Kicking coordination captures differences between full-term and premature infants with white matter disorder

This study explores the relation of white matter disorder (WMD) to intralimb coordination patterns in premature infants with very low birth weight (VLBW). We specifically measured the temporal-spatial characteristics of intralimb coordination patterns of the legs. Three groups of infants were compared at one month corrected age (CA): 10 premature infants born VLBW and WMD (PTWMD), 10 premature infants born VLBW without WMD (PT) and 10 full term infants (FT). Using kinematic variables, we discriminate among VLBW infants with WMD from the two comparison groups. Infants born with WMD maintain patterns of tight coupling among leg joints (all flexion or all extension) while PT and FT term infants have begun to decouple leg joints by this age (combinations of flexion with extension). The coupling pattern is captured through joint correlations, discrete relative phase, and phase plane portraits. The PTWMD infants also demonstrate aberrant patterns of coordination evident through both temporal and spatial characteristics of the kicks. This is the first evidence that movement disorder associated with brain lesions can be identified and quantified with kinematic variables as early as one month of age.     

Boundaries for career success? How work–home integration and perceived supervisor expectation affect careers

The necessity to actively manage the work–home boundaries has drastically increased. We postulate that work–home integration may affect individuals' subjective career success via its positive effects on work goal attainment and exhaustion. Furthermore, we study perceived supervisor expectation for employee work–home integration as a boundary condition. Our three-wave online survey with 371 employees showed support for the two hypothesized moderated mediation effects. Work–home integration preference is indirectly related to subjective career success: (1) positively via home-to-work transitions and work goal attainment and (2) negatively via home-to-work transitions and exhaustion. Perceived supervisor expectation constrained work–home integration preference's direct effect on home-to-work transitions and indirect effects on subjective career success. Exploratory analysis revealed that exhaustion negatively affected all career success dimensions, whereas work goal attainment was only related to some. Our results indicate that supervisor expectation can override the effect of employee's work–home integration preference on home-to-work transitions which have a double-edged sword effect on subjective career success. Our study contributes to integrating the careers and work–life interface literature and incorporating contextual factors. Furthermore, with the exploration of differential effects on subjective career success, we advance our understanding of this outcome's nomological network.     

Does my daughter like math? Relations between parent and child math attitudes and beliefs

As early as age six, girls report higher math anxiety than boys, and children of both genders begin to endorse the stereotype that males are better at math than females. However, very few studies have examined the emergence of math attitudes in childhood, or the role parents may play in their transmission. The present study is the first to investigate the concordance of multiple implicit and explicit math attitudes and beliefs between 6- and 10-year-old children and their parents. Data from implicit association tasks (IATs) reveal that both parents and their children have implicit associations between math and difficulty, but only parents significantly associated math with males. Notably, males (fathers and sons) were more likely than females (mothers and daughters) to identify as someone who likes math (instead of reading), suggesting gender differences in academic preferences emerge early and remain consistent throughout adulthood. Critically, we provide the first evidence that both mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes about math relate to a range of math attitudes and beliefs held by their children, particularly their daughters. Results suggest that girls may be especially sensitive to parental math attitudes and beliefs. Together, data indicate that children entering formal school already show some negative math attitudes and beliefs and that parents’ math attitudes may have a disproportionate impact on young girls.     

Unequal but not separate: Emergence of rich–poor cooperation in resource exchange

Addressing inequality is a critical challenge for society as a whole and requires sustained efforts to promote fairness and opportunity for all. Filling in the resource gap across social classes is essential in reducing inequality. Previous studies have revealed that ingroup favouritism hinders the rich from cooperating with the poor and expands the wealth gap. Nevertheless, how to find ways of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor remains an open question. Inducing rich–poor cooperation could be effective in eliciting resource flow across classes. In this study, two experiments using a modified Prisoner's Dilemma game were conducted in Japan (N = 213) and China (N = 150) to examine whether highlighting partners' cooperativeness under permeable group boundaries induces rich–poor cooperation. All participants were allocated to the rich group and participated in the game with programmed rich- or poor-group partner bots, whose cooperation rates were manipulated. Despite the initial resource disparities between participants and the partner bots, participants were more likely to select and cooperate with cooperative poor-group partners than with non-cooperative rich-group partners. Generalized trust played an important role in the enhancement of rich–poor cooperation. The findings shed light on the possibility of reducing inequality and promoting social mobility in society.     

Finding focus in a difficult landscape: Therapists’ experiences with challenging video guidance processes for parent–infant dyads

Marte Meo video guidance uses filmed interaction of the actual parent–infant dyad in the guidance of caregivers. Exploring the challenges that therapists meet in the guidance of parent–infant dyads may illuminate important aspects of the method itself as well as the therapists’ role and requirements. This could lead to method development and improved practice, but is hitherto little addressed. In this paper, we explore how skilled therapists experience and handle challenging or failing guidance processes with parent–infant dyads. We analyzed interviews with 13 Marte Meo therapists/supervisors using team-based reflexive thematic analysis. Four main themes were identified: promoting relational growth in a coercive context, building an alliance that feels safe for the parents, looking at positive moments in difficult lives, and handling intense feelings as a therapist. Our findings show that therapists experience specific therapeutic and ethical challenges with a vulnerable subgroup of parent–infant dyads where child protective issues arise, where caregivers’ insecurities impede the therapeutic relationship, and where caregivers have unsolved relational or mental health problems. The therapists’ role becomes pivotal and demanding with regard to the therapeutic alliance, the therapeutic interventions in the guidance process, and their own need for regulation, supervision, and structure. Identification of these vulnerable dyads early in the process could facilitate a better adaptation and practice of video guidance. Our findings suggest a need for supporting structures, clinical supervision, and training that address these challenges.     

Maternal postpartum depression is a risk factor for infant emotional variability at 4 months

Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) is a risk for disruption of mother–infant interaction. Infants of depressed mothers have been found to display less positive, more negative, and neutral affect. Other studies have found that infants of mothers with PPD inhibit both positive and negative affect. In a sample of 28 infants of mothers with PPD and 52 infants of nonclinical mothers, we examined the role of PPD diagnosis and symptoms for infants’ emotional variability, measured as facial expressions, vocal protest, and gaze using microanalysis, during a mother–infant face-to-face interaction. PPD symptoms and diagnosis were associated with (a) infants displaying fewer high negative, but more neutral/interest facial affect events, and (b) fewer gaze off events.  PPD diagnosis, but not symptoms, was associated with less infant vocal protest. Total duration of seconds of infant facial affective displays and gaze off was not related to PPD diagnosis or symptoms, suggesting that when infants of depressed mothers display high negative facial affect or gaze off, these expressions are more sustained, indicating lower infant ability to calm down and re-engage, interpreted as a disturbance in self-regulation. The findings highlight the importance of not only examining durations, but also frequencies, as the latter may inform infant emotional variability.     

The “EA brief”: A single session of parent feedback and coaching to improve emotional attachment and emotional availability (EA)

The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which a brief parenting intervention provided the context for helping families to support positive mother–child interactions as well as more optimal mother and child outcomes. Participants in this study were middle income mothers and their children were between 0–3 years of age (N = 25 dyads). Participants were filmed via Skype during a 20-minute mother–child free play and completed questionnaires (Time 1) before attending the brief intervention (involving: a single session of one-on-one parent feedback and coaching, and information via group meeting, texts, and reading) followed by a repeat of the 20-minute Skype interaction and the completion of the same questionnaires (Time 2). Paired samples t-tests were performed, revealing that mothers reported improvements in their personal well-being (using the Flourishing Scale), reports about the mother-child relationship (using the Emotional Availability Self Report), and observed interactions, particularly the child's side of the relationship (using the Emotional Availability System), from pretest to posttest. Results are discussed in terms of a single session of parent feedback and coaching (in conjunction with an informational group session and texts) potentially having a role in “planting a seed” for observed and self-reported parenting enhancement and child development.     

Therapeutic Encouragement as Conceptualized by South Korean Youth Counselors

This study explored counselors’ conceptualization and use of encouragement as a therapeutic tool. Responses to two questions from 100 South Korean youth counselors were analyzed using consensual qualitative research–modified. As a result, six categories emerged under each domain. Implications for counseling and future studies are discussed. Este estudio exploró la conceptualización y el uso del apoyo como herramienta terapéutica por parte los consejeros. Usando el método modificado de investigación cualitativa consensual, se analizaron las respuestas proporcionadas a dos preguntas por 100 consejeros surcoreanos que trabajan con jóvenes. Como resultado, surgieron seis categorías bajo cada dominio. Se discuten las implicaciones para la consejería e investigaciones futuras.