Improving Prediction of Career Adjustment With Measures of Career Development

In the first part of the article, the major findings and the problems of criterion-related validity research in the field of career development assessment are analyzed. Regarding predictive validity, it is shown that it is more difficult to prove mediumterm and long-term effects of career maturity on career adjustment than short-term effects, and that this is connected with shortcomings in research and theory. In the second part of the article, empirical evidence is provided for the assumption that self-concept orientation in choice of present major and realization of preferences might function as mediating factors between career development in school and career adjustment.     

Gender Differences in Risk Perception: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives

A substantial body of risk research indicates that women and men differ in their perceptions of risk. This paper discusses how they differ and why. A review of a number of existing empirical studies of risk perception points at several problems, regarding what gender differences are found in such studies, and how these differences are accounted for. Firstly, quantitative approaches, which have so far dominated risk research, and qualitative approaches give different, sometimes even contradictory images of women's and men's perceptions of risk. Secondly, the gender differences that appear are often left unexplained, and even when explanations are suggested, these are seldom related to gender research and gender theory in any systematic way. This paper argues that a coherent, theoretically informed gender perspective on risk is needed to improve the understanding of women's and men's risk perceptions. An analysis of social theories of gender points out some relations and distinctions which should be considered in such a perspective. It is argued that gender structures, reflected in gendered ideology and gendered practice, give rise to systematic gender differences in the perception of risk. These gender differences may be of different kinds, and their investigation requires the use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods. In conclusion, the arguments about gender and risk perception are brought together in a theoretical model which might serve as a starting point for further research.     

Tests of additivity in mixed and fixed effect two-way ANOVA models with single sub-class numbers

In variety testing as well as in psychological assessment, the situation occurs that in a two-way ANOVA-type model with only one replication per cell, analysis is done under the assumption of no interaction between the two factors. Tests for this situation are known only for fixed factors and normally distributed outcomes. In the following we will present five additivity tests and apply them to fixed and mixed models and to quantitative as well as to Bernoulli distributed data. We consider their performance via simulation studies with respect to the type-I-risk and power. Furthermore, two new approaches will be presented, one being a modification of Tukey’s test and the other being a new experimental design to test for interactions.     

Capturing the Complexity of Intergenerational Relations: Exploring Ambivalence within Later-Life Families

This article reports on a study that incorporates two dimensions of complexity in intergenerational relations. First, the article focuses on ambivalence: the simultaneous existence of positive and negative sentiments in the older parent–adult child relationship. Second, the research described here applies a within-family design to the study of ambivalence, using a data set that includes 566 older mothers' assessments of ambivalence toward all of their adult children. The findings provide general support for our conceptual approach to parental ambivalence that highlights conflict between norms regarding solidarity with children and expectations that adult children should become independent. Lower ambivalence was related to an adult child's being married. Children's problems were positively associated with ambivalence, as was the mother's perception that exchange in the relationship was inequitable in the child's favor. Mother's health status and her perception that she and the child shared the same values were negatively associated with ambivalence. Finally, Black mothers reported higher levels of ambivalence than did White mothers, but the multivariate models explaining ambivalence did not vary by race.     

Age Differences Between Spouses: Sociodemographic Variation and Selection

Throughout the world, marriages in which the husband is older than his wife are more common than same-age and women-older marriages. Yet there is surprisingly little systematic knowledge about within-country variation in spousal age differences. This study used comprehensive Swedish register data to investigate how age differences in newly married couples were associated with spouses' age, gender, education, income, and birthplace. Among both women and men, small age differences were most common among the highly educated, high-income earners, and native Swedes, whereas persons with low education, low income, and non-Swedish origin more often entered marriages with large age differences, particularly men-older marriages. Findings are discussed in relation to theoretical attempts to explain spousal age differences and sociodemographic selection into couples with different age relationships.