Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Further Validation of a Measure of Well-being

This paper reports a study designed to further validate a measure of quality of college life (QCL) of university students (Sirgy, Grzeskowiak, Rahtz, Soc Indic Res 80(2), 343–360, 2007). Two studies were conducted: a replication study and an extension study. The replication study involved surveys of 10 different college campuses in different countries. The results of the replication study provided additional nomological (predictive) validation support of the measure based on a theoretical model mapping out the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction with college life. With respect to the extension study, the focus was to further test the nomological validity of the QCL measure by arguing and empirically demonstrating that the consequence of QCL is life satisfaction. The extension study involved a survey of three college campuses in different countries. The results were also supportive of the nomological validity of the QCL measure.     

Refugee Protection Meets Migration Management: UNHCR as a Global Police of Populations

This article investigates the complex relationship between the practices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the field of refugee protection and the more recent political rationality of ‘migration management’ by drawing from governmentality studies. It is argued that the dissemination of UNHCR's own refugee protection discourse creates certain ‘figures of migration’ allowing for justifying the build-up and perfection of border controls, which in turn enable any attempt to ‘manage’ migration in the first place. Conversely, the problematisation of population movements as ‘mixed migration flows’ allows UNHCR to enlarge its field of activitiy despite its narrow mandate by actively participating in the promotion, planning and implementation of migration management systems. Based on ethnographic research in Turkey and Morocco, this article demonstrates, furthermore, that UNHCR's refugee protection discourse and the emerging migration management paradigm are both based on a methodological nationalism, share an authoritarian potential and yield de-politicising effects. What UNHCR's recent embracing of the migration management paradigm together with its active involvement in respective practices then brings to the fore is that UNHCR is part of a global police of populations.     

Digitalisierung und Konvergenz von Online- und Offline-Welt

The increasing diffusion of mobile phones with internet access (Smartphones) enables more and more consumers to use the mobile internet. In addition, there is a continuing integration of location-based services (LBS). By means of Global Positioning Systems or WiFi-triangulation LBS provide context-aware information to consumers. This leads to a convergence of online and offline worlds. The usage of LBS delivers additional information to consumers (e.g. alternative offers or detailed product information). Therefore LBS do have an influence on consumer behavior. Particularly during the search process, information about prices or geographic distances, that are relevant for the purchase, are of importance. This study analyzes the relevance of location-based internet search empirically. Search costs are estimated on an individual level in a choice-based conjoint analysis using two different products. As a result, location-based internet search is considered to be very relevant for search and influential on consumer behavior. The study shows different consumers preferences and different search costs depending on the product. To conclude the study, the implications are discussed. The major contribution of this study is that it shows that offline and online search do have a mutual impact on each other. Furthermore, search costs are measured in a mobile context.     

Probleme eines Feldzugangs zu Eliten

While young researchers in the field of social sciences are taught how to identify potential target groups for their interviews as well as to identify the appropriate survey and interpretation techniques, the actual access to the field poses a difficult problem (there is great potential for frustration when some requests for interviews are rejected). Usually, the specific motives for such a non-response stay unresolved. Access is even harder when the target group includes representatives of elite groups (e. g. top managers) - a group that is characterised by intense time pressure and typical behaviour patterns (both are factors which increase the difficulty of access to that group). This article aims to give a detailed outline of this problem from contribution and status related perspectives and to provide solutions for young researchers to enable them experiencing the field entry process (as far as putting a foot in the manager’s office) as challenging, but controllable.     

Identity development and self-esteem of young adolescents in foster care

For adolescents in foster care progress towards achieving the developmental tasks of adolescence may be more challenging because of the additional stress of being separated from their birth families. Examined in this study is the influence of identification with birth family on the ability of 116 youth in foster care, in a midwestern state, to develop a self-identity and positive self-esteem.     

Determinanten der Lebensqualität psychisch kranker Personen

Not only chronic mental disease, but also psycho-social factors limit the quality of life (QoL) of mentally ill persons. From three theoretical explanation models of QoL — the medical model, labeling theory, and stress process model — we deduced three hypotheses. To test our hypotheses, we re-analysed data from the study “Social integration and quality of life of mentally ill people”. Data were derived from structured interviews with 305 in-patients in psychiatric institutions in the Canton of Zurich (Switzerland), and completed with few informations from their doctors’ files. Various QoL dimensions entered the statistical analyses as dependent variables. Results indicate varied explanation power of the models under investigation depending on the dimension of QoL: psychic symptoms highly influence the health-related QoL, but have only small effects on social and material QoL. Social as well as material QoL are strongly influenced by social support as well as, though to a lesser extent, by life stress events. Chronification of mental illness and perceived discrimination because of the mental disease indirectly affect QoL through reduced social support and increased psychic symptoms. From our results we conclude that social integration and rehabilitation of mentally ill people require a bio-psycho-social treatment approach.     

Reconciling Local with Global: New Zealand Muslim Women Articulating Faith in their Lives

This article explores the dynamics of personalised faith in the lives of minority and migrant Muslim women. Research that localises women's understandings of faith contrasts with the considerable literature that focuses on the transnational, politicised character of religion, as well as the discourses that examine religion as a form of gendered patriarchy. This article is a contribution to research that approaches gender and religion from a localised perspective. Drawing on the notion of ‘third space’, this discussion provides ethnographic narratives of Muslim women in New Zealand, focusing on four specific women. Each woman's story illustrates the significance of faith in her life, and demonstrates the unique, and interactive, ways that faith creates new meanings and interpretive possibilities in local contexts, as well as providing emotional solace and a source of coping with wider life stresses.     

A learning collaborative approach to training school-based health providers in evidence-based mental health treatment

Collaborative care models among pediatric primary care and child and adolescent mental health providers are increasingly emphasized to improve quality of and access to mental health services. The current case example of a multi-site clinical training opportunity in school-based collaborative care settings illustrates the success of a learning collaborative approach to improve children's mental health care in schools. Quality improvement data from participating sites indicated an increase in use of evidence-based practices (i.e., “core skills”) and an improvement in quality service delivery indicators for children's mental health (i.e., screening, risk assessment, diagnostic processes, associated diagnostic coding, use of core skills, associated procedural coding, and follow-up assessment and referral) over time. Clinician self-report and chart review data are supplemented by qualitative data from site leader interviews conducted following completion of the project. Implications for mental health workforce development to improve the quality of care to children and adolescents in schools and other community mental health settings are discussed.