Transnational Advocates and Labor Rights Enforcement in the North American Free Trade Agreement

This article investigates the impact of trade‐based social clauses on labor rights enforcement. Drawing on insights from recent theoretical work on transnational advocacy networks and labor rights, the study examines how transnational groups and domestic actors engage the labor rights mechanisms under the NAFTA labor side agreement, the NAALC. A statistical analysis of original data drawn from NAALC cases complements interviews with key participants to analyze the factors that predict whether the three national mediation offices review labor dispute petitions. This study suggests that transnational activism is a key factor in explaining petition acceptance. Transnational advocates craft petitions differently from other groups and, by including worker testimony in the petitions, signal to arbitration bodies the possibility of corroborating claims through contact with affected workers.     

Patterns of Aggressive Behavior and Peer Victimization from Childhood to Early Adolescence: A Latent Class Analysis

The developmental period characterized by the transition from childhood and elementary school to early adolescence and middle school has been associated with increases in aggressive behavior and peer victimization. Few longitudinal studies, however, have examined the stability of aggression and victimization during this critical transition. This study uses latent class analysis (LCA) to examine patterns of aggressive behavior and victimization during the transition to middle school among urban, public school students (N = 458; Girls = 53%; Latino/a = 53%; M age at t1 = 10.2 years). Independent LCA models were conducted using self-reported data assessing subjects’ involvement in aggressive conduct and victimization during the spring semesters of grades four, five, and six. Elementary school students in the fourth grade initially belonged to one of four groups identified as aggressor, victim, aggressor-victim, and uninvolved latent classes. Contrary to prior research, membership in these classes changed significantly by the time students completed their first year of middle school with most youth participating in episodes of aggression and victimization during the transition. Six common paths that describe patterns of aggressive behavior and victimization from the last two years of elementary school to the first year of middle school were found. Findings are discussed in the context of social dominance theory and prior research that has found greater stability in aggression and victimization among early adolescents.     

Gender roles in marriage: What do they mean for girls' and boys' school achievement?

This study explored the implications of parents' traditional vs. egalitarian marital roles for girls' and boys' patterns of math and science achievement in 67 families with young adolescents. Marital roles were measured in terms of parents' relative involvement in child-oriented activities (e.g., in egalitarian families mothers and fathers participated equally in child-oriented activities). Findings revealed that girls from egalitarian families maintained a high level of achievement across the transition to the seventh grade, whereas girls from traditional families declined in math and science performance. For boys, no significant patterns emerged. Additional analyses revealed that egalitarian and traditional families differed in terms of absolute levels of paternal involvement, parents' sex-role attitudes, and indices of marital power. Our findings were consistent with a person-process-context model of development: Egalitarian and traditional contexts were characterized by different family processes and had different implications for boys and girls.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (RO1HD21050), Ann C. Crouter and Susan M. McHale, co-principal investigators.Research focuses on gender role socialization in the family.Research interests include children's and adolescents' family relationships.Research focuses on the links between parental work and family dynamics.     

The relationships among self-blame, psychological distress, and sexual victimization

The primary purpose of this investigation is to assess the factor structure of survivors' attributions for previously experienced sexual assaults. Two hundred twenty-four female survivors of sexual assault responded to measures assessing attributions for past assaults, perceived avoidability of future assaults, frequency of past victimizations, and psychological distress. Factor analysis of the attributions measure suggested five underlying factors: perpetrator blame, characterological self-blame, situational factors and/or chance blame, behavioral self-blame, and societal blame. Results indicated that characterological self-blame, but not behavioral self-blame, was associated with negative outcomes, including increased psychological distress and increased frequency of past victimization. Although behavioral self-blame was associated with perceived avoidability of future assaults, it was not associated with lower psychological distress or reduced frequency of past victimizations.