Discriminatory Contexts,Emotions and Civic/Political Engagement among Native Italians and Migrants

We assume that emotions (anger, shame and hope) mediate the relationship between perceiving a discriminatory context and civic/political engagement. Results of a survey with 1242 participants (mean age 20.7 years; 53% men; 32.8% migrants) showed that such emotions play a different role according to the type of engagement and the population (native Italians versus migrants). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Impact of Crime on Social Ties and Civic Participation

The present study examined associations of neighbourhood crime with residents' social ties and civic participation using multilevel models. We hypothesized that crime is indirectly associated with residents' low civic participation by negatively relating to their acquaintanceship ties because of fear of neighbours. By contrast, we predicted that crime is indirectly related to frequent civic participation by positively associating with more intimate friendship ties as a response to combat external threats. Additionally, we hypothesized that high crime rates in the neighbourhood increases the importance of generalized trust towards others. Therefore, we examined the interaction effects of neighbourhood crime and trust on social ties and participation. The study is based on a postal questionnaire mailed to residents aged between 20 and 69 years, residing in Musashino City and Kiyose City, in Tokyo. Rates of larceny reported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department were used as indices of neighbourhood crime. As hypothesized, our results showed that crime is positively associated with friendship ties and is negatively related to acquaintanceship ties. Through these opposing relationships, crime showed both positive and negative associations with civic participation. Moreover, we found that generalized trust buffered the adverse relationships between crime, broader social ties and participation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When grandparents drive their grandchildren

Driving their grandchildren has become one of the common tasks grandparents perform as part of the support they provide for working parents. The current research made use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in two complementary studies conducted on grandparents who drive their grandchildren, the first using personal interviews and the second self-report questionnaires. The goal of the qualitative study was to capture grandparents’ subjective experience (n = 27), whereas the quantitative study sought to provide more specific data on the factors affecting grandparents’ experience behind the wheel and attitudes to child restraints by examining the contribution of driving styles and parental influence (n = 330). The findings of the qualitative study indicate that having grandchildren in the car is a unique situation which affects grandparents’ emotions and driving behavior. Less careful drivers were found to adapt a more careful driving style when driving their grandchildren than when driving without them. In the quantitative study, risky and anxious drivers felt more tension when driving their grandchildren. Furthermore, parental intervention was found to heighten tension among grandparents. Finally, heightened tension and less angry and more careful grandparents’ driving styles were associated with more positive attitudes to child restraints. Possible explanations of the findings are discussed.     

Scaling sporting equipment for children promotes implicit processes during performance

This study investigated whether children who used scaled equipment compared to full size equipment during a motor task demonstrated reduced conscious involvement in performance. Children (9–11 years) performed a tennis hitting task in two attention conditions (single-task and dual-task) using two types of equipment (scaled and full size). A more skilled group and a less skilled group were formed using hitting performance scores. The more skilled group displayed greater working memory capacity than the less skilled group. For both groups, hitting performance and technique were better when scaled equipment was used. Hitting performance when using scaled equipment was not disrupted in either group by a cognitively demanding secondary task; however, performance was disrupted in the less skilled group when using full size equipment. We conclude that equipment scaling may reduce working memory engagement in motor performance and discuss the findings in the context of implicit motor learning theory.     

Stripped of illusions? Exploring system justification processes in capitalist and post‐Communist societies

Sociologists and political scientists have often observed that citizens of Central and Eastern Europe express high levels of disillusionment with their social, economic and political systems, in comparison with citizens of Western capitalist societies. In this review, we analyze system legitimation and delegitimation in post‐Communist societies from a social psychological perspective. We draw on system justification theory, which seeks to understand how, when and why people do (and do not) defend, bolster and justify existing social systems. We review some of the major tenets and findings of the theory and compare research on system‐justifying beliefs and ideologies in traditionally Capitalist and post‐Communist countries to determine: (1) whether there are robust differences in the degree of system justification in post‐Communist and Capitalist societies, and (2) the extent to which hypotheses derived from system justification theory receive support in the post‐Communist context. To this end, we summarize research findings from over 20 countries and cite previously unpublished data from a public opinion survey conducted in Poland. Our analysis confirms that there are lower levels of system justification in post‐Communist countries. At the same time, we find that system justification possesses similar social and psychological antecedents, manifestations and consequences in the two types of societies. We offer potential explanations for these somewhat complicated patterns of results and conclude by addressing implications for theory and research on system justification and system change (or transition).     

Participation Patterns Among Mexican–American Parents Enrolled in a Universal Intervention and Their Association with Child Externalizing Outcomes

This study used growth mixture modeling to examine attendance trajectories among 292 Mexican–American primary female caregivers enrolled in a universal preventive intervention and the effects of health beliefs, participation intentions, cultural influences, and intervention group cohesion on trajectory group membership as well as trajectory group differences on a distal outcome, immediate posttest teacher report of child externalizing (T2). Results supported four trajectory groups—early terminators (ET), mid-program terminators (MPT), low-risk persistent attenders (LRPA), and high-risk persistent attenders (HRPA). Compared with LRPAs, caregivers classified as HRPAs had weaker familism values, less parenting efficacy, and higher externalizing children with lower GPAs. Caregivers in the two persistent attender groups reported strong group cohesion and providers rated these caregivers as having strong participation intentions. Children of caregivers in the LRPA group had the lowest T2 child externalizing. Children of caregivers in the MPT group had lower T2 externalizing than did those of the ET group, suggesting partial intervention dosage can benefit families. Despite high levels of attendance, children of caregivers in the HRPA had the highest T2 externalizing, suggesting this high-risk group needed either more intensive services or a longer period for parents to implement program skills to evidence change in child externalizing.     

“A Community with Diversity of Culture,Wealth, Resources,and Living Experiences”: Defining Neighborhood in an Unincorporated Community

To obtain a better understanding of how people living in an unincorporated region define their neighborhood, a long-term photovoice project was conducted. Thirty-one photovoice sessions and eight structured interviews were coded and analyzed to assess participants’ neighborhood definitions. Participant’s difficulties in identifying the geographic, physical and demographic characteristics of their neighborhood led them to use social interactions, place-mediated values, and civic engagement to define neighborhood.     

Family Contexts: Parental Experiences of Discrimination and Child Mental Health

Research on the mental health correlates of discrimination traditionally has been intra-individual, focusing exclusively on the individual directly experiencing discrimination. A small number of studies have begun to consider the links between parental experiences of discrimination and child mental health, but little is known about potential underlying mechanisms. The present study tested the independent mediating effects of parent mental health and household socioeconomic status on the associations between parental experiences of discrimination (past-year perceived discrimination and perceptions of being unaccepted culturally) and child mental health (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) using a bootstrapping analytic approach. Data were drawn from racial/ethnic minority (n = 383) and White (n = 574) samples surveyed in an urban Midwestern county. For all measures of discrimination and child mental health, findings supported an association between parental experiences of discrimination and child mental health. Whereas parent mental health served as a significant mediator in all analyses, socioeconomic status did not. Mediation findings held for both the White and racial/ethnic minority samples. Results suggest that parental experiences of discrimination and mental health may contribute to child mental health concerns, thus highlighting the role of family contexts in shaping child development.     

Identity Politics and Politicized Identities: Identity Processes and the Dynamics of Protest

Over the last decades, the concept of identity has become increasingly central in the social psychology of protest. Collective identity, politicized collective identity, dual identity, and multiple identities are concepts that help to understand and describe the social psychological dynamics of protest. In this article, I theorize about identity processes in the context of protest participation: how group identification establishes the link between social identity and collective identity, how multiple identities and dual identities influence protest participation, and how collective identity politicizes and radicalizes. I will illustrate my argument with results from research into collective action participation among farmers in the Netherlands and Spain, Turkish, and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands and New York, South African citizens, and participants in street demonstrations conducted by my research group at VU‐University.