Discourses on family time: the cultural interpretation of family togetherness in Los Angeles and Rome

In this article, we examine U.S. and Italian parents' discourses on family time in parent-filled weekly activity charts and interviews with parents. Analysis indicates that in Los Angeles, California, parents talk about sheltering and isolating their nuclear family from the outside world and from everyday routine by creating special times and special activities for the nuclear family. In contrast, Roman parents' discourse allows for spontaneous times with the family that are diffused within routines and merged with other community members, institutions, and social spaces. We argue that differences displayed in parents' discourses are shaped by culturally specific orientations toward time, family, and individual versus shared responsibility. Through this cross-cultural comparison we contribute to the understanding of how local cultural models shape different ways in which parents interpret time spent in family and influence individuals' perceptions of their everyday lives

Changing the game:exploring infants' participation in early play routines

Play has proved to have a central role in children’s development, most notably in rule learning (Piaget, 1965; Sutton-Smith, 1979) and negotiation of roles and goals (Garvey, 1972; Bruner et al., 1976). Yet very little research has been done on early play. The present study focuses on early social games, i.e. vocal-kinetic play routines that mothers use to interact with infants from very early on. We explored 3-month-old infants and their mothers performing a routine game first in the usual way, then in two violated conditions: without gestures and without sound. The aim of the study is to investigate infants’ participation and expectations in the game and whether this participation is affected by changes in the multimodal format of the game. Infants’ facial expressions, gaze and body movements were coded to measure levels of engagement and affective state across the three conditions. Results showed a significant decrease in Limbs Movements and expressions of Positive Affect, an increase in Gaze Away and in Stunned Expression when the game structure was violated. These results indicate that the violated game conditions were experienced as less engaging, either because of an unexpected break in the established joint routine, or simply because they were weaker versions of the same game. Overall, our results suggest that structured, multimodal play routines may constitute interactional contexts that only work as integrated units of auditory and motor resources, representing early communicative contexts which prepare the ground for later, more complex multimodal interactions, such as verbal exchanges

Understanding the Jobs-Affordable Housing Balance in the Richmond Region

The mismatch between location of jobs and housing has a significant impact on the efficiency and quality of life within metropolitan areas. A well-planned region strives to be a “community of short distances.” A wide range of housing choices located close to employment centers could shorten commuting distances and substantially reduce government outlays for transportation facilities, reduce household transportation expenses, and increase feasibility of pedestrian movement. These needs are particularly important to families earning modest wages. CURA, with support from The Community Foundation Serving Richmond and Central Virginia and the Richmond Association of Realtors, has analyzed the spatial pattern of lower-wage jobs and lower-cost housing within the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The analysis reveals how low-cost housing and modest-wage jobs in the Richmond region are not well-balanced. Few areas in which modest-wage jobs cluster have comparable levels of low-cost housing. The established suburban areas north, west, and south of Richmond’s urban center have a large number of retail and service jobs that pay modest wages, yet these areas provide few affordable-dwelling units for these wage earners. The second part of this study addressed a major obstacle to the construction of new, affordable-housing units: fears. Many new, affordable dwelling units, by financial necessity, will be built at higher densities and smaller size to reduce cost. Homeowners in nearby neighborhoods often oppose construction of these units over fear of reduced property values, higher crime, and other factors. Six higher-density, 3 lower-cost housing projects were studied for their impact on the nearby middle-income neighborhoods. Documentation of home sale prices, assessment values, and crime rates before and after construction of the more affordable dwelling units did not reveal any notable long-term impact on crime rates, property values, or property sales

Complex Trauma Exposure and Psychological Outcomes in Incarcerated Juvenile Offenders

This study examined the extent to which the lifetime traumatic and stressful experiences of incarcerated youths cluster in meaningful and understandable ways. It also evaluated the differential effects of various types of these events on a variety of psychosocial outcomes for this population. The sample consisted of 185 incarcerated male and female adolescents (ages 12-19). Confirmatory factor analysis results suggested that an empirically-derived model based on negative event type (i.e., Community Violence, Interpersonal trauma/stress, and Loss) better predicted how negative life events group together on the Adolescent Stress and Trauma Exposure Questionnaire -Version 2 (ASTEQ-2) than the model based on a traditional framework of traumatic versus less severe stressful events in this population. Further, the empirically-derived factors varied substantially in their ability to uniquely predict different psychosocial outcomes, assessed with the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSC-C) and the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress, Adolescent version (SIDES-A). For example, the Interpersonal trauma/stress factor accounted for substantially more unshared variance than other factors in TSC-C Depression and Posttraumatic stress outcomes, while the Community Violence factor accounted for substantially more unshared variance than other factors in TSC-C Anger and SIDES-A Self-Destructive Behavior outcomes. Results both partially support prior research, while also exposing its limitations with regard to the inappropriate generalization of a culturally bound trauma framework to traditionally marginalized adolescent populations

Table of Contents and Prologue

Editorial board, Table of contents, and Prologue, an introduction to volume 1

Editorial of the special section: Sharing knowledge and shaping identities in healthcare interactions

Editorial of the special section: Sharing knowledge and shaping identities in healthcare interaction

Contribution to the study of Normandina pulchella: a cytological approach

A cytological study was undertaken on Normandina pulchella (Borr.) Nyl. in order to contribute to a better knowledge of the structure of the lichen and to acquire useful information on its taxonomic arrangement. Micro- and submicroscopic observations revealed that the tallus is heteromerous, with a medullary "tissue" composed of a network of hyaline fungal threads surrounding small clumps of algal cells. These were thick-walled and exhibited a single lobate chloroplast in which a conspicuous rnetameric pyrenoid, small starch granules and lipophilic plastoglobuli were frequently present. The mycobiont had hyphae with simple perforated septa with associated Woronin bodies. The relationship between the two partners was merely of very close proximity of their cell walls and involved no fungal penetration into algal cells. The presence of Woronin bodies, exclusive of the Ascomycetes and of plastoglobuli, that were described only in the Chlorococcales phycobionts in ascolichens, indicates that in all likelyhood Normandina is a member of the ascolichens and not of basidiolichens, as previously reported by some workers.Contribución al estudio de Normandina pulchella: aproximación citológica. Para contribuir a un mejor conocimiento de la estructura de Normandina pulchella (Borr.) Nyl. y para obtener informaciones útiles para su correcta colocación taxonómica, se ha emprendido un estudio citológico sobre el liquen. Observaciones al microscopio Óptico y electrónico han revelado que el tallo del liquen es heterómero, con un tejido medular compuesto por un entrelazamiento de hifas hialinas de hongos, que rodean pequeños grupos de células algales. Éstas presentaban una pared gruesa y un cloroplast lobulado simple, en el cua1 frecuentemente estaban presentes un voluminoso pirenoide metamérico, pequeños granos de almidón y plastoglóbulos lipófilos. El micobionte tenía hifas con septos simples y corpúsculos de Woronin asociados. La relación entre los dos componentes consistia en una simple y densa aproximación de sus paredes, sin una penetración del hongo en las células algales. La presencia de los corpúsculos de Woronin, exclusivos de 10s Ascomicetes y de 10s plastoglóbulos, que han sido descritos solo en los clorococales ficobiontes de 10s ascolíquenes indica que, con toda probabilidad, Normandina es un miembro de los ascolíquenes y no de los basidiolíquenes, como había sido previamente afirmado por algunos autores