This study examined the relation of leadership experience to moral reasoning and the applicability of Kohlberg's approach to a collectivistically oriented, small scale, traditional society. Participants were 22 men (traditional, government, and religious leaders, and nonleaders) in Maisin villages in Papua New Guinea. The men were interviewed with Kohlberg's moral dilemmas (adapted to the setting) and with a new, culturally appropriate dilemma. Stage 3 was the highest modal stage represented in the group. Leaders used significantly higher levels of moral reasoning and more generalized, idealistic moral orientations than did nonleaders. However, the three different types of leaders did not differ significantly in their levels of reasoning. Examination of the interviews and related ethnographic material indicated that the issue of the relation of the individual to the community is a moral issue of central importance to the collectivistically oriented Maisin.

The study addressed the questions of whether support from social networks and/or support from husbands are associated with women's adjustment during pregnancy and/or postpartum. Levels of perceived stress, anxiety, depression, marital adjustment, attitude toward baby, and social support were assessed for 23 well-educated, middle-to upper middle-class women at 35 weeks gestation and at 3 months postpartum. Support from husbands was associated with good adjustment in all areas during pregnancy and with good postpartum marital adjustment. Findings regarding support from network members suggest that women who were experiencing a difficult adjustment turned to their networks for support. The absence of an inverse relationship between support and adjustment over time suggests that network support was not effective in promoting better postpartum adjustment during the time frame studied. Prebirth social support did not predict postpartum adjustment.A growing body of theoretical and empirical literature attests to the importance of social support for psychological adjustment and health. Social support can moderate depression (

No abstract

A study was undertaken to assess the influence of personal and environmental factors on the composition of children's networks and the relative amounts and use of time spent with people of various ages, sexes, and roles. Seventy-two Swedish children between the ages of eight and eleven replied to interview questions about their family members, relatives, friends, and the non-relative adults they knew. A four-way ANOVA was performed to assess the influence of the child's sex and school grade, the presence or absence of a father in the child's home, and the type of neighborhood the child lived in. Boys reported having contact with more peers more often than girls, while girls reported spending more time in peer dyads and with their families. Differences by school grade suggest movement toward fewer, more intensive friendships with school mates and away from family members. Children in father-absent homes seemed to have more limited peer networks than children in two-parent families and reported spending less time with their families. Children in neighborhoods with more commercial and social services reported knowing more adults not related to them.

No abstract