The Determinants of Gender Equity in India: Examining Dyson and Moore's Thesis with New Data

In revisiting the influential Dyson and Moore (1983) hypothesis as to why women in South India enjoy relatively more agency than in the North, we conducted an econometric analysis of the determinants of women's mobility and decisionmaking authority. Data for the study come from a household data survey carried out in the Northern state of Uttar Pradesh and in the Southern state of Karnataka in 1995. We find that cross‐cousin and uncle‐niece marriage is more prevalent in Karnataka as expected. Contrary to Dyson and Moore, however, by 1995 a majority of communities in both North and South practiced village exogamy, and dowries in the two regions were of similar size. Reduced‐form, multivariate regressions show that cultural factors affect women's autonomy in ways not earlier predicted. The impact of village exogamy is mixed rather than negative, while that of consanguinity is strongly negative rather than positive as Dyson and Moore surmised. These authors correctly identified the negative effect purdah has on female mobility. Consistent with economic theory, our data show that higher wages for women consistently improve their mobility and authority, while higher male wages decrease them. Improvements in infrastructure–particularly the presence of street lights and schools in the village–are associated with increased women's agency. We conclude, therefore, that economic factors, state action, and restrictions on mobility seem more powerful than kinship structures as explanations of differences in female autonomy between North and South India.     

Perceived Parental Acceptance‐Rejection and Psychological Adjustment: A Meta‐Analysis of Cross‐Cultural and Intracultural Studies

Meta‐analytic procedures were used to pool information from 43 studies worldwide to test one of the major postulates of parental acceptance‐rejection theory (PARTheory). Specifically, using child and adult versions of the Parental Acceptance‐Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) and the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ), these studies allowed us to assess the claim within PARTheory's personality subtheory that perceived parental acceptance‐rejection is associated universally with a specific form of psychological (mal)adjustment among children and adults, regardless of differences in gender, race, geography, language, or culture. Results of the analysis showed that the predicted relation emerged without exception in all studies. The mean weighted effect sizes across the full range of sociocultural and ethnic groups studied were r= .51 for children and r= .46 for adults. Analysis of fail safe N showed that 3,433 additional studies, all with nonsignificant results, would be required to disconfirm the pancultural association between the PARQ and PAQ among children; 941 such studies would be required to disconfirm this relation among adults.     

News media and the Muslim identity after the Christchurch mosque massacres

ABSTRACT

This article discusses news about Muslims via one researcher’s social media news feeds after the Christchurch tragedy. Using intercultural and Islamic communication theories, the contents of several news stories are analysed for their contribution to the Muslim person’s identity. Findings reveal four main categories: Muslim women and hijab; religion and terrorism; media, government, democracy and the politics of oppression; and representation of the Muslim voice. Substantial news content also depicts peace, love and forgiveness in its presentation of the human angle in New Zealand media. There is a significant shift from the negative othering rhetoric of international media to an inclusive national approach in the tone of the New Zealand press. However, Muslim narratives reveal that structural discrimination and systemic oppression do exist and pose safety and identity challenges. While news continues to divide and unite people depending on the press agenda, their depictions of Islam and Muslims have potentially major influences and serious consequences on the Muslim person’s identity within the local and global Muslim communities.     

Study of Cases of Child Sexual Abuse Referred for Medico-Legal Examination in Cairo and Giza,Egypt,2007–2011

ABSTRACT

Child sexual abuse is a complex problem that results in detrimental effects on its victims. This study aimed to investigate the pattern of child sexual abuse in cases referred for medico-legal examination in Cairo and Giza governorates in the period between 2007–2011. The study included 813 cases of child sexual abuse. Female gender was more predominant than male gender (52.8%, 4.29 cases), and adolescents were the most frequent age group identified as victims of sexual abuse (43.8%, 356 cases). All perpetrators were male and most of them were persons outside the victims’ families (89.9%, 731 cases). It was recommended to teach and encourage children to tell their caregivers if they have been assaulted and to educate parents and caregivers on how to respond when the child discloses sexual abuse.     

Effects of Multiple Acceptance and Rejection on Adults’ Psychological Adjustment: A Pancultural Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on adults’ current psychological adjustment of perceived acceptance or rejection by mothers and fathers in childhood and by intimate partners in adulthood. The sample consisted of 1,709 adults (35 % male and 65 % female), including 1,645 individuals in the multiple acceptance group and 64 in the multiple rejection group. Respondents were selected from a total sample of 2,236 adults in 10 countries including Bangladesh, Colombia, Finland, India, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Puerto-Rico, Turkey, and the USA. Measures used were the Intimate Partner Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire (IPAR/CQ), the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire for Mothers and Fathers (Adult PARQ/Control: Mothers and Fathers), and the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Adult PAQ). Results showed that significantly more women than men experienced multiple acceptance, and significantly more men than women reported multiple rejection. Regardless of gender, the majority of respondents in the multiple acceptance group reported healthy psychological adjustment, whereas the majority of respondents in the multiple rejection group reported severe maladjustment.     

“Isn't it ironic…!?!” Mobility researchers go sedentary: A group auto-ethnography on collective coping and care in pandemic times

We moved places and places moved us, until force majeure detained us on the spot. Signed-up to be hyper-mobile Ph.D.-candidates, we became hyper-reflective pandemic intimates. We moved together into a space that felt safe, OUR safe space. Suspended. Did the pandemic open this door, or had this space always existed, even back in the old days? Probably the latter, although we were not sensitive enough to perceive it, too busy to push the door, too lonesome to CARE. Not attentive to its possibilities, not imaginative of its POWER, too confident to be capable of succeeding alone. Even if we might have secretly wished for this space to exist. The present piece of work, and JOY, might be described by others as a “side-step,” a “hobby project,” a “shadow activity.” For us, it is a recollection of shocks and wonders, a sentience of precious, ephemeral instances that last. We are a group of eight early career researchers who study global mobility and labor migration from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. With prior international mobility experience, we left our previous countries of residence in 2018 to join an EU-funded research project, whilst being located in different European cities. One could classify us, for example, as highly qualified, privileged migrants. The present paper is the outcome of a collaborative, auto-ethnographic study, conducted in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when we suddenly were forced not to travel anymore. We got together online every week to “refaire le monde,” and we conducted virtual, dialogical self-interrogations and group reflections. Based on an emic approach, in line with Chang et al. (2013), we applied an iterative process of data collection and analysis. Our weekly conversations naturally emerged as a safe space for exchange and understanding, as we were facing similar situations, despite staying at different places. Suddenly, as the privilege of “always being on the move,” “always socializing and networking” disappeared due to closed borders and pandemic threats, we experienced anxieties and isolation and had to re-evaluate our perceptions on life, work, and international mobility. The very purpose and meaning of our broader research endeavors and employment perspectives suddenly faded away. We realized more than ever before, what it means to us to be allowed to move, to travel freely across continents.     

Differential Effects of Perceived Maternal and Paternal Acceptance on Male and Female Adult Offspring’s Psychological Adjustment

The purpose of this study was to measure and compare differential effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance of adult sons and adult daughters during childhood on their current psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 200 young adults (100 males and 100 females) from Bangladesh. Measures used were Adult versions of the Parental Acceptance and Rejection Questionnaire for Mothers and Fathers (Adult PARQ: Mothers and Fathers), and Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Adult PAQ). Results showed that both maternal and paternal acceptance have significant independent effects on adult sons’ psychological adjustment, and only paternal (not maternal) acceptance has significant independent effect on adult daughters’ psychological adjustment. Paternal acceptance accounts for greater variability in adult sons’ and adult daughters’ psychological adjustment than maternal acceptance. Results also showed that parental gender has significant interaction effect on the adult daughters’ (not adult sons’) psychological adjustment. Results further showed that adult daughters reported significantly greater maternal and paternal acceptance and higher psychological adjustment than adult sons.     

Saudization (Localization) – A critical review

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of Saudization and critically reviews its existing and potential impacts and consequences. It identifies that Saudization has positively contributed to reducing the overall percentage of foreign labor. However, there have been some difficulties, such as a decline in competitiveness among regional business companies with respect to a business friendly environment, and reduced direct foreign investment, which influenced the reduction of the tax on foreign investors. Saudization should place importance on skill development among Saudi nationals by strengthening educational and vocational training, and providing time-specific incentives, rather than relying only on a quota system. Saudization should be implemented more through market forces and incentives. Collecting comprehensive information on the nature and magnitude of Saudi unemployment could be a first step in developing appropriate Saudization policies. This paper suggests appropriate coordination and consultation between the government, the private sector and the public at large, so that any policies on Saudization become more easily acceptable and executable in both the public and private sector.     

Claim Dependence Induced by Common Effects in Hierarchical Credibility Models

In the usual credibility model, observations are made of a risk or group of risks selected from a population, and claims are assumed to be independent among different risks. However, there are some problems in practical applications and this assumption may be violated in some situations. Some credibility models allow for one source of claim dependence only, that is, across time for an individual insured risk or a group of homogeneous insured risks. Some other credibility models have been developed on a two-level common effects model that allows for two possible sources of dependence, namely, across time for the same individual risk and between risks. In this paper, we argue for the notion of modeling claim dependence on a three-level common effects model that allows for three possible sources of dependence, namely, across portfolios, across individuals and simultaneously across time within individuals. We also obtain the corresponding credibility premiums hierarchically using the projection method. Then we derive the general hierarchical structure or multi-level credibility premiums for the models with h-level of common effects.     

Fractionally integrated ARMA for crude palm oil prices prediction: case of potentially overdifference

Dealing with stationarity remains an unsolved problem. Some of the time series data, especially crude palm oil (CPO) prices persist towards nonstationarity in the long-run data. This dilemma forces the researchers to conduct first-order difference. The basic idea is that to obtain the stationary data that is considered as a good strategy to overcome the nonstationary counterparts. An opportune remark as it is, this proxy may lead to overdifference. The CPO prices trend elements have not been attenuated but nearly annihilated. Therefore, this paper presents the usefulness of autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA) model as the solution towards the nonstationary persistency of CPO prices in the long-run data. In this study, we employed daily historical Free-on-Board CPO prices in Malaysia. A comparison was made between the ARFIMA over the existing autoregressive-integrated moving average (ARIMA) model. Here, we employed three statistical evaluation criteria in order to measure the performance of the applied models. The general conclusion that can be derived from this paper is that the usefulness of the ARFIMA model outperformed the existing ARIMA model.