In the Wake of the Great Recession: Economic Uncertainty,Communication, and Biological Stress Responses in Families

The impact of spouses' communication about economic uncertainty on biological stress responses was examined. The sample included 82 Latino and Caucasian couples and one of their adolescents. Wives with low economic uncertainty experienced the greatest cortisol increase to a stressful discussion with their spouse, while wives with high economic uncertainty experienced a blunted cortisol response. Husbands with high economic uncertainty exhibited a low, unresponsive cortisol pattern. Wives who experienced elevated cortisol used more corumination and had low community support. The amount parents talked about their financial worries to their adolescent was not associated with the adolescent's mental health or biosocial markers, but the parents' economic uncertainty and corumination with each other were negatively associated with their own mental health.     

Lack of a Secularizing Influence of Education on Religious Activity and Parity Among Mormons

Research conducted in the early 1980s indicated that education does not have a secularizing influence on Mormons. Based on data from two cross–sectional surveys involving Utah residents in 1996 and 2000, we provide an updated assessment of the association between education and religiosity in Mormons and also consider this association in non–Mormons. We also evaluate the association between educational attainment and parity (i.e., number of children born to a woman) according to religious preference and religious activity. Consistent with previous research, we did not find education to have a secularizing influence on Mormons, but rather to have a positive association with religiosity for both Mormon men and women. Little or no association was observed in non–Mormons. Mean parity tended to decrease with higher education for both Mormons and non–Mormons. However, within categories of age and education, mean parity was considerably higher among religiously active Mormon women.     

A Comparison of Religious Orientation and Health Between Whites and Hispanics

The study of religious orientation thus far has neglected the influence of race/ethnicity as well as all four religious orientations (intrinsic, extrinsic, pro-religious and nonreligious) in explaining differences in both physical and psychological health. A representative sample of 250 Hispanics and 236 non-Hispanic Whites in Utah was drawn and analysed for differences in health (self-rated health, life satisfaction, exercise) according to race/ethnicity, religious orientation and religious attendance. Responses to the Religious Orientation Scale differed significantly by race/ethnicity, indicating that future studies of religious orientation should take cultural context into account. For both Whites and Hispanics, pro-religious individuals reported the highest life satisfaction scores, which highlight the utility of employing the fourfold religious orientation typology.     

Habituation and dishabituation during object play in kennel-housed dogs

Domestic dogs are reported to show intense but transient neophilia towards novel objects. Here, we examine habituation and dishabituation to manipulable objects by kennel-housed dogs. Labrador retrievers (N?=?16) were repeatedly presented with one toy for successive 30-s periods until interaction ceased. At this point (habituation), a different toy was presented that contrasted with the first in both colour and odour (since the dog’s saliva would have accumulated on the first), colour alone, or odour alone. No effect of the type of contrast was detected in the number of presentations to habituation, the difference in duration of interaction between the first presentation of the first toy and the presentation of the second toy (recovery), or the duration of interaction with the second toy (dishabituation). Varying the time interval between successive presentations of the first toy up to habituation between 10?s and 10?min had no effect on the number of presentations to habituation, nor did it alter the extent of dishabituation. Varying the delay from habituation to presentation of the second toy, between 10?s and 15?min, affected neither the recovery nor the dishabituation. Overall, the study indicates that loss of interest in the object during object-orientated play in this species is due to habituation to the overall stimulus properties of the toy rather than to any single sensory modality and is also atypical in its insensitivity to the interval between presentations.