Longitudinal network models and permutation-uniform Markov chains

Consider longitudinal networks whose edges turn on and off according to a discrete-time Markov chain with exponential-family transition probabilities. We characterize when their joint distributions are also exponential families with the same parameter, improving data reduction. Further we show that the permutation-uniform subclass of these chains permit interpretation as an independent, identically distributed sequence on the same state space. We then apply these ideas to temporal exponential random graph models, for which permutation uniformity is well suited, and discuss mean-parameter convergence, dyadic independence, and exchangeability. Our framework facilitates our introducing a new network model; simplifies analysis of some network and autoregressive models from the literature, including by permitting closed-form expressions for maximum likelihood estimates for some models; and facilitates applying standard tools to longitudinal-network Markov chains from either asymptotics or single-observation exponential random graph models.     

Crisis and Disaster Counseling: Lesson Learned from Hurricane Katrina and Other Disasters

Social work education has a major role in preparing social workers to engage in policy practice intended to impact policies which can affect the well-being of their service users and address social problems. Legislative advocacy is one of these strategies. This article describes and evaluates an innovative 4-day intensive course on legislative advocacy for MSW students from two schools of social work, which took place within Israel’s parliament and drew upon elements of active and experiential learning. The evaluation study was based on a nonequivalent comparison group design with pretest (a month before the course)–posttest (4 months after the completion of the course) measurements. The study group consisted of the 29 students who participated in the intensive course while the comparison group consisted of 33 students who did not. The study, which employed quantitative tools along with open-ended questions, revealed that the course succeeded in accomplishing some of its desired outcomes. Compared to a group of their peers, the course enhanced the participants’ knowledge on the parliament and on legislative advocacy, their political interest, their perceived legislative advocacy skills, and the likelihood that they will engage in legislative advocacy in the future.     

Attitudes towards lesbians and gay men and support for lesbian and gay human rights among psychology students

A questionnaire comprising two scales, the short form of the Attitudes Towards Lesbians and Gay Men Scale (ATLG-S; Herek, 1984) and the newly devised Support for Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Scale (SLGHR) were administered to 226 students taking undergraduate psychology courses at universities in the United Kingdom, to assess their attitudes towards lesbians and gay men, and their level of support for lesbian and gay human rights. The results indicated that whilst only a small percentage of respondents expressed negative attitudes towards lesbians and gay men on the ATLG-S, the sample as a whole did not overwhelmingly support lesbian and gay human rights. The lack of support for lesbian and gay human rights is discussed in relation to its implications for psychology students as future practitioners and policymakers.     

Gebildet, flexibel und prek?r. Berufseinstieg von Graduierten der Universit?t Salzburg

This article??s aim is to enlighten university graduates?? transition to the labor market, with a focus on atypical forms of work, which have increased strongly in Austria in the past ten years. Especially career entrants, even if highly educated, are affected by these, potentially precarious types of employment. The theoretical part deals with the labor market in general and the specific conditions for academic career-entrants. Using data of the graduate survey conducted by the University of Salzburg in November 2009, this article shows that de facto two thirds of the questioned academic career entrants are employed atypically at the time of the survey. Nevertheless these flexible forms of work seem to decrease the more time has passed since graduation. Therefore a process of normalization of employment forms is assumed.     

What do young children know about sex? Research on the sexual knowledge of children between the ages of 2 and 6 years

We investigated the sexual knowledge of 63 Dutch children in the age range 2–6 years. Boys and girls were equally represented in the sample. The children had an average, or above‐average IQ and none of them had any experience of sexual abuse. It was found that young children have a very limited knowledge of sexuality. They only possess some basic knowledge of genital differences, gender identity, sexual body parts and (non‐sexual) functions of the genitals. Knowledge of pregnancy and birth, reproduction and adult sexual behaviour was found to be very limited and decreased in the order presented here. Non‐sexually abused children appear to interpret situations that show physical intimacy between adults and children in terms of their own experiences. None of the children talked about sexual activities. Older children generally knew more than younger ones. No significant differences in knowledge between boys and girls were found. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Photographs of young generations on the Dutch labour market

In the light of the decline of “standard” employment relationships in many countries and its particular effect on young people, this article provides a detailed analysis of the labour market trajectories of early-career workers in the Netherlands between 1985 and 2014, adopting the approach of the sequence analysis of life-course events. Using two indicators for instability (entropy and turbulence), the authors find that cohorts that entered the labour market after 2000, and particularly in 2008, experience greater employment status instability despite the flexicurity policies applied. Transitions into stable employment are the exception rather than the rule.     

Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms and the “Tightknittedness” of Friendship Groups

Adolescents with depression have lower peer status overall, but tend to befriend each other. We examined the “tightknittedness” of their friendship groups by testing whether adolescent friendship groups’ average levels of or variability in internalizing symptoms predict group cohesiveness. We used four waves (9th–12th grades) of survey and social network data on 3,013 friendship groups from the PROmoting School‐Community‐University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience study. Friendship groups with higher average depressive symptoms were less cohesive; groups with higher average anxiety symptoms had greater reciprocity. Groups with greater variability in depressive symptoms had greater density; variability in anxiety symptoms was not consistently associated with cohesion. The friendship groups of depressed adolescents appear less cohesive than the “typical” adolescent friendship group.     

Strategic framing in the BP crisis: A semantic network analysis of associative frames

This paper contributes to the analysis of the interplay of public relations and news in crisis situations, and the conceptualization of strategic framing by introducing the idea of associative frames and the method of semantic network analysis to the PR research field. By building on a more advanced understanding of communication as process of social meaning construction that is embedded in networks of differential relations between different actors, it contributes to extend the perspective of first- and second-order agenda building towards a kind of “third order” or “network agenda building”. Via an automated content analysis of more than 3700 articles we examine agenda- and frame-differences between public relations, UK and US news in the BP crisis. The study documents that BP successfully applied a decoupling strategy: It dissociated itself from being responsible for the cause and at the same time presented itself as solvent of the crisis. It shows that in crises, associative frames in PR resonate partly to associative frames in news. Especially the US news followed BP and did not succeed in presenting political actors as solution providers.     

Recognizing Emotions in a Foreign Language

Expressions of basic emotions (joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust) can be recognized pan-culturally from the face and it is assumed that these emotions can be recognized from a speaker’s voice, regardless of an individual’s culture or linguistic ability. Here, we compared how monolingual speakers of Argentine Spanish recognize basic emotions from pseudo-utterances (“nonsense speech”) produced in their native language and in three foreign languages (English, German, Arabic). Results indicated that vocal expressions of basic emotions could be decoded in each language condition at accuracy levels exceeding chance, although Spanish listeners performed significantly better overall in their native language (“in-group advantage”). Our findings argue that the ability to understand vocally-expressed emotions in speech is partly independent of linguistic ability and involves universal principles, although this ability is also shaped by linguistic and cultural variables.