Maternal Life Satisfaction and Child Outcomes: Are They Related?

This paper investigates the association between maternal life satisfaction and the developmental functioning of 2-3-year-old children as well as the socio-emotional behavior of 5-6-year-old children. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), which allows us to control for a rich set of child and parental characteristics and to use the mother’s life satisfaction before the birth of her child as an instrument to eliminate potential reverse causality. The results indicate that the more satisfied the mother, the better her child’s verbal skills and the lower his or her socio-emotional problems. The relation is more pronounced for boys than for girls. The results are robust even when mothers’ personality or mothers’ cognitive skills are controlled for.     

Mothers' Cognitions about Children's Self‐control: Implications for Mothers' Responses to Children's Helplessness

This research examined the role of mothers' cognitions about children's self‐control in their responses to children's helplessness. Mothers and their four‐year‐old children (N = 109) were asked to work on a difficult task in the laboratory. Mothers' hostility and warmth as well as children's helpless (vs. mastery) behavior were coded every minute. Mothers also completed a set of questionnaires assessing their cognitions about children's self‐control. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated variability among mothers in their minute‐to‐minute hostility, but not warmth, in response to children's helplessness. Mothers' cognitions contributed to this variability: The more mothers placed importance on, worried about, and believed they could influence their children's self‐control, the more hostility they demonstrated following their children's helplessness.     

Gro¨bner basis strategies in regression

The Gröbner basis method in experimental design (Pistone & Wynn, 1996) is developed in a practical setting. The computational algebraic techniques (Gröbner bases in particular) are coupled with statistical strategies and the links to more standard approaches made. A new method of analysing a non-orthogonal experiment based on the Gröbner basis method is introduced. Examples are given utilizing the approaches.     

Immigration-related political culture and support for radical right parties

Radical right parties are not equally successful across or within all countries. Most studies have up to now relied on socio-economic, socio-structural and political factors to explain these differences. We examine whether the immigration-related political culture – consisting of integration policies and shared conservative values – in which voters are embedded influences radical right voting. We argue that more exclusive immigration-culture is related to more support for radical right parties. Furthermore, the relationship between immigration attitudes and radical right support is expected to be moderated by immigration-culture. With multilevel regression models using data from the 2011 Swiss Electoral Studies (SELECTS) we compare the effect of immigration-culture in 26 Swiss cantons. We find that cantonal immigration-culture (assessed with integration regimes and shared conservative beliefs) increases radical right support and the effect of individuals' immigration attitude on radical right support is stronger when immigration-culture is exclusive.     

Tagungsberichte

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Breast Surgery as a Gender Technology: Analyzing Plastic Surgeons’ Discourses

This article explores the role of breast surgery as a gender technology by considering the discourse of plastic surgeons. We analyze the gender discourses that come into play when surgeons are asked to distinguish between 3 cases of breast surgery: breast implantation for transsexual women, postmastectomy breast intervention, and breast augmentation for aesthetic reasons. In the surgeons’ discourses, the 3 interventions are situated in the reconstruction/cosmetic divide. However, we can see that this boundary is profoundly influenced by cultural conceptions of gender. These gendered conceptions affect what is labeled normal/abnormal, what demands are considered legitimate, and which bodies are deemed able to possess certain attributes.     

Obtaining Informationally Consistent Decisions When Computing Costs with Limited Information

We demonstrate the need to view in a dynamic context any decision based on limited information. We focus on the use of product costs in selecting the product portfolio. We show how ex post data regarding the actual costs from implementing the decision leads to updating of product cost estimates and potentially trigger a revision of the initial decision. We model this updating process as a discrete dynamical system (DDS). We define a decision as informationally consistent if it is a fixed‐point solution to the DDS. We employ numerical analysis to characterize the existence and properties of such solutions. We find that fixed points are rare, but that simple heuristics find them often and quickly. We demonstrate the usefulness and robustness of our methodology by examining the interaction of limited information with multiple decision rules (heuristics) and problem features (size of product portfolio, profitability of product markets). We discuss implications for research on cost systems.     

Understanding the Influence of Traditional Cultural Values on Indonesian Parenting

The aim of this conceptual article is to consider the available literature regarding associations between cultural values and parenting in Indonesian society. Research focusing on parenting in the Indonesian context is limited, although there are extensive studies regarding parenting and its implications for child development in Western cultures. Indonesia is one of the most heavily populated and culturally diverse countries in the world, with more than 200 ethnicities represented. Because cultural values are likely to influence Indonesian parenting and, therefore, child development, there is a need to understand the ways in which Indonesian traditional cultural values influence parenting style. In this article the small amount of literature regarding parenting specifically in Indonesian culture is overviewed. The key outcome of this article is to highlight the need to better understand how cultural values influence parenting in Indonesia and, in turn, how these influence child outcomes, particularly under conditions of some cultural change. Recommendations for future research regarding associations between Indonesian cultural values and parenting are provided to stimulate more empirical attention to this area to support Indonesia’s adaptation to the modern global environment.     

Research with Older Adult Methadone Clients: The Importance of Monitoring Suicide Ideation

ABSTRACT

This study reports on the importance of monitoring suicide ideation among older adult research participants. A recently completed randomized controlled trial of older adults who are current clients in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) served as a case study to elucidate a suicide protocol that was designed to account for the potential instances of suicide ideation within the research project structure. As the numbers of older adult heroin users increases, this study’s findings seek to influence research protocols that involve older adults with addictions who may be particularly vulnerable to suicide risk due to comorbid psychiatric conditions and psychosocial adversities.