The Division of Household Labor in Germany and Israel

We compare the patterns of household division of labor in Germany and Israel—two countries that share key elements of the corporatist welfare regime but differ in their gender regimes—and evaluate several hypotheses using data from the 2002 International Social Survey Program. Although time constraints and relative resources affect the division of household labor and women’s housework in both societies, we find that in Germany the gender order of household labor is more rigid, whereas in Israel the spouses’ linked labor market status exerts distinctive effects. We also find significant relationships between gender ideology and the division of household labor. We discuss the theoretical advantages of approaching the comparative study of gender inequality from the vantage point of family and gender regimes.     

POLARIZATION,SECULARIZATION, OR DIFFERENCES AS USUAL? The Denominational Cleavage in U.S. Social Attitudes Since the 1970s

Scholarly debates over modernization and social change in the late twentieth century have raised far-reaching questions about the possible consequences for religious group conflict and differences in behavior, identity, and opinion. Three general theoretical interpretations—polarization, secularization, and stable influence—have been asserted in the relevant literatures, yet which interpretation might best capture the effects of religious group memberships during the past three decades remains unresolved. We seek to advance research and debate on the changing influence of religion by investigating questions about the magnitude of, and trends in, religious groups differences in attitudes toward issues relating to gender, abortion, and sexuality during the past three decades. Building from past research, our analyses make use of three innovations: we apply a new typology of religious group memberships; we evaluate main versus interaction effect models to gauge evidence of change in the magnitude of religious influence; and we use indices that enable comparisons of the magnitude of group-based differences in attitudes across distinct issues and over time. Of the seven different issues we analyze, two reveal evidence of growing group-based differences, while the remaining five are characterized by a pattern of stability. We discuss the significance of these results for understanding limits of secularization theory, considering in conclusion how our results contribute to ongoing debate over the effects of religious group memberships.     

The Ecology of Family Guidance in Low-Income Mexican-American and European-American Families*

This two-part study applied an ecocultural perspective to socialization of daily and long-term goals in low-income Mexican-American and European-American families with children in third, fifth, and seventh grades. The first part of the study examined family members' participation and parents' socialization goals and guidance strategies for their children's daily household chores and homework activities. The second part of the study examined parents' long-term aspirations and guidance strategies for their children's educational, vocational, and moral development. For daily activities, results showed that in Mexican-American families both parents and siblings played important roles, whereas in European-American families parents were the primary socialization agents. As predicted, in both groups parents' expertise influenced their guidance strategies. Finally, Mexican-American and European-American parents differed in their relative endorsement of gender, relational, and self-reliance goals for household chores. For long-term goals, parents in both groups held high educational, vocational, and moral aspirations for their children. However, some parents of seventh-graders had lower educational and vocational aspirations than those of fifth- and third-graders. Although expertise consistently influenced Mexican-American parents' guidance strategies, the pattern for European-American parents was mixed. The discussion highlights between- and within-group differences in daily and long-term socialization practices with an emphasis on resources and vulnerabilities in the families.     

Institutional Voids,Economic Adversity and Inter‐firm Cooperation in an Emerging Market: The Mediating Role of Government R&D Support

This paper examines the mediating mechanism of the relationship between institutional voids (IVs) and inter‐firm cooperation and the moderating role of economic adversity in the context of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) based in emerging markets. The hypotheses are tested using time‐lagged survey data from 214 SMEs in Ghana. The findings provide support for the hypotheses by showing that: (1) IVs positively influence the use of government research and development (R&D) support; (2) the use of government R&D support mediates the relationship between IVs and inter‐firm cooperation; and (3) economic adversity positively moderates the relationship between IVs and the use of government R&D support. The findings contribute to understanding the role of IVs in inter‐firm cooperation. The wider implications for theory and practice are examined.     

The Role of Shocks in Employee Turnover*

This paper reports the findings from a recent study of nurse leavers at eight large hospitals in the National Health Service (NHS) of England and Wales. The study develops and extends an influential theory of employee turnover by describing how for some leavers a single, jarring event or shock triggers the decision to quit. By elaborating on the nature of shocks for this sample of 352 nurse leavers, the paper allows for improved understanding of nursing turnover and thus offers an example of relevant management research. The analysis of shock illustrates how conventional research methodologies can lead to a distorted picture of turnover. This has wider implications, both for any organization wishing to manage turnover effectively and for future research. The paper adds to the limited body of empirical analysis on actual leavers, thereby contributing to an ongoing methodological debate concerning the use of proxy variables. By highlighting flaws in the dominant methodology used to study turnover, the paper offers an example of management research that is also rigorous, and thus ‘pragmatic’.     

Internalized Other Interviewing in Relational Therapy: Three Discursive Approaches to Understanding its Use and Outcomes

For over 20 years, family therapist Karl Tomm has been engaging families and couples with a therapeutic intervention he calls Internalized Other Interviewing (IOI). The IOI (cf. Emmerson‐Whyte, 2010; Hurley, 2006) entails interviewing clients, from the personal experiences of partners and family members as an internalized other. The IOI is based on the idea that through dialogues over time, one can internalize a sense of one's conversational partner responsiveness in reliably anticipated ways. Anyone who has thought in a conversation with a family member or partner, “Oh there s/he goes again,” or anticipates next words before they leave the other's mouth, has a sense of what we are calling an internalized other. For Tomm, the internalized anticipations partners and family members may have offers entry points into new dialogues with therapeutic potential—particularly, when their actual dialogues get stuck in dispreferred patterns.     

Maternal Discipline and Children's Adjustment: The Role of the Cultural and Situational Context

This study examined how the cultural and situational contexts can jointly shape the consequences of discipline strategies. Israeli mothers who grew up in Israel or in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) (overall N = 110) reported regarding their use of psychologically controlling and punitive discipline with their seven‐years‐old to 10‐years‐old children, and teachers reported regarding children's behavior problems. We assessed both mothers' overall general use of the discipline strategies, and their use of the same strategies following transgressions in the academic domain, an area which the two groups emphasize to differing degrees. Consistent with hypothesis, controlling discipline in academic situations had more positive consequences in the FSU group compared with the Israeli‐origin group. In contrast, and as predicted, cultural group was not a moderator of mothers' overall, general use of the same discipline strategies. The findings illustrate how taking the situation into account can inform examination of the moderating role of cultural group.     

Problem‐ and solution‐focused characteristics of parenting support, 3 years after implementation of the solution‐focused approach: A qualitative content analysis

In recent years, solution‐focused parenting support has been developed and implemented as a promising brief and strength‐based approach. Given the fundamental differences between solution‐focused and the historically more common problem‐focused parenting support and the complexity of transforming professional practice, an actual shift towards solution‐focused parenting support can be expected to be limited up to now. However, because research into the specific communication characteristics of professional parenting support is currently lacking, no conclusion can be drawn at present. Therefore, this study aims to explore the current problem‐ and solution‐focused characteristics of parenting support in the Dutch youth healthcare (YH). In total, 15 support sessions performed by 10 public health nurses were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. A detailed qualitative content analysis of professional communication was conducted to identify problem‐ and solution‐focused factual, expressive, relational and appealing aspects of parenting support. Problem‐focused characteristics dominated all sessions of parenting support. This study is the first to thoroughly analyse the problem‐focused and solution‐focused communication characteristics of professional parenting support using a qualitative content analysis. Parenting support practice in the Dutch YH did not shift substantially to a solution‐focused approach. More effort is required to stimulate and facilitate this professional transformation.     

Assessing Risk‐Based Upper Limits of Melamine Migration from Food Containers

Melamine contamination of food has become a major food safety issue because of incidents of infant disease caused by exposure to this chemical. This study was aimed at establishing a safety limit in Taiwan for the degree of melamine migration from food containers. Health risk assessment was performed for three exposure groups (preschool children, individuals who dine out, and elderly residents of nursing homes). Selected values of tolerable daily intake (TDI) for melamine were used to calculate the reference migration concentration limit (RMCL) or reference specific migration limit (RSML) for melamine food containers. The only existing values of these limits for international standards today are 1.2 mg/L (0.2 mg/dm²) in China and 30 mg/L (5 mg/dm²) in the European Union. The factors used in the calculations included the specific surface area of food containers, daily food consumption rate, body weight, TDI, and the percentile of the population protected at a given migration concentration limit (MCL). The results indicate that children are indeed at higher risk of melamine exposure at toxic levels than are other groups and that the 95th percentile of MCL (specific surface area = 5) for children aged 1–6 years should be the RMCL (0.07 mg/dm²) for protecting the sensitive and general population.