A randomized controlled trial of a 5-year marriage checkup booster session for a subsample of responder couples

This study examined maintenance and booster effects of a brief couple intervention, the Marriage Checkup (MC), across 5 years. A subsample of 63 couples who benefitted from two previous MCs (responder couples), were randomly assigned to a third MC or control. Before randomization (at 4-years-9-months), the responder sample had maintained small to medium effects on two measures of relationship functioning. After randomization, we found no significant between-group effects. Yet, within-group analyses revealed that while control couples showed flat trajectories in all outcomes after the 4-year-9-months baseline, couples receiving a third MC (at Year 5) reported small to medium improvements in three measures of relationship functioning and maintained follow-up effect in one measure. Findings indicate that couples who initially improved from the MC can maintain some of their improvements over long periods. The potential of boosting such improvements with recurrent MCs is a relevant target for further investigation in larger samples.     

A Changing Game: Ethnicity,Gender, and Nation in the US American Soccer Film

Both sport and film play a key role in contemporary US American popular culture. They are widely regarded as legitimate carriers and formative instances of social identities such as ethnicity, gender, or nationality, and they have capitalized upon one another with increasing success. Soccer and soccer films provide a case in point, as both the sport and its treatment in US American feature films are currently undergoing a change from a rather marginal position to a somewhat secure place within the cultural mainstream. This essay analyses five recent American soccer films with a particular focus on how they frame soccer as an ethnic, gendered, and ‘national’ game in a US context.     

Ungleichheitssemantiken im Wandel — Wahrnehmungen und Bewertungen von MigrantInnen in privaten Unternehmen

Based on theories of social inequalities and of ethnic boundaries we can conceptualise integration and disintegration of migrants and ethnic minorities not as given structures, but as interactive processes in different societal systems. Due to the specific context in every domain, specific semantics of inequality are used. In the article different semantics of inequality in the range of Austrian politics and economy are described. Based on qualitative interviews in Austrian enterprises, changes of semantics of inequality in one societal field are shown. It is stressed that in the Austrian economic domain in contrast to the domain of politics usually pragmatic semantics of inequality are used. They currently differentiate and so enhance the synchrony of different structural types of occupational integration.     

Konfliktcoaching für neu ernannte Führungskräfte

Conflict coaching with recently appointed managers The author discusses conflict coaching with recently appointed managers. It is a basic premise that newcomers first have to prove as managers in the eyes of their colleagues, otherwise a great variety of complications may emerge. These complications are determined by the way the manager is recruited, by the situation of his predecessor and by the specific organizational task. Accordingly, in coaching processes these different conflict eventualities have to be dealed with in different ways.     

The integration of sustainability into the theory and practice of finance: an overview of the state of the art and outline of future developments

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive view of the current state of the literature in sustainable issues in financial research. Progress in these areas has generally been slow, and the concept of sustainable finance has not yet fully settled in the academic literature. We introduce corporate social responsibility as the underlying framework for sustainable finance and review key strands from the diverse literature on sustainability in finance. We suggest how this research field might advance in the future and propose a number of open questions that require further analysis.     

Accidents and Unpleasant Incidents: Worry in Transport and Prediction of Travel Behavior

Worry on nine different means of transport was measured in a Norwegian sample of 853 respondents. The main aim of the study was to investigate differences in worry about accidents and worry about unpleasant incidents, and how these two sorts of worry relate to various means of transport as well as transport behavior. Factor analyses of worry about accidents suggested a division between rail transport, road transport, and nonmotorized transport, whereas analyses of worry about unpleasant incidents suggested a division between transport modes where you interact with other people and "private" transport modes. Moreover, mean ratings of worry showed that respondents worried more about accidents than unpleasant incidents on private transport modes, and more about unpleasant incidents than accidents on public transport modes. Support for the distinction between worry about accidents and unpleasant incidents was also found when investigating relationships between both types of worry and behavioral adaptations: worry about accidents was more important than worry about unpleasant incidents in relation to behavioral adaptations on private means of transport, whereas the opposite was true for public means of transport. Finally, predictors of worry were investigated. The models of worry about accidents and worry about unpleasant incidents differed as to what predictors turned out significant. Knowledge about peoples' worries on different means of transport is important with regard to understanding and influencing transport and travel behavior, as well as attending to commuters' welfare.     

Young Poker Faces

Gambling is an activity that can be performed on-premise (slot machines in casinos, bars and restaurants) or off-premise (scratch cards and lottery tickets). Although the addictive potential may depend on the specific gambling product, early onset increases the likelihood for future pathological gambling. To delay the onset of gambling behavior and to reduce gambling-related problems, many countries have introduced age limits that should decrease the availability of gambling products to underage individuals. In this study we evaluated compliance to the legal age limit, making use of a mystery shopping method. We distinguished between (1) off-premise scratch cards (n = 51); (2) off-premise lottery tickets (n = 49); (3) on-premise slot machines in casinos (n = 88); and (4) on-premise slot machines in the catering industry (n = 100), and we focus on the factors, such as characteristics of the establishment, buyer, and vendor, that may account for possible differences. The 288 visits demonstrate that gambling products are highly available and accessible to under-aged customers; young customers are still able to gamble despite the legal regulations. The compliance rates fluctuate and appear to be related to the specific gambling product in question. Furthermore, age verification activities and certain outlet- and buyer characteristics, as well as characteristics associated with the purchase attempt, may influence compliance.     

On the independence of history: experience spill-overs between experiments

A central understanding in experimental economics is that subjects’ decisions in the lab are independent of history. We test whether this assumption of between-experiment independence is indeed justified. We analyze experiments with an allocation decision (like a dictator or ultimatum game) and find that participation in previous experiments tends to increase the amount subjects allocate to themselves. Hence, independence between experiments cannot be presumed if subjects participate repeatedly. The finding has implications for the interpretation of previous allocation decision results and deserves attention when running future experiments.     

Where I Belong: Identification Processes of Young Volunteers in Super-Diverse Cities

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In the context of super-diverse cities, scholars and policy makers are increasingly interested in the potential of...