Gender Gaps in Educational Outcomes Among Children of New Migrants: The Role of Social Integration from a Comparative Perspective

This article reviews current research on gender gaps in educational outcomes among children of new migrants (first, 1.5, and second generations) from a comparative cross‐national perspective. The article examines potential explanations for why gendered differences in educational outcomes among immigrants (vis‐à‐vis non‐migrants) continue to occur, focusing on individual, schooling, and institutional factors. For example, while gender gaps in expectations and aspirations as well as some cognitive outcomes are increasing (reading ability is considerably higher among females) and shrinking in specific subjects (e.g. math and science ability is slightly higher among boys), that process often has been less explored within and across immigrant vis‐à‐vis non‐immigrant students. We show that in some countries, gender gaps among disadvantaged ethnic minorities (in relation to other groups) continue to persist and are exacerbated by institutional factors. These disadvantages vary not only across different educational systems and at different rates over time but also are based on students' social background. Overall, we argue that these educational inequalities are key to understanding not only the socioeconomic and future political adaptation of migrants and their children but also future social policy developments in the European Union context.     

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Environmental Action Scale (EAS) / Propiedades psicométricas de la versión española de la Escala de Acción Colectiva Ambiental (EACA)

The Environmental Action Scale (EAS) analyses engagement in civic actions which seek to have an environmental impact. The EAS has shown adequate psychometric properties when used with English-speaking samples, but there are no studies assessing how it works in other linguistic and cultural groups. The aim of the study is to present the Spanish version of the EAS along with evidence that supports the utility of the scale to be used in the Spanish population. The Spanish version obtained after the adaptation process was first administered to 277 participants. The results pointed to items that did not function adequately, so a revised version was created and administered to 286 participants. Validity evidence based on internal structure showed that the EAS consistently evaluates two dimensions of the construct: Participation Activities and Leadership Activities. Evidence based on relationships with other variables indicated that the construct is also related to other variables, such as environmental identity and moral convictions.     

The discourse of security in development policies: A genealogical approach to “Security Sector Reform”

Security is one of the objectives that has become associated with development policies. This article offers a genealogical perspective on this shift, focusing on the introduction of “Security Sector Reform” (SSR) into development policy as an apparatus with a two‐fold normative process. The first point of note is the securitization of development policy. This pertains both to the discourse elements of the apparatus—here, the effects of the use of security semantics—and to its political technologies, with an SSR apparatus which can function as a new label for military co‐operation. This has led to new approaches in societies where this has taken place, with threat a key focus. There has also been a process of depoliticization in the wake of technical, standardized approaches. This has sidelined debate on the norms and political choices involved, albeit implicitly. Secondly, one can observe structural ambivalences in the field, chiefly on the issue of the state and the normative contradictions of a policy to strengthen “fragile states” that relies on external intervention in national politics. The case study of Lebanon complements this analysis, highlighting the structural tensions between the various aims of SSR, and how this affects local ownership: both the perception and reception of SSR are marked by power relationships which translate into hegemonic and counter‐hegemonic labelling.     

Racial Segregation and the Black/White Achievement Gap, 1992 to 2009

In this study, we draw on longitudinal, state‐level data to analyze the impact of four distinct forms of school racial segregation on black/white achievement gaps in math and reading. Pooled time‐series analyses with two‐way fixed effects suggest that increases in black–white dissimilarity and black student isolation contribute to black/white achievement gaps, increases in black–white exposure reduce achievement gaps, and increases in exposure of black students to other minority students have no impact. We conclude by discussing the implications of school racial segregation as a source of academic achievement disparities between black and white students in the contemporary United States.     

Post‐conflict police reconstruction: Major trends and developments

Scholars have established effective and impartial policing regimes that are central to the development and maintenance of democratic states, especially in post‐conflict scenarios as the international community attempts to rebuild nations in the wake of dictatorial rule. Yet despite how common such efforts are, there remain serious gaps in the academic literature regarding this central aspect of state reconstruction. Recognizing that the model which is most commonly employed in practiced is woefully insufficient, scholars have begun to coalesce around a newer, more reflexive approach toward police reconstruction which more seriously grapples with the many political, economic, and social questions inherent to such efforts. However, despite this growth of the field, there remain significant gaps in the literature, especially around personnel recruitment and resource allocation. This article offers an explanation of these two models of post‐conflict police reconstruction, while explicating the remaining gaps in our collective knowledge.     

“Those foreigners ruin everything here”: Interactional functions of ethnic labelling among pupils in the Netherlands

This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of ethnic labelling practices by examining their interactional functions among secondary school pupils in Venlo, the Netherlands. Pupils with migration backgrounds often labelled themselves and others “Turk,” “Moroccan,” or “foreigner,” and labelled others “Dutch.” The paper highlights that ethnic labelling can be understood not only as identity construction, but also as interactional work. I build on membership categorization analysis (MCA), complemented by conversation analysis (CA), to analyse how pupils’ use of ethnic labels evoked an expert role which altered interactants’ power positions; and how, often, pupils engaged in jocular mockery with ethnic labels and in that way mitigated the effects of exclusionary and stigmatizing discourses about people with migration backgrounds. Finally, I argue that pupils’ labelling practices had locally occasioned meanings and functions, but that they ultimately reflect wider‐spread systems of categorization and marginalization of people with migration backgrounds in the Netherlands.     

Interdisciplinary Studies of Childhood Ethics: Developing a New Field of Inquiry

The principal aim of this investigation was to help develop ‘Interdisciplinary Studies of Childhood Ethics’ as a new field of inquiry. We identified: (i) current intra‐disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge gaps in childhood ethics; and (ii) priorities for future research and development. A prominent problem, highlighted within and across disciplines, relates to how the best interests standard should be reconciled with the recognition of children as agents. This project makes an innovative contribution by promoting the development of interdisciplinary childhood ethics knowledge and standards, informing future improvements in childhood research and services.     

Work‐Related Health Limitations,Education, and the Risk of Marital Disruption

Despite progress in identifying the covariates of divorce, there remain substantial gaps in the knowledge. One of these gaps is the relationship between health and risk of marital dissolution. I extend prior research by examining the linkages between work‐related health limitations and divorce using 25 years of data (N = 7919) taken from the 1979 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY‐79). I found that work‐related health limitations among husbands, but not wives, were linked to an increased risk of divorce. In addition, I found that this relationship was moderated by education in a fashion that varies according to race. For White men, education exacerbated the effect of health limitations, but for Black men, education attenuated the effects of work‐related health limitations.     

Paternal Hostility and Maternal Hostility in European American and African American Families

The authors examined the hypothesized influence of maternal and paternal hostility on youth delinquency over time. The investigation addressed significant gaps in earlier research on parental hostility, including the neglect of father effects, especially in African American families. Using prospective, longitudinal data from community samples of European American (n = 422) and African American (n = 272) 2‐parent families, the authors examined the independent effects of paternal and maternal hostility on youth delinquency. The results indicated that paternal hostility significantly predicted relative increases in youth delinquent behaviors above and beyond the effects of maternal hostility; conversely, maternal hostility did not predict youth delinquency after controlling for paternal hostility. Multiple‐group analyses yielded similar results for both ethnic groups and for boys and girls. These results underscore the importance of including both parents in research on diverse families. Neglecting fathers provides an incomplete account of parenting in relation to youth development.     

What do social entrepreneurs need to walk their talk? Understanding the attitude–behavior gap in social impact assessment practice

The topic of social impact assessment (SIA) is growing in importance, and this is especially true for social enterprises. The mission of solving social problems is the main feature of these organizations; thus, the need to assess the extent to which this mission is fulfilled becomes essential. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model that could explain the attitude–behavior gap in SIA practice through the development of a coherence/displacement matrix, to gauge if social entrepreneurs are coherent in “walking their talks.” The study is based on a mixed‐methods approach focused on the Italian context. An empirical quantitative analysis has been performed to identify the misalignment between attitude and behavior. The gaps that emerged are then analyzed through in‐depth interviews with social entrepreneurs, to provide a pilot case study that could test the model and gain further insights into how those gaps could be filled.     

Psychiatric Labelling and the Imputation of Mental Illness by Jurors

Abstract

Previous research suggests that jurors in defense-of-insanity trials are influenced significantly more by defendent behavior than by professional psychiatric diagnoses. This finding would appear to refute labelling theory's emphasis on societal reaction as equally or more important in the development of a deviant career. These earlier studies of jury decision making, however, were not designed as tests of the labelling perspective and the results must therefore be regarded as inconclusive. The study reported here represents an attempt to reassess the issue of the relative influence of defendent behavior and psychiatric labelling on jurors while allowing for conflicting testimony and operationalizing behavior in terms of residual rule-breaking. Defendent behavior again emerges as the variable with the greatest explanatory power, but the findings do provide evidence of a significant labelling effect as well. Implications for labelling theory and defense-of-insanity trials are discussed.     

CAN SCHOOL SPORTS REDUCE RACIAL GAPS IN TRUANCY AND ACHIEVEMENT?

While existing research supports that participation in high‐school athletics is associated with better education and labor‐market outcomes, the mechanisms through which these benefits accrue are not well established. Using individual microdata collected daily, and team‐specific schedules, we retrieve estimates of the causal effect of high‐school athletic participation on absenteeism, suggesting that participation decreases absences, driven primarily by reductions in unexcused absences in boys. There are also strong game‐day effects in truancy, in both boys and girls, with truancy declines on game days more than offset by subsequent absenteeism. Important heterogeneity by race, gender, and family structure may serve to substantially reduce racial gaps in truancy and achievement. (JEL I21, L83)     

FDI AND INCOME INEQUALITY: EVIDENCE FROM A PANEL OF U.S. STATES

This study employs state‐level panel data to explore the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and income inequality in the United States. Using panel cointegration techniques that allow for cross‐sectional heterogeneity and cross‐sectional dependence, we find that, in the long run, FDI exerts a significant and robust negative effect on income inequality in the United States. This result for the United States as a whole does not imply that FDI narrows income gaps in each individual state. There is considerable heterogeneity in the long‐run effects of FDI on income inequality across states, with some states (21 out of 48 cases) exhibiting a positive relationship between FDI in income inequality.(JEL F21, D31, C23)     

STEREOTYPE THREAT AND THE STUDENT‐ATHLETE

Achievement gaps may reflect the cognitive impairment thought to occur in evaluative settings (e.g., classrooms) where a stereotyped identity is salient (i.e., stereotype threat). This study presents an economic model of stereotype threat that reconciles prior evidence on how student effort and performance are influenced by this social‐identity phenomenon. This study also presents empirical evidence from a framed field experiment in which students at a selective college were randomly assigned to a treatment that primed their awareness of a negatively stereotyped identity (i.e., student‐athlete). This social‐identity manipulation reduced the test‐score performance of athletes relative to non‐athletes by 12%. These negative performance effects were concentrated among male student‐athletes who also responded to the social‐identity manipulation by attempting to answer more questions. (JEL I2, C9, D0)     

Neighborhood and School Factors in the School Performance of Immigrants’ Children1

This article examines the effects of neighborhoods and schools on the achievement gaps between adolescents of different nativities and ethnicities. We show that neighborhood and school conditions are better for natives’ than for immigrants’ children, and they are the worst for Hispanic immigrants. Using cross‐classified hierarchical models, we find that introducing neighborhood and school characteristics helps to account for the disadvantage of Mexican immigrants’ children but to reveal the advantage of Filipino immigrants’ children, compared to native non‐Hispanic Whites. Neighborhood and school effects are not universal: they influence school performance of immigrants’ children more than that of natives’ children.     

Internal Migration and Spanish Regional Convergence (1972–1998)

The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between internal migration and Spanish regional convergence between 1972 and 1998, a period between the mass emigration prior to the 1970s and the mass immigration of the end of the twentieth century. The main results indicate that internal migration led to a fall in Spanish regional development gaps. However, internal migration did not lead to the disappearance of these gaps in the long term. Some regions will always receive workers, others will send them out and a third group will experience a sequence of migration reversals. The econometric methodology used allows us to identify structural breaks and to differentiate between long‐ and short‐term effects. This approach enables predictions to be made for internal migration flows in the long term in the absence of shocks.     

Opposition to enlargement as a symbolic defence of group position: multilevel analyses of attitudes toward candidates' entries in the EU‐25

Despite the sociological and geopolitical significance of EU enlargement and opinion toward it, extant literature is lacking a theory of enlargement opinion and an examination of opinion in the wake of the 2004 enlargement. This paper fills these gaps by developing a symbolic defence of group position model to explain opposition to the entries of candidate states (as of 2005: Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Turkey) and to examine how these explanations differ for post‐Communist EU members. Results of hierarchical multinomial logistic models of Eurobarometer ( European Commission 2005 ) data from the EU‐25 support the notion that the symbolic nature of enlargement shapes the effects of interests, threat, and other factors on opinion depending on candidates' position in a culturally and historically‐rooted hierarchy of ‘European‐ness’. Attitudes toward Turkey's entry are less shaped by material interests than attitudes toward other candidates' entries, which is explained by Turkey's position at the bottom – and post‐Communist countries' position in the middle – of this hierarchy in the post‐Cold War era. Attitudes toward Turkey's entry are rather a function of the perceived threat that it poses to the group position and identity of Europeans, which is defended by the politically knowledgeable. While the lower levels of threat in post‐socialist EU member countries help to account for their lower levels of opposition to candidates' entries, people in these countries to a greater extent use European identity as a way of symbolically distancing themselves from Turkey. Implications are discussed.     

Personal Network Characteristics as Predictors of Change in Obesity Risk Behaviors in Early Adolescence

The potential for peers to influence obesity risk behavior increases in adolescence, yet there are knowledge gaps of how behaviors are modified in response to peers over time. This study examined how personal friendship network characteristics were associated with obesity‐related behaviors from late childhood to early adolescence. Two waves of friendship, physical activity, screen time, and dietary recall data were collected from 11‐ to 13‐year‐old students (99% retention) in Australia (n = 308) over a five‐ to eight‐month period. Regression models identified friendship network characteristics that predicted later health behaviors which varied by gender and behavior type, such as the number of friends positively associated with physical activity intensity (males) and screen time (females). The need for considering context to influence behavior change is discussed.