Media Exposure and Health in Europe: Mediators and Moderators of Media Systems

This study examined media exposure as an explanatory factor for individual and cross-national differences in self-assessed general health. In studying media exposure, traditional media (television, radio, and newspapers) and contemporary media (internet) were separately considered. Aside from hypotheses about the relation between media exposure and general health, we also tested hypotheses regarding the mediating role of social isolation and mean world syndrome as well as the moderating role of different media systems across countries. Therefore, we used European Social Survey 2010, covering 25 European countries (n = 36,692). The results of our multilevel regression analyses indicated that exposure to television was negatively related to general health, whereas exposure to radio and newspapers were positively related to health. For contemporary media, findings indicated consistent positive relations between internet exposure and health across. Furthermore, limited support was found for the mediating role of social isolation and the mean world syndrome in the link between media exposure and health. Across media systems, findings for the relations between exposure to the various types of media and health proved to be robust.     

Understanding safety culture by visualization of scenarios--development and evaluation of an interactive prototype

To be able to disseminate knowledge about maritime safety culture and safety management to different actors in the Swedish maritime sector, a preliminary pedagogical concept was developed and evaluated. As a first user group, students at upper secondary maritime schools were chosen and the pedagogical concept was adapted for this group. The concept includes an interactive prototype and a teacher's guide and is based on a model for experience-based learning which connects theory and practice by a cyclic approach. The concept was tested in a classroom setting including interaction with the students and a follow-up one week later. A preliminary evaluation of the results shows a very positive response among the students as well as the lecturers. The educational material was successful in immediately creating a relevant discussion about safety culture, and one week later, students could remember many of the safety scenarios included in the pedagogical concept.     

Placement disruption in long-term kinship and nonkinship foster care

The purpose of this study was to explore factors related to placement disruption in long-term kinship and nonkinship foster care in a Nordic country.     

Representation of children's views in court hearings about custody and parental visitations — A comparison between what children wanted and what the courts ruled

PurposeFollowing the UN convention on the rights of children, a shift in policy towards greater emphasis on child participation in child protection case processing has occurred. A growing body of research has emerged concerning participation processes in child protection cases and the experiences of children in child protection cases. Very few studies have looked into if and when children get what they want, however. The aim of this study is to assess children's views about living arrangements and visitations in dependency court hearings and to compare these views with the rulings of courts.MethodThe study uses a retrospective cohort design. Cases where child welfare board rulings are in line with the wishes of children are compared to cases where rulings differ from the wishes of children. Data were collected from regional social welfare board archives. The study included 151 cases that were randomly drawn from a total population of 2481 cases. Simple and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the rulings being in accord with the child's wishes in each sample case.ResultsA child advocate was appointed in almost 95% of the cases (n = 142). Fifty-nine percent of the children did not want a change in care. Rulings about care were in line with the wishes of the child in 39% of the cases. Rulings about care were most likely to be what the child wanted, if the child was presently living in public care and did not want to move. Children wanted more visitations with their mothers in 60.5% of the cases and with their fathers in 39.8% of the cases. Whether children wanted more visitations with their mothers was associated with more visitations being granted. What a child wanted was not associated with the ruling on visitations with the child's father.ConclusionThe impact of children's views on visitations on dependency court rulings depends on what a child wants and how these desires coincide with what is proposed by child protection services. Children's views can be quite effective in blocking certain decisions but are less effective if the child requested a specific change. If a child does not want to stay with his or her birth parents, then the odds that the birth parents will be granted custody is minimal.     

Marital History and Intergenerational Solidarity: The Impact of Divorce and Unmarried Cohabitation

Among the more recent challenges for the family are the increasing divorce rates and the decline in marriages. This article examines the possible consequences of these trends for intergenerational family relationships. How does divorce in the parent generation, and the shift from marriage to unmarried cohabitation among adult children, affect intergenerational solidarity? These questions are explored with data from the Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation Study (NorLAG, n = 5,589, age 40–79). Scandinavian countries have high divorce and cohabitation rates and may therefore be of interest as comparative cases for countries where these events are less institutionalized. The findings suggest, however, that Norway accommodates to the general norm in the sense that divorce among parents is associated with lower solidarity with adult children on most solidarity dimensions. This is more true for fathers than for mothers. There is, on the other hand, no difference in solidarity between married and cohabitating children vis à vis the parent generation. The explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Distribution of the Record Position and its Applications

This is mainly an expository article on the positions of records in sequences of ordered elements. Such sequences are obtained, for example, when observing and ordering continuous iid random variables. In practice, records are of interest, for example, in meteorology and sports. A k-record is obtained when a new element is placed at position k counted from the top. The sequences of time points, when new k-records occur, are studied by elementary random walk methods. In the last section, it is shown that the time scale can be changed so that the time points of the k-records follow, approximately, a Poisson process.     

Urban bird community composition influenced by size of urban green spaces,presence of native forest,and urbanization

Urban Ecosystems - Understanding what determines wildlife species richness and community composition in urban green spaces is important for wildlife management and urban planning. Numerous studies...     

Social functioning and mental health among children who have been living in kinship and non‐kinship foster care: results from an 8‐year follow‐up with a Norwegian sample

Studies have shown relatively high rates of emotional and behavioural problems among children living in out‐of‐home care. This study reports the prevalence of social problems at an 8‐year follow‐up for a group of children/young adults. Predictors for prevalence and change in emotional and behavioural problems at the follow‐up are examined. A prospective cohort design with 233 children who had been living in foster care was used. Forty‐eight per cent (n = 111) of those interviewed at baseline were located and interviewed at follow‐up. Mean age was 17.4 (standard deviation = 2.9) years. Mental health symptomatology was measured with Child Behaviour Checklist and Adult Self‐Report. Linear and generalized mixed model analyses were used. Changes in internalizing and externalizing problems from baseline to follow‐up was associated with gender. Boys showed more problems at a young age, whereas girls developed more problems later. Predictors for social problems at follow‐up were mental health at baseline, kinship care and care placement away from the local community.