The Performance of the World Health Organization’s WHOQOL-BREF in Assessing the Quality of Life of Thai College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the performance of the Thai-version of WHOQOL-BREF in assessing the quality of life (QoL) among Thai college students. The psychometric properties of WHOQOL-BREF were assessed in this study. The self-administered WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was applied. A total of 407 Thai college students (male age = 20.5 ± 1.2; female age = 20.5 ± 1.2) participated in this study. Item-response distributions, internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity and construct validity through confirmatory analysis were analyzed. The findings indicate that the WHOQOL-BREF had acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.73–0.83 across four domains), all items highly correlated with corresponding domain scores (r = 0.53–0.80), the indices of a two-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrate that the data fit the model well with allowing covary of error variances of some items, all items had good property of criterion-related validity and item discrimination and, all three domain scores except the social relationship domain had significant associations with overall QoL or general health. The results suggest that the WHOQOL-BREF was reliable and valid to health professionals in the assessment of the QoL of college-based Thai youth, but some unsuitable items may be deleted in future studies.     

Testing the Only-Child Advantage in Cognitive Development in the Context of China’s One-Child Policy

Population Research and Policy Review - Using data from a recent national survey of approximately 20,000 Chinese middle school students, we tested the difference in cognitive development between...     

Young Women’s Dynamic Family Size Preferences in the Context of Transitioning Fertility

Dynamic theories of family size preferences posit that they are not a fixed and stable goal but rather are akin to a moving target that changes within individuals over time. Nonetheless, in high-fertility contexts, changes in family size preferences tend to be attributed to low construct validity and measurement error instead of genuine revisions in preferences. To address the appropriateness of this incongruity, the present study examines evidence for the sequential model of fertility among a sample of young Malawian women living in a context of transitioning fertility. Using eight waves of closely spaced data and fixed-effects models, we find that these women frequently change their reported family size preferences and that these changes are often associated with changes in their relationship and reproductive circumstances. The predictability of change gives credence to the argument that ideal family size is a meaningful construct, even in this higher-fertility setting. Changes are not equally predictable across all women, however, and gamma regression results demonstrate that women for whom reproduction is a more distant goal change their fertility preferences in less-predictable ways.     

Women’s Empowerment in the Context of Millennium Development Goal 3: A Case Study of Married Women in Ghana

This paper assesses women’s empowerment in Ghana in the light of the Millennium Development Goal 3. Data for the study were drawn from the 2008 Ghana Demographic Health Survey with an analytic sample of 1,876 married women aged 15–49. Using binary logistic regression in determining the factors that influence women empowerment, this paper examines the relationship between wealth and women’s involvement in household decision-making in the context of healthcare, large household purchases, daily house hold purchases and mobility. The findings show that wealthier married women were significantly more likely to be involved in decision-making on their own healthcare (OR = 2.14, p ≤ 0.001). Also, age, tertiary education and employment significantly shaped the involvement of married women in household decision-making in Ghana. Surprisingly, married women in the Upper East region (the second poorest) were significantly more likely to be involved in three measures of decision-making except for decisions on large household purchases relative to those in the Greater Accra region (the capital). Policies oriented towards an increase in accessibility to tertiary education, employment equity and the creation of income generating activities for women would enhance women’s empowerment in Ghana.     

Redistribution and the Individualism–Collectivism Dimension of Culture

Social Indicators Research - This paper examines the relationship between culture and redistribution, focusing on the individualism–collectivism dimension of culture. Perhaps surprisingly,...     

Migration and Health Selectivity in the Context of Internal Migration in China, 1997–2009

Using data from the 1997?C2009 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we examine the ??healthy migrant hypothesis?? in a setting where internal migrants face significant barriers to movement. Going beyond much of the existing literature in the Chinese context, we use an appropriate comparison between migrants and non-migrants at origin, using detailed health measures, and data spanning a wider geographic and temporal extent than had been previously considered. Consistent with research from both international migration contexts and other internal migration settings, we find that migrants are positively selected on the basis of health, although the relationship between health and migration diminishes across time. The strongest evidence for health selection comes from a subjective self-reported health measure, although we also find evidence for selection against those experiencing acute health conditions. We speculate that the across-time differentiation may be caused by the rapid social, economic and policy changes in China??s economic reform era. Thus, we suggest that migration scholars should consider the changing macro context when theorizing about selection factors.     

Socio-Economic Disparities in the Development of the Romania’s Border Areas

The Romanian border areas include 898 Local Administrative Units 2 (LAU2), of which 88 are urban and 810 rural. Romania has borderline with the following countries: Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary, of which 63.5 % is Non-European Union boundary. According to the population structure, 51.6 % of the total population is urban and the rest of 48.4 % is rural. In order to assess the socio-economic territorial disparities in the development of the urban space of Romanian border areas, several research stages were carried out: selecting 22 relevant statistical indicators, analyzing territorial disparities, standardizing the absolute values of the indicators, grouping the elementary indicators by 7 multiple indicator clusters (secondary indexes) in order to reflect the main socio-economic development aspects: (1) housing, (2) public utilities infrastructure and green areas, (3) health, (4) labour market, (5) demography, (6) education and (7) local economy. Finally, the authors were able to compute secondary indexes and the Index of Socio-Economic Development as Hull Score with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 14, revealing the levels of socio-economic development (high, average and low). Generally, the outcomes of the current study are in line with Romania’s complex socio-economic disparities, rooted in the historic background of the country. Spatially, the economic development follows a West–East direction, the less developed areas being concentrated in the Eastern and Southern part of the country.     

Center-Based Care in the Context of One-Child Policy in China: Do Child Gender and Siblings Matter?

We examined the effects of child gender and siblings on center-based care enrollment in the context of China’s one-child policy and its tradition of preference to have many children, especially sons. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) 2000 wave and multilevel logistic regression models, we found that children without siblings consistently had higher odds of receiving center-based care than those with siblings, while there was no evidence that child gender mattered. Further analyses did not show evidence that the effects of child gender and siblings were moderated by household and community resources or local one-child policy. However, we did find that the presence of male, older, or school-age siblings (as compared to female, younger, or preschool-age siblings) reduced preschoolers’ odds of receiving center-based care. This was possibly because parents valued formal education much more than preschools and thus focused more on boys when they entered elementary schools than on their sisters or younger brothers. These findings suggest that more attention needs to be given to the equal education opportunities for boys and girls as well as for children with and without siblings.     

Ecological Instability and Children’s Classroom Behavior in Kindergarten

We engage the concept of ecological instability to assess whether children’s exposure to frequent change in multiple contexts is associated with teacher reports of students’ overall behavior, externalizing behavior, and approach to learning during kindergarten. We operationalize multiple dimensions of children’s exposure to repeated change—including the frequency, concurrency, chronicity, timing, and types of changes children experience—in a nationally representative longitudinal cohort of U.S.-born children (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, N ~ 4,750). We focus on early childhood, a period of substantial flux in children’s family and neighborhood contexts. Predicted behavior scores differ by approximately one-fifth of a standard deviation for children who experienced high or chronic exposure to ecological change compared with those who experienced little or no change. These findings emphasize the distinctiveness of multidomain ecological instability as a risk factor for healthy development that should be conceptualized differently from the broader concept of normative levels of change in early childhood environments.     

Conducive Characteristics or Anti-Racist Context? Decomposing the Reasons for Veterans’ High Likelihood of Interracial Marriage

Over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, veterans have been more likely to enter into race/ethnic intermarriages than non-veterans. Theories of race/ethnic intermarriage variously point to how minority race/ethnicity, race/ethnically diverse social settings, progressive racial attitudes, and high socioeconomic status increase individuals’ likelihood of intermarrying. Veterans’ unique racial and socioeconomic characteristics may contribute to their greater likelihood of intermarrying relative to non-veterans: larger percentages of veterans than non-veterans are members of racial and ethnic minority groups, while military service increases individual service members’ long-term economic and educational prospects. At the same time, veterans share in common their exposure to the unique military environment, which may increase their likelihood of intermarriage by diversifying their social circles, and subjecting their attitudes and behavior to group norms that are more explicitly egalitarian than those of society at large. The present study considers these two possible explanations for veterans’ greater likelihood of intermarriage. We use data on seven cohorts of men over six decades in the Current Population Survey, representing a total of 1,456,742 observations, to decompose the difference in likelihood of racial intermarriage between veterans and non-veterans among married men aged 18–65. We find that across cohorts and decades, veterans’ greater likelihood of intermarrying is not fully explained by their race/ethnic and socioeconomic composition. We argue that veterans’ greater likelihood of intermarrying may therefore be driven by their exposure to the military environment.     

‘We Can All Just Get on a Bus and Go’: Rethinking Independent Mobility in the Context of the Universal Provision of Free Bus Travel to Young Londoners

This paper uses qualitative data from interviews with 118 young Londoners (age 12–18) to examine how the universal provision of free bus travel has affected young people’s independent mobility. Drawing on Sen’s capabilities approach, we argue that free bus travel enhanced young Londoners’ capabilities to shape their daily mobility, both directly by increasing financial access and indirectly by facilitating the acquisition of the necessary skills, travelling companions and confidence. These capabilities in turn extended both opportunity freedoms (e.g. facilitating non-‘necessary’ recreational and social trips) and process freedoms (e.g. feeling more independent by decreasing reliance on parents). Moreover, the universal nature of the entitlement rendered buses a socially inclusive way for groups to travel and spend time together, thereby enhancing group-level capabilities. We believe this attention to individual and group capabilities for self-determination provides the basis for a broader and more child-centred view of independent mobility than the typical research focus upon travelling without an adult and acquiring parental permissions.     

Labor supply in the terminal stages of lone parents’ lives

Based on Norwegian register data, we show that having a lone parent in the terminal stage of life affects the offspring’s labor market activity. The employment propensity declines by around 0.5–1 percentage point among sons and 4 percentage points among daughters during the years prior to the parent’s death, ceteris paribus. After the parent’s demise, employment picks up again and earnings rise for both sons and daughters. Reliance on sickness insurance and other social security transfers increases significantly during the terminal stages of the parent’s life. For sons, the claimant rate remains at a higher level long after the parent’s demise.     

Energy consumption patterns in the process of China’s urbanization

Urbanization has transformed daily lives and industrial production in China. We investigate the effects of this process on Chinese energy consumption patterns. Three energy-consuming sectors intricately associated with urbanization are identified and analyzed: residential households, transportation, and the building materials industry. Urbanization has profoundly affected each; moreover, the latter two are high energy consumption and potentially high carbon producing. We estimate energy consumption attributable to each sector to quantitatively evaluate their impacts on societal transition. Transportation and the production of building materials are identified as the most significant linkages from urbanization to energy consumption. Strikingly, despite the large increase in the proportion of the population that is urban, the share of urban energy consumption, as estimated here, in total energy consumption has remained stable. This suggests that economic growth, in the form of the production of goods for export and domestic consumption, is the most important driver of energy demand in China.     

Women millennials’ perceptions of pension savings through the use of autoenrollment in the UK pension system

There has been concern about younger people, and women in particular, not saving enough for retirement and how to encourage further saving. Therefore, this study—partly funded by the Fawcett Society in association with Scottish Widows—explores female millennials’ attitudes and motivations toward pension saving and automatic enrollment through the use of 40 semistructured interviews and a focus group. The findings show that although the introduction of autoenrollment pensions is generally positively received, pensions knowledge is still limited, and this intensifies the risk of undersaving for retirement among millennial women, particularly given women’s diverse work histories.     

Development and Validation of a Scale for the Measurement of Adolescents’ Developmental Assets in the Neighborhood

The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess features of a neighborhood that are relevant to the development and adjustment of adolescents. First, a scale was created from a literature review. Second, the content validity of this scale was validated through expert opinion. Finally, the scale was administered to a sample population for analysis of its psychometric properties. The sample consisted of 2,400 adolescents (1,068 boys and 1,332 girls) between ages 12 and 17 who were secondary students in public and private schools in Western Andalusia. The results demonstrate the adequacy of the psychometric properties of the constructed scale.     

“A Whole Bunch of Love the Sinner Hate the Sin”: LGBTQ Microaggressions Experienced in Religious and Spiritual Context

ABSTRACT

Research on microaggressions experienced by LGBTQ people has focused largely on a general understanding of this concept; however, no research exists that focuses exclusively on microaggressions that LGBTQ people face across religious and spiritual communities. The present study addressed this gap in the literature by using a qualitative method to allow LGBTQ people (N= 90) to directly report microaggressions that they have experienced within their religious and spiritual communities. Thematic analysis revealed three predominant themes: (1) LGBTQ identities as inauthentic; (2) religious/spiritual tolerance of LGBTQ Identities, and (3) LGBTQ and religious/spiritual identities as incompatible. Implications and future directions discussed.     

Women’s Agency and the Quality of Family Relationships in India

The role of family context in determining women’s agency has been addressed through kinship patterns, household structure, and domestic violence. This study suggests that another aspect of family context—family relationship quality—can also influence women’s agency. Data from the Women’s Reproductive Histories Survey, collected in Madhya Pradesh, India, are used to examine whether family relationship quality is a determinant of women’s agency. Results show that women with higher quality relationships with husbands and parents-in-law do have greater agency. Further, family relationship quality is just as influential as other well known determinants of agency, including education and employment.     

An Anthropology of ‘The Good Life’ in the Bolivian Plateau

This paper addresses my understanding of well-being as harmonious relations in the city of El Alto, Bolivia. My approach shows the complexity of issues emerging when dealing with social relations. First of all, I analyse a specific case study showing the moral obligation involved among household members. Then I attempt to provide an insight into other aspects of social life to realise that the same degree of moral duty can be found when people participate in religious festivities or social protests. Collaboration, unity and co-operation often coexist with conflicts and moral obligation. The paper argues that this picture of complex coexistence is rather different from the substantive freedom described by Sen (Development as freedom. Oxford University Press, 1999) in his capability approach. By taking Sen’s theoretical framework as a point of departure for this investigation, it aims to emphasise the value of ethnography and other qualitative methods to the study of well-being. In the field of well-being, social interaction may greatly affect people’s capabilities to choose the lives they have reason to value, obliging them to follow certain models based on shared values and preferences. The paper contributes to debates on this specific issue, trying to shed light on the picture emerging when engaging with ethnographic research.

Modelling the impact of women’s education on fertility in Malawi

Many studies have suggested that there is an inverse relationship between education and number of children among women from sub-Saharan Africa countries, including Malawi. However, a crucial limitation of these analyses is that they do not control for the potential endogeneity of education. The aim of our study is to estimate the role of women’s education on their number of children in Malawi, accounting for the possible presence of endogeneity and for nonlinear effects of continuous observed confounders. Our analysis is based on micro data from the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey, and uses a flexible instrumental variable regression approach. The results suggest that the relationship of interest is affected by endogeneity and exhibits an inverted U-shape among women living in rural areas of Malawi, whereas it exhibits an inverse (nonlinear) relationship for women living in urban areas.     

Cohabitation or Marriage? How Relationship Status and Community Context Influence the Well-being of Children in Developing Nations

Population Research and Policy Review - Drawing upon the developmental idealism framework (Thornton et al. Sociol Dev 1(2):69–112, 2015), this study examines the relationship between...