Peer Support Experienced by Mothers of Children With Congenital Heart Defects in Sweden

The aim of this study was to describe experiences of peer support among mothers of children with congenital heart defects. Ten mothers were interviewed through a semi-structured approach and interviews were analyzed with systematic text condensation. The respondents established various channels used for peer support and navigated between the channels depending on what type of information or support they needed. Through the channels, they found peers they developed strong friendships with and who they relied on for emotional support. Communicating with peers involved the reciprocal exchange of unique emotional support between peers who understand each other as well as the exchange of information derived from their collective knowledge, and thus, difficult to find without the help of peers. The findings illustrate the potential strengths of establishing reliable collaboration and liaisons between clinical units and peer support networks.

The Restorative Environment and Salutogenesis: Complementary Concepts Revisited

In this chapter, the authors consider how research on restorative environments can augment research on salutogenesis by calling attention to the dynamics of depletion and renewal of resources needed for the maintenance and promotion of health and well-being and by showing how the sociophysical environment comes into play in people’s ongoing efforts to manage diverse resources. The authors also consider how research on salutogenesis can augment research on restorative environments by encouraging a broader view of the kinds of resources that can be depleted and the different levels on which they are organised and become available. The authors thus indicate areas for more systematic, reciprocal exchange between the fields.

The Cinematic Milieu

To what extent are media technologies autonomous forces that reorganize the environment around them to accommodate their own technological needs? In what ways are these technologies responsive to the milieu they grow within? A central theme of comparative media examines how media enter into reciprocal exchange with the broader cultural, social, and economic formations in which they emerge and which differ from place to place and over time. This article draws on the concept of milieu in order to analyze the evolution of digital cinema infrastructures in contemporary Nigeria.

Facilitation of object encoding in infants by the observation of giving

We propose that humans are prepared to interpret giving as a diagnostic cue of reciprocal–exchange relations from infancy. A prediction following from this hypothesis is that infants will represent the identity of an object they see being given, because this information is critical for evaluating potential future reciprocation. Across three looking-time experiments we tested whether the observation of a transfer action induces 12-month-olds to encode the identity of a single object handled by an agent. We found that infants encoded the object identity when the agent gave the object (Experiment 1), but not when she took it (Experiment 2), despite being able to represent the goal of both actions (Experiments 1 and 3). Consistent with our hypothesis, these results suggest that the infants’ representation of giving comprises information necessary for comparing the value of transferred goods across sharing episodes.

Reciprocal and non-reciprocal employee–organization relationship: The mediating roles of felt obligation and workplace familism among collegiate coaches

This study examined coaches’ perceived organizational support (POS) on their affective commitment and turnover intention and the role played by felt obligation (a reciprocal exchange) and workplace familism (a non-reciprocal exchange) on these work-related outcomes. Based on the stratified random sampling, a total of 333 full-time head coaches employed in athletic departments affiliated with the NCAA responded to a web-based survey. Results indicated that POS was positively associated with workplace familism and felt obligation, but it did not directly predict affective commitment. POS, felt obligation, and workplace familism collectively predicted 78.1% of the variances in affective commitment. Workplace familism and affective commitment were negatively associated with turnover intention, while felt obligation was not directly associated with turnover intention. The mediated effect of felt obligation and workplace familism reveals that both types of reciprocal and non-reciprocal exchanges matter for coaches. Although, when compared, the influence of workplace familism was stronger than felt obligation. The findings of this study provide a better understanding of how POS affects positive work-related outcomes in the context of collegiate athletics and offer practical implications for athletic programs to develop the senses of felt-obligation and work familism, which lead to better employee-organization relationship.

How Does Reciprocal Exchange of Social Support Alleviate Individuals’ Depression in an Earthquake-Damaged Community?

There is ample evidence to indicate the direct effects of receiving social support on mental health during and after a disaster. However, the importance of reciprocal exchanges of social support (i.e., balanced receipt and provision of social support) in maintaining the mental health status of individuals is not widely recognized. Using equity theory and reciprocity norms as a conceptual base, we distinguished two types of social support, namely, emotional support and instrumental support, and examined the effects of reciprocal exchanges of types of support on depression in survivors of an earthquake-damaged community. To collect data, in 2019, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 295 survivors of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in a rural village in Nepal. Our results showed that the relationship between reciprocal exchange of support and depression varied depending on the types of support. The amount of emotional support received by the individual alleviated his/her depression only when accompanied by giving emotional support. By contrast, the net amount of instrumental support given by the individual increased his/her depression. The practical implications of the study are discussed.

Possibility of the transformation of reciprocal exchange into manifestations of corruptive behaviour

Despite all “non-market” nature of reciprocal interactions, it would be excessive to deny the invisible calculation of network transfers, that is, the accountability of the given and the received. In this paper, by combining the historical and the logical, the author establishes that there is a rather fine line between the reciprocal exchange and the types of corruptive behavior. The common components relate to the quality of the basis and the background, which indicates the nature and origin of corruptive practices. The exceptional and unique is manifested in different forms of manifestation of the general. The relations of trust, whose meaning is revealed based on the presented tree of the game, act as the general. The forms of manifestation of corruptive behavior have been distinguished by the method of classification. It has been noted that a reliable "safeguard" of opportunistic behavior in reciprocal exchange is a system of strict social standards. If market agreements are ensured by formal sanctions or informal forcible methods, violation of unwritten rules of conduct in the economy of gift exchange is punishable by deprivation of trust, which means excluding the entity that has not lived up to expectations from the network of reciprocal interactions. It has been noted that transaction costs under the conditions of reciprocity are quite low, because the exchange relations are personalized, and the importance of the gift is determined by its subjective value to those to whom the gift is offered. It has been established that on the one hand, the exchange of gifts and incentives within reasonable limits can be a socially acceptable component of successful business relations. However, on the other hand, if a person is authorized to perform state functions, a gift may be offered to him/her for the purpose of bribery and/or incitement to abuse of power. Since the top-down fight against corruption, as a rule, does not affect those stable and dominant stereotypes of public consciousness, standards and values that have been nurtured for decades and even hundreds of years. Thus, when developing policies to minimize corruption, it is recommended to use the methodology and results of research in the field of behavioral economics, which determines the promising areas for research on this issue.

Friendship and Trust between Medieval Princes: Affective Strategies for Navigating Intercultural Difference across the Mediterranean

This essay analyses the rhetoric of friendship in John of Sulṭāniyya’s translation of a Persian letter from the Mongol-Turkic leader Temür (Tamerlaine) to the French king Charles VI in 1402/3. It examines how the discourse of political friendship was an effective strategy for navigating intercultural difference between princely rulers across the Mediterranean in the later Middle Ages. Friendship language and practices functioned as a diplomatic paradigm for cultivating an affective attitude of trust between secular and spiritual leaders. Central to eliciting trust were performances of goodwill and the demonstrable commitment of individual parties to engage in a reciprocal exchange of benefits and obligations. Negotiating intercultural friendships enabled European elites to effect political change while adopting models of masculine authority independent of the hegemonic warrior tradition of medieval leadership.