Doddering but dear … even in the eyes of young children? Age stereotyping and prejudice in childhood and adolescence

This study aims to explore age prejudice, and to examine age stereotyping in children and adolescents by adopting the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) as a theoretical framework. It was hypothesised that children are socialised into adopting an ambivalent representation of old age (socialisation hypothesis) and that this cognitive bias becomes weaker in adolescence due to greater cognitive maturity (developmental hypothesis). By analysing representative data from Portugal (European Social Survey; N = 2367), it was ascertained that the ambivalent age stereotype (higher evaluations of warmth than competence for older people) is indeed a shared social representation of older people in Portuguese society. A total of 103 Portuguese children (6–10 year olds) and adolescents (11–15 year olds) were then sampled from a local school and responded to age‐appropriate measures assessing age prejudice as well as age stereotypes. Contrary to previous studies, the findings do not provide evidence for the existence of age prejudice because both children and adolescents reported positive feelings towards older people. However, the socialisation hypothesis was corroborated by showing that the ambivalent old age stereotype was already present in childhood. Contrary to the stipulated developmental hypothesis, the magnitude of this cognitive bias was very similar in adolescence.     

Attachment Representations and Maternal Confidence: The Mediating Role of Postnatal Depressive Symptoms and Negative Thoughts

Attachment security can act as an inner resource to promote women’s adjustment to motherhood. However, the mechanisms explaining the relationship between attachment representations and maternal adaptation outcomes are not well understood. This study aimed to examine the direct and indirect effects of attachment representations on maternal confidence, through postpartum negative automatic thoughts and depressive symptoms. The sample consisted of 387 postpartum women who completed a cross-sectional online survey including measures of attachment representations, depressive symptoms, postpartum negative automatic thoughts and maternal confidence. Our results showed a significant relationship between more insecure attachment representations and higher depressive symptoms (p?<?.001), but also with more frequent postpartum negative automatic thoughts (p?<?.001); depressive symptoms and postpartum negative automatic thoughts were also inversely associated with women’s maternal confidence (p?<?.001). Moreover, indirect effects of attachment representations on maternal confidence were found, but only through postpartum negative thoughts [attachment-related anxiety: 95% CI?=??0.03/?0.01; attachment-related avoidance: 95% CI?=??0.05/?0.01]. The results of the present study emphasize the important role of the cognitive component of depressive symptomatology (postpartum negative automatic thoughts) in the relationship between attachment representations and maternal confidence, allowing to draw specific implications. We highlight the implications for clinical practice during the perinatal period to address both negative thoughts and women’s maternal confidence.     

Emerging ICT for Citizens’ Veillance: Theoretical and Practical Insights

In ubiquitous surveillance societies, individuals are subjected to observation and control by authorities, institutions, and corporations. Sometimes, citizens contribute their own knowledge and other resources to their own surveillance. In addition, some of “the watched” observe “the watchers” “through” sous‐veillant activities, and various forms of self-surveillance for different purposes. However, information and communication technologies are also increasingly used for social initiatives with a bottom up structure where citizens themselves define the goals, shape the outcomes and profit from the benefits of watching activities. This model, which we define as citizens’ veillance and explore in this special issue, may present opportunities for individuals and collectives to be more prepared to meet the challenges they face in various domains including environment, health, planning and emergency response.     

The Role of Positive Psychology Constructs in Predicting Mental Health and Academic Achievement in Children and Adolescents: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study presents the first examination of the relation between positive psychology constructs, mental health and academic achievement of students in Portugal. Using a sample of 367 middle-school students, the study revealed that crosssectional and longitudinal patterns of correlations between positive variables were consistent with expectations for the most part and suggested that hope, life satisfaction and self-worth have meaningful relations with mental health and academic achievement. In addition, no significant changes were found between the variables in study across the administrations and throughout the two cohorts, and all the variables in study demonstrate moderate to high stability across a 1- and 2-year time frame. Hope predicts students?? academic achievement, and life satisfaction was the strongest predictor of mental health, over 2-years. The implications of the findings are discussed with reference to prior studies and for future research.     

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale in women

This instrumental study was designed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS). The total sample was made up of 582 female college students, with a mean age of 21.68 (SD= 4.45). The results of confirmatory factor analysis identified the six-factor solution proposed by the original authors as the best factor structure, with acceptable fit indices. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .93 for the FMPS total score and ranged from .74 to .91 for the subscales. Test-retest reliability suggested a good temporal stability of the FMPS total score [ICC= .89 (95% CI= .80-.94)] and its subscales. Results showed moderate to high associations between the Spanish version of the FMPS and other measures of perfectionism. The Spanish version of FMPS has shown satisfactory psychometric properties to be used in women. Future research should replicate these findings in broader samples, in clinical populations, and use longitudinal designs to determine whether perfectionism is a risk factor for psychopathology in women.     

Evaluating a blended-learning program on developing teamwork competence

The knowledge, skills and abilities that are required to work optimally in teams are critical for many types of work. Organizations can provide access to these skills by means of training programs. Diverse studies show how traditional in-site training methodologies can improve teamwork knowledge, skills and abilities. Nevertheless, in-site methods can be complemented with on-line strategies that result in blended-learning programs. The aim of this work is to analyze, following Kirkpatrick's assessment levels, the effectiveness of a blended-learning program of teamwork training in an organizational context. Carried out with 102 professionals, the results show participants' satisfaction with the program, high level of learning (of both declarative and procedural knowledge), and a moderate level of transfer of learning to the job.     

Jews in the diaspora with <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sepharad</Emphasis> in the mirror: ruptures,relations, and forms of identity: a theme examined through three cases

Recent historiography has led to a reevaluation of the diachronic paradigm that undergirds the classic story of Iberian Jews and conversos. In line with that reevaluation, this article investigates what motivated diasporic Sephardim, especially ones with cultural and other ties to Portugal, to conserve elements of an identity that pointed to their Iberian past, such as the Portuguese and Castilian languages, as well as what one might call “Ibero-conscious” forms of self-identification. What benefits, beyond expressing a nostalgic and otherwise emotive sensibility, could accrue from the retention of these forms? How did they and similar forms facilitate the building internal, group cohesion on the basis of shared connections to a common past? How did the forms articulate the relations of New Christians to the Iberian countries and to the Iberian Empires? To reflect on these and related questions, which focus on the continuity of ties between diasporic Jews and the Iberian Peninsula, we analyze here various temporally and geographically distinct cases: The case of the converso financier and politican Joseph Nasi (formerly João Micas); the case of the Sephardi convert and anti-Jewish polemicist, João Baptista D’Este (formerly Abraham Bendanan Serfatim); and the case of Portuguese Jews in Salé, Morocco, whose wide-ranging relations with the Portuguese Jews Community of Amsterdam and with Christian Dutchmen made for complex phenomena of identity-construction.     

Does money really matter? Estimating impacts of family income on young children's achievement with data from random-assignment experiments

Social scientists do not agree on the size and nature of the causal impacts of parental income on children's achievement. We revisit this issue using a set of welfare and antipoverty experiments conducted in the 1990s. We utilize an instrumental variables strategy to leverage the variation in income and achievement that arises from random assignment to the treatment group to estimate the causal effect of income on child achievement. Our estimates suggest that a $1,000 increase in annual income increases young children's achievement by 5%-6% of a standard deviation. As such, our results suggest that family income has a policy-relevant, positive impact on the eventual school achievement of preschool children.