Die Gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz der Sozialhilfe

This article examines on which grounds the German population is willing to support a social policy program targeted towards minorities such as social assistance. Using our own survey data and applying linear regression analysis, we test several hypotheses concerning the influence of self-interest, justice- orientations, and victim-blaming attitudes towards welfare recipients on two indicators of support for social assistance. A central finding is that the effects can be interpreted in line with the concept of a “moral economy”, in that the justice orientations of the respondents as well as their attitudes towards welfare recipients correspond with the norms incorporated in the institutional architecture of social assistance.     

Child Sexual Abuse and Psychological Impairment in Victims: Results of an Online Study Initiated by Victims

Sexual abuse of children has been a topic of scientific investigation for the past few decades. Research in this area, however, is rarely initiated, conceptualized, and conducted by victims themselves. Apart from possibly having painted a one-sided picture of sexual abuse, this presumed dominance of nonvictims might also have marginalized victims in a research area central to their lives. This study was conducted by a victims interest group as an effort to meet the need to add victims' perspectives to our current understanding of this topic. The online survey focused on investigating victims' psychosocial impairment, which was found to be extensive. Results indicated that an intact social support system facilitates better health, especially when offered early on.     

Beauty Goes Down to the Core: Attractiveness Biases Moral Character Attributions

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior - Physical attractiveness is a heuristic that is often used as an indicator of desirable traits. In two studies (N?=?1254), we tested whether facial...     

Analysis of crack growth with robust,distribution-free estimators and tests for non-stationary autoregressive processes

This article investigates the application of depth estimators to crack growth models in construction engineering. Many crack growth models are based on the Paris–Erdogan equation which describes crack growth by a deterministic differential equation. By introducing a stochastic error term, crack growth can be modeled by a non-stationary autoregressive process with Lévy-type errors. A regression depth approach is presented to estimate the drift parameter of the process. We then prove the consistency of the estimator under quite general assumptions on the error distribution. By an extension of the depth notion to simplical depth it is possible to use a degenerated U-statistic and to establish tests for general hypotheses about the drift parameter. Since the statistic asymptotically has a transformed ${\chi_1^2}$ distribution, simple confidence intervals for the drift parameter can be obtained. In the second part, simulations of AR(1) processes with different error distributions are used to examine the quality of the constructed test. Finally we apply the presented method to crack growth experiments. We compare two datasets from independent experiments under different conditions but with the same material. We show that the parameter estimates differ significantly in this case.     

Why Do People Keep Their Promises? An Experimental Test of Two Explanations1

Numerous psychological and economic experiments have shown that the exchange of promises greatly enhances cooperative behavior in experimental games. This paper seeks to test two theories to explain this effect. The first posits that individuals have a preference for keeping their word. The second assumes that people dislike letting down others' payoff expectations. According to the latter account, promises affect behavior only indirectly, because they lead to changes in the payoff expectations attributed to others. I conduct an experiment designed to distinguish between and test these alternative explanations. The results demonstrate that the effects of promises cannot be accounted for by changes in payoff expectations. This suggests that people have a preference for promise keeping per se.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Multiple unit root tests under uncertainty over the initial condition: some powerful modifications

We modify the union-of-rejection unit root test of Harvey et?al. ??Unit Root Testing in Practice: Dealing with Uncertainty over the Trend and Initial Condition?? (Harvey, Econom Theory 25:587?C636, 2009). This test rejects if either of two different unit root tests rejects but controls the inherent multiple testing issue by suitably modifying the critical values to ensure the desired null rejection probability. We evaluate the new tests?? power relative to existing ones?? and to the Gaussian asymptotic power envelope. An empirical application illustrates the usefulness of the new statistics.     

Linking maternal psychopathology to children's excessive crying and sleeping problems in a large representative German sample—The mediating role of social isolation and bonding difficulties

Attaining self-regulation is a major developmental task in infancy, in which many children show transient difficulties. Persistent, clinically relevant difficulties in self-regulation include excessive crying or sleeping disorders. Many families with affected children are burdened with multiple psychosocial risk. This suggests that regulatory problems are best conceptualized as the maladaptive interplay of overly burdened parents and a dysfunctional parent–child interaction. The current study examines whether social isolation and bonding difficulties function as mediating mechanisms linking maternal psychopathology to (1) children's excessive crying and (2) sleeping problems. The sample comprised N = 6598 mothers (M = 31.51 years) of children between zero to three years of age (M = 14.08 months, 50.1% girls). In addition to socio demographic data, the written questionnaire included information on maternal depression/anxiety, isolation, bonding, and children's regulatory problems. Hypotheses were tested with a mediation model controlling for psychosocial risk and child characteristics. As expected, maternal symptoms of depression/anxiety were linked to infants‘ excessive crying and sleeping problems. Social isolation and bonding difficulties mediated this association for excessive crying as well as for sleeping problems, but social isolation was a single mediator for sleeping problems only. The findings provide important insights in the mediating pathways linking maternal psychopathology to children's regulatory problems.     

The Relation Between Life Satisfaction and the Material Situation: A Re-Evaluation Using Alternative Measures

Asking clients to document their perceived quality of life during and after intervention is a popular approach employed by helping professionals to evaluate intervention programs. In the Project Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes (P.A.T.H.S.), students participating in the Experimental Implementation Phase and Full Implementation Phase were invited to write reflective journals in the form of weekly diaries to reveal their perceptions and feelings regarding the program and the perceived benefits of the program. Based on multiple studies, results showed that the respondents generally (a) had positive views on the program, (b) had positive views on the instructors, and (c) perceived that they had acquired competencies at the societal, familial, interpersonal and personal levels and their quality of life was promoted after joining the program. Acknowledging the limitations of diaries, the present qualitative findings provide support for the effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong.