From first daughter to first lady to first woman president: Park Geun-Hye’s path to the South Korean presidency

This paper examines the role of gender and familial ties in Park Geun-Hye’s political trajectory to become the first female president of South Korea. Even though her entry into politics was heavily indebted to her kinship ties to her father Park Jung-Hee, an authoritarian leader who led South Korea from 1963 to 1979, she has consolidated her position within the party and among Korean voters as a viable, competent politician over the last fifteen years. Analyzing Korean news reports, campaign pamphlets, and her autobiography, this study reveals that Park used stereotypes of women as problem solvers in difficult times to open doors for her political entry. During the presidential campaign in 2012, Park was adept at stressing her positive “feminine” traits, overcoming the perceived weaknesses of female politicians by emphasizing her long political credentials and strengths in diplomacy and national security issues. Park presented herself as the embodiment of both change and experience through her campaign slogan “the well-prepared female president” and the public reacted favorably to the appeal.     

The expected length of male retirement in the United States, 1850–1990

This paper estimates the expected length of retirement for each labor market cohort between 1850 and 1990. Since 1850, the expected length of retirement has increased by more than six-fold and now represents up to 30% of male length of life after entry into the labor force. The rise of the duration of retirement during the twentieth century is analyzed according to the effects of mortality decline and of decreased age of retirement. Implications of the result for a number of economic issues, including the relative importance of life-cycle savings and the potential saving effect of Social Security, are discussed. Received: 22 September 1999/Accepted: 11 July 2000     

Spiritual Struggles and Psychological Distress: Is There a Dark Side of Religion?

A growing literature examines the correlates and sequelae of spiritual struggles. Particular attention has been focused on three specific types of such struggles: (a) divine, or troubled relationships with God; (b) interpersonal, or negative social encounters in religious settings; and (c) intrapsychic, or chronic religious doubting. To date, however, this literature has focused primarily on one or another type, leaving open the possibility that these are highly correlated and may tap a single, underlying dimension. Further, because studies have relied mostly on small, specialized samples, it is not clear whether the associations between spiritual struggles and psychological functioning vary across key subgroups in the US population. Using data from the 1998 NORC General Social Survey we address these issues. Findings reveal strong and independent associations between each type of spiritual struggle and psychological distress, and they also show that these patterns are robust across most population subgroups, except for variations by age and marital status. Implications, study limitations, and directions for further research are identified.     

The socioeconomic dimensions of brownfield cleanup in the Detroit region

Although the goal of brownfield development is to clean up and redevelop abandoned or underutilized properties in distressed urban neighborhoods, the racial and socioeconomic disparities of brownfield cleanups have not been adequately examined. This study combines the locations of brownfields with 1990 and 2000 US Census data in the Detroit region. Results reveal that brownfields located near socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to be cleaned up first. Brownfields located far from major roads also tend to receive priority. However, results also suggest that the amount of land devoted to industrial and/or commercial uses adjacent to brownfield sites is not significantly associated with the probability of brownfield sites being cleaned up. These findings indicate that the initial step of brownfield development—cleaning up environmentally contaminated properties—is heading in the right direction.     

Children's Beliefs About Self‐disclosure to Friends Regarding Academic Achievement

Self‐disclosure to friends is a potentially useful way for children to pursue a range of desired goals. Here we examined reasoning about the appropriateness of disclosing one's own academic outcomes in a sample of 7‐, 9‐, 11‐, 13‐, and 15‐year‐old Chinese participants (N = 150). The valence of (1) the outcomes to be disclosed and (2) the corresponding outcomes for the potential audience for the disclosure was manipulated factorially, and participants judged whether disclosure was advisable and explained their responses. Disclosure was seen as more appropriate under valence‐matching conditions than valence‐mismatching conditions. How participants judged each type of disclosure under valence‐mismatching conditions varied as a function of participant age: As compared with younger participants, older participants considered disclosure of weak performance to a stronger performer more acceptable and disclosure of strong performance to a weaker performer less acceptable. These findings suggest that older children are more likely than younger children to appreciate that self‐disclosing positive performance outcomes can bring social costs, and that self‐disclosing negative performance outcomes can bring social benefits.     

Father's involvement in the lives of children in foster care

Limited understandings exist about non‐resident fathers' views of their involvement with their children in foster care placements. Guided by the ecological systems framework, the purpose of this exploratory study was to gain insights into fathers' perceptions of their involvement with a child in foster care. Data were collected from demographic questionnaires and two focus groups with 17 men. Fathers expressed how kinship compared with non‐kinship placements affected their involvement. Fathers were also in agreement that their financial hardships were a significant factor affecting their involvement. Several fathers also reported how they experienced discrimination in the child welfare system as men. Surprisingly, uncommon to findings from other studies, few men viewed the child's mother as being a barrier to their involvement. The findings provide insights into factors requiring attention to help non‐residential fathers become involved with their children.     

Does multicultural education affect bachelor of social work students' attitudes? The Taiwanese case of female Southeast Asian marriage immigration

In the past two decades, intra‐Asia cross‐border marriage immigration has become a significant phenomenon. This study collected questionnaire data from Bachelor of Social Work students (n = 1,232) in Taiwan to explore the influences of multicultural education, intergroup contact experience, and demographic characteristics on students' attitudes toward female Southeast Asian marriage migrants. Regression analysis revealed that students' attitudes are improved by direct contact with female Southeast Asian marriage migrants but are not correlated with students' demographic characteristics. Although pre‐college multicultural education improves students' attitudes, college‐level multicultural education adversely affects the attitudes of students who perform poorly in multicultural courses. These findings have valuable implications for social work educators.     

Do Young Children's Representations of Discipline and Empathy Moderate the Effects of Punishment on Emotion Regulation?

This study examined whether children's representations of parenting (perceptions of authoritative discipline and empathy) moderated the association between harsh punishment—including corporal punishment (CP) and verbal punishment (VP)—and children's emotion regulation at the age of five years. Participants were 559 low‐income mother‐child dyads. Maternal self‐reports and home observations were used to measure punishment. Children's representations were assessed using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. Children's emotion regulation was assessed by observer rating via the Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that children's authoritative disciplinary representations moderated the effects of both VP and CP on children's emotion regulation. Empathic representations moderated the effects of VP only on children's emotion regulation. The current findings highlight the role of children's internal representations as potential protective factors in the context of harsher forms of punishment.