Three measures of non‐resident fathers' involvement,maternal parenting and child development in low‐income single‐mother families

This study examined the relationships among non‐resident fathers' involvement, mothers' parenting and parenting stress, and children's behavioural and cognitive development in low‐income single‐mother families. Based on the theoretical concepts of father involvement in terms of accessibility, responsibility and interaction, this study operationalizes fathers' involvement with three different measures: (i) fathers' frequency of contact with their children; (ii) fathers' amount of child support payment; and (iii) fathers' quality of parenting. Analyses used the first three waves of longitudinal data from a subsample of single and non‐cohabiting mothers with low income in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Results suggest that non‐resident fathers' child support payment is indirectly associated with both children's behaviour problems and cognitive development. Fathers' parenting is also found to be indirectly associated with children's behaviour problems. The findings further suggest that those estimated associations are transmitted through mothers' parenting. The expected associations between fathers' contact and child outcomes are not found in this sample. The study also discusses the policy and practice implications of its findings.     

Older People's Family Contacts and Long-term Care Expenditure in OECD Countries: A Comparative Approach Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis

In recent decades there has been a suggestion that public and private long-term care (LTC) expenditure might be replacing traditional family care for older people. The decline of family contact is known to be more advanced in some OECD countries than others, with southern Europe identified as where family contact is still strong. This article explores at a country level whether there is an association between levels of expenditure on long-term care and the availability of family contacts. Qualitative Comparative Analysis is used as a comparative method, so as to use national quantitative indicators with a small sample of countries. An association between higher levels of family contact and lower levels of expenditure on LTC is suggested, but it is weakened by a number of untypical cases. Countries that defy this relationship have government care policies that seek to promote informal social care through the family contact that continues to be available. Austria, Canada, Great Britain and Japan are discussed in this context.     

Preparation and planning for face‐to‐face contact after adoption: the experience of adoptive parents in a UK study

Whilst there is a general international trend towards more open adoption, there is considerable variation between agencies in the extent to which they are prepared to support different forms of contact arrangements. Agencies have a pivotal role to play in decisions about contact and early planning that is integrated into the assessment and preparation of prospective adopters is fundamental to its success. This paper reports on adoptive parents' experiences of the process of preparation and planning for direct, face‐to‐face contact. During preparation, agencies were clearly getting the message across to prospective adopters about the importance of contact for the child's well being. However, insufficient attention was directed at helping adopters to anticipate their feelings towards birth relatives and their responses to the kinds of management issues that might arise after adoption. There was considerable variation in the extent to which adopters were involved in the process of planning detailed contact arrangements, and this seemed to bear relevance on the success or otherwise of subsequent contact arrangements.     

When contact counts: Intergroup contact on business and intermarriage resistance in the Caucasus region

Intergroup contact theory has been empirically supported in a variety of social contexts, but few samples have been drawn from rapidly developing nations undergoing severe political and sociocultural conflict. Using 2012 Caucasus Barometer data from the three nations of the South Caucasus — Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia — we test the effect of interreligious contact on various forms of out-group resistance in a region of the world that is both historically and presently marked with severe religious and ethnic conflict. Additionally, we take into account self-selection effects using propensity score matching. Results overwhelmingly support intergroup contact theory in all three countries, but objections toward intermarriage still remain high for treated groups. In addition, there exist significant differences based on the out-group studied, with the contact effects being the strongest for groups posing little religio-cultural or organized threat. Weaker contact effects, though, appear less related to threat and more contextual/out-group specific.     

Homosexuality and the Military: A Review of the Literature

Homosexual men and women have been subjected to constant discrimination and stigma while trying to do what most heterosexual individuals take for granted, serving their country. It is somewhat paradoxical that gays and lesbians who are treated as second-class citizens by their own country and government, with limited rights, would want to risk their lives and potentially die for that same country. As the literature illustrates, many homosexual men and women have chosen such a profession in order to justify their existence and demonstrate that they are worthy of the same rights as others. Just as women and African Americans eventually earned their status as equal members of society and proved their worthiness to serve in the military, homosexuals are now trying to achieve the same.     

The noncentral bivariate chisquared distribution and extensions

The distribution of certain correlated noncentral chisquared variates P, Q, is termed the noncentral bivariate chisquared distribution. Moment generating functions of the distributions of (P, Q), (P+Q) and other quadratic forms have been obtained. A relationship to the linear case of the noncentral Wishart distribution is indicated. Convolution properties and applications are presented.     

当今社会人脉异化的成因及矫治——基于儒家理想道德人格视角

随着当下流行语"人脉"的广泛运用,人脉异化成为值得关注和不可回避的话题.人脉异化的表现形式是与和谐社会主旋律相悖的不谐音符,是违反人的自我、本意受到扭曲的人际关系,是一种病态的社会现象.与交往异化相比,人脉异化有着自己的特点和表现形式.通过"知、情、意、行"四个方面对人脉异化进行实证剖析,儒家诉求的理想道德人格可以矫治人脉异化所带来的危害,其途径为:道德认知,人脉厚积的前提;道德情感,人脉积蓄的基点;道德意志,人脉维系的中枢.而真正能够防止人脉异化的是人的道德行为,它能够矫治人脉异化,回归人脉的本原.     

Attitudes toward immigrants in Luxembourg. Do contacts matter?

The number of immigrants in Luxembourg is approaching the number of native-born population. This demographic change raises questions concerning social inclusion, social cohesion, and intergroup conflicts. The present paper contributes to this discussion by analyzing attitudes toward immigrants and their determinants. Controlling for key individual characteristics, we examine how the intensity of core contacts between nationals and inhabitants with migratory background affects attitudes toward immigrants among three groups of Luxembourg residents: natives, first-generation immigrants, and second-generation immigrants. The results indicate that attitudes toward immigrants depend significantly on the origins of the residents of Luxembourg. Natives adopt the most negative stance toward immigrants; they are followed by second-generation and first-generation immigrants. Attitudes of second-generation immigrants are closer to those of the native population than to those of first-generation immigrants. Core contacts appear to play the most important role in the case of first-generation immigrants. The more connected the first-generation migrant to the native population, the more negative his/her opinion of immigrants.     

Points of View, Social Positioning and Intercultural Relations

The challenge of intercultural relations has become an important issue in many societies. In spite of the claimed value of intercultural diversity, successful outcomes as predicted by the contact hypothesis are but one possibility; on occasions intercultural contact leads to intolerance and hostility. Research has documented that one key mediator of contact is perspective taking. Differences in perspective are significant in shaping perceptions of contact and reactions to it. The ability to take the perspective of the other and to understand it in its own terms is a necessary condition for successful intergroup outcomes. This paper sheds light on the processes involved in intercultural perspective taking by elaborating the notion of the point of view based on social representations theory. The point of view provides a theory of social positioning that can analyse cultural encounters between social actors, and identify the conditions for positive relations. Insights are drawn from a study of public views on the relative merits of science and religion, following a documentary by Richard Dawkins in which it was suggested that religion is a source of evil. The findings demonstrate that the point of view may be categorised according to a three-way taxonomy according to the extent to which it is open to another perspective. A point of view may be monological—closed to another's perspective entirely, dialogical—open to the possibility of another perspective while maintaining some percepts as unchallengeable, or metalogical—open to another's perspective based on the other's frame of reference.     

Contact Reduces Transprejudice: A Study on Attitudes towards Transgenderism and Transgender Civil Rights in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the relationship between Hong Kong Chinese people's contact with transgender/transsexual (TG/TS) people and attitudes toward transgenderism and transgender civil rights, based on Allport's Contact Hypothesis. The term transprejudice is introduced to refer to the negative valuing, stereotyping and discriminatory treatment of TG/TS people. Data are presented from a population-based survey with a random sample of 856 Hong Kong Chinese persons aged between 15 and 64, using the Chinese Attitudes towards Transgenderism and Transgender Civil Rights Scale (CATTCRS). Attitudes, assessed on both personal and institutional dimensions, are examined in relation to participants’ gender, age, educational level, religiosity, and previous contact with transpeople. Results suggest that previous contact with transpeople was significantly associated with attitudes reflected in the scale; decreased social distance, decreased social discrimination, and decreased transprejudice, increased awareness of discrimination against transpeople, increased support for equal opportunities, increased support for post-operative transsexual civil rights, and increased support for anti-discrimination legislation. Our findings support the contact hypothesis, that contact has a positive effect on attitudes towards TG/TS persons. We discuss the implications of these findings for public education interventions and public policy, as well as for research.