Travel Risks in a Time of Terror: Judgments and Choices

Shortly after the 2002 terrorist attacks in Bali, readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine were surveyed regarding their views on the risks of travel to various destinations. Their risk estimates were highest for Israel, and lowest for Canada. Estimates for the different destinations correlated positively with (1) one another, (2) concern over aspects of travel that can make one feel at risk (e.g., sticking out as an American), (3) worries about other travel problems (e.g., contracting an infectious disease), and (4) attitudes toward risk. Respondents' willingness to travel to a destination was predicted well by whether their estimate of its risk was above or below their general threshold for the acceptability of travel risks. Overall, the responses suggest orderly choices, based on highly uncertain judgments of risks. Worry played a significant role in these choices, even after controlling for cognitive considerations, thereby supporting the recently proposed "risk as feelings" hypothesis. Thus, even among people who have generally consistent and defensible beliefs, emotions may affect choices. These results emerged with people selected for their interest in and experience with the decision domain (travel), but challenged to incorporate a new concern (terror).     

Enhancing parent-child interaction during foster care visits: experimental assessment of an intervention

Mothers of young children recently placed in foster care participated in an intervention to enhance parent-child interaction during visits. The mothers all reported substantial loss and trauma histories. Immediately prior to the visits, the mothers were coached on strategies for separating from their children at the visit's end. The mothers displayed more behavioral strategies for supporting their children when the visit was over, but were less engaged with their children during the leave-taking sequence and displayed fewer ways of maintaining the child's involvement in mother-child interaction during leave-taking than those in a comparison group. This article discusses consideration of parents' trauma history in designing interventions to enhance parent-child interaction.     

Contraceptive self-efficacy: does it influence adolescents' contraceptive use?

This research investigates the relationship between contraceptive self-efficacy and contraceptive use, measured one year later, among adolescent boys and girls. Data are obtained from the two waves of the restricted use sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 3,577). Employing multiple regression and logistic regression strategies, we examine whether demographic and background characteristics influence contraceptive self-efficacy, and whether contraceptive self-efficacy increases the likelihood of contraceptive use. We find that adolescents who are female, older, live with step-parents, and whose mothers approve of contraceptive use report higher contraceptive self-efficacy, while adolescents whose mothers did not complete high school report lower contraceptive self-efficacy. Results partially support the expectation that adolescents with higher contraceptive self-efficacy act accordingly by using contraceptives.     

The risk of divorce as a barrier to marriage among parents of young children

Using data from the Fragile Families Study, we examine how unmarried parents’ risk of divorce influences their decision to marry. Regression results show that unmarried parents with a high predicted probability of marital dissolution (based on estimates of marital dissolution for a sample of initially married mothers with similar characteristics) had significantly lower odds of marriage to the father of their child even after controlling for individual and relationship characteristics expected to influence marriage transitions. The dissolution propensity we examine also includes a measure of the local divorce climate. As such, our results provide support for the argument that high rates of divorce in the population have led to a fear of divorce among unmarried parents which reduces their probability of marriage.     

Exercise behavior in older adults: a test of the transtheoretical model

The transtheoretical model (TTM) was developed as a guide for understanding behavior change. Little attention has been given, however, to the appropriateness of the TTM for explaining the adoption of exercise behavior in older adults. The purposes of this study were to determine the reliability of the TTM instruments and validate TTM predictions in 86 community-dwelling older adults (mean age 75.1 +/- 7.0 years, 87% women) who were participants in a 16-week walking program. TTM construct scales--self-efficacy, decisional balance (pros and cons), and processes of change (behavioral and cognitive)--were generally reliable (all>.78). Behavioral processes of change increased from baseline to follow-up, but pros, cons, and cognitive processes did not change among participants who became regular exercisers. Stage of change did not predict exercise adoption, but baseline self-efficacy predicted walking behavior. These results lend partial support to the TTM in predicting exercise behavior.     

Public pensions,family allowances and endogenous demographic change

In addition to an old-age insurance system which redistributes income from the young to the old, family allowances build a further redistributive system which typically favors younger and burdens older generations. Family allowances have two main tasks: first, child allowances offer an incentive for child-bearing which influences fertility in an economy. Second, subsidies which ease the financial burden of a child's education guarantee a higher average level of productive skills and therefore enhance net domestic product. If individual demand for having and educating children leads to an impact on the economic system as a whole, we have external effects. In such a case, corrective taxation (Pigouvian tax) should be considered.Earlier versions of this paper were presented at conferences in Bergen, Dublin, Gmunden, Oldenburg and Vienna. The paper benefitted greatly from discussions with participants of these conferences and from the suggestions of two anonymous referees of this journal. Financial support through the Norwegian Research Council (the Ruhrgas scholarship scheme) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Sonderforschungsbereich 303) is gratefully acknowledged.     

Gender-linked Risks for Peer Physical and Relational Victimization in the Context of School-level Poverty in First Grade

In a short‐term longitudinal study of 432 first‐grade children, we examined whether gender interacted with contextual differences (school‐level poverty) and individual differences at school entry (behavioral problems, emotional problems, and social competence) to predict changes in peer physical and relational victimization and receipt of prosocial acts. Gender differences in peer victimization were observed in schools with low levels of student poverty, such that girls showed significant decreases in peer victimization relative to boys. Girls in schools with high levels of student poverty were at greater risk for increases in victimization relative to girls in low‐poverty schools. Individual differences at school entry also contributed to risks for physical (but not relational) victimization. Girls with high levels of behavioral problems and boys with low levels of social competence showed increased risks for physical victimization. We discussed the implications of the present findings for school‐based peer‐victimization prevention programs.