Parenting is genetically influenced: What does that mean for research into child and adolescent social development?

Individual differences in child and adolescent social development are due to a combination of variation in genetic propensity and environmental conditions. That is, variation in social domains like bullying-victimization, loneliness and pro- and antisocial behaviour is genetically influenced to a substantial extent. That is not to say that social contexts also do not play an important role in shaping social development. Indeed, parenting and parent–child relationship quality have been associated with various aspects of social development. What complicates matters is that environmental conditions – including parenting – are under genetic influence as well. Genetic influence on parenting has not received sufficient attention in the literature on social development although it likely biases estimates of parental effects on offspring social development. To change this situation, I review recent twin and molecular research on genetic influence on parenting and discuss why genetically-informed studies improve and enrich contemporary research into social development. The aim of this topic review is to provide an accessible introduction to genetics of parenting and encourage genetically-informed research into social development.     

Einstellungen gegenüber ?lteren Besch?ftigten

The ??Beliefs About Older Workers Questionnaire?? (Hassell und Perrewe, Journal of Organizational Behavior 16(5):457?C468, 1995) was developed to analyze beliefs about older workers and comprises 27 questions. In this article we present a German version of the ??Beliefs About Older Workers Questionnaire??. We design two versions of the questionnaire, one for beliefs about older female and one for beliefs about older male workers. We report results of a study in which the German questionnaires for male and female workers were administered and tested for the first time. We observed neutral to slightly negative beliefs about older workers. The study identified impacts of the gender of subjects and objects on beliefs about older workers. However, these were rather small. Organizations could profit from instruments like the presented questionnaire to identify age stereotypes and the need for accordant measures. Repeated application of the questionnaire or simultaneous application in other organizational units or organizations would enable organizations to evaluate applied measures or to learn from good practice in other organizational units or organizations.     

Antisemitische Einstellungen in Deutschland Zwischen 1994 und 1998

The paper deals with the problem whether the transformation process in Germany since 1990, the year of unification of East and West Germany, has influenced the cognitive and affective structure as well as the amount of anti-Semitic attitudes. Data on these aspects come from three representative social surveys, conducted in 1994, 1996 and 1998 by three different research institutes. An attempt to cumulate the three data fileds leads to some severe problems, referring to the (in-)comparability of sampling procedures and data collection methods. Depending on the nearly complete absence of equally measured indicators, and of differing operationalizations of the remaining, it was not possible to construct a time series that would contain data on cognitive and affective aspects of anti-Semitism in the period studied. Nevertheless, the overall sample, which included information on 6671 respondents, was used to construct a summated scale of the amount of anti-Semitic attitudes in Germany. The data analysis yields evidence that the amountof anti-Semitic attitudes seems to increase slightly in East and to decrease slightly in West Germany. Results of a multiple regression analysis show that sociodemographic variables — gender, age, formal education, income — effect the amount of anti-Semitic attitudes in both parts of Germany, but differently.     

Umgang mit Jugenddelinquenz

For the German Juvenile Delinquency Court Association (Deutsche Vereinigung für Jugendgerichte und Jugendgerichtshilfen e.V.), which comprises researchers and practitioners in the field alike, the Lower Saxony Crime Research Institute (Kriminologisches Forschungsinstitut Niedersachsen e.V.), one of the most important institutions in Germany, in 1998 has compiled a detailed study ?Exclusion, Violence and Delinquency in the Life of young people — children and adolescents as victims and perpetrators“, comprising an extensive review of the literature with extensive own research results. The study takes a politically clear position: juvenile delinquency declines in quantity and intensity. Contradictory findings are based on statistical bias. Consequently, the policy of decriminalization — putting educational before correctional measures — has to be vigorously continued. The study displays a wealth of statistical material — and a wealth of serious, sometimes unforgivable methodological mistakes. At several occasions the authors explicitly dump unwanted findings. The considerable discrepancies between the main text body and the executive summary for the hurried reader further undermines confidence in the professionalism of the authors.     

Klassenlage und Bildungsentscheidungen

This empirical study seeks to contribute to the explanation of class differences in educational opportunities in the transition from primary to secondary education. According to recent theoretical explanations the social inequality in education results — apart from the historical conditions and institutions of the educational system — from rational choices of parents about the continuation of their children’s education. There is a nexus between class specific evaluation of costs and benefits of higher education and educational choice, which depends on the parents’ resources and the selection and allocation function of the educational system. This interrelationship results in unequal educational attainment among the children of different social classes. These hypotheses are tested by employing a two-step model of the dynamics of choices and actual transition. Using panel data and logistic regression as well as considering the children’s social origin the rise of educational aspirations and the following transition to higher education tracks are analyzed. The results lend support to the mechanisms and processes assumed by the subjective expected utility approach. However, there is an open question about the historical persistence of class differences in education in spite of educational expansion and school reforms.     

Netzwerkberatung in Clustern

Inter-organizational networks increasingly become clients in consulting processes. At the same time inter-organizational relations and networks are essential components of regional clusters. On the basis of the differences between consulting organizations and consulting networks, it will be argued that network consulting in clusters requires at least a two level process approach that focuses on the level of inter-organizational networks in a cluster context and the level of the regional cluster itself. Based on a long-term and intensive involvement in researching and consulting an emergent regional cluster in the field of optics, we gained insights into the particularities of consulting networks in clusters. The paper contributes to the emergent research on network consulting in general and on consulting such networks in regional clusters in particular.     

Feminist and empowerment theory and social work practice

Feminist and empowerment theories are especially important to the understanding of individual and sociopolitical levels of social work assessment and intervention. Incorporating feminist and empowerment approaches in practice will provide social workers with the knowledge, values and skills most likely to promote human rights and social justice. In this paper, we present an overview of both theories and illustrate them with a case example.