Beyond individual war trauma: domestic violence against children in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka

To date, research on the psychosocial consequences of mass trauma resulting from war and organized violence on children has primarily focused on the individual as the unit of treatment and analysis with particular focus on mental disorders caused by traumatic stress. This body of research has stimulated the development of promising individual-level treatment approaches for addressing psychological trauma. In contrast, there is virtually no literature addressing the effects of mass trauma on the family and community systems. Research conducted in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, two long-standing war-torn societies, found that in addition to multiple exposure to war or disaster-related traumatic events children also indicated high levels of exposure to family violence. These findings point to the need for conjoint family- and community-based programs of prevention and intervention that are specifically tailored for the context of the affected society. In particular, programs should take issues such as poverty, child labor, and parental alcohol use into account in assessing and treating children in the aftermath of mass trauma.     

The Family Safety Model: A Comprehensive Strategy For Working With Domestic Violence

There has been continuous debate about the viability, efficacy and appropriateness of providing services to perpetrators and couples where domestic violence is the presenting problem in therapy. This paper argues that within a comprehensive and integrated model of service provision that encompasses all family members, it can be appropriate and effective to incorporate these service options if screening, monitoring and service models are carefully selected and provided in a context of agency safety and support.     

Ecological Risks and Community Perceptions of Fairness and Justice: A Cross-Cultural Model

Intergenerational justice is implicit in international commitments to sustainability. If ecological, economic, and social components of sustainability are to be achieved, there is a necessity for intergenerational justice considerations to be included in decision making. The present generation's risk judgments should include consideration of the possible outcomes for their children. But intergenerational issues cannot be considered in isolation from other current risk and fairness concerns. This article reports on a community-based integrative model that describes justice and other attitudes and motivations that determine community and individual proenvironmental behavior in two nations: Germany and Australia. This model can account for a considerable amount of the variance in political compliance as well as various proenvironmental behaviors. Group or individual self-interests have nearly no effects on global protective behavior. It is shown that universal as well as contextual principles, including distributive (within or between generations), procedural, and interactive justice, play a crucial role in fairness judgments. Other principles are also taken into account, such as efficiency, environmental rights, and rights to economic welfare. The results are discussed in relation to the importance of complex community fairness judgments in predicting and evaluating acceptance of political decisions, and for promoting proenvironmental behavior.     

Developing a Contextual Consciousness: Learning to Address Gender,Societal Power,and Culture in Clinical Practice

Despite the growing number of culturally sensitive training models and considerable literature on the importance of training clinicians in larger contextual issues, research examining how students learn to apply these issues is limited. In this participatory action research project, we systematically studied our own process as marriage and family therapy (MFT) practicum students developing a contextual consciousness. Using grounded theory, we identified a three‐stage process: (a) raised awareness through clinical experimentation and developing a theoretical rationale, (b) reflective questioning involving challenging old perspectives and experiencing positive client–therapist interactions, and (c) an intentional new lens based on personal responsibility and commitment. Creating and maintaining a contextual lens required a safe, empowering group dynamic and accessing other forms of support and accountability after the practicum.     

Is it the family or the neighborhood? Evidence from sibling and neighbor correlations in youth education and health

In this paper, we present sibling and neighbor correlations in school grades and cognitive skills, as well as indicators of physical and mental health, for a sample of German adolescents. In a first step, we estimate sibling correlations and find a substantial influence of shared family and community background on all outcomes. To further disentangle the influence of family background and neighborhood, we estimate neighbor correlations. Our results show that for all outcomes, the estimated neighbor correlations are clearly lower than the estimated sibling correlations. However, especially for cognitive skills and mental health, neighbor correlations are still substantial in relation to sibling correlations. Thus, compared to existing results from other countries, the influence of the neighborhood on these outcomes is not negligible in Germany.     

Sexism in adolescence: parenting styles,division of housework,prosocial behaviour and aggressive behaviour / Sexismo en la adolescencia: estilos de crianza,división de tareas domésticas,conducta prosocial y agresividad

The aim of this study was to identify which factors were the best predictors of sexist attitudes. To achieve this aim, two groups of variables were analysed. The first group consisted of variables relating to parenting styles and the division of housework. The second group consisted of personal factors related to prosocial behaviour and physical and verbal aggression. The sample was made up of 732 adolescents aged 12–14 from Valencia (Spain). The analysis was conducted separately for boys and girls. Correlation analyses and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted on each subsample. The results show that the division of housework and parenting styles were related to sexist attitudes. This connection was especially strong for the division of housework according to traditional gender roles, which was found to lead to hostile and benevolent sexist attitudes. The results also showed that prosocial and aggressive behaviours were correlated with sexist attitudes. The results varied by gender. The findings of this research have implications for the prevention of sexist attitudes.     

Relations between postdivorce custody arrangements,family contexts,and children’s adjustment

The goal of the present study was to shed light on the relation between postseparation custody arrangements and family contexts in which school-age children (8–12 years old) live so as to better understand the processes underlying their adjustment. The sample was composed of 112 dyads (parents and children) from families in joint custody (n?=?37) or maternal custody (n?=?75). The dyads were met with twice at a 1-year interval. Compared with those in joint custody, the respondents with sole custody had a negative opinion of the transitions between homes and had the impression that the children were more involved in interparental conflicts. This analysis showed that the difficult nature of transitions between homes was a crucial mediating variable in the relation between conflicts and the children’s adjustment, but that other variables, such as the relational problems with the mother, played a role, particularly in joint custody situations.     

Shortcuts in complex engineering systems: a principal-agent approach to risk management

In this article, we examine the effects of shortcuts in the development of engineered systems through a principal-agent model. We find that occurrences of illicit shortcuts are closely related to the incentive structure and to the level of effort that the agent is willing to expend from the beginning of the project to remain on schedule. Using a probabilistic risk analysis to determine the risks of system failure from these shortcuts, we show how a principal can choose optimal settings (payments, penalties, and inspections) that can deter an agent from cutting corners and maximize the principal's value through increased agent effort. We analyze the problem for an agent with limited liability. We consider first the case where he is risk neutral; we then include the case where he is risk averse.     

Do terrorist attacks affect ethnic discrimination in the labour market? Evidence from two randomized field experiments

Terrorist attacks are known to influence public opinion. But do they also change behaviour? We address this question by comparing the results of two identical randomized field experiments on ethnic discrimination in hiring that we conducted in Oslo. The first experiment was conducted before the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway; the second experiment was conducted after the attacks. In both experiments, applicants with a typical Pakistani name were significantly less likely to get a job interview compared to those with a typical Norwegian name. But the ethnic gap in call‐back rates were very similar in the two experiments. Thus, Pakistanis in Norway still experienced the same level of discrimination, despite claims that Norwegians have become more positive about migrants after the far‐right, anti‐migrant terrorist attacks of 2011.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Scales Measuring Trust,and Control-Self-efficacy of Young Iranian Women

This study is among the first to assess Trust and Control-Self-efficacy scales as measures of cognitive social capital in transitional societies such as Iran. 391 Iranian young women aged between 18 and 35 years (M 27.3, SD 4.8) were recruited at ten sites in the city of Shiraz by cluster convenience sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. The measures used included “Trust” and “Control-Self-efficacy” scales adapted from the British General Household Survey social capital survey. Confirmatory factor analysis with Structural Equation Modelling was used to assess the model adequacy. In addition, reliability and validity of the model was measured. After assessing all possible models to yield the best fit for the data, the “Trust” scale model represents a change of structure from three subscales to four subscales which provided a best fit with the data (χ² = 2.231, RMSEA = 0.056). While for “Control-Self-efficacy” scale with three subscales, five items were deleted in order to have a fit model (χ² = 2.128, RMSEA = 0.054). As a result, the collective evidence suggested that the instrument includes relevant items for its target population and can be a reliable and valid measure for the population of interest.