging in reflective writing about near-peer blog posts encourages premedical students to develop an understanding of core concepts in the medical humanities and promotes their reflection on the profession of medicine. Thus, incorporating online blogs written by medical trainees as narrative works in medical humanities classrooms is a novel pedagogical method for fostering peer-to-peer learning in academic medicine.

     

Friendship Values and Cross-Category Friendships: Understanding Adult Friendship Patterns Across Gender, Sexual Orientation and Race

The present research used an intersectional analysis in examining whether women and men who have, versus do not have, cross-category friendships differ in what they value as important in a close friendship. Parallel analyses were conducted to examine cross-orientation and cross-race friendships across gender and identity status (minority and majority), with age as a covariate for all analyses. Participants were 1415 adult women and men, ranging in age from 18-80, residing in the United States, who completed a friendship profile questionnaire by reporting basic demographic information about themselves and their close friends. Participants’ importance ratings of six different friendship values were utilized to interrogate existing friendship patterns. Three general friendship values (trust and honesty, respect friend as person, there when needed) and three cross-identity salient friendship values (similar lives & experiences, similar values, nonjudgmental) were considered. Individuals with and without cross-category friendships did not significantly differ in their ratings for any of the three general friendship values. Individuals with cross-orientation and cross-race friendships placed less importance on similar lives & experiences than those with no such friendships. Other cross-identity salient friendship values were uniquely related to cross-orientation and cross-race friendship patterns. Although women rated all six friendship values as more important than did men, women and men displayed similar friendship value patterns across cross-category friendships and identity. These findings are discussed in the context of feminist intersectional theory.     

Interactive Influences of Gender Identity and Gender Typing on Early Adolescents’ Well-Being

We examined whether protective forms of gender identity (typicality, contentedness) ameliorate the negative influences of self-perceived cross gender typing (gender differentiated friendship styles) on early adolescents’ well-being. Early adolescents (N?=?244, 123 girls, M age 12.77 years) in Surrey, England responded to self-reports of friendship styles (preoccupied, avoidant), gender identity (typicality, contentedness), and well-being (self-esteem, depression). Girls reported higher scores than boys on the preoccupied friendship style, and lower scores than boys on the avoidant friendship style. Children who reported a cross gender style (preoccupied for boys and avoidant for girls) also reported poor well-being, indicating that self-perceived cross gender typing is distressing. However, these influences were buffered for youths who reported high levels of gender typicality and gender contentedness. Results suggest that gender identity plays a self-regulatory role in discounting self-perceived gender-atypical attributes that interfere with early adolescents’ sense of well-being.     

I am like a lion to Ephraim

This article argues that animal imagery – in combination with personal images of the deity – must be taken more seriously in studies of Old Testament theology. Bernhard Lang and Tryggve Mettinger are introduced as examples of scholars who distance themselves from the idea that the Israelites conceived of Yahweh in the figure of an animal. They have thereby contributed to the majority view among scholars that only the personal metaphors for Yahweh are worth taking seriously. As a counterweight to this, other scholars are quoted who have shown how the combination of human and animal, familiar from Egyptian religion, also appears in the Old Testament. This leads to the conclusion that through a dialogue between animal and personal images, it was possible for the biblical writers to formulate theologies in which God is not reduced to human imagery alone, as we can see among other things from the continued use in the New Testament of the lion image as well as the lamb image in Revelations.