Youth and Religion: The Gameboy Generation Goes to “Church”

Using the secularization theory and the Marxistnotion of religion as masking class conscienceone would expect the importance of religion andreligious involvement today to wane and belimited to lower class members. To challenge thisexpectation, using a representative nationaltelephone survey of 2004 youth (ages 11–18) andtheir parents, we attempt to answer thefollowing two questions: How religious areteenagers, and what may explain variation inreligious perception and involvement amongteens. Findings suggest that religion remainsperceived as very important by most teenagersand parents report that about two-thirds ofteenagers attended a place of worship at leastmonthly and that two out of five attended asocial group sponsored by a religiousorganization. These findings do not support thesecularization theory. As expected, parentalattendance of religious worship, teen's age,and teen's ethnicity and gender weresignificantly associated with three variablesof religious behavior and attendance. Incontrast to the Marxist notion of religion,measures of socio-economic status indicatethat, in the contemporary United States,religious participation, but not beliefs, islargely the domain of the middle-upper classes.     

Political Violence, Impunity, and Emotional Climate in Maya Communities

This article explores the effects of political violence and impunity on the emotional climate of Guatemalan Maya communities and the processes that may be drawn upon to improve such climates as revealed by three studies conducted in the 1990s. The first investigated Guatemalan peasants' emotional responses to political and military repression during an ongoing conflict; the second, the effects of participation in judicial processes among a Guatemalan community recovering from a massacre as peace was being negotiated; and the third, the emotional impact of responding to extreme human rights violations among rural Maya women who also critically examined their gendered location in war and peacemaking. Taken collectively, the findings of these studies suggest several resources that have been deployed by survivors of human rights violations in Guatemala as tools for improving emotional climate and for moving forward in ongoing struggles for truth and justice, even in contexts of persistent violence and impunity.     

Patterns of social assistance receipt in Sweden

This article analyses the situation of Swedish-born people who became first-time receivers of social assistance in 1987 and 1992. The macroeconomic situation at the time of entry was rather different for the two cohorts and the number of new entrances increased by almost 50%. Much of the increase consisted of young adults and experience of social assistance has been shown to be fairly widespread among persons under the age of 25. Bridging the period when individuals are supported by their parents to their becoming established as wage earners has become an important function of social assistance in Sweden. The pattern of social assistance receipt is rather heterogeneous across new recipients. The complex pattern of receipt means that the duration of social assistance can appear to vary depending on one's choice of perspective. On the one hand, the median duration of social assistance receipt is as low as two years when an eleven-year follow-up period is applied. On the other hand, among people who receive social assistance during a given year, as many as half had entered receipt more than four years earlier.     

Foster children as young adults: many motherless, fatherless or orphaned: a Swedish national cohort study

We examined prevalence of parental deaths among former out‐of‐home care youths at age 18 and 25, and odds of parental loss compared with peers from similar socio‐economic childhood backgrounds. The study utilized Swedish national register data for 12 entire birth cohorts (1972–1983), 35 550 former out‐of‐home care youths and 1 138 726 cohort peers without out‐of‐home care experiences. Logistic regression models were used to compute odds ratios for parental loss through death. It was especially common among former residents of long‐term out‐of‐home care to be motherless (11%), fatherless (11–13%) or orphaned (3–4%) at age 18, compared with non‐foster care peers (1%, 3% and 0.03%). Twenty‐six per cent had lost at least one parent (4% among non‐foster care peers). At age 25, the figures had increased considerably; 36% had lost at least one parent, compared with 7% in the majority population. Adjusted odds ratios for parental loss among long‐term care youth were strikingly high, particularly for having a deceased mother. In short‐term and intermediate care, most youths with deceased parents had suffered parental loss before entering foster care. For youth from long‐term care, parental death after start of placement was most common.     

Patterns of Social Support in the Middle Childhood to Early Adolescent Transition: Implications for Adjustment

Children's social networks often include close family members, extended family members, and friends, but little is known about interindividual differences in the patterning of support from these sources. In this study, we used person‐oriented analyses to differentiate patterns of support for children undergoing the transition to adolescence. Social network and adjustment data were collected for an ethnically diverse sample of 691 fourth‐ and sixth‐grade children, with a two‐year follow‐up. Cluster analyses identified one pattern of support from both close family members and friends, a second pattern of support from both close and extended family members, and a third pattern of support primarily from close family members alone. Participants receiving support from close family in combination with either extended family or friends were better adjusted than were those without multiple support resources. The results suggest that a meaningful typology of children's social networks can be developed.     

The Type of Support that Adult Children Solicit from Their Mothers in European Welfare Systems

The objective of this article is to examine if the kind of relationship and the support which mothers offer adult children living outside the home can be explained by different welfare systems and structural indicators. Propositions derived from intergenerational relationship theories and national welfare typologies have been analysed and indicate that there are structural variables that influence the type of relationship and support offered. The data we have used is from the survey “Social Relations and Support Systems”of the International Survey Programme. We selected those respondents whose mothers were alive and did not reside in the same dwelling, a total of 9,261 interviewees. The results of a factor analysis reduce the relationship between mother and child to two dimensions. Both dimensions are correlated with structural factors and make it possible to situate countries based on different welfare models consistent with the literature.     

Solitary Time and Mental Health in the Netherlands

Whereas prior research focused on the beneficial effects of time spent with others, this study investigated the association between solitary time and mental health by hypothesizing about the possible detriments as well as benefits. Additionally, we studied whether the association between solitary time and mental health was nonlinear and moderated by gender and life stage. We hypothesized that whereas solitary time limits individuals’ access to social resources and support (decreasing mental health), it also helps individuals to recharge (enhancing mental health). We used the Dutch Time Use Survey from 2006 (N = 1,487). Results of Tobit models indicated that more solitary time in leisure (but not household labor) was associated with a reduction in mental health. For men, we did find a negative association between alone time in household labor and mental health. There was no evidence for a curvilinear relationship between time alone and mental health, nor did life course stage appeared to moderate this association.     

How and when a salesperson's perception of organizational politics relates to proactive performance

Politics in the workplace is a reality of organizational life. Several studies have investigated the negative implications of perceived organizational politics on various work attitudes and performance measures but not on proactive performance. However, proactive performance is important in a sales context because salespeople operate in an uncertain environment, and some task aspects cannot be formalized. Moreover, there is still a need for research to analyse the psychological mechanisms that lead perceived organizational politics to cause negative reactions from employees as well as to provide new insights on the boundary conditions of this process. Therefore, we examine the effect of perceived organizational politics on proactive performance through a salesperson's trust in the sales manager, as well as the moderating role of the salesperson's experience.This study uses dyadic data from 192 salespeople and their sales managers from a range of industries. The model entails a moderated mediation process. Results support the proposed model. The findings contribute to the salesforce management literature by suggesting the need to consider the importance of perceived organizational politics and by aiding in the understanding of how and when it hinders proactive performance.     

Sociodemographic characteristics of gay and lesbian victims of intimate partner psychological abuse in Spain and Latin America / Características sociodemográficas de gais y lesbianas víctimas de abuso psicológico en pareja en España e Hispanoamérica

Psychological abuse in same-sex couples has hardly been studied in Spain and Latin America, despite its importance in society and public health. The objective of this study is to examine the prevalence of psychological abuse in same-sex couples in Spain and Latin America and analyse the associated sociodemographic characteristics. An online survey was conducted with 663 gay and lesbian respondents from Spain and Latin America. Of the total sample, 10.6% reported that they perceived themselves as victims of psychological abuse from their partner (9.6% in gay men and 10.7% in lesbians). In gay men, differences were found between victims and non-victims on the sociodemographic variables of age, professional status, and daily alcohol consumption. In lesbians, significant differences were found between victims and non-victims in the country and professional status variables. When comparing gay and lesbian victims, significant differences were found in professional status and alcohol consumption. This study contributes to better understanding of this phenomenon, and it reveals the need for further research.     

Assessing Changes Over Time in Inequality of Opportunity: The Case of Spain

The aim of this paper is to contribute both theoretically and empirically to the analysis of Inequality of Opportunity over time, providing some significant findings referred to the Spanish case. The analysis is carried out using microdata collected by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which incorporate a wide variety of personal harmonised variables, allowing comparability with other countries. The availability of this database for the period 2004 and 2010 is particularly relevant for assessing changes over time in the main inequality indices and the contribution of circumstances to inequality of opportunity. We find that the effect of circumstances on income distribution has significantly intensified between the two years. To test the significance of the differences between years we perform bootstrap estimations.