Human Development and National Culture: A Multivariate Exploration

We examine the relationship between different aspects of human development and Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture. Using multivariate regression and canonical correlation analysis, we show that all the dimensions of national culture except masculinity have a significant impact on human development, and that the overall strength of the association between the two groups of variables is a high positive one. In general, the direction of the influence of the national culture variables on economic growth differs from the manner they influence other variables, which reinforces the fact that economic growth does not always translate into true people-centred development. Furthermore, the national culture dimensions do not explain much of the variation in a number of health indicators.     

International Migration,Remittances Inflow and Household Welfare: An Intra Village Comparison from Pakistan

This study explores the financial costs, time involved in migration and benefits at household level. A household survey has been conducted to investigate about characteristics of migrants, transaction costs and sources of financing by which overseas migration is financed. Results of PSM technique explored that overseas migration conveys worthwhile benefits as measured by their total expenditures, food expenditures, non-food expenditures, clothing expenditures, expenditures on pots and pans, expenditures on vehicles and saving levels. Establishment of technical training institutions, creation of micro-finance institutions and enhancing their functioning as well as sensitization about ‘Pakistan Remittance Initiative’ would be some of the policy options in order to tackle with the problem.     

Konfundierte Ergebnisse durch ein zu stark beschränktes Design?

Recently C. Czymara and A. Schmidt-Catran published in this journal (KZfSS 2016 (2)) a factorial Survey-Experiment to contribute to the current debate on the inflow of refugees in Germany. The authors concluded from their Survey-Experiment that in particular highly qualified immigrants who show little culture distance should get accepted in Germany, while for instance Muslim immigrants would be more strongly rejected. In this comment it is argued that authors’ results probably suffered from a strong confounder bias. The employed experimental design also allows for a lot of alternative interpretations. Therefore, readers of the original article or further users of the data should be more cautious when interpreting the results.     

Military Cultural Competence

This article offers a new definition of military cultural competence based on a review of the literature. As a starting point, the defining characteristics of military culture is discussed and includes the chain of command, military norms, and military identity. Having laid this groundwork, the multidimensionality of military cultural competence—attitudinal, cognitive, behavior—is discussed. Clinical applications of these various competencies are provided.     

Impact of Parenting Behaviors on Recent Alcohol Use Among African American Students

Parenting is a critical factor in substance abuse prevention. Positive parenting behaviors are identified as a protective factor for substance abuse among youth. Limited research exists that investigates the role of parenting practices on minority youth substance use. The present study seeks to examine correlates between parenting and recent alcohol use among African American youth. Specifically, to what extent do African American students report experiencing specific parenting behaviors that are measured by the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health?, do specific parenting behaviors increase the risk of recent alcohol use among African American youth?, does the impact of parenting behaviors on recent alcohol use among African American youth differ based on sex (males and females) and age category (12–13, 14–15, and 16–17 years old) were examined in this study? Logistic regression analysis of the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health was conducted to examine the research questions. Findings indicated that parenting behaviors was associated with recent alcohol among youth. Significant differences were found for males, females, 12–13, 14–15, and 16–17 years olds. Study findings demonstrate the importance of positive parenting behaviors in youth alcohol prevention. Program specialists may target parenting as a means of preventing and reducing youth alcohol use among African American youth.     

The Social Economy in Bolivia: Indigeneity,Solidarity, and Alternatives to Capitalism

The social economy (SE) is alternatively conceptualized as a third sector (between the private and public sector); or by a typology of the organizations involved (such as cooperatives, non-profit organizations and social enterprises); or by the principles and values driving such activities (such as cooperation, mutual benefit, and democracy). One important consideration is often overlooked, namely that the SE emerges in different forms and with varied emphases depending on location. The SE is ‘place-based’—rooted in specific geographic, historical, cultural, and socioeconomic settings. This article explores the conceptualization of the SE in the Bolivian context from the perspective of government and civil society actors. The research took place after the country recognized the importance of the social, cooperative and community economy in their new constitution and found that the understanding of the SE in Bolivia relates strongly to the country’s indigenous and colonial heritage.     

Adolescent Female Offenders’ Subjective Experiences of How Peers Influence Norm-Breaking Behavior

Delinquent peers have a strong influence on adolescent delinquent behavior. However, few studies have investigated adolescents’, and in particular young females’, own perspectives of the role of peers on their delinquent behavior. The purpose of the present study was to explore how young female offenders described their delinquent behavior and more specifically the role they assign to peer relations in committing or avoiding delinquent acts. Nine female adolescents, sentenced to youth service, were interviewed, and the data was analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method. The results showed that committing crimes and taking drugs with peers were portrayed as a way for the female delinquents to socialize. Delinquent and pro-social activities with peers appear to serve similar developmental functions in the sense that it is described to fulfill the same developmental needs. The young offenders also described collectively created pressures and norms in the peer group as the main contributing factor to their norm-breaking behavior, where they described being both recipients and producers of influence in the group. Another important finding was that the female offenders showed an awareness of the importance of pro-social peers and the need to eliminate delinquent friends from their peer network in order to help them refrain from deviant behavior. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.     

Assessing Value Differences Between Leaders of Two Social Venture Types: Benefit Corporations and Nonprofit Organizations

This study considers key value differences between leaders of two types of social ventures: for-profit social benefit corporations and nonprofit organizations. The research question asks to what degree the value sets of leaders of benefit corporations are congruent with those of similarly situated individuals in nonprofit organizations. The results show the values of leaders working in benefit corporations and nonprofit organizations are in many ways aligned, but there are notable statistical differences. A sectoral association of values is also present with employees in both types of organization, especially when the previous work experience of employees is considered.     

Evaluating the Quality of Social Work Supervision in UK Children’s Services: Comparing Self-Report and Independent Observations

Understanding how different forms of supervision support good social work practice and improve outcomes for people who use services is nearly impossible without reliable and valid evaluative measures. Yet the question of how best to evaluate the quality of supervision in different contexts is a complicated and as-yet-unsolved challenge. In this study, we observed 12 social work supervisors in a simulated supervision session offering support and guidance to an actor playing the part of an inexperienced social worker facing a casework-related crisis. A team of researchers analyzed these sessions using a customized skills-based coding framework. In addition, 19 social workers completed a questionnaire about their supervision experiences as provided by the same 12 supervisors. According to the coding framework, the supervisors demonstrated relatively modest skill levels, and we found low correlations among different skills. In contrast, according to the questionnaire data, supervisors had relatively high skill levels, and we found high correlations among different skills. The findings imply that although self-report remains the simplest way to evaluate supervision quality, other approaches are possible and may provide a different perspective. However, developing a reliable independent measure of supervision quality remains a noteworthy challenge.     

Verwerfungslinien in Organisationen – die Wirkung von Kontextfaktoren auf die Verbundenheit in Organisationen

The importance of commitment from the point of view of companies or organizations is discussed controversially in recent years. On the one hand, a key competitive advantage is seen in the field of human resources. At the same time, very different forms of employment flexibilization can be observed. These different approaches are shown in this article and the versatile embedding of work such as the perception of disposition possibilities in terms of time, individual room for maneuver or even the experienced social justice. All of these dimensions have the potential to portray themselves as faultlines in organizations and thus have an impact on the binding in organizations.