Selections and social selectivity on the academic track: A life-course analysis of educational attainment in Germany

Graduating from university is just the final step of an extended educational career. Sociological transition research has revealed that final educational attainment must be understood as the result of a sequence of successive decisions. With regard to graduation from university, one has to take into account that upper secondary school qualifications are required for enrolling in the first place, and in Germany, the decision for this kind of schooling is at a much earlier age. So where on the long way to the university degree does Germany ‘lose’ its potential academics and in particular its lower class children?     

Relationships Among Career Thoughts,Vocational Identity,and Calling: Implications for Practice

The concept of a calling in relation to career choice is a topic of interest in current literature. Exploring variables that may contribute to the presence of a calling is an important gap in the literature. This study examined career thoughts and vocational identity in relation to the presence of calling in a sample of 329 undergraduate university students enrolled in a career development course. The findings revealed significant relationships among all the variables of interest, as well as moderate predictive power, indicating that vocational identity and career thoughts may contribute to the formation of a calling to pursue a particular career. Limitations, implications for practice, and future research are discussed.     

A prospective examination of depression,anxiety and stress throughout pregnancy

BackgroundPerinatal distress has largely been conceptualised as the experience of depression and/or anxiety. Recent research has shown that the affective state of stress is also present during the perinatal period and thus may add to a broader understanding of perinatal distress.AimThe aims of the present study were to investigate the changes in depression, anxiety and stress symptoms across pregnancy, and to explore the prospective relationships between these symptoms.MethodsTwo-hundred and fourteen pregnant women were recruited when they were less than 16 weeks gestation. Women completed depression, anxiety and stress measures on a monthly basis, from 16 weeks gestation through to 36 weeks gestation. The covariate measures of sleep quality and social support were assessed bi-monthly at 16, 24 and 32 weeks gestation.FindingsLevels of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms were all shown to change over time, with women experiencing fewer symptoms during the middle of their pregnancy. Higher symptoms early in pregnancy predicted higher symptom levels throughout the rest of pregnancy. Higher depression scores early in pregnancy were also shown to predict higher anxiety and higher stress scores in late pregnancy. Increased stress scores during mid pregnancy also predicted higher anxiety scores in late pregnancy.ConclusionCurrent findings indicate that symptom levels of depression, anxiety and stress vary over the course of pregnancy. Increased depression in early pregnancy seemed to be particularly pertinent as it not only predicted later depression symptoms, but also increased anxiety and stress in late pregnancy. Collectively, these results further highlight the importance of emotional health screening early in pregnancy.     

The transition to motherhood: Towards a broader understanding of perinatal distress

BackgroundA substantial body of research has focused on maternal perinatal mood and wellbeing, with the focus predominantly being on depression, and to a lesser extent, anxiety. Perinatal maternal stress has also been investigated recently, but to a far lesser extent. The present paper questions whether the term ‘perinatal distress’ accurately captures the range of challenges experienced by women during the perinatal period, when the scope of ‘distress’ is limited to the experience of depression and anxiety alone.MethodA review of the perinatal literature was conducted using several databases, to identify studies that have focused on the experience of stress as a distinct affective state in the perinatal period.FindingsThe findings of two recent studies which have employed a broader conceptualisation of perinatal distress to encompass the experience of stress as well as depression and anxiety are outlined. These recent studies have identified the experience of stress both in conjunction with and independent of depression and anxiety.ConclusionIt is argued that future studies should investigate the concept of stress as a separate affective state throughout the perinatal period, in order to further assess how it differs from depression and/or anxiety. A more comprehensive understanding of women's experiences during their transition to motherhood, and whether ‘stress’ plays a critical role in the development and maintenance of perinatal anxiety and/or depression is needed.     

Evaluating the performance of simple estimators for probit models with two dummy endogenous regressors

This study considers the small sample performance of approximate but simple two-stage estimators for probit models with two endogenous binary covariates. Monte Carlo simulations show that all the considered estimators, including the simulated maximum-likelihood (SML) estimation, of the trivariate probit model are biased in very small samples (N=100). With moderately small samples (N=500), some of the approximations perform as well as the SML estimator when the degree of endogeneity is not very large. Some of the approximations seem robust with higher correlations and are also promising for testing the exogeneity of binary covariates. The methods are used to estimate the impact of employment-based health insurance and health care (HC) on HC use, where the approximations seem to work at least as well as the SML and in some cases better.     

The Analysis of Survey Data with Framing Effects

A well-known difficulty in survey research is that respondents’ answers to questions can depend on arbitrary features of a survey’s design, such as the wording of questions or the ordering of answer choices. In this paper, we describe a novel set of tools for analyzing survey data characterized by such framing effects. We show that the conventional approach to analyzing data with framing effects—randomizing survey-takers across frames and pooling the responses—generally does not identify a useful parameter. In its place, we propose an alternative approach and provide conditions under which it identifies the responses that are unaffected by framing. We also present several results for shedding light on the population distribution of the individual characteristic the survey is designed to measure.     

THE ROLE OF TIME FRAME IN THE ASSESSMENT OF FAMILY FUNCTIONING

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how the stated time frame of family questionnaires can influence the individual's report of family events and relationships. Three whole-family assessment procedures were administered to a large sample of intact families under two conditions—when the respondent was asked to describe his/her family "in general" and "during the past week". Major findings indicated that (a) reports of family relationships reflected the same overall evaluation regardless of time frame, (b) the number or degree of positive endorsements was greater on the "in general" than the "past week" format, and (c) the impact of time frame varied greatly as a function of instrument. Explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Decision analysis for water resources planning

Quantitative decision analysis techniques were applied to a particular problem of water resources planning: how should the water supply of the metropolitan Boston area be increased to meet the projected demand for 1990? The analytic approach used a multiattribute value model to evaluate several alternatives from the points of view of different interested constituencies. The model was presented to a number of individuals and groups with responsibility for recommending policy, and they indicated an interest in the findings.