Sexting: adolescents’ perceptions of the applications used for,motives for,and consequences of sexting

This study explores adolescents’ perceptions of applications used for sexting, the motives for engaging in sexting, and the consequences they relate to sexting behavior. We conducted 11 same-sex focus groups among 57 adolescents (66.67% females; n?=?38) between 15 and 18 years old in Flanders, Belgium. The analysis revealed that sexting mostly occurs through smartphone applications, such as Snapchat, which are perceived to be a more intimate form of communication than other digital applications, such as social networking sites. Both female and male respondents observed that girls might sometimes feel pressured to engage in sexting. They did so mostly out of fear that otherwise they would lose their boyfriends. Female and male respondents mentioned three main ways in which sexting photographs could be abused: (1) they could be used to coerce or to blackmail the victim, (2) they could be distributed out of revenge after the breakup of a romantic relationship, or (3) they could be forwarded or shown to peers in order to boast about having received the digital photograph. Anecdotes, which illustrate our findings, are included in the results. Suggestions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.     

Has the redistributive effect of social transfers and taxes changed over time across countries?

In most Member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation Development (OECD), the income gap between rich and poor has widened over the past decades. This article analyses whether and to what extent income taxes and social transfers have contributed to this trend. Has the redistributive impact of different social programmes changed over time? We use microdata from the LIS Cross National Data Center in Luxembourg for the period 1982–2014 and study both the total population and the working‐age population. In contrast to the results of some other studies, especially by the OECD, we do not find that redistribution has declined. Tax‐benefit systems around 2013 are more effective at reducing income inequality compared to the mid‐1980s and the mid‐1990s, especially among the total population. Changes in social programmes are not a driver of greater income inequality across the countries included in this study.     

A relationship between verbal aggression and personal network size

Aggression has been associated with negative social consequences. Yet, more adaptive views of aggression hold that it can have beneficial correlates as well. In four studies, we examined the relationship between aggression and personal network size, a property associated with important social benefits. The results pointed to a consistent positive relationship between verbal aggression and social network size. This relationship remained after controlling for third variables like extraversion and when using different measures of network size. The fourth study sought to explain the relationships in terms of mutual relationships with status and power, but found no support for mediation.     

Parameter estimation in multivariate logit models with many binary choices

Multivariate Logit models are convenient to describe multivariate correlated binary choices as they provide closed-form likelihood functions. However, the computation time required for calculating choice probabilities increases exponentially with the number of choices, which makes maximum likelihood-based estimation infeasible when many choices are considered. To solve this, we propose three novel estimation methods: (i) stratified importance sampling, (ii) composite conditional likelihood (CCL), and (iii) generalized method of moments, which yield consistent estimates and still have similar small-sample bias to maximum likelihood. Our simulation study shows that computation times for CCL are much smaller and that its efficiency loss is small.     

Perceptual Discrepancy Profiles of Social Competence and Their Interrelations With Depressive Symptoms Among Early Adolescents

We examined the perceptual discrepancy profiles between self‐ and peers, and self‐ and teacher evaluations of adolescents’ social competence (SC) and the interrelations of these profiles with self‐reported depressive symptoms. The participants were 390 Finnish lower secondary school pupils. Latent profile analysis revealed five classes of discrepancy profiles; adolescents with congruent perceptions, quite congruent perceptions, and positively discrepant perceptions of SC reported lower scores of depressive symptoms, whereas those with negatively and extremely positively discrepant perceptions of SC reported the highest scores of depressive symptoms. The larger the discrepancy between self‐ and others’ evaluations of SC were, the more depressive symptoms were reported. The results indicate that interventions designed to mitigate depression need to be tailored to individual needs.     

Income redistribution in 20 countries over time

In most OECD countries, the gap between rich and poor has widened over the past decades. The present study analysed whether and to what extent direct taxes and social transfers contribute to this trend. The study contributes to the literature by disentangling several parts of fiscal redistribution in a comparative setting. We used micro‐data from the Luxembourg Income Study to examine household market inequality and redistribution from transfers and taxes for 20 countries from the mid‐1980s to the mid‐2000s. The contribution of each programme was estimated using a sequential accounting budget incidence decomposition technique. We observed a sizeable increase in primary household inequality, but tax‐benefit systems have offset two thirds of the average increase in primary income inequality. The public old‐age pensions attributed 60 per cent to the increase in redistribution, while social assistance accounted for 20 per cent. Direct taxes slowed down redistribution by 16 per cent.     

The Rise of Age Homogamy in 19th Century Western Europe

In many parts of Western Europe the age at first marriage and the level of celibacy declined in the second half of the 19th century. This weakening of the European marriage pattern (EMP) can be interpreted as a “classic” response to the increase of the standard of living, but a more far‐reaching interpretation is that the erosion of the EMP was part of a cultural shift characterized by the rise of a new, less instrumental and more egalitarian view on marriage and partner selection. The latter vision implies the increase of the preference for a same age marriage. We test this explanation by using a combined Belgian‐Dutch data set of marriage certificates (N = 766,412). Our findings corroborate the “cultural shift thesis.”     

Autonomy and Regulation of State Agencies: Reinforcement,Indifference or Compensation?

This paper analyses the relationships between the autonomy and regulation of state agencies in Norway, Ireland and Flanders (Belgium). The empirical basis is provided by broad surveys of public sector organizations carried out in 2002–2004. Three hypotheses on these relationships are formulated and examined, indicating different patterns. The reinforcement hypothesis, stating a negative relationship does not get any support. On the other hand, the compensation hypothesis, stating a positive relationship gets some support. In general, however, the indifference hypothesis, stating low or no correlations seems to be the most adequate. The hypotheses are also linked to prevalent administrative doctrines, and the empirical findings indicate how relevant they are.