Spouse “Together Time”: Quality Time Within the Household

During the last decade more and more time-use data were gathered on a household level in stead of on an individual level. The time-use information of all members of the household provides much more insight in research fields that until now largely used data gathered at the individual level. One of these research fields is the study of quality of life, based on the (quality) time partners within a household spend together which in turn is often linked to studying the associations between the amount of time spent together and relationship satisfaction. The amount of face-to-face spousal interaction is considered to be critically important for marital quality and is assumed to be violated within dual-earner couples, especially those with women working long hours. In this contribution we analyze the time-use of couples in the Belgian Time Use Surveys of 1999 and 2005. We identify which activities couples do together and which they do apart, and what household characteristics predict couples’ together time. Working times in general seem the most decisive factor influencing the amount of together time. The increased labor market participation of women, on the other hand, seems not to be so much a threat for the time a couple spends together.     

Learning about and from the Holocaust: The development and implementation of a Complex Instruction Unit in Latvia

What and how to teach about the Holocaust in a specific country or region depends on both the political-historical context in which the Holocaust took place and on the specific educational context. It also depends on the motivations of teachers and developers. In many circumstances, Complex Instruction (CI) provides opportunities for students to learn actively about the events that took place in their respective countries and to express their feelings and opinions. This paper describes the development and implementation of the first CI-based unit on the Holocaust, which was designed within the Latvian context by a small international and intergenerational project group.     

Loneliness Literacy Scale: Development and Evaluation of an Early Indicator for Loneliness Prevention

To develop and evaluate the Loneliness Literacy Scale for the assessment of short-term outcomes of a loneliness prevention programme among Dutch elderly persons. Scale development was based on evidence from literature and experiences from local stakeholders and representatives of the target group. The scale was pre-tested among 303 elderly persons aged 65 years and over. Principal component analysis and internal consistency analysis were used to affirm the scale structure, reduce the number of items and assess the reliability of the constructs. Linear regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between the literacy constructs and loneliness. The four constructs “motivation”, “self-efficacy”, “perceived social support” and “subjective norm” derived from principal component analysis captured 56 % of the original variance. Cronbach’s coefficient α was above 0.7 for each construct. The constructs “self-efficacy” and “perceived social support” were positively and “subjective norm” was negatively associated with loneliness. To our knowledge this is the first study developing a short-term indicator for loneliness prevention. The indicator contributes to the need of evaluating public health interventions more close to the intervention activities.     

Learning to respect

In this article, "learning to respect" is considered both as a condition for the creation of a safe learning environment and as a condition for "learning to live together" in a democratic society. Learning to respect is not a subject like mathematics or history. As far as the school is concerned, pupils learn to respect through experiences with interactions within the classroom and the school. This paper explores some of the consequences for school policy and teachers' skills.