Developing critical and empathic capabilities in intercultural education through the VaKE approach

One of the core goals of intercultural education is to develop critical and empathic reflection on social justice, particularly as related to humanistic choices and how individuals can counteract exclusion. The present article analyses the Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE) approach, which is aimed at raising awareness about implicit value-oriented priorities in decision-making. Through the Human Development and Capability Approach, the applicability of VaKE’s didactic principles is analysed in relation to young people’s perspectives on resettlement in Europe. The VaKE method was used at a 2013 summer camp in Austria with a culturally diverse group of young Europeans who were presented with a dilemma story that highlighted the complex issue of providing assistance to asylum seekers. The participants engaged in various knowledge and moral viability checks that enabled them to engage with opposing arguments. The participants evidenced critical reflection and self-scrutiny, as well as affiliation and empathic imagination, regarding problems that are encountered by asylum seekers.     

Co-morbidity Between Gambling Problems and Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Perspective of Risk and Protective Factors

In both adolescents and adults, gambling problems and depressive symptoms co-occur and share some common risk factors (e.g., impulsivity and socio-family risk). However, little is known about (1) the developmental course of the co-morbidity of these problems; (2) variables that may moderate the effect of these common risk factors on gambling problems and depressive symptoms. Of specific interest could be individuals’ social relationships with significant others such as parents and friends, because research shows that they moderate the effect of other risk factors on gambling problems and depressive symptoms. The goals of this study were to: (a) identify developmental pathways for gambling problems and depressive symptoms, with a focus on co-morbidity; (b) assess the moderating effect of relationship quality with parents and friends on the link between common risk factors and the trajectories of gambling problems and depressive symptoms. Study participants were 878 males. Predictors were assessed during childhood and adolescence and gambling problems and depressive symptoms were assessed in late adolescence and young adulthood. Latent class analysis revealed four distinct joint trajectories of gambling problems and depressive symptoms. Subsequent logistic regression revealed that impulsivity predicted membership in all pathogenic trajectories, and quality of the relationship with parents predicted membership in depressogenic trajectories. In addition, we found that the membership in the comorbid trajectory can be predicted by an interaction between friendship quality and socio-family risk.     

So Far,so Similar? Labour Market Feminization in Italy and Chile

Social Indicators Research - The article aims to analyse gender segregation in the labour market while comparing two national contexts in Europe and Latin America. Specifically, it will consider...     

Economic,Financial and Geopolitical Governance: USA,European Union and China

The paper examines the policies, choices, structural reforms, regulatory rules, corporate and public administration matching the world standards, openness, innovation, competitiveness, fulfillment of multilateral obligations, integration and regional approach achievements and international relations conditionality in the “Global Governance and Geopolitics” of the main economic, financial and policy issues, with special focus on the new regional approaches pursued by America, the European Union and Asia and the role of the emerging and transition countries. After the US Dollar, now the Eurozone is under pressure and the main Asian countries fear a contagion effect. While somebody proposes a slow devaluation of the Euro in order to soften the public deficits of the group of most exposed countries and restore more competitiveness to the real economy, political leaders are thinking to adopt indirectly the Euro two speeds operative monetary strategy, through the introduction of the majority vote, instead of the full Members consensus, for the most important decisions at the ECB in Frankfurt. Aside these monetary and institutional measures, the binding of the single national fiscal policy to more strict EU parameters of compatibility with the Eurozone sustainability appear unavoidable. This paper represents the background of my lecture given on November 4 at the Beijing Forum 2011 “The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All: Tradition and Modernity, Transition and Transformation” () at the PEK University.     

Ranking Nursing Homes’ Performances Through a Latent Markov Model with Fixed and Random Effects

Social Indicators Research - In this paper, we aim at ranking a set of nursing homes based on their ability in maintaining their residents’ physical conditions as good as possible. In this...     

Predicting Follow‐up Outcomes in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: The Role of Change in Trust,Relationship‐Specific Attachment,and Emotional Engagement

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), an evidence‐based couple therapy (Johnson, Hunsley, Greenberg, & Schindler, 1999), strives to foster lasting change through the creation of secure attachment bonds in distressed couples. Although studies have demonstrated lasting change in follow‐up (Wiebe et al., in press), research is needed to investigate predictors of long‐term outcomes. Our goal was to investigate predictors of long‐term outcomes in relationship satisfaction. Relationship satisfaction was assessed across 24 months in a sample of 32 couples who received an average of 21 EFT sessions. Decreases in attachment avoidance were most predictive of higher relationship satisfaction across follow‐up. These findings support the theoretical assumption that EFT helps couples foster lasting change in relationship satisfaction through the facilitation of secure attachment bonds.     

Mean estimation with data missing at random for functional covariables

In a missing-data setting, we want to estimate the mean of a scalar outcome, based on a sample in which an explanatory variable is observed for every subject while responses are missing by happenstance for some of them. We consider two kinds of estimates of the mean response when the explanatory variable is functional. One is based on the average of the predicted values and the second one is a functional adaptation of the Horvitz–Thompson estimator. We show that the infinite dimensionality of the problem does not affect the rates of convergence by stating that the estimates are root-n consistent, under missing at random (MAR) assumption. These asymptotic features are completed by simulated experiments illustrating the easiness of implementation and the good behaviour on finite sample sizes of the method. This is the first paper emphasizing that the insensitiveness of averaged estimates, well known in multivariate non-parametric statistics, remains true for an infinite-dimensional covariable. In this sense, this work opens the way for various other results of this kind in functional data analysis.