Health Impact of Jewish Religious Observance in the USA: Findings from the 2000–01 National Jewish Population Survey

Using data from the 2000–01 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) (N = 5,148), effects of eight religious measures were investigated in relation to two health outcomes, standard single-item indicators of self-rated health and presence of an activity-limiting health condition. Seven of the religious measures were associated bivariately with one or both health indicators. Through two-step OLS regression of each health indicator onto all of the religious measures, adjusting for age and other sociodemographic correlates, two measures of synagogue involvement remained statistically significant. Follow-up analysis revealed a net health impact of religious observance primarily limited to Orthodox and Conservative Jews.     

Are Immigrants from Asia Healthier than Immigrants from Other Regions?: Self-reported Health Status and Functional Difficulties of Immigrants in the USA

This study examines how regions of origin are related to immigrant health status in the USA. This paper uses the National Health Interview Survey to examine health status differences between East and Southeast Asian immigrants and immigrants from other regions. The models control for duration, socioeconomic factors, and behavioral factors. Two health indicators are examined: self-reported health and functional difficulties. Results from ordered logit regression analyses demonstrate that some of the regions of birth do significantly predict differences in health for immigrants. Specifically, immigrants from Central America and the former Soviet Union do exhibit significant health disadvantages when compared with immigrants from East and Southeast Asia. The duration effect was positively related to functional difficulties but not to self-reported health status. Overall, economic resources and education typically have a strong relationship to the measures of immigrants’ physical health. It was also found that drinking is persistently associated with better measures of physical health while smoking appears to have the opposite effect.     

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada—the Immigrants’ Experience

This paper explores the correlates of career satisfaction among Canadian managers, professionals and executives, specifically the career satisfaction experience of both visible minority and non-visible minority immigrants. Survey data collected from over 13,000 managers, professionals and executives in 43 Canadian organizations were analysed using the ordinary least squares multiple regression technique. Results indicate that immigrants experience lower career satisfaction than native-borns and visible minority immigrants have lower career satisfaction than non-visible minority immigrants. Employee and employer characteristics, objective employment outcomes and subjective perceptual measures were found to be positively associated with career satisfaction for immigrant and native-born respondents.     

Parental Participation in Religious Services and Parent and Child Well-Being: Findings from the National Survey of America’s Families

Using data from the 1999 and 2002 National Survey of America’s Families, a large-scale nationally representative sample, this study finds that parental religious attendance is positively associated with parent self-rated health, parent mental well-being, positive parenting attitudes, child health, and child school engagement. Although the strength of these associations varies to some extent according to socio-demographic factors, the interactive patterns are not consistently predictable. Moreover, parental health and well-being and positive attitudes toward parenting appear to be important pathways linking parental religious attendance to child well-being. These findings suggest that opportunities for participation in local religious services offered by faith-based organizations may be fruitful avenues through which the government and society can help American families enhance parent and child well-being.     

The Role of Gender Role Attitudes and Immigrant Generation in Ethnic Minority Women’s Labor Force Participation in Britain

Although substantial research shows that in Britain some ethnic minority women have significantly lower labor force participation (LFP) rates than White British women, even after controlling for demographic characteristics and education levels, little is known about the reasons underlying the remaining ethnic differences. Using nationally representative data (2010–2011), I investigate the role of gender role attitudes in explaining the ethnic as well as generational differences in women’s LFP rates. The results show that after controlling for demographic characteristics and education levels, LFP rates of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are significantly lower than that of White British women and about half of the ethnic gap can be explained by differences in gender role attitudes. Moreover, I show that the ethnic gap is less pronounced for second generation Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian women whose LFP rates are significantly higher than those of their first generation counterparts. Importantly, the higher LFP rates of second generation South Asian women can be largely explained by their relatively less traditional gender role attitudes. Drawing on my results, public policies could provide appropriate childcare services and flexible work arrangements to alter traditional gender role attitudes, thereby improving minority women’s labor market opportunities.

     

Back to School in a New Country? The Educational Participation of Adult Immigrants in a Life-Course Perspective

While the education of the children of immigrants is a much-researched theme, we know very little about the participation of adult immigrants in education. And yet, lifelong learning is a common demand in highly industrialized societies. This article provides a first empirical analysis of adult immigrants’ educational participation in Germany. It uses the novel German National Educational Panel Study with unique retrospective life-course data. By adopting a life-course perspective, both transnational continuities in the life-course as well as the ruptures caused by migration are captured. The analysis investigates in what ways participation in education is embedded in immigrants’ transnational life-course. It can be shown that immigrants’ participation in formal and nonformal full-time education is common. Hypotheses predict a central influence of (1) pre-immigration activities and (2) of legal immigration gateways. Sequence and cluster analysis detect two education-related incorporation patterns: one is marked by a dominance of educational activities and the other by phases in education alternate with employment and unemployment. The results of multivariate models underline the predictive power of pre-immigration activity, i.e., transnational continuity in immigrants’ life courses. But we can also observe substantial disruption like the transnational transition from employment to education which can be the enforced response to nonrecognition or devaluation of foreign educational credentials. Institutional opportunities and dispositions linked to legal immigration gateways are even more powerful predictors of educational participation. Altogether, the article illustrates how the interaction of structural opportunities and individual agency plays out in the formation of different incorporation trajectories of adult immigrants.     

Getting Ahead: Educational and Occupational Trajectories of the ‘New’ Second-Generation in Switzerland

This paper examines the educational and occupational trajectories among second-generation immigrants of Turkish and Western-Balkan origin in Switzerland. Using a representative sample of 1107 respondents in two Swiss urban areas, the findings reveal that descendants of immigrants have reduced chances to follow a constant successful path from education to occupation, which is mainly determined by parental socioeconomic status. However, young adults of Turkish and Western Balkan origin are significantly more often upward mobile than the majority group, a pattern that is robust against a range of controls. We find parental monitoring and family cohesion to be positively related with upward mobility. Moreover, second-generation immigrants are more likely to be upwardly mobile than starting high in the education system but subsequently moving downwards—a profile that is more frequent among Swiss origin youth. Our multivariate results indicate that a lack of intense parent–child communication and perceived discrimination in school are affecting this downward process.     

Results from a National Survey of Psychologists in Medical School Settings—2003

Preliminary results are presented from a 2003 collaborative survey of psychologists employed in medical schools and academic health centers. The findings are reported along with comparable data from a similar survey conducted in 1997. There were several noteworthy changes in results from 1997 to 2003. Salaries increased substantially at all ranks, though women’s earnings remain lower than men’s. There were increases in the percentage of respondents who completed their doctorates 20 or more years ago, and in the percentages holding higher academic ranks and having tenure. However, there was a decrease in the absolute number and percentage of psychologists at lower ranks who received their doctorates recently. Overall, the findings indicate that psychologists have established a secure home in medical school settings. Future reports will present more detailed analyses of the 2003 dataset as well as additional comparisons with the 1997 survey data.     

The renewal of dewey — trends in the nineties

This article proposes that the ‘renewal’ of Dewey might contribute to filling the gap between the pedagogical commitment to contingency and plurality and the fact that the pedagogical tradition, until now, has neutralized contingency and denied its systematic meaning for education. Therefore, the main traits of the ‘renewal of Dewey’ are shown in the work of some Dewey scholars who, critically and creatively, reconstruct Dewey in the mirror of poststructural, communicational and constructive theory developments. Following Dewey, these researches balance the objective evaluation of Dewey’s work by a deliberate and overt pursuit of their own intentions and (pre-)selections by the scholars. Intersubjectivity and communication are key concepts in this renewal of pragmatism rejecting the subject-centered philosophy of consciousness, the traditional western epistemology and metaphysics. The turn to the philosophical priority of the unforeseeable also leads to an understanding of action as an essential focus. In this context Dewey’s pragmatistic view of radical democracy is received as a non-foundational theory and the concept of consensus is criticized. The scholars clarify that the boundaries of the subject are broadened by communicative destabilization. At the end of the article it is asked what the renewal-dimensions mean for education located in the public sphere.     

Women of the “Sandwich” Generation and Multiple Roles: The Case of Russian Immigrants of the 1990s in Israel

It has been suggested that adding elder care tothe list of women's multiple roles may significantlyjeopardize their well-being and mental health. Thisstudy explored the experiences with multiple roles among Jewish women who immigrated to Israelfrom the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s withtheir extended families. The thirty informants for thestudy (aged between 35 and 55) represented a variety of pre-emigration backgrounds. Their commondenominator was in multiple roles (employment andcaregiving to both children and ageing parents) coupledwith the challenges of resettlement in a country swept by the mass influx of immigrants. Facingdownward social mobility, marital distress, and problemswith adolescent children, the women of thissandwich generation also had to supporttheir uprooted parents. The growing dependency and declininghealth of the elders significantly burdened the womenand hindered their occupational upgrading and socialintegration in Israel. Exhaustion and tight time budgets led to somatization and poor self-careamong middle-aged women. Social services' role in eldercare was minimal. The informants' social networks weremainly co-ethnic, and their coping tools drew on Israeli-Russian subculture. The studyconcludes that, even in the relatively egalitarianRussian-Soviet gender system, women function asprincipal caregivers, often at the expense of other lifegoals.     

Social Quality and Happiness—An Analysis of the Survey Data from Three Chinese Cities

Over the last two decades, the focus of happiness research has shifted from the measurement of life quality with an emphasis on material well-being to subjective well-being. This article follows this direction of development, but moves further into social well-being. Utilizing the method of social quality analysis, this study developed an analysis of happiness by looking into the influence of social factors on happiness. The study was established on the basis of empirical data collected from a social quality survey done in Hangzhou, Xiamen, and Shenzhen during 2011–2012. The purpose of this study is to expose the relationships between social quality analysis and happiness studies. The study demonstrates a strong correlation of social quality factors with happiness, although each set of these factors has a different impact on happiness in different factor domains.     

Income and Wellbeing in a Society on the Verge to Market Integration: The Case of the Tsimane’ in the Bolivian Amazon

Based on findings from prior research on the relation between monetary income and subjective wellbeing, researchers have argued that income might relate to subjective wellbeing only until reaching a consumption satiation point where all basic needs are met; beyond this threshold income would not increase wellbeing. We explore this idea by analyzing a panel data set (2002–2010) collected among 982 Tsimane’, a society of largely self-sufficient foragers and farmers in the Bolivian Amazon. Subjective wellbeing is measured through four self-reported emotions: happiness, anger, fear, and sadness. As Tsimane’ mostly satisfy their basic needs through subsistence activities, if the argument above holds true, then we should not find any association between income and subjective wellbeing. Results from ordered logistic regressions suggest, however, that—even in this relatively autarkic society—income bears a positive relation with happiness and fear, although it does not seem to be associated with sadness and anger. The magnitude of the income coefficients is small compared to the variables that proxy success in subsistence activities and frequency of social interactions. In the studied society, the relation between income and happiness is likely caused by socio-psychological effects, like status gains, and not by the acquisition of material goods. In a context where wellbeing is mostly derived from success in subsistence activities and social relations, if the pursuit of income generating activities deprives individuals from devoting time to these, then income might, in fact come at a cost in terms of subjective wellbeing.     

Comment on “Antecedents of Performance and Satisfaction in a Service Sales Force as Compared to an Industrial Sales Force”

Theory contends that social support can reduce the impact of stress in the workplace. Yet little research is available that investigates the role of social support in the sales area. Reliable and valid instruments are needed to measure this key construct. House and Wells (1978) developed an instrument of social support that addresses both sources and types of support. This study examines the reliability and validity of the instrument in the sales environment, and evaluates the psychometric properties of the instrument from the sources and types perspectives. Findings suggest that the instrument may be a sound measure of sources of social support, but is not appropriate for measuring types of support. Additional research is recommended.     

Leibniz and Clarke in Conflict: The Role of “Force” and the Nature of God’s Providence

The intellectual background of the concept of force in the dispute between Leibniz and Clarke has not received enough scholarly attention. Vailati’s monograph, which is the most important study of the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, focuses on a non-theological dimension in terms of the concept of force in this debate. Based on this perspective, Vailati’s conclusion is that Clarke’s understanding of force was totally different from that of Newton. However, the historical context shows that this is not the case. Clarke’s concept of motive force bore a strong resemblance to that of Newton, according to which force was an active principle that had been endowed upon matter at the beginning of God’s creation. Furthermore, the close link between force, matter and God’s providence had a long tradition of debate between Cartesian and Gassendian philosophers since early modern times. The different concepts of force dividing Cartesian and Gassendian philosophers were actually related to, and conditioned by, their underlying fundamental theological differences. The concept of force in the Leibniz-Clarke controversy, accordingly, could be regarded as along the lines of the earlier disputes between Cartesian and Gassendian philosophers.     

Do Immigrants Have Different Procedural Justice Perceptions of Personnel Selection methods? The case of native Israelis and immigrants from the former Soviet Union

Most prior research on perceived procedural justice vis‐à‐vis human resource management selection procedures focuses on comparisons between nations and between types of employees. So far, findings indicate slight, if any, differences between nations. Predicated on a random sample of 950 respondents – native Israelis and Israelis from the former Soviet Union – we find significant differences between the two groups concerning five selection methods, which we ascribe to inherent cultural dissimilarities. We attribute these differences to Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance dimension. These results may elicit increased focus on inherent cultural differences among potential employees with the view of considering these differences in opting for selection methods in order to accommodate for existing cultural differences. This consideration appears particularly pertinent in culturally diverse workforces, given the increased proportion of immigrants.     

Is the Customer Always Right? The Potential for Racial Bias in Customer Evaluations of Employee Performance

With the encouragement of marketing scholars, many companies are tying employee incentives to customer ratings of satisfaction, service quality, or employee performance. One potential drawback to these practices is that customers' evaluations of employees—and, therefore, any associated rewards—may be biased by employee race. This possibility was examined in a restaurant setting. We found that customers rated the promptness and attentiveness of same race servers more favorably than different race servers, but there were no differences for assessments of server friendliness or appearance. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.