Contact visits between foster children and their birth family: the views of foster children,foster parents and social workers

It has been argued that contact visits between foster children and birth parents can help maintain attachment bonds and support the child's development. However, some research suggests that such visits can be detrimental. This study analyses the characteristics of contact visits and examines children's perceptions of the emotional relationship they have with foster carers and their biological parents. Participants were 104 non‐kinship foster children and their respective foster carers and social workers. Fifty‐six of these foster children had contact visits with their birth parents. Foster children rated the quality of their relationship with foster carers and birth parents using the Affect Scale. Foster children, foster carers and social workers all completed the Evaluation of Contact Visits Questionnaire. Results showed that (i) a high proportion of children had no contact visits; (ii) the contact agreement was often not fulfilled; (iii) many visits were rated as poor quality; (iv) foster carers' evaluation of visits was more negative than that of both foster children and social workers; and (v) children who experienced poor‐quality visits and perceived less warmth and more criticism/rejection from their parents. These results highlight the need to improve contact visits by developing intervention strategies targeted at all those involved.     

Development and Validation of the ADAS Scale and Prediction of Attitudes Toward Affective-Sexual Diversity Among Spanish Secondary Students

Violence against non-heterosexual adolescents in educational contexts remains a worrying reality, but no adequate attitudes toward affective-sexual diversity (AtASD) measure exists for Spanish adolescent students. We developed a 27-item scale including cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects, which was completed by 696 secondary school students from the Madrid area. Factor analyses suggested a unidimensional model, Cronbach’s alpha indicated excellent scale scores reliability, and item calibration under the item response theory framework showed that the scale is especially informative for homophobic attitudes. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that variables traditionally related to AtASD (gender, age, religion, nationality, perceived parental/peer attitudes, direct contact with LGB people) also were so in our sample. Moreover, interest in sexuality topics and perceived center’s efforts to provide AtASD education were related to better AtASD. Our scale was reliable and valid, and it may also prove useful in efforts to detect those students with homophobic attitudes and to guide interventions.     

Time to first significant job for vocational graduates in Spain

In this paper we analyze the transition from vocational education to a first significant job for Spanish young people. The data comes from the Survey on Education and Labor Market Transitions, targeting various collectives who finished their non-university studies. Discrete duration models are estimated to identify the determinants of the time-to-first significant job. The main results show that, contrary to what is expected, there are no significant differences for students graduating in intermediate or in advanced vocational training. Nonetheless, vocational education is characterized by a high specialization by gender, which is translated into differences in the transition to employment. Furthermore, previous professional experience in precarious jobs does not improve access to quality employment, whereas internships performed within studies, when evaluated by the young as satisfactory, have a positive impact. Other subjective aspects, such as a high value assigned to work or family or a priority focused on achieving a stable job lead to a smoother school-to-work transition.     

维吾尔语与西班牙语的音节对比

本文采用对比分析法,对维吾尔语与西班牙语的音节进行对比分析,找出维吾尔语与西班牙语音节的异同。本文的研究,首先是维吾尔语与西班牙语音节对比,主要由四个部分支撑下来:第一,维吾尔语音节组成与特点;第二,西班牙语音节组成与特点;第三,部分维吾尔语与西班牙语音节对比;第四,基于音节对比的分析结论。研究结果表明:1.维吾尔语有八个元音,西班牙语有五个元音,而西班牙语中的五个元音在维吾尔语中都有。西班牙语在拉丁美洲没有舌尖元音。2.西班牙语中可以有二合元音与三合元音,维吾尔语音节则没有。3.维吾尔语和西班牙语有18个相同辅音,维吾尔语中的6个辅音在西班牙语中则没有,西班牙语中的14个辅音在维吾尔语中没有。相对维吾尔语来说,西班牙语中有较多的浊辅音。4.维吾尔语和西班牙语音节中不能没有元音,辅音不能单独构成音节。西班牙语中有流化现象,维吾尔语中则不发生流化现象。5.西班牙语没有摩擦音与非摩擦音,维吾尔语则没有牙齿摩擦音、腭鼻音、卷舌鼻音"?"、卷舌边音"?"。6.维吾尔语和西班牙语都有元辅音组合,西班牙语的元辅音组合则很少。本文通过现代维吾尔语与西班牙语音节比较,根据两种语言音节上的异同点,提出两个方面的教学策略:一是讲解音节知识;二是根据音节知识讲解具体的语言教学技巧。     

Intergroup contact and prejudice in Moroccan and Spanish users of Spanish public libraries: mediating variables and directionality of the process / Contacto intergrupal y prejuicio en usuarios marroquíes y españoles de bibliotecas públicas españolas: variables mediadoras y direccionalidad del proceso

This study tests two serial models of intergroup contact in intergroup relations between users of Spanish public libraries and the directionality of the contact-prejudice relationship. Participants were selected in libraries that meet IFLA Guidelines in Barcelona (N_Spaniards = 138 and N_Moroccans = 89) and libraries that do not meet these guidelines in Almería (N_Spaniards = 116 and N_Moroccans = 100). They responded to a survey about the quantity of intergroup contact, anxiety, ethnocultural empathy, outgroup knowledge and prejudice. Several serial mediation analyses reveal a model where the indirect effect of quantity of contact in the library on prejudice was mediated by intergroup anxiety and ethnocultural empathy in Moroccans in Almería and Spaniards and Moroccans in Barcelona, and it found that the direction of this relationship is from contact to attitudes, but not attitudes to contact. These results show that the mediating power of affective variables is stronger than that of cognitive variables. Explanations about the absence of significant results in Spaniards in the Almería group are provided.     

Releasing the full transformative power of feminism

ABSTRACT

In the current political situation - with the crisis of democracy, shrinking civic spaces and dominant repression along with the rise of right-wing political movements, the current article aims to show the powerful roles feminisms play in the struggles of social movements. It focuses on the aspect of power, domination, authority, neoliberal forces and systems of oppression in order to propose alternative models based on concrete experiences from the ground of anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-patriarchy actions. Stories from Rojava, Kenya, and the Basque country; interviews; and literature review are used to show how women's efforts to achieve a balance of power and inclusion in decision-making is shifting the models of leadership, forcing changes in law and putting women at the centre of social movements by advocating for a change in social relations. All these interconnections propose a process of democratization as a tool for radical social change by delivering decision-making back to women and people.     

What do adolescents think and feel about the different female subtypes? An application of the stereotype content model (SCM) / ¿Qué sienten y piensan los/las adolescentes acerca de diferentes subtipos de mujer? Una aplicación del modelo del contenido de los estereotipos

Women continue to face discrimination due to stereotypes that place them at a disadvantage compared to men. However, not all women are stereotyped alike; instead, they are categorized into three main subtypes: traditional women (e.g., housewives), non-traditional women (e.g., career women) and sexy women. This study applies the stereotype content model (SCM) to examine how a sample of adolescents perceives the three subtypes of women in terms of status and competition, the content of the stereotypes and the emotions they feel towards the subtypes. The sample consisted of 221 adolescents, which was reduced to 163 participants (53.7% girls) between the ages of 12 and 18. Results show that sexy women are the most undervalued of the three. Likewise, housewives and career women are perceived more positively than in previous research with the adult population.     

Analysis of the response structure to a set of questions with large number of scale points: a new combined metric and categorical approach

In the field of social sciences, certain tasks, such as the identification of typologies and the characterization of groups of individuals according to a set of questions, tend to pose a challenge for researchers. Further complications arise if the chosen rating scale is from 0 to 10, since the responses can be treated either as metric or categorical variables. This paper shows that neither treatment is able on its own to capture all the inherent properties of this type of data, and goes on to propose a bicriteria clustering approach, which captures both perspectives and enables the simultaneous analysis of mixed data using multiple tables.