Gay Seouls: Expanding Religious Spaces for Non-Heterosexuals in South Korea

What Protestant congregations offer spaces for worship and dialogue among persons with different sexual orientations? The academic literature finds or assumes that non-heterosexuals are stigmatized or invisible in theologically conservative congregations and are welcomed in progressive, affirming congregations. This article develops an alternative claim that some conservative or evangelical congregations offer attractive spaces for non-heterosexuals to worship and dialogue. We illustrate with an exploratory study of four congregations in South Korea—two theologically progressive, two evangelical—whose pastors welcomed everybody regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. The “inclusive-evangelical” congregations retained conservative theology on sexuality (sexual relations only within heterosexual marriage) but offered more empathic dialogue with non-heterosexuals than did most evangelical congregations; they also provided more resources, conventional religious culture, and ties to traditional affective networks than the affirming-progressive congregations. Inclusive-evangelical congregations offer an institutional venue for non-heterosexual Christians in Korea to potentially reconcile three central values: conservative Christianity, traditional (Confucian) affective networks, and expressive individualism.     

Intergenerational mobility in the post-1965 immigration era: Estimates by an immigrant generation cohort method

The new second generation of the post-1965 immigration era is observed as children with their parents in 1980 and again as adults 25 years later. Intergenerational mobility is assessed for both men and women in four major racial/ethnic groups, both in regard to children’s status attainment relative to parents and with regard to the rising societal standards proxied by native-born non-Hispanic whites. A profile of intergenerational mobility is prepared using multiple indicators of status attainment: high school and college completion, upper white-collar occupation, poverty, and homeowner ship. The immigrant generation cohort method we introduce accounts for four distinct temporal dimensions of immigrant progress, clarifying inconsistencies in the literature and highlighting differences in mobility between racial/ethnic groups and with respect to different outcome measures. The immigrant generation cohort method consistently finds greater intergenerational mobility than suggested by alternative approaches. Our analysis also shows that the intergenerational progress of women is greater than that of men and provides a more complete record of immigrant mobility overall. Findings for individual racial/ethnic groups accord with some expectations in the literature and contradict others.     

Three Ways to Be Happy: Pleasure,Engagement, and Meaning—Findings from Australian and US Samples

This study examined the contributions of orientations to happiness (pleasure, engagement and meaning) to subjective well-being. A sample of 12,622 adults from the United States completed on-line surveys measuring orientations to happiness, positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. A sample of 332 adults from Australia also completed these surveys as well as a measure of the big five factor personality traits. Hierarchical regressions generally supported the hypothesis that the three orientations to happiness predict subjective well-being (satisfaction with life, positive affect and negative affect) beyond sociodemographic variables and personality. Meaning and engagement explained the greatest variance in all three components of subjective well-being. Overall, these findings support the importance of a eudaimonic approach in addition to the hedonic approach to achieving happiness. Moreover, findings were relatively consistent in both the Australian and US samples. Some of these data were presented at the 8th Australian Centre on Quality of Life Conference, Melbourne, Australia.     

Personality of social robots perceived through the appearance

Past research showed that people are able to perceive the personality of others at zero acquaintances. There are two main ways, verbal and non-verbal methods, which play an important role for one in perceiving personality of others. Extensive research was conducted in relating personality with verbal, paralinguistic and gestures cues. However, there are not much research, to our knowledge, that relates the appearance and perceived personality of robots. The main objective of this research is to relate individual design features with big five perceived personality of the robots. We used the results of rated perceptions across 100 pictorial images of robots and relate the results with the 40 individual design features using General Linear Model (GLM). The initial results of the GLM analysis showed that participants' rating of personality of robot fell along the dimension of perceived friendliness which is a common rotation of extroversion and agreeableness. Some relationships were found between humanlike design features and perceived friendliness of robots. Since participants are more familiar with humans, participants perceived robots with humanlike features friendlier than the others. Some other findings such as color and surface material were found related with participants' perceived friendliness as well. In the future, we will work on the analysis of the main and interaction effects of individual features on user's perceived friendliness.     

Convergence rates of generalization errors for margin-based classification

This paper develops a general approach to quantifying the size of generalization errors for margin-based classification. A trade-off between geometric margins and training errors is exhibited along with the complexity of a binary classification problem. Consequently, this results in dealing with learning theory in a broader framework, in particular, of handling both convex and non-convex margin classifiers, among which includes, support vector machines, kernel logistic regression, and ψ$\psi$-learning. Examples for both linear and nonlinear classifications are provided.     

The Role of Migration and Single Motherhood in Upper Secondary Education in Mexico

We investigated the link between migration, family structure, and the risk of dropping out of upper secondary school in Mexico. Using two waves of the Mexican Family Life Survey, which includes 1,080 upper secondary students, we longitudinally modeled the role of family structure in the subsequent risk of dropping out, focusing on the role of migration in single motherhood. We found that children living without a father because of international migration or divorce or separation are at a greater risk relative to children in 2‐parent households. Economic characteristics of the household provide a partial explanation for children living in single‐mother households because of divorce or separation but do not explain the greater risk of dropping out for children with fathers in the United States.     

Homelessness and Children's Use of Mental Health Services: A Population-Based Study

This study examined whether children who become homeless differ from other low-income children in their mental health service use before and after their first homeless episode, and to what extent homelessness is associated with an increased likelihood of mental health service use. Differences between children with and without new onset of sheltered homelessness in the use of mental health services emerged following homelessness and widened over time. Sheltered homelessness and foster care placement history were associated with increased odds of receiving inpatient and ambulatory mental health services. Findings underscore the importance of collaborations between homeless assistance, foster care, and mental healthcare in efforts to mitigate family homelessness and collateral needs among homeless children.     

Is Food Insecurity Associated with Depressive Symptoms in South Korea?

Emerging studies have suggested a possible link between food hardship and depression; however, empirical knowledge is limited. In South Korea, more public discussion has been conducted regarding the prevalence and consequences of food insecurity on mental health. To begin to address the knowledge gap, we applied family stress theory and investigated the association of food insecurity with depression in South Korea. We employed observational data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study, the first data to draw on food insecurity information from a nationally representative sample in Korea. Our sample consisted of 744 non‐elderly household heads. The independent variable “food insecurity” was measured using a six‐item scale adapted from the United States Department of Agriculture Food Security Scale. The dependent variable “depression” was measured using 11 questions from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale adapted for Koreans. After controlling for income, material hardship, and other factors, our ordinary least squares regression findings show that food insecurity significantly predicts depression. Our findings are consistent whether food insecurity is measured on a continuum or in categorical groups. More research and empirical evidence should be shared to provide legitimate grounds for policy interventions that address and prevent food insecurity and mental health issues.     

Demographic Change and Fiscal Sustainability in Asia

Changes in the population age structure can have significant effects on fiscal sustainability since they can affect both government revenue and expenditure. In this paper, we project government revenue, expenditure, and fiscal balance in developing Asia up to 2050 using a simple stylized model and the National Transfer Accounts data set. Rapidly aging countries are likely to suffer a tangible deterioration of fiscal sustainability under their current tax and expenditure system. On the other hand, rapid economic growth can improve fiscal health in poorer, relatively young countries with still-growing working-age populations. Overall, our results indicate that Asia’s population aging will adversely affect its fiscal sustainability, pointing to a need for Asian countries to further examine the impact of demographic shifts on their fiscal health.     

Elicitation of farming agendas in a complex environment

Agricultural and environmental issues are currently the subject of a great deal of debate. Many feel that policies affecting farming and the countryside are formulated without sufficient research into their full implications. In this paper a semi-structured interview technique is used to highlight the complexity of the agenda facing a small section of the farming community. Current policy is creating high levels of uncertainty within farming, forcing the farming community into an economic straight-jacket based on short-term survival. It is concluded that policy-makers need to be aware of the complexity of the farming agenda and that a policy framework needs to be constructed which gives clear long-term objectives to farmers and encourages the diverse practice which is central to long-term continuity. The need to develop improved techniques for eliciting information about farming agendas will be seen as a central requirement of this framework.