Does whom you work with matter? Effects of referent group gender and age composition on managers' compensation

Much research has examined gender and age effects on compensation, concluding that a wage gap exists favoring men and negative stereotypes against older workers persist. Although the effect of an employee's gender or age has been widely studied, little work has examined the impact of the demographic characteristics of a focal employee's immediate referent groups (e.g., subordinates, peers, or supervisors) on pay. The effect of the gender and age composition of a focal manager's subordinates, peers, and supervisor on the manager's compensation levels was investigated in a sample of 2,178 managers across a wide range of organizations and functional areas. After controlling for a number of human capital variables, results indicated that not only does a wage gap favoring men exist, but also managerial pay is lower when managers' referent groups are largely female, when subordinates are outside the prime age group, and when peers and supervisors are younger.     

High levels of contextual interference enhance handwriting skill acquisition

The authors conducted 3 experiments to examine whether introducing high levels of contextual interference is useful in handwriting skill acquisition. For all experiments, elementary school students (Ns = 44, 50, and 78, respectively) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 practice schedules-blocked or random practice-in the acquisition phase. In the blocked condition, each of 3 letters (h, a, and y) or (in Experiment 1) symbols was handwritten 24 times consecutively. In the random condition, each letter (or symbol) was practiced 24 times, but in an intermixed, unsystematic sequence. Overall, the results showed that the random practice schedule leads to enhanced retention and transfer performance of handwriting skill acquisition.     

Parent Proneness to Shame and the Use of Psychological Control

We examined the link between parent proneness to shame and two forms of psychological control, overprotection and critical/rejecting behavior, in parents of preschoolers. Because shame is self-condemning, proneness to shame affects intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning. We hypothesized that parents’ emotion-regulatory responses to shame would increase the likelihood of psychological control: anxiety by leading to overprotection mediated by a worrisome approach to the child, and anger/hostility by leading to critical/rejecting parenting mediated by negative reactivity to the child. Participants were 198 mother-father pairs with a child 3.6 to 4.5 years of age. Overprotective and critical/rejecting parenting were assessed using both self and spouse reports of parenting practices. In addition, parents completed measures of proneness to shame, worrisome overconcern about the child, and negative reactivity to the child. Structural equation modeling yielded results that supported mediation by negative approach to the child for mothers’ and fathers’ critical/rejecting behavior. For fathers but not mothers, shame was indirectly associated with overprotective parenting through worrisome approach to the child. Parents’ proneness to shame may be an important factor leading to the use of psychological control.     

Parenting and Preschool Child Development: Examination of Three Low-Income U.S. Cultural Groups

We examined the impact of parenting behaviors on preschool children’s social development in low-income families from three cultural groups: European American (n = 286), African American (n = 399), and Hispanic American (n = 164) using Spanish as the primary language in the home. Observed parenting behaviors of stimulation, responsivity, and acceptance of the child in European American and African American families showed positive impacts on children’s social development with notable exceptions discussed. Corporal punishment had a negative impact on children’s social development. With the exception of corporal punishment, none of the parenting behaviors predicted social development outcomes for Hispanic children.     

The Effect of Behavioral Family Intervention on Knowledge of Effective Parenting Strategies

There is a paucity of research considering the effect of behavioral family intervention (BFI) on parenting knowledge and the relative importance of both knowledge and parent confidence in reducing parenting dysfunction and problematic child behavior is unclear. In this study ninety-one parents (44 mothers, 47 fathers) of children aged 2–10?years completed an evidence-based BFI and were assessed at pre and post-intervention on knowledge of effective parenting strategies, parenting confidence, parent dysfunction, and reported intensity of externalised child behavior. Results showed that at pre-intervention parents higher in education (N?=?57) demonstrated greater knowledge than those lower in education (N?=?34). Relative to baseline, parents in both groups significantly improved their knowledge and confidence, reduced their dysfunction and reported less externalised child behavior. Effect sizes for the latter two variables were similar for both groups, however for parents higher in education the effect for confidence was larger than knowledge. Change in level of dysfunction explained the largest amount of unique variance in change to externalised child behavior. Results suggest that for optimal outcomes for parenting and child behavior management more knowledgeable parents may benefit from interventions that focus on practice and consolidation of already learned skills in order to increase confidence whereas for less knowledgeable parents the teaching of new skills and strategies, alongside increasing confidence, are important.     

“Can I take out my penis?” Navigating Sex and Intimacy in the Workplace: An Empirical Test of Black’s Theory of Conflict

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the nature and prevalence of women and men prisoners who reported whether they used their assigned job while incarcerated to pilfer or steal items for profit, as opposed to low-level pilfering for personal consumption. Previous literature has been anecdotal in nature and focused solely within men's prisons. Findings indicated that prisoners did not significantly differ by gender in their prevalence of deviance on the job, but men and women prisoners used their jobs in different ways to profit in the sub-rosa economy.     

Information Seeking Beyond Initial Interaction.

This essay extends previous work on uncertainty and information seeking within close relationships by considering how relationship parameters correspond with the directness of people's information‐seeking strategies. Because we believe that assumptions of uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975) have been translated into the context of close relationships without attention to the unique features of that domain, we begin by reframing questions about uncertainty to reflect issues relevant to intimate associations. In particular, we reconsider the focus of uncertainty, the function of uncertainty reduction, and the nature of information seeking. We then discuss how relationship intimacy, power dynamics, and information expectancies correspond with information‐seeking behavior within close relationships. In doing so, we highlight how the negotiation of relational uncertainty may function to sustain intimate associations.