‘Generation boomerang’ in Germany? Returning to the parental home in young adulthood

Leaving the parental home is not always a one-off event in the course of a person's life. Young adults can return one or more times before leaving home permanently. The aim of this article is to analyse the social and economic transition markers and socio-demographic factors which play a role in the return to the parental home of young adults in Germany. The analysis is based on the survey AID:A, conducted by the German Youth Institute in 2009. Data from 4300 young adults, aged 18–32 years, who left the parental home at least once, are used. Young adults are differentiated by their current residential status: living with at least one parent again (returners) or living outside the parental home (leavers). The results show that, the more financially and socially independent a young person is, the less likely they are to return to the family of origin. Furthermore, growing up in a two-parent family in West Germany as well as a strong relationship between fathers and sons increases the likelihood of returning to the parental home after leaving. Notably, it was also found that young adults of Turkish and Eastern European origin are more likely to return than those of German origin.     

Usage‐Based Pricing and Demand for Residential Broadband

We estimate demand for residential broadband using high‐frequency data from subscribers facing a three‐part tariff. The three‐part tariff makes data usage during the billing cycle a dynamic problem, thus generating variation in the (shadow) price of usage. We provide evidence that subscribers respond to this variation, and we use their dynamic decisions to estimate a flexible distribution of willingness to pay for different plan characteristics. Using the estimates, we simulate demand under alternative pricing and find that usage‐based pricing eliminates low‐value traffic. Furthermore, we show that the costs associated with investment in fiber‐optic networks are likely recoverable in some markets, but that there is a large gap between social and private incentives to invest.     

More Control,Less Conflict? Job Demand–Control,Gender and Work–Family Conflict

The connection between working hours and work‐to‐family conflict has been established in a number of studies. However, it seems what is important is not only the quantity of work but also its quality, as captured by the job demand–control model. Survey data from 800 Swedish employees show that job demands spill over negatively into family life, while job control reduces work‐to‐family conflict. Interestingly, women in jobs with high demands and high control — regarded as the prototype for modern, flexible work life — do not experience more work‐to‐family conflict than men, even when working the same hours.     

Experimenter Affective Expression and Gaze Following in 7‐Month‐Olds

The study of gaze following in infants younger than 12 months of age has emphasized the effects of gesture, type of target, and its position or placement. This experiment extends this literature by examining the effects of adults' affective expression on 7‐month‐olds' gaze following. The effects of 3 affective expressions—happy, sad, and neutral—on 7‐month‐olds' frequency of gaze following were examined. The results indicated that infants more frequently followed the gaze of an adult posing a neutral expression than that of an adult posing either a happy or a sad expression. The infants also looked proportionately longer toward the indicated target when the adult's expression was neutral. The results are interpreted in terms of infants' flexibility of attention.     

Students’ Vocational Choices and Voluntary Action: A 12-Nation Study

Previous research on student involvement suggested that business and engineering students manifest lowest rates of voluntary action. Similarly, it was thought that social science students are the most involved in voluntary action, with students of natural sciences and humanities in the middle. However, there were very few studies that empirically compared these assertions. Furthermore, these assertions were not investigated from cross-cultural perspectives. Based on a study of students in 12 countries (N = 6,570), we found that even when controlling for background variables, social science students are actually less engaged in voluntary action than other students. Engineering students are higher than expected on voluntary action while students of humanities are the most involved in voluntary action. When studying these differences in the 12 selected countries, local cultures and norms form different sets of findings that suggest that there is no universal trend in choice of academic field and voluntary action.     

Child Labour in West Africa: Different Work – Different Vulnerabilities

Based on data from four different surveys – street children in Accra, Ghana; street children in Bamako, Mali; children and youth in alluvial-diamond production in Kono district, Sierra Leone; and war-affected children in Voinjama district, Liberia – this article analyzes how children and youth seek to use different economic strategies to shape their lives. In each of these cases, child labour is a consequence of poverty, steep school fees and the family need for the income that the children can earn. The results show school attendance among the children is low, and lowest among the street children and highest among the children in Voinjama who have recently returned after the war. All the children in this article live under difficult circumstances, but those working in the mines, or living a life as street children are particularly prone to respectively physical and mental stress. The type of labour performed in the alluvial diamond mines is extremely hard and repetitive. The life of a street child in West Africa is also very hard. It is a life that only the boldest and bravest will endure. The most fortunate ones are the returnee children in Voinjama. They have survived the Liberian civil war with their family or family-related networks intact. The children in the study are not just passive victims of structures and actions they do not comprehend, but also people who try to adapt to a situation where education is less an option than it used to be. Faced with these constraints the children, either as miners or as street children, try to assume responsibility for their lives by the choice of the economic strategy that they are currently using. The study also indicates that efforts to support these groups should pay more attention to their lived realities of work and migration.     

Managing Children’s Friendships Through Interparental Relationships: Roles of Ethnicity and Friendship Context

Twenty African American and European American mothers of fourth‐grade students reflected on strategies for managing children’s friendships maintained across a variety of contexts. Ethnicity differentially located families within specific social contexts that yielded children’s friendships, then informed social processes as they unfolded within these contexts. Maternal knowledge concerning children’s friendships developed as a function of the types of relationships formed among parents encountered within different settings. Findings suggest that interparental relationships represent a key source of information about children’s friendships. Yet, maternal opportunities to establish such relationships differ on the basis of both ethnicity and the nature of contexts in which children’s friendships are maintained.     

Social Landscapes of the Inter‐Mountain West: A Comparison of ‘Old West’ and ‘New West’ Communities*

Abstract Rural communities have experienced dramatic demographic, social, and economic transformations over the past 30 years. Historically characterized by close links between natural resources and social, cultural, and economic structures, few of today's rural communities remain heavily dependent upon traditional extractive industries like ranching, forestry, and mining. New forms of development linked to natural and cultural amenities, including tourism and recreation, have evolved to sustain the link between community and resources. The Inter‐Mountain West region offers an excellent example of this distinction. Many of the region's rural communities have experienced substantial population growth resulting from the in‐migration of a new kind of rural resident. Their arrival, in a process some have associated with the emergence of a “New West,” has transformed rural places. However, amenity‐related social and economic structures have not occurred uniformly across space. This paper uses factor analysis and exploratory spatial data analysis to analyze demographic characteristics related to the “New West” phenomena in Inter‐Mountain West communities and the spatial patterns found in the degree of “New West‐ness” that each community exhibits.     

Returning Patients to the Community: disability, medicine and economic rationality before the Industrial Revolution

This paper offers an interpretation of physical impairment in eighteenth-century Britain which challenges the view that disability was largely a product of industrial capitalism. After reviewing the historical models of Finkelstein, Stone and Oliver, in which this position is put forward, attention turns to a case study of the General Infirmary at Bath, founded in 1739 to grant 'poor cripples and other indigent strangers' access to the spa waters. Dedicated to the prevailing moral economy of mercantilism, the Bath Infirmary sought to return its patients to the community in a state of physical and moral fitness. The economic implications of this objective are discussed in relation to the work imperative, the therapeutic performance of the institution and the age/sex characteristics of its clientele. The political implications are discussed in relation to the practice of medicine and the pursuit of an orderly society. It is concluded that medical charity points to incompatibilities between impairment and economic rationality in advance of the Industrial Revolution.