Social Factors Affecting Antitransgender Sentiment in a Sample of Greek Undergraduate Students

Objectives: This study examined the attitudes of Greek undergraduate students toward transgender individuals to identify specific social variables as predictors of negative attitudes. Based on previous research, it appeared that gender, political conservatism, religiosity, and sexual prejudice are useful variables to examine in predicting attitudes toward transgender individuals. The sample (N = 238) consisted of undergraduates at various departments of major universities in Athens, Greece. Methods: The Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS) was used along with the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale (ATLG) and a brief demographics questionnaire. Results: Correlation analysis showed that negative attitudes toward transgender individuals were positively associated with religiosity, frequency of attendance at religious services, political designation, gender, and sexual prejudice. Regression analysis revealed mainly gender and secondly sexual prejudice (as measured by the ATLG) to be independent predictors of attitudes toward transgender individuals. Conclusions: The findings shed light on the current status of undergraduate students’ attitudes toward transgender individuals and reveal important variables that affect these attitudes in a specific sociocultural environment.     

Intergenerational Interaction Through Reminiscence Processes

Abstract

Introduction: The interest in intergenerational programmes is increasing. However, there is a need for evaluation and the development of a theoretical framework to explain the mechanism of changes in attitudes of participants which is the purpose of this paper.

Method: From July to December 2002 an intergenerational intervention was conducted with 111 students and 32 elders, who shared their life stories during class time. A Focus group technique was used to evaluate the programme and a theoretical framework was developed to explain the mechanism of changes in attitudes of adolescents towards elders and the attitudes of elders towards adolescents.

Results: The results showed that stereotypes and prejudice exist, from young people towards elders and from elders towards young ones. The theoretical framework developed showed why and how participants changed their views towards each other in an intergenerational programme using reminiscence processes as a means of interaction.

Conclusion: Although the study had some limitations, it was valuable in showing that older people had some negative images of adolescents. It also showed why and how participants changed their view towards each other.     

The Rise of Age Homogamy in 19th Century Western Europe

In many parts of Western Europe the age at first marriage and the level of celibacy declined in the second half of the 19th century. This weakening of the European marriage pattern (EMP) can be interpreted as a “classic” response to the increase of the standard of living, but a more far‐reaching interpretation is that the erosion of the EMP was part of a cultural shift characterized by the rise of a new, less instrumental and more egalitarian view on marriage and partner selection. The latter vision implies the increase of the preference for a same age marriage. We test this explanation by using a combined Belgian‐Dutch data set of marriage certificates (N = 766,412). Our findings corroborate the “cultural shift thesis.”     

Marriage following the birth of a child among cohabiting and visiting parents

Approximately half of nonmarital births are to mothers in cohabiting relationships, and an additional 30% are to mothers in visiting relationships. I use data (N= 1,945) from the Fragile Families Study to investigate whether the determinants of marriage in the year following a child's birth are similar for cohabiting and visiting parents. The results show that mothers’ education is predictive of marriage for cohabiting parents, whereas mothers’ earnings are predictive of marriage for visiting parents. The findings imply that visiting mothers place a greater emphasis on economic independence and sufficient resources to establish an independent household before transitioning to marriage. No differences in the association of relationship quality or attitudes and marriage are found.     

What does ‘active citizenship’ mean for Erasmus students?

Since ERASMUS (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) was launched there has been a constant debate about the civic significance of this mobility programme. The purpose of this article is to analyse the understanding of active citizenship by Erasmus students. In order to discover Erasmus students’ perceptions, values, beliefs and attitudes regarding the issue under discussion, original data were collected from 174 students who participated in our survey in March 2014. By applying a statistical analysis, the most and the least important criteria for being considered an active citizen have been extracted from the answers of our respondents. In addition, we studied their attitudes towards and knowledge of the European Union (EU). We found that their understanding of ‘active citizenship’ echoes with the definition of the concept provided in the research literature.     

Implicit Nativist Attitudes,Social Desirability,and Immigration Policy Preferences

While previous research on immigration attitudes among the American public has focused on factors such as economic threat, social context, and racial prejudice, fewer studies have examined the psychological determinants of immigration policy preferences. This study analyzes the results of an implicit association test (IAT) procedure that measures automatic nativist preferences for a traditional American culture versus a Latino‐American culture (i.e., implicit nativist attitudes). In brief, this study demonstrates that implicit nativist attitudes are fairly common, that they are an independent predictor of immigration policy attitudes, and that they affect those who are not explicitly nativist but who still hold restrictionist policy views.     

Ethnic,gender, and length‐of‐residency influences on sexual knowledge and attitudes

We examined potential differences in sexual knowledge and attitudes between 702 Canadian undergraduates of Asian (n = 356) and European (n = 346) ancestry. We also examined potential influences of length of residency in Canada on these variables among Asians, and the role of gender both across and within ethnic groups. The primary purpose was to examine whether length of exposure to North American sexual values influences sexual knowledge or attitudes among Asians living in Canada. Results revealed that compared to Europeans, Asians held more conservative sexual attitudes and demonstrated significantly less sexual knowledge. Recent Asian immigrants were significantly more likely than Canadian‐born or long‐term Canadian residents to hold conservative sexual attitudes on a number of sexuality items. Among Asians and Non‐Asians, males reported more negative attitudes toward homosexuals than did females; females held more conservative sexual attitudes toward uncommitted sexual relations than did males. The findings provide partial support for a cultural explanation of the frequently reported finding that, compared with North Americans, Asians are more restricted in their expression of sexuality.     

Gender cultures and the division of labour in contemporary Europe: a cross‐national perspective

Drawing on the vast literature concerned with the cultural aspects of gender, this article explores the ways in which individuals living in different national contexts value the ideal of a dual earner/dual carer couple at the expense of the male breadwinner model. Via a comparison of fifteen European countries included in the Family and Gender Roles module of the 2002 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), three attitudinal patterns were identified: the unequal sharing that portrays a male breadwinner norm, the familistic unequal that also endorses a gender‐segregated arrangement though with a greater wish for men's involvement in housework and childcare, and the dual earner/dual carer model, which, despite covering nearly 40 per cent of respondents, is very unequally distributed across countries. It is proposed that societal gender cultures are of major importance to an understanding of cross‐national variations in attitudes and their relationship with the real forms of gender division of labour. The connection between couples' attitudes and practices is thus examined in order to assess the extent to which support for the dual earner/dual carer model encourages couples to engage in more equal sharing of paid and unpaid work. Findings reveal the importance of the normative dimension insofar as the impact of attitudes on practices seems to depend on the historical pathways of gender cultures and the ways in which they underpin welfare policies and female employment.     

A unified Europe? How euro-attitudes relate to psychological differences between countries

In this study, a number of psychological concepts have been measured (through questionnaire-items) in 15 countries under the hypothesis that they could explain national differences in attitudes towards the euro. Based on the average country scores for each of these concepts, multidimensional scaling (combined with hierarchical cluster analysis) revealed 5 regions and 2 unclustered countries (UK and Ireland) in three dimensions: 1. National economic pride and satisfaction; 2. Self-confident open-mindedness; 3. Progressive non-nationalistic. Structural equation modelling was further used to perform multiple group regression analyses in order to test for differential relationships between the psychological concepts and the attitudes, for the different country regions. It could be shown that the majority of psychological variables have a significantly different impact on euro-attitudes.PsycINFO classification: 2229; 2930; 2960; 3920     

Value,Attitude, and Belief Determinants of Willingness to Accept a Facility for the Homeless

Basic values, attitudes toward the homeless, and specific beliefs about a proposed facility were examined, along with the NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) phenomenon, to explore if, and to what degree, these factors affect community acceptance or rejection of a facility for the homeless. Previously designed Protestant ethic (PE) and Humanitarian-Egalitarian (HE) scales were used to measure two basic values (Katz & Hass, 1988). Scales to measure attitudes toward the homeless and beliefs about a planned facility were developed. As predicted, values, attitudes, and beliefs correlated with each other and were related to plan acceptance, so that HE, pro-homeless attitudes, and positive beliefs about the plan were positively related to acceptance, and PE, anti-homeless attitudes, and negative beliefs about the plan were positively related to rejection. Also as predicted, four proximity measures were all related to acceptance of the plan.     

School adjustment difficulties of immigrant children in Greece 1

This paper presents the methodology and main results of a longitudinal study in Greece that explored the learning and psychosocial difficulties of immigrant pupils, as compared with those of their Greek classmates. The ‘Teacher–Child Rating Scale’ (T‐CRS) and ‘Child Rating Scale’ (CRS) were used as instruments to measure the school adjustment difficulties of the sample, according to their teachers’ ratings. A total number of 3561 scales were selected, and completed in full (by teacher and pupil) for each pupil. The sample of the study consisted of 5th and 6th grade primary school pupils (10–12 years) of Greek‐origin families who came from the former Soviet Union (n ₁=1100). The control group consisted of Greek classmates of the immigrant pupils (n ₂=713). Also, teacher attitudes towards the effectiveness of current educational policies in Greece for immigrant pupils, as well as the difficulties they face during the teaching process, were explored through semi‐structured interviews (n ₃=165). Immigrant pupils were interviewed to gain a better picture of their attitudes towards the Greek school (n ₄=260). This paper presents some of the research findings that focus on learning and psychosocial difficulties. Finally, suggestions are offered for Greek educational policies pertaining to immigrant pupils.     

Cohabitation in Spain: No Longer a Marginal Path to Family Formation

Although many indicators reflect the marked retreat from marriage occurring in Spain since the 1980s, the diffusion of cohabitation has been slow. The confluence of very low and late fertility, latest‐late marriage, and low cohabitation has been largely regarded as defying the predictions of the second demographic transition and has fueled a debate over the distinctiveness of the Mediterranean model of family formation. Comparative analyses based on the Family and Fertility Survey documented the marginal role of cohabitation in Spain and in the rest of southern European countries by the mid‐1990s. In this research, the authors used more recent data from the 2006 Spanish Fertility, Family and Values Survey (N = 5,750) to reveal that cohabitation has spread significantly among younger cohorts and hence can no longer be considered as playing a marginal role in the family formation process.     

The Gender Gap in Attitudes About Childlessness in the United States

Acceptance of childlessness has increased since the 1970s, with women reporting greater acceptance than men. Using the National Survey of Families and Households (1987 – 1988; N = 10,648) and the General Social Survey (1994; N =1,395), we examined this gender gap as it relates to both structural and sociocultural factors, including religion, gender attitudes, and other attitudes about gender and family. Women were more likely than men to hold positive attitudes about childlessness, and women’s less traditional attitudes about marriage, gender equality, and women’s employment only partially explained this difference. In the childbearing ages, positive attitudes were strongly related to intentions to remain childless and showed a greater gender gap at higher education levels. The findings highlight important differences in men’s and women’s experiences of family, work, and gender issues.     

Desires matter! Desired attitudes predict behavioural intentions in people who think abstractly: the case of eating products without added salt / ¡Los deseos importan! Las actitudes deseadas predicen las intenciones de comportamiento en las personas que piensan de modo abstracto: El caso del consumo de alimentos sin sal añadida

Introduction. Previous research supports that congruence in the construal level between a person’s mindset and predictors enhanced the strength of predictions. Because desired attitudes are more abstract than actual attitudes, we expected that desired attitudes would better predict behavioural intentions in people who present an abstract style of thinking. Objective. We tested this matching effect between desired attitudes and abstractness by measuring the construal level as a person’s base-rate tendency. Method. Participants (N = 105) reported their past experience and actual and desired attitudes towards eating products without added salt and their behavioural intentions. To classify participants according to an abstract or a concrete way of thinking, their first thought was coded using the linguistic category model (LCM). Results. The simple slopes analysis showed that desired attitudes significantly influenced behavioural intentions for participants with an abstract way of thinking. Conclusion. Our results support the relevance of desired attitudes in terms of behavioural predictions and extend the role of the construal level in the prediction and promotion of desirable but demanding behaviour in the framework of individual differences.     

Compositional and Temporal Dynamics of International Migration in the EU/EFTA: A New Metric for Assessing Countries’ Immigration and Integration Policies

In this article, I derive estimates of migrants’ expected years of residence in each of 31 countries in the European Union and European Free Trade Association each year from 2002 to 2007. A country‐level measure summarizing the temporal dynamics of international migration, I compare my results against the often used compositional measure of the percent foreign born, and show that these two measures reflect different population processes. I likewise demonstrate the utility of the measure derived here as a tool to assess countries’ integration policies on long‐term residence per their scores in the Migrant Integration Policy Index. Key theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

Measurement Issues in Human Behaviour Theory

Abstract

This paper provides a brief introduction to the use of standardized measurement scales in behavioural theory, discusses some of the limitations of the domain sampling model of measurement for behavioural scientists and practitioners, and identifies central measurement issues in behavioural theory that are germane to all measurement tools. The ever popular and useful behavioural checklist is used to introduce the domain sampling model of measurement and to describe how it can be treated as a standardized measurement tool.     

Psychological Gender Issues in Computing

This paper builds on the implication from Rosen et al.'s (1987) work that the variation in findings with respect to gender differences in attitudes towards computers and anxiety caused by computers (i.e. ‘computerphobia’), may be due in part to differences of psychological gender (regardless of biological gender) within subjects. Sandra Bem's (1974, 1981) theory of psychological gender is incorporated into the research, identifying subjects as ‘sex typed’ or ‘androgynous’. A student population of under/post graduates (N=282; 50.7% of which were male and 49.3% were female) is presented with the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), a computer anxiety questionnaire (Heinssen et al. 1987) and a computer attitude questionnaire (Dambrot et al. 1985). The latter questionnaire has positive and negative subscales. The results indicate that masculinity correlates with positive attitudes towards computers for both sexes. In addition masculinity was correlated with less anxiety and less negative attitudes towards computers for females, lending support to a sex by gender interaction (i.e. that masculinity has a different effect on each sex). Femininity correlated negatively with programming experience in females. This is discussed in relation to computing being seen as a ‘male activity’, and the subsequent educational and organizational implications identified.     

Examining interactions within the theory of planned behavior in the prediction of intentions to engage in cannabis-related driving behaviors

Abstract

Objective: As marijuana use becomes more available to college students through increasing legal reform, this paper seeks to examine intentions for driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC) and riding with a high driver (RWHD) through the lens of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and assess potential interactions between personal attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and sex. Participants: Undergraduate college students (N?=?311) completed online surveys in September, 2013. Method: Participants self-reported their attitudes toward DUIC, subjective norms, PBC, past DUIC and RWHD, and intentions to DUIC and RWHD. Results: Participants’ attitudes toward DUIC, subjective norms, and PBC were strongly associated with intentions to DUIC and RWHD bivariately. In regression models, attitudes and PBC were both positively and significantly related to intentions to DUIC and RWHD. Conclusions: DUIC and RWHD are concerns for college populations. Targeting personal attitudes and perceived behavioral control via interventions may reduce these behaviors.