I'm Telling! The Content, Context, and Consequences of Children's Tattling on their Siblings

Tattling on siblings was observed in 40 families with 2- and 4-year-old children. All but 5 children reported sibling misbehaviour to parents with younger siblings tattling largely to recruit parental help in resolving conflict issues, and older siblings tattling both in the context of conflict and merely to inform parents of their siblings' misbehaviour. Parents rarely reprimanded children for tattling, but either ignored it, or responded to information in tattlers' reports regardless of context or whether older or younger children tattled. Children did not tattle equally on all sibling transgressions, but emphasized physical aggression and property damage, issues that also elicited parental discipline. Tattling is discussed in relation to children's understanding of the dynamics and moral standards of family life.     

Welche Lohnungleichheiten sind gerecht?Which income inequalities are considered just?

This article examines the reasons for inequalities of earnings in Germany and the extent to which these inequalities are considered to be legitimate. We focus on three major inequality-generating factors derived from labour market and inequality research: individual, firm-specific and structural factors. We then investigate empirically the importance of these factors in the emergence of differences of earnings and the extent to which employees consider the rents of each factor to be just or unjust. Analyses based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel reveal that wage differentials are considered as just if they can be attributed to individual factors (level of education, professional experience). In contrast, wage differentials due to firm-specific factors (atypical employment, seniority-based pay) and structural factors (certain occupational groups/industries, differences between regions) are the major reasons for perceived earnings injustice. The results of this study will contribute to the debate concerning increasing wage inequalities and reveal that distinguishing between just and unjust inequalities is essential, especially in discussions regarding the social or political consequences of this trend.     

A population sample registry for public health survey investigations: methods,lessons, and successes

Public health relies on sample surveys to monitor the health of populations and investigate factors that contribute to population health and illness. Such investigations require surveying individuals who are selected in ways that support statistical inference to the population. Faced with rising costs and declining participation, survey researchers are exploring economical ways to recruit samples that validly represent larger populations. The current report describes an innovative resource, the Colorado Adult Population Sample–Survey Research Registry, which maintains survey access to respondents from a probability-based state health survey. We describe recruitment and retention strategies, explore representativeness, report several studies that used the registry, and discuss future directions.     

Secondary victims of rape

Rape is often a very traumatic experience, which affects not only the primary victim (PV) but also his/her significant others. Studies on secondary victims of rape are few and have almost exclusively studied male partners of female rape victims. This study examined the impact of rape on 107 secondary victims, including family members, partners, and friends of male and female rape victims. We found that many respondents found it difficult to support the PV and that their relationship with the PV was often affected by the assault. Furthermore, the sample showed significant levels of traumatization, and it was estimated that approximately one quarter of the respondents suffered from posttraumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). Degree of traumatization was associated with a more recent assault, higher efforts to support the PV, recurrent thoughts about having been able to prevent the assault, a lack of social support for the respondent, and feeling let down by others. The respondents were generally interested in friend-, family-, and partner-focused interventions, particularly in receiving education about how best to support a rape victim.     

Reporter in der Organisation – Systemisches Storytelling für Journalisten

This article describes a storytelling method, which combines the craft of journalism with premises of systemic organizational development. It transfers the model of press freedom to the organization. Companies hire reporters to be free to cover the everyday life and culture inside the organization. Part of the method are storytelling-events where the reporters present their investigation to an internal public. The radical independence sets the systemic storytelling apart from other formats of corporate communications. The benefit is reliability. This opens new opportunities for companies to deal with itself and defines new turfs for journalists.     

Exploring Social Class: Voices of Inter‐Class Couples

Social class is not often discussed or examined in‐depth in couple and family therapy research and literature even though social class shapes familial relationships and is considered an important variable in marital satisfaction. In this qualitative study, we explored the perceptions of eight couples who made lasting commitments across class lines by asking them about the impact of their social class backgrounds on their relationships. Three categories of themes emerged including: (a) differences and similarities in values and attitudes toward education, work, money, and class awareness/classism, (b) relationship issues involving families of origin, friends, and class‐based couple conflict, and (c) differences in economic resources, social capital and privileges/opportunities. Implications for assessment and treatment of couples are included.     

Codependent VAR models and the pseudo-structural form

This paper investigates whether codependence restrictions can be uniquely imposed on VAR models via the so-called pseudo-structural form used in the literature. Codependence of order q is given if a linear combination of autocorrelated variables eliminates the serial correlation after q lags. Importantly, maximum likelihood estimation and likelihood ratio testing are only possible if the codependence restrictions can be uniquely imposed. Applying the pseudo-structural form, our study reveals that this is not generally the case, but that unique imposition is guaranteed in several important special cases.     

Does Child Gender Predict Older Parents’ Well-Being?

Inconsistencies in comparisons of older parents’ well-being with that of older, childless adults may be resolved by considering the separate effects of sons and daughters on parents. The hypothesis was that older parents of only daughters have greater life satisfaction, more satisfying relations with their children, more intimate family relations, and greater social support satisfaction compared to older childless adults and parents of only sons. Childless older adults were predicted to have more intimate friends. The effect of having both sons and daughters was also explored. Longitudinal results indicated parents had greater life satisfaction than childless adults, and parents of daughters were more satisfied with relations with their children than parents of only sons. Childless adults had more relations with friends and fewer family intimate relations. Neither social support satisfaction or affect varied across groups. The findings are related to gender socialization, social support, and normative expectations.     

Education and Public Attitudes toward Science: Implications for the "Deficit Model" of Education and Support for Science and Technology

Objective . By critically examining the deficit model, this research attempts to grasp the multifaceted relationships between education and public attitudes toward science. Methods .It analyzes a series of nationwide surveys of public attitudes toward science conducted over a decade. Results . First, respondents' levels of education and levels of scientific knowledge make independent contributions to public attitudes toward science. Second, college (and postgraduate) majors have very weak effects on public attitudes toward science. Third, education is a much weaker predictor of public attitudes toward controversial scientific research, compared to its strong influence on science in general. Conclusions . Although education may indeed enhance public support for science in general, it may not help much to reduce tensions around politicized, controversial scientific research. For scientific controversies, gender might be a more important variable than education.