A Big Brother: New Findings on How Low-Income Fathers Define Responsible Fatherhood

I interviewed 57 low-income fathers about how they define responsible fatherhood. Unlike findings from previous research, their definition did not include financial provision or daily caregiving. Instead, their definition included six dimensions, some of which resemble a “Big Brother”: spending time in non-caregiving activities; avoiding harm by voluntarily distancing from the child when it is in the child’s best interest; acknowledging paternity in non-legal forums; spending money on gifts, joint activities, and special needs; monitoring the child’s home for trouble; and minimizing absences in the child’s life. Because these fathers do not emphasize traditional breadwinning or primary caregiving, their responsible fathering beliefs and behavior may be unappreciated by academics, practitioners, and policy makers.     

Erzählung und „Bewältigung“

The topic of this paper is the change of perspective from the concept of “coping with illness” in a psychological sense to a concept of coping as “living with (chronic) illness” in a sociological sense. Whereas psychological and even some sociological research presupposes assumptions on causes and essentials of stress as well as on successful coping, we focused on the different ways, in which subjects define strain and their personal aim of coping. These subjective views might differ from the definitions of scientists as well. Furthermore we focus on the social constructions of illness and “normal living” and the social rules of coping with daily hassles, which underlay the subjective views. Assuming that the ways chronically ill resp. disabled persons look at stress and daily hassles is part of their coping, we conclude that stress and coping are mutually constituting each other. This dialectic process is influenced by the persons current situation, by the individual’s history and by cultural rules concerning appropriate coping resp. living with strain in general. Looking at these social rules and how they are modified under the conditions of illness and handicap was the topic of our research project “LIVE—Living and Defending Your Interests—Disabled Women”, financed by the German Fed. Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth and conducted 1996–1998. In this study a questionnaire was sent to 16 to 60 years old disabled women (return: N=987). Additionally a qualitative interview was conducted with N=60 of them. From a biographical approach the reconstruction of the main subjective patterns in their life histories led us to the social rules of appropriate “coping”. We can take this as a starting point for a sociological discussion of everyday living with chronic illness, that focuses on the social constitution of subjective meanings of stress resp. coping with illness, includes the social context and allows to integrate the gender perspective.     

Why are Women Better Decoders of Nonverbal Language?

Women have consistently been found to be better decoders of nonverbal language compared to men. It is unknown however, whether this sex difference is biological or non-biological in nature. The current study sought to test for the first time the effect emotional intelligence (EI), trait dominance, and psychological gender had on nonverbal decoding accuracy. 86 undergraduate university students (43 males and 43 female), mean age 20.86 years old, completed the mini-Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity, the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, the Dominance Subscale of The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, and the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Overall women were found to score 4.35 points significantly higher than men in nonverbal ability, 95 % CI [?2.31, 2.31], and 7.15 points significantly higher than men in EI, 95 % CI [?5.97, 5.97]. Higher EI scores were also found to predict significantly greater nonverbal decoding accuracy. These findings suggest that EI rather than biological sex appears to be the salient factor in an individual’s nonverbal decoding accuracy. Trait dominance, and participants’ masculinity and femininity scores however, were not found to be significantly correlated with nonverbal decoding ability, thus the non-biological model of EI, trait dominance, and psychological gender did not account for significantly more unique variance in decoding accuracy, compared to the biological model when biological sex alone was considered.     

Subjective Welfare, Well-Being, and Self-Reported Food Hypersensitivity in Four European Countries: Implications for European Policy

This study estimates the effects of food hypersensitivity on individuals?? perceived welfare and well-being compared to non-food hypersensitive individuals. Study respondents were recruited in the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and UK. The difference in welfare between food hypersensitive respondents and those asymptomatic to foods was estimated using a subjective welfare approach, including income evaluation. Well-being was measured using the Cantril Ladder-of-Life Scale, and health status using the Self-Perceived Health Scale. The difference in well-being, welfare and health status between participant groups was explained further using a number of background variables. No significant within-country differences in welfare between food hypersensitive respondents and respondents asymptomatic to foods were found. In terms of well-being, adult food hypersensitive respondents and their spouses reported significantly less happiness than respondents and their spouses asymptomatic to foods in the Netherlands and Poland. In Spain, the spouses of the food hypersensitive respondents were significantly less happy than respondents aymptomatic to foods. The well-being of children did not significantly differ between groups. The degree of severity of food hypersensitivity was negatively related to overall health status. In Poland, food hypersensitive respondents reported worse health status compared to asymptomatic respondents. In Spain, the converse was true. Food hypersensitive respondents were generally less happy with their life as a whole than respondents asymptomatic to foods, presumably because they experienced more negative effects, which were not related to perceived health status.     

Population Migration and Team Loyalty in Professional Sports*

Objectives. Within the long line of inquiry on demand for sport, one area that has gone relatively unexamined is that of domestic migration. In this research, the relationship between population migration and team loyalty is explored. Methods. A linear mixed model uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Nielsen Company to analyze the effect domestic migration has on demand for National Football League games. Results. Ratings were higher in population centers with smaller per‐capita population inflow (regardless of the origins of the inflow). The results further showed that increases in population flow from City A to City B were associated with increased demand for broadcasts in City B when Team B visited City A. Conclusions. The first finding suggests that sports viewership is not utilized as a vehicle for domestic transplants to integrate into their new community. The second finding suggests there is a nostalgia effect for an individual's previous hometown, though not necessarily for the team representing it in the league.     

Local Sensemaking of Policy Paradoxes – Implementing Local Crime Prevention in Sweden

This paper analyses the policy implementation of local crime prevention and community safety programmes in Sweden. It focuses on the clash between the transnational idea-complex and the national context, i.e. the unavoidable policy paradoxes of a transnational idea diffusion, and how they are made sense of when handled at local level. In particular, it emphasizes how actors in socioeconomically different local contexts within the same urban area have partly different reasons and motives for implementation. By using a sensemaking approach, this article contributes to the understanding of how convergence at national level is followed by divergence at local level.     

Reflections of the Other: images of women in the Polish business press

After the fall of state communism, the business press in Poland has become an active image designer for people involved in management. Shaping the stereotypes about the market, enterprises and management, it also has an effect on gender related stereotypes and images. A study of a widespread Polish business magazine reveals a pretty flat picture: women managers are typically portrayed in traditional female social roles and the images of men are stripped of feelings and individuality. However, a trend toward the emergence of some variety can be noticed and perhaps the presence of women can contribute to a major change in management?     

Narratives of exile twenty years on: long-term impacts of Indonesia’s 1998 violence on transnational Chinese-Indonesian women

ABSTRACT

In response to Indonesia’s 1998 riots, which included mass rape of Chinese-Indonesian women, many Chinese-Indonesian families sent their daughters out of country to try and ensure their safety. Drawing on interviews with Chinese-Indonesian women currently living in Singapore and Australia, this article considers the long-term effects on transnational families of this departure. In contrast to current views of Chinese-Indonesians as an affluent diaspora, we show Chinese-Indonesian women’s experience to be that of exile, living outside Indonesia with little possibility of permanent return. We illuminate the subtle and enduring effects of political violence on women’s marital, reproductive, and childrearing practices. Interviews reveal fragmented identities and contingent household formations which enabled family resilience for some but created long-term fissures for the majority. We argue for more critical attention to how gender mutually constitutes experiences of exile, and the long-term impacts of political violence on reproduction and family relations for Chinese-Indonesian women.