Introduction to Special Issue of the European Journal of Population: ‘Economic Consequences of Low Fertility in Europe’

This special issue of the European Journal of Population focuses on possible economic consequences of low fertility in Europe. This introduction reviews the history of falling fertility in Europe and the literature that explores its causes, its potential implications, and possible policy responses. It also summarizes the evolution of thinking about the relationship between population growth and economic development, with attention to recent work on the mechanisms through which fertility decline can spur economic growth if the necessary supporting conditions are met. The introduction also identifies some of the challenges of population ageing that are associated with low fertility and suggests that there may be less reason for alarm than has been suggested by some observers. The articles that appear in this special issue are also summarized.     

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,Dissociation, and Neuropsychological Performance in Latina Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse

This study compared the memory, attention/concentration, and executive functioning of 12 women with histories of child sexual abuse with a control group of 12 women without childhood abuse. Participants completed a neuropsychological test battery and various instruments assessing post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociation. The child sexual abuse group had lower performance than the control group on long- and short-term visual and verbal memory and presented more limited performance on executive functioning tasks. Functioning in these areas showed a negative correlation with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative symptoms. These findings suggest that child sexual abuse is associated with memory and executive functioning deficits and supports the idea that people with trauma histories and increased post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociation symptoms may have alterations in neuropsychological functioning.     

Reconocimiento de emociones a partir de descripciones verbales

Resumen

El presente estudio supone una aplicación tentativa de la técnica del autoinforme a la codificación y decodificación de las manifestaciones corporales y expresivas asociadas al comportamiento emocional. El interés en el uso de dicha técnica radica, no tanto en la posibilidad de determinar los cambios reales asociados a la emoción, como de conocer el modo en que los sujetos recuerdan y categorizan su experiencia emocional.     

The allocation and value of time assigned to housework and child-care: An analysis for Switzerland

In this paper, data from the 1997 Swiss Labour Force Survey are used to analyse the allocation and value of time assigned to housework and child-care. It is shown that men's allocation of time to housework and child-care is largely invariant to changes in socio-economic factors. Women's allocation of time to housework and child-care, on the other hand, is shown to depend on several social, economic, and demographic factors. The value of time assigned to housework and child-care is calculated with two market replacement cost methods and three opportunity cost methods. The results show that the value of time assigned to housework and child-care ranges from 27% to 39% and from 5% to 8% of GDP (in 1997), respectively. The value of time assigned to housework and child-care is also calculated for different household structures. Received: 15 April 1999/Accepted: 5 May 2000     

Are There Gender-based Effects for an Educational Program for Parents of Adolescents With Risk Behaviors?

The goals of this study were to evaluate the gender-based effectiveness of the parental intervention of the Suspertu (“recovery” in English) prevention program for adolescents with risk behaviors in Spain. The sample included 229 parents (105 fathers and 124 mothers). One open-label trial with repeated measures was used. Parents received a family therapy and a group education. The intervention improved parents’ authoritative parenting style, decreasing the degree of parental stress and reducing parent’s psychopathological symptoms and maladjustment. Improvement in both groups (fathers and mothers) was mainly observed from pre- to post-intervention assessment. According to the results, prevention programs for adolescents with risk behaviors may be a suitable context both to teach parents to deal appropriately with their children’s risk behaviors, and to improve parent’s psychological state.     

Social innovation indicators

This article provides the results of the Regional Social Innovation Index (RESINDEX), a conceptual and empirical model that explores indicators of social innovation at organizational and regional level. The RESINDEX model links absorptive capacity of knowledge and social innovation in four types of key regional agents: profit and non-profit organizations, universities, and technological centres. The pilot application of the RESINDEX model held in the Basque Country (Spain) during the year 2013. Within the framework of this study 282 regional organizations were surveyed. The article contributes to the conceptual and empirical discussion on indicators in social innovation.     

Academic Engagement and Achievement Predict Career Adaptability

Abundant evidence indicates that personality, social, cultural, and contextual factors predict career adaptability. However, little research attends to the roles of academic engagement and achievement in career adaptability, especially in non‐Western cultural contexts. We examined the associations of perceived academic engagement dimensions (i.e., behavioral and emotional engagement) and academic achievement with facets of career adaptability among 324 Filipino high school students. Results of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate that, after controlling for age and gender, behavioral engagement served as the strongest predictor of concern, curiosity, confidence, and control. In addition, perceived academic achievement was the weakest predictor of career adaptability dimensions. Our findings underscore the benefits of integrating active involvement in school‐related tasks to foster career adaptability in high school student populations.     

MOMENT ESTIMATION IN THE CLASS OF BISEXUAL BRANCHING PROCESSES WITH POPULATION–SIZE DEPENDENT MATING

This paper concerns the estimation of the offspring mean vector, the covariance matrix and the growth rate in the class of bisexual branching processes with population‐size dependent mating. For the proposed estimators, some unconditional moments and some conditioned to non‐extinction are determined and asymptotic properties are established. Confidence intervals are obtained and, as illustration, a simulation example is given.     

Socioemotional wealth’s implications in the calculus of the minimum rate of return required by family businesses’ owners

This paper demonstrates that the minimum rate of return (k _e ) required by family business shareholders is inversely related to the emotional endowment presented in these firms. After reviewing the socioemotional wealth (SEW) literature, we find empirical support to justify that different SEW dimensions influence k _e . Findings from a population of 207 family firms show that the identification of family members with the firm and the renewal of family bonds with the firm through dynastic succession have consistently negative impacts on k _e , while family control and influence have significantly positive impacts on k _e .