Maternal speech to infants at 1 and 3 months of age

The goal of this study was to assess maternal speech and in relation to changes in infant social behavior occurring around the second month post birth. Sixty infants interacted with their mother at 1 and 3 months of age in a face-to-face context. At 3 months, infants gazed, smiled, and positively vocalized significantly more than at 1 month. These findings point to a transition in infant social behavior at around the second month post birth. In addition, maternal speech to infants increased between these times in both amount and complexity, possibly in response to an increase in infant social behavior. Maternal speech was related to infant positive vocalizing at 3 months, suggesting mothers especially monitored infant vocalizing at 3 months. Individual differences in maternal speech were stable across visits.     

Terrorism as a process: a critical review of Moghaddam's "Staircase to Terrorism"

This study reviews empirical evidence for Moghaddam's model "Staircase to Terrorism," which portrays terrorism as a process of six consecutive steps culminating in terrorism. An extensive literature search, where 2,564 publications on terrorism were screened, resulted in 38 articles which were subject to further analysis. The results showed that while most of the theories and processes linked to Moghaddam's model are supported by empirical evidence, the proposed transitions between the different steps are not. These results may question the validity of a linear stepwise model and may suggest that a combination of mechanisms/factors could combine in different ways to produce terrorism.     

Recapturing the power of ritual to enhance community in aging

Ritual returns us to the center of who we are. In times of transition, loss, disconnection, and loneliness, ritual offers transformative power. It can provide a language for expression, stability, serve an integrating force in community, mediate tradition, and offer emotional support. This article explores the need for ritual in coping with late life changes, the relationship of ritual to suffering, value of ritual in storytelling and mourning, and explains the role of witness facilitated through community. Therapeutic functions of ritual are addressed and a framework for ritual design is suggested.     

Same-Gender Couple Therapy: Creating New Objects in Intimacy and Parenehood Transition

The formation of same-gender couple and parental relationships is described and analyzed from a combined relational and couple therapy. The parenthood transition of a homosexual couple into a family structure, that includes two biological parents and a stepfather, creates tremendous turbulence and crises. The couple link is transformed throughout critical and major changes from a two-ness unit into a four- one, which develops unique relationships with the mother and the baby. This paper presents how therapists can treat and intervene in both intra-psychic gender crises as well as inter-psychic breakdowns of the couple shared reality. The therapeutic processes highlight the transformative changes that the homosexual couple has to experience in order to accept the loss of previous accomplishments in gender identity and love relationships. In addition, therapy helps to disentangle co-joint couple objects while creating new shared spaces.Aviva Mazor, PhD, is at the Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv, 69978, Israel (A-mazor@netvision.net.il). She received a PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her current research is in combined relational and family therapy with alternative families, separation processes from multigenerational perspective, and the post-traumatic effects of holocaust child-survivors.     

面向“为学习而测评”的纵向认知诊断模型

基于“为学习而测评”的理念,以促进学生学习为目的,客观量化学习现状并提供诊断反馈的测评模式日益受到重视。相比于横断认识诊断测评,纵向认知诊断测评更有利于实现促进学生发展的目标。为使国内学者系统性地了解纵向认知诊断模型,首先,依据建模逻辑将已有纵向认知诊断模型划分为基于潜在转换分析的和基于高阶潜在结构模型的两类,并逐一介绍和说明两类模型的理论基础和应用情景;然后,通过模拟研究为读者呈现如何使用纵向认知诊断模型进行数据分析及如何解读相应的诊断结果。最后,提炼出四个可进一步研究的议题。     

From ultrafast to slow: Heating rate dependence of the glass transition temperature in metallic systems

When a solid crosses the glass transition, viscous flow sets in and the glass transforms into a supercooled liquid. The glass transition temperature exhibits a heating rate dependence which was previously observed to follow a Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann (VFT) equation. Here we report on a change in the heating rate dependence of the glass transition, determined by the distinct increase in the specific heat capacity, of a metallic glass. We combine standard techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry with recently developed ohmic heating techniques in order to cover seven orders of magnitude in heating rate. Contrary to previous reports, our results show that the change of the glass transition temperature cannot be described by a single VFT equation. Instead we find two distinct regimes which independently follow a VFT expression.     

Cognitive bias modification as a strategy to reduce children's fears and concerns about the secondary school transition

Background and objectives: Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) has emerged as an anxiety-reducing tool for children and adolescents, targeting maladaptive interpretations of everyday situations. This literature falls short of addressing whether the effects of CBM-I extend to worries about a real-life stressor, such as a school transition. Design: The study comprised a between-groups design comparing the effects of CBM-I to an active control (AC) intervention in children. Method: We recruited 38 children within two months of their primary–secondary school transition and investigated the capacity for multi-session, parent-administered CBM-I, compared to an AC condition, to modify cognitive style and reduce anxiety symptoms and school concerns. Results: While benign interpretations increased significantly and negative interpretations tended to decrease following CBM-I, both interventions significantly reduced anxiety symptoms and school concerns. Conclusions: These findings indicate that anxiety-reducing effects of CBM-I in children extend to a real life stressful event, but that equivalent anxiety reduction may be achieved through exposure to potentially worrying situations and parent–child interaction in the absence of bias modification.     

Risk and Protective Processes Predicting Rural African American Young Men's Substance Abuse

Informed by a life course perspective, this study tested a cascade model linking harsh, unresponsive parenting during childhood to young African American men's substance abuse via precocious transitions, economic instability, and future orientation. The moderating influence of community disadvantage and romantic partner support on the hypothesized pathways was also examined. At the baseline, the sample included 505 African American men between ages 19 and 22 years from high‐poverty rural communities. Follow‐up data were collected 18 months after baseline. Using structural equation modeling, we identified harsh, unresponsive parenting influenced precocious transitions in adolescence, which in turn increased economic instability during young adulthood. Economic instability was associated with a reduction in future orientation, a proximal influence on increases in substance abuse. Also, residence in a disadvantaged community amplified the influence of precocious transitions on economic instability and the influence of economic instability on future orientation. Involvement with supportive romantic partnership evinced a protective effect, attenuating the influence of precocious transitions on economic instability and the influence of economic instability on a future orientation. This study expands understanding of young adults’ substance abuse by demonstrating the risk and protective processes linking substance abuse to developmental factors across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.     

‘I still have difficulties feeling like a mother’: The transition to motherhood of preterm infants mothers

Objective: The premature birth of their infant can constitute a sudden interruption of the transition to motherhood that requires a reorganisation of the process. The present study aimed to analyse the experience of the transition to motherhood of preterm infants’ mothers, framing it within Stern’s transition to motherhood theory.

Method: A semi-structured interview was administered to 30 mothers during the recovery of the infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The interview explored the experience of mothers related to pregnancy, the infant’s birth and recovery.

Results: Thematic Analyses evidenced four interrelated themes: disconnection from the child, perception of maternal inadequacy, loss of parental role and temporal suspension. The themes showed that the mothers’ experience of preterm birth not only concerns the traumatic delivery, but is also embedded in the entire process of becoming a mother within an institutional context.

Conclusions: Results were connected to Stern’s theory. Findings revealed difficulties for preterm mothers that could affect the development of the maternal constellation and thus their transition to motherhood. These difficulties may influence the construction of maternal identity, mother’s representation of their child and the bond with their child.