Psychological adaptation among second-generation Moroccan adolescents: associations with sense of community and country of residence

ABSTRACT

Increasing evidence suggests that immigrant youths’ social integration varies widely across national contexts, but the factors explaining this variation at the individual and societal levels are still under debate. Drawing upon developmental and community psychology approaches, the current study aimed to investigate psychological adaptation in terms of life satisfaction, self-esteem, and psychological problems among second-generation Moroccan adolescents and their national peers in the Netherlands and Italy. Furthermore, we examined the role of sense of community (SoC) in these youths’ outcomes. Participants were 90 Moroccan-origin and 208 national adolescents aged between 17 and 20 years, who completed a questionnaire survey. Results indicated that life satisfaction was overall higher in the Netherlands than in Italy. Moreover, Moroccan and Dutch youth reported similar levels of self-esteem and psychological problems, whereas Italian youths fared less well than their Moroccan peers. The positive association between SoC and life satisfaction was stronger for Moroccan adolescents in both countries; SoC was related to higher self-esteem and fewer psychological problems, but only in Italy. The findings suggest that characteristics of the host society are crucial for the psychological adjustment of second-generation Moroccan adolescents, and that programs targeting SoC may boost these youths’ positive adaptation and social integration.     

Career Decision Making for Korean International College Students: Acculturation and Networking

The authors examined the relationship among acculturation, career networking, and career decision self‐efficacy for Korean international college students. Networking is an essential skill for career success, and acculturation is connected to career outcomes for diverse populations; however, little research has examined the relationship between these factors. A total of 172 Korean international students (117 women, 54 men, 1 not reported) completed measures of acculturation; networking comfort, intensity, and proactivity; and career decision self‐efficacy. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found acculturation to affect career decision self‐efficacy through networking. The relationships among acculturation, networking, and career decision self‐efficacy indicated a medium to large effect size. These findings indicate that career counselors should collaboratively attend to acculturation concerns, such as stress and identity development, as well as provide opportunities for networking skill development. More research is needed on acculturation and networking among additional international student populations.     

Politics,Not Economic Interests: Determinants of Migration Policies in the European Union1

In this article we examine the determinants of European Union (EU) migration policies. We look at the passage of six pieces of migration and immigrant integration legislation in the fifth European Parliament (1999–2004). Based on the sixty‐one roll‐call votes on these bills we create a “migration score” for each Member of the European Parliament. We then use regression analysis to investigate the determinants of these scores. We find that the strongest determinants of policy outcomes on migration issues in this arena are the left‐right preferences of EU legislators. These are stronger predictors than the economic preferences of national parties’ constituents or the economic interests or political preferences of the member states.     

Social determinants of health in the Human Services: a conceptual model and road map for action

The Social Determinants of Health Framework is well known as a reliable way to understand and predict poor health outcomes and health inequities among individuals who are disproportionately impacted by poverty, discrimination, residential segregation, and other social problems. Since becoming recognized by the public health profession as key to addressing the root causes of poor health among these individuals, integration of social determinants of health (SDOH) interventions in the health-care industry has become a national and global priority. This essay offers a theoretical and practical explanation of the integration of the SDOH in the Human Services by proposing key recommendations and strategies for Human Services Organizations (HSOs) and providers to implement new practices, policies, and research methods that may ameliorate the conditions that create inequities in health.     

Discrimination,mental health,and body image among transgender and gender-non-binary individuals: Constructing a multiple mediational path model

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships among discrimination, mental health, and body image in a national sample of transgender adults. Participants (N = 78) identified as transgender, genderqueer, or other gender-non-binary identities and were recruited via a national online survey. Harassment/rejection, work/school, and other discrimination explained 10.4% of the variance in body appreciation, while satisfaction with life, anxiety, self-esteem, and depression explained 60.7%. Within these models, harassment/rejection was inversely associated with body appreciation, while self-esteem and satisfaction with life were positively associated. A series of path models moving from a measurement model to a more parsimonious and excellent-fitting model found that the effect of harassment/rejection on body appreciation was fully mediated by self-esteem and satisfaction with life, resulting in a multiple mediation.     

American trade unions and public approval: Can unions please all of the people all of the time?

Public opinion about labor unions has long been viewed as an important determinant of industrial relations outcomes. Yet, analyses of changes in union popularity over time have been largely qualitative and have focused on the impact of short-term idiosyncratic events. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the determinants of American public approval of unions from 1936 to 1991. Hypotheses relating to the union wage advantage, strike activity, the national unemployment rate, and World War II, receive the strongest support. The implications of these results for organized labor and future research on attitudes toward unions are discussed.     

Effects of goal-striving stress on the mental health of black Americans

Although many scholars have theorized about how responding to the stress of blocked opportunities can affect the well-being of black Americans, few scholars have empirically examined the relationships between striving efforts, personal goals, and mental health among black Americans. This investigation examines the relationship between goal-striving stress and mental health in a national sample of black Americans. Results indicate that goal-striving stress is significantly related to lower levels of happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and higher levels of psychological distress. We find that poverty status moderates the relationship between goal-striving stress and mental health. Compared to poorer persons, individuals above poverty with high goal-striving stress have significantly lower levels of happiness and life satisfaction. Overall, the findings provide a more complete context for understanding associations among socioeconomic status, goal-striving stress, and adverse mental health outcomes among black Americans.     

The Impact of Aging on Human Sexual Activity and Sexual Desire

This article empirically studies how much aging modifies human sexual activity and sexual desire, and what the most important determinants in this change are. The analyses are based on 2 representative national sex surveys conducted in Finland in the 1990s. As a result of female widowhood, aging men had a higher incidence of sexual intercourse compared with aging women; and in relationships, women were more likely than men to report lack of sexual desire. In regression analysis, age was a predictor of sexual activity but not of sexual desire, when controlling for the impact of other factors. Relationship duration did not play an important role in sexual activity or sexual desire when controlling for a number of other variables. Sexual desire, valuing sexuality, and a healthy partner were important to female sexual activity; and high sexual self-esteem, good health, and active sexual history were important to male sexual activity. To keep up their sexual desire, both men and women needed good health, good sexual functioning, positive sexual self-esteem, and a sexually skilful partner.     

From childhood to young adulthood: the importance of self-esteem during childhood for occupational achievements among young men and women

This study investigates the impact of self-esteem during childhood on men’s and women’s occupational prestige in young adulthood. By combining first-hand information from parents in the Swedish Level-of-Living surveys (LNU) 2000 and their children in the Child-LNU in 2000 and the follow-up study in LNU-2010, we are able to assess how self-esteem during adolescence is related to occupational prestige in adulthood. Multivariate analyses were used to determine whether associations between self-esteem (global and domain-specific) in childhood (aged 10–18 years) and occupational prestige in young adulthood (aged 20–28) exist and, if so, what the magnitudes of these associations are for each respective gender.

For women, there is a positive association between confidence in mathematics and prestige, even when accounting for actual math grades. Global self-esteem is positively related to later occupational prestige as well. For men, self-esteem is unrelated to occupational prestige. Only actual performance in mathematics is important for men’s occupational achievements.

These results indicate the importance of taking gender differences into account when investigating how self-esteem is related to outcomes in young adulthood. A possible implication is the importance of focusing on the development of self-esteem among children, particularly girls, in school.     

Personal Wellbeing of Participants of Social Purpose Enterprises: The Influence of Social Support

This paper examines the effects of practical and emotional social support to changes in personal and vocational wellbeing of employees and training participants of social purpose enterprises. This study finds that among participants with lower baseline optimism and self-esteem, those who found the practical social support from their organization to be more relevant to their work outcomes had significantly higher optimism and self-esteem at the time of the survey, compared to other low baseline participants who had assigned less importance to their work-centred practical support. Social support did not influence those with high baseline scores in optimism and self-esteem, or changes to self-efficacy and vocational identity. Implications on support intervention within social purpose enterprises and for the broader field of social enterprise research are discussed.     

Relational demography in the workplace and health: an analysis of gender and the subordinate-superordinate role-set

Using data from a 2005 national survey of working adults in the United States, we examine the effects of the gender composition of the superordinate-subordinate role-set on mental and physical health measures. Subordinates' and superordinates' genders are important determinants. Men who work in gender-mixed superordinate contexts (i.e., with one male and one female superior) report lower levels of distress and physical symptoms than men who work with one male superior. Women who work with one male superior report less distress and fewer physical symptoms compared to women who work with one female superior or in gender-mixed superordinate contexts. With a few exceptions, these observations generally hold net of occupation, job sector, and an array of work-related conditions. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of predictions derived from the similarity-attraction and role congruity theories. We also outline ways that theoretical development in relational demography can be refined by a more specific focus on the demographic characteristics--especially gender--of the superordinate-subordinate role-set.     

Estimating the Effects of Parental Divorce and Death With Fixed Effects Models

The authors used child fixed effects models to estimate the effects of parental divorce and death on a variety of outcomes using 2 large national data sets: (a) the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (kindergarten through the 5th grade) and (b) the National Educational Longitudinal Study (8th grade to the senior year of high school). In both data sets, divorce and death were associated with multiple negative outcomes among children. Although evidence for a causal effect of divorce on children was reasonably strong, effect sizes were small in magnitude. A second analysis revealed a substantial degree of variability in children's outcomes following parental divorce, with some children declining, others improving, and most not changing at all. The estimated effects of divorce appeared to be strongest among children with the highest propensity to experience parental divorce.     

The compensation of national union presidents: Moderating effects of union size

Over the last forty years numerous reseachers from the fields of economics, finance, and human resources management have proposed and empirically evaluated a number of models in efforts to identify determinants of executive compensation. Recently, similar research efforts have been undertaken to identify compensation determinants for union officers, both at the local and national levels. As an extension of these works, this study found measures of union financial strength, job complexity, performance and tenure in office to be directly related to national union presidents’ compensation. Although union income and relative union member earnings were the strongest determinants of officer compensation for the sample of unions as a whole, analyses of three subgroups of unions based on size revealed very different findings for large as opposed to small and medium-sized unions.     

The Impact of Migrant Remittances on School Attendance and Education Attainment: Evidence from Jordan

This paper evaluates the impact of migrant remittances on human capital accumulation among youth. An augmented human capital model with two outcomes, education attendance and education attainment, is estimated using a large nationally representative household survey from Jordan. Empirical results show that migrant remittance receipt has a positive effect on education attendance. This finding is obtained while controlling for other socio‐economic determinants of schooling behavior and is robust to censorship and endogeneity bias. The results also indicate that the magnitude of the remittance impact on both education outcomes is larger for men compared with that of women.     

Culture and personality in international schools: are trait differences in students’ personalities attenuated or amplified?

International schools provide a unique context for examining the influence of culture on adolescent personality and identity. In order to investigate whether intercultural education attenuates or amplifies known cultural differences in personality, the traits of 81 students from Chinese, North American, and mixed Chinese-North American cultural backgrounds were assessed. An online version of a Five Factor Model (FFM) personality inventory was used to measure personality. Students participating in the study attended a large, American international high school in Hong Kong. Despite previous studies showing cultural differences in personality, MANOVA results yielded no significant differences between the personality traits of students from Chinese, North American or mixed Chinese-North American cultural backgrounds. The findings support theories that propose intercultural schooling is associated with acculturation. Paradoxically, numerous qualitative investigations of cultural identity have concluded that a more distinctive, amplified cultural identity emerges when individuals move to more multicultural environments. The paper considers these different findings and the role of personality in culturally diverse classrooms. Implications for intercultural education are discussed.     

Testing an explanatory model of the development of depressive symptoms in young women during a life transition

Factors to explain the rising incidence of depressive symptoms among young women making the transition from home to university life were investigated. A path analysis of data from 213 18- and 19-year-old women entering a large university indicated that negative life events, interpersonally derived social support, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms were significantly related. Negative life events that affected the women's self-esteem (drawn from the women's performance in interpersonal relationships) were most strongly associated with depressive symptoms, and self-esteem derived through efficacy (i.e., taking control and acting assertively) was not associated with negative events. The women in the sample appeared to derive efficacy self-esteem from relationships. An analysis of the data supported developing interventions to improve interpersonal relationships rather than focusing on competence in gaining access to resources.     

Blame analysis: Accounting for the behavior of protected groups

When a group is not doing as well as other groups on some dimension, group members and sympathizers give accounts that attempt to minimize the group’s blame for its predicament. These accounts reflect concerns about prejudice, as well as policy concerns. This approach to social science may be called “blame analysis,” because it evaluates theories according to the extent to which they blame protected groups. Blame analysis treats cause and blame as the same, and rejects theoretical arguments that posit any causal role for the protected group because they “blame the victim.” As a result, discussions of proximate causes and mediating variables are avoided in explanations of outcomes for these groups. The author argues that this approach violates scientific principles and discourages the investigation of important issues. He is a social psychologist who does research on interpersonal violence and on the determinants and consequences of self-appraisals.     

Placing the Horse in Front of the Wagon: Toward a Conceptual Understanding of the Development of Self-Esteem in Children and Adolescents

Existing research on self-esteem among children and adolescents has focused on defining self-esteem, measuring self-esteem, and indicating variables that influence self-esteem. However, limited research and thought has been given to explain conceptually how self-esteem is developed and maintained. This paper suggests that the existing literature lacks a theoretical conceptualization of how self-esteem is developed and provides a three-pronged conceptualization indicating that associations, activities, and aural support develop and maintain self-esteem. The conceptualization provided has research, policy, and programmatic implications.     

Income distributions,labour market sectors and the Goldschmidt hypothesis: the nonmetropolitan United States in 1970 and 1980

Local social structures are not simply their national counterparts writ small. There are autonomous, locality-specific influences which have a significant bearing on variations in socio-economic conditions. To show this. this paper concentrates on two measures of income distribution — family/household income inequality and poverty rates. Drawing on data from a one-in-six systematic sample of nonmetropolitan U.S. counties for 1970 and 1980, variations in these conditions are evaluated in the context of labour market segmentation and Goldschmidt's ideas on the socio-economic consequences of large-scale farms. The direct effects of these causal forces are shown to be influenced by the employment structures of local labour markets. The most important determinants of income distribution differences within labour market types are shown to be monopoly sector employment, competitive sector employment, large farm holdings, nonwhite population compositions and location within the southern United States.