Comparative well being of Israeli youngsters in residential care with and without siblings

This paper presents the findings of a study comparing the well being and self-esteem of young adolescents (age 12-14) who were placed together with their siblings in residential facilities (intact care) in Israel and of youngsters who were placed without their siblings (separate care). The study examines the contribution of sibling relations, frequency of the meetings between the siblings, parental favoritism, age rank, time in care, self-esteem and perception of parents' economic status to the well being of the youngsters in the two groups. The findings show that the youngsters in intact care (N = 91) reported greater well being than those in separate care (N = 103), but have no other significant differences. Greater self-esteem and sibling closeness improved the well being of both groups of youngsters, but the other predictor variables functioned differently in the two groups. Greater frequency of meetings improved the well being only of the youngsters in intact care, while the other variables examined improved the well being only of those in separate care. Moreover, the examined variables accounted for a greater proportion of the variance in the youngsters' well being when the sibling was absent than when he or she was present. Practical implications are suggested.     

The Public Perception of Female and Male Violence in Marital Relationships

Most studies dealing with intimate partner violence (IPV) investigate situations where the man is the aggressor. The present study examines the participants’ social perception of IPV and the connection between social perception and the severity of the violent act and its justification when carried out by men against women and vice versa. The research is based on a structured, self-reported anonymous questionnaire answered by 240 participants. The questionnaire examined demographic variables, attitudes toward IPV, the severity of the violent act, and its justification. Findings indicate that violent behavior of women is perceived as more justified than that of men and that men’s violent behavior is perceived as more severe by women than by men, but women’s violent behavior is perceived to be equally severe by men and women. The study raises awareness of the lack of gender boundaries in violence and of gender discrimination against males.     

Fairness decisions in children and early adolescents with and without hearing loss

Although having universal aspects, development of a sense of fairness, a milestone in children's social development, is influenced by social and cultural forces. Yet, it scarcely has been studied in children who are at risk for their social development, let alone in deaf and hard‐of‐hearing (DHH) children, who have limited access to linguistic and social input. This study examined for the first time equity preferences in DHH children compared with hearing counterparts. About 179 children (8–11 years) and early adolescents (12–14 years) played four economic allocation games where they distributed coins between themselves and another child. Participants with and without hearing loss were similar in conditions that entailed non‐costly prosociality or self‐maximization. However, DHH participants showed weaker inequity aversion in more complex conditions: DHH children were more willing to allow other players to receive more coins than themselves, compared with hearing children and to DHH or hearing adolescents, and DHH adolescents were less willing to share resources when it was self‐costly, compared with all other groups. Findings are discussed in light of the tension between norms of social comparison and norms of prosociality, and how they are reflected in developmental trajectories for inequity aversion when access to these norms is limited.     

Critical context and international intrafirm best-practice transfers

The sharing and transfer of knowledge and best practices across the organization have long been recognized as a critical driver of a firm's capabilities and performance. In fact, Gupta and Govindarajan (1991) maintained that MNCs exist primarily because of their superior ability to transfer knowledge internally relative to the ability of markets. This paper examines factors that influence the success of intrafirm, cross-border knowledge transfers. We investigate the critical context similarity between best-practice source and recipient units and the impact of critical context similarity on transfer eventfulness. We argue that best practices are embedded within a set of 5 central contextual elements, which are critical to the firm's ability to utilize them. A model is developed and tested that explains the impact of context in enabling or inhibiting best-practice transfers. Our findings suggest that critical context dissimilarity inhibits best-practice transfers. The impact of congruence among the source and recipient units along the dimensions of culture, strategy, decision-making, environment and technology affects the eventfulness of the transfer in terms of time, budget and satisfaction. Additionally, the effect of the fit between the practice characteristics, and the transfer mechanisms employed, is examined.