Family Divorce and Romantic Relationships in Early Adolescence

Prior research has indicated that family experiences, including parental divorce, family conflict, and parental monitoring, play an important role in adolescent relationships (e.g., Mahl, 2001 Mahl, D. 2001. The influence of parental divorce on the romantic relationship beliefs of young adults. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 34: 89–118. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). Research on how these family experiences affect romantic relationships during early adolescence is lacking. Because pubertal maturation has been linked with earlier dating, it is also important to consider its role when studying adolescent relationships. This study compared 1,765 young adolescents (grades 5–8) from intact (n = 1,315) and divorced (n = 379) families on their dating patterns, susceptibility to romantic influence, and romantic relationship quality. The findings show that adolescents from divorced families, compared to adolescents from intact families, report more dating, report more susceptibility to romantic influence, and do not differ in their romantic relationship quality. In line with the hypotheses, both family conflict and puberty mediated the relationship between family structure and dating stage, as well as family structure and susceptibility to romantic influence. Parental monitoring, however, did not mediate between family structure and the romantic relationship variables. Finally, differences, regardless of family structure, were found between males and females, where males indicated being at a higher dating stage than females.     

A town recalls its past: narratives about Jewish craftsmen and handicrafts

There exist two major ways of dealing with the Jewish past in the former Pale of Settlement: to forget this past as something not prestigious and thus not worth remembering, or to use it in the “romantic‐nostalgic” context. Contemporary materials collected among the inhabitants of provincial townships in Ukraine show that the Jewish past has become very “popular” nowadays; it is not only a part of the familial history of Jews, but also a key element of the local history. Jewish age‐old professions (handicraft, trade, etc.) is an important theme in people’s narratives; this article focuses on stories of this type from the point of view of how they “ethnicise” and “exoticise” the local past.     

The hub continent. Immigrant networks, emigrant diasporas and FDI

This paper studies the relations between bilateral FDIs and immigrant networks of France, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain, and the emigrant diasporas of Italy and Spain. It focuses on skilled and unskilled immigrants and on ties with developing and developed countries. Results evidence two different network models: FDIs of UK, Germany and France are prompted by the ties of skilled immigrants, while those of Italy and Spain are only influenced by their respective diasporas. The disparity may stem from history. Differently from the findings of previous literature, the effects of networks with developing countries are similar to those with rich economies.     

Beyond IPAT and Kuznets Curves: Globalization as a Vital Factor in Analysing the Environmental Impact of Socio-Economic Metabolism

We bring the rapidly developing tools for analyzing society's metabolism to the attention of a scientific audience concerned with matters of population and, in a complementary fashion, we draw the attention of material and energy flow analysts to the role of population and population dynamics within their own paradigm. As an analytic framework, we use the classic IPAT-model that relates environmental impact (I), population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T). We relate the IPAT model to the tool commonly used in MFA, so-called environmental Kuznets curves, and re-analyze empirical data from various sources, for both affluent industrial and for developing countries, within these frameworks. We conclude that population and technology seem to dominate over affluence as far as environmental impact is concerned, but that both the IPAT and Kuznets models fail to take into account the intricate interdependencies among different socio-economic systems and the increases in their the economic, material and population exchanges. In effect, both models tend to underestimate the environmental impact and create too optimistic an image of dematerialization in affluent industrial countries.     

Gender and Psychological Correlates of Self-rated Strengths Among Youth

Research on virtues and character strengths has increased over the last decade. A total of 283 young participants from Portugal completed a measure of character strengths (Furnham and Lester in Eur J Psychol Assess 28:95–101, 2012) grounded on the values in action inventory of strengths (Peterson and Seligman in Character strengths and virtues: a handbook of classification, APA Press, Washington, DC, 2004). Participants also completed well-being measures, and a Big Five personality trait measure. The study examined the factor structure of self-assessed character strengths as well as demographic (particularly gender), well-being and personality correlates of the virtues which are the “higher order” classification of the strengths. Our results provided evidence for a four-dimensional model, though somewhat different from the theoretical formulation. Females typically scored higher on character strengths than males. Regressions investigating demographic, well-being and personality determinants of these strengths evidenced personality factors (particularly openness and agreeableness) were always most powerful predictors of the self-reported strengths than demographic and well-being measures. Limitations of the research are discussed and directions for future investigation are suggested.     

Reliability of translated measures assessing dating violence among Mexican adolescents

Research on the prevalence and correlates of dating violence in Mexican teens is challenged by the lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tools. This study modified, translated, and back-translated the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI; Wolfe et al., 2001) and the Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales (Price, Byers, & the Dating Violence Research Team, 1999) for Mexican adolescents. Analyses on 307 adolescents (15-18 years old) from Monterrey and Mexicali, Mexico, revealed that most of the translated CADRI subscales and Attitudes Towards Dating Violence Scales had acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability coefficients. The study offers some evidence that the measures may be useful in assessing dating violence in Mexican teens.     

Play and learn: Children's agency through the COVID-19 pandemic in Mozambique

Social distancing, one of the measures adopted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, profoundly impacted on the lives of children. The consequences were, however, not homogenous. By focusing on the daily practices of 41 Mozambican children aged 3–10, we consider how differences in socioeconomic backgrounds led children to respond to the social restrictions in ways that made sense to them. Inspired by Abebe (2019), we identify how the interruptions of daily routines enabled specific instances of agency on children's part. These, we argue, produce new forms of continuity.