Immigrant Children in Austria

ABSTRACT

As a consequence of worldwide waves of immigration there is a permanent increase of ethnically mixed school classes in countries all over the world. However, there is a lack of empirical studies on interethnic relationships which differentiate immigrant children based on their countries of origin. The present paper focuses on these topics and provides data of both negative and positive aspects of interethnic interactions. Direct and indirect forms of bullying, friendship patterns, and peer acceptance in 326 native and 242 immigrant children aged 11 to 14 (57% native Austrian, 22% former Yugoslavian, 14% Turkish/Kurdish, 7% rest group) in 29 ethnically mixed school classes (6th and 7th grades) were examined. Bullying was measured via the Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire and via peer nomination techniques, friendship patterns via self-ratings. Peer acceptance was defined by social preference scores on positive and negative sociometric items. According to peer ratings Austrian children were found to be more often victims (9%) and bullies (12%) of direct bullying than immigrant children. Prevalence rates in immigrant children varied depending on their country of origin between 2% and 8% for victims and 3% to 7% for bullies. Results suggested that Turkish/Kurdish children are at risk concerning their social integration in class (e.g., they had the fewest number of friends in class, reported higher levels of loneliness at school, and were less accepted by their peers compared to Austrians and former Yugoslavian children). Friendship patterns differed considerably between native children and children of the three immigrant groups. Findings are discussed concerning differences in integration strategies of immigrant children depending on their country of origin.     

Adolescents’ Conceptions of the Influence of Romantic Relationships on Friendships

Although researchers have investigated how adolescents’ friendships affect their romantic relationships, the influence of romantic relationships on friendships is unexamined. As a first step, 9th- (n = 198) and 11th grade students (n = 152) reported on their conceptions of friendship when one friend had a romantic relationship and when neither friend had a romantic relationship. As predicted, adolescents believed friendships in which a friend was dating would be characterized by less positive features and more negative features than friendships in which neither friend was dating. Additionally, older adolescents thought romantic relationships were more damaging to companionship and corumination than did younger adolescents. The closer nature of older adolescents’ romantic relationships may result in lower quality friendships or older adolescents may be more aware of the potential negative consequences of romantic relationships for friendships. Girls viewed friendships as higher in conflict-rivalry and lower in corumination when one friend was dating while boys did not. And although girls and boys viewed friendships as lower in intimacy and companionship when a friend has a romantic partner, the difference was greater for girls than boys. Girls may be more sensitive to the effects of a friend's romantic relationship on their friendship than are boys. Findings necessitate theories of close relationships that incorporate age and gender as important variables.     

The Prediction of Achievement Motivation Using Performance and Attributional Variables

This study was designed to predict achievement motivation with attributions and performance in English course work among 346 ninth-grade boys and girls. Multiple regression analysis indicated that attribution of success to ability was the best predictor of achievement motivation. This finding diverges from previous work that supports the hypothesis that attribution of success to effort is a better predictor. The use of performance as an indicator variable showed that nonfailing students had higher levels of achievement motivation than did failing students.     

Perceived Work Competency and Sex Role Conflict: An Empirical Study

The present study examined sex role conflict, perceived work competency, and motivational needs among a broad sample of 298 working women and men (135 men, 163 women) at different hierarchical levels to see what possible gender differences existed in relationships among the variables. Correlation analysis and analysis of variance indicated that the female subjects had significantly higher levels of sex role conflict than the men, but a similar sense of work competency. Sex role conflict and perceived work competency were found to be negatively linked for the women but not for the men. Significant relationships were found between certain motivational needs and both sex role conflict and sense of work competency.     

Social antecedents of children's implicit prejudice: Direct contact,extended contact,explicit and implicit teachers' prejudice

Recent research has shown that children display implicit prejudice at least by age six (Baron & Banaji, 2006). In the present study, we investigated some potential antecedents of children's implicit intergroup attitudes: direct contact, extended contact, explicit and implicit racial attitudes of children's favourite teacher. Participants were Italian elementary school students. Results showed that, unexpectedly, direct contact increased negative implicit attitudes toward immigrants; extended contact reduced implicit prejudice only among those with less direct contact experiences. In addition, teachers' implicit (but not explicit) prejudice predicted children's implicit prejudice. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed, together with the importance of the social environment in the formation of children's implicit intergroup attitudes.     

A Trauma-Informed Call to Action: Culturally Informed,Multi-Disciplinary Theoretical,and Applied Approaches to Prevention and Healing,Part II

The prevalence of trauma and its negative impact on humankind have created a burgeoning awareness of the need for systems that are trauma-informed across the lifespan. A collaborative project with the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV) sought out research as a call-to-action to mitigate the impact of trauma. The following is Part II of an introduction to a special double-issue focused on theoretical and applied approaches to using trauma-informed care in multi-disciplinary, mental and physical health, criminal justice, school-based, and community settings. Consideration is given to essential issues such as resilience, self-care, and intersectional cultural awareness. Introspective exploration of biases was encouraged to address barriers to implementing trauma-informed care.     

The CARE System in Its Importance in Dealing with Today's Crises1

The CARE system is a gift from Mother Nature, we have it in our biological heritage; it enables us humans—as a basic gift—to help each other in a large, life-serving context, and thus also to counterbalance destruction. It is about a basic human ability, linked to typical behaviour, but also about a basic human need for connectedness. In this paper, I would like to show how the CARE system can be activated as a collective attitude. The CARE system is strengthened by positive emotions. We are currently being affected by many crises and this triggers fear. How can we deal with this better? Fear is countered with hope and the associated positive emotions such as joy, awe, kama muta and others. These emotions and feelings can be consciously encouraged and placed alongside the feelings of fear. But also, when we share the feelings of grief with each other, it triggers an attitude of CARE. We can grieve together for the various experiences of loss that we go through—but we can also imagine together how we envisage a future that is worth living for everyone. An attitude in the sense of CARING has been practised in friendship for thousands of years. It would therefore be possible to move away from an attitude of competing and outdoing, to an attitude not only of recognition, care, and solidarity in human interaction, but also in our connection with nature.     

Friendship Work on Facebook: Young Adults' Understandings and Practices of Friendship

Young adults use social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook to engage as friends, yet there has been little systematic research that has investigated their sense‐making of friendship in relation to their uses of Facebook, as well as how Facebook as a socio‐technical system interacts with their friendship practices. Twelve friendship discussion groups were conducted in urban and non‐urban New Zealand, with 26 women and 25 men aged 18–25 years, in same and mixed‐gender groups. Our social constructionist thematic analysis showed the young adults made sense of friendship through themes of ‘fun times together’, an ‘investment’, ‘protection’ and ‘self‐authenticity’, and these meanings were enacted in particular ways within Facebook. This SNS was used primarily for enjoying friendship and ‘investing in’ friendships, and friendship protection was required to maintain friends' online privacy. Facebook provided a way to demonstrate self‐authenticity within friendship relationships through censored ‘show off’ self‐displays and favoured friendship activities. Facebook supported, disrupted and modified these particular friendship understandings by broadening the audience for friendship actions and intensifying friends' responses through 24/7 accessibility and instantaneous activity notifications. These interactions between friendship understandings and Facebook as a socio‐technical system demonstrate how friendship was reinforced, negotiated and re‐worked through this online context. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On classifying abduction

We can witness the recent surge of interest in classifying different patterns or types of abduction. Many philosophers have suggested their own classifications emphasizing different aspects of abduction. Such a development is remarkable, in view of the fact that until quite recently the focus of the research on Peircean abduction was to identify its logical form. Another agenda in the recent attempts to classify abduction is whether to allow non-explanatory abductions. In order to resolve these two closely related issues, I propose to examine how Peirce would have responded to them. In particular, I suggest to do this in connection with Peirce's another life-long project, the classification of sciences. In this examination, it will be shown that Peirce struggled with the problem of conflating induction and abduction. I shall discuss how this problem influenced both Peirce's views on the interrelationship between abduction, deduction, and induction on the one hand, and his many classifications of sciences on the other. Also, the implication of the fundamental change in Peirce's views of abduction, deduction, and induction to the problem of the classification of sciences will be uncovered. Finally, I shall discuss whether inference to the best explanation is abduction. Insofar as this problem has bearing on the two controversial issues in classifying abduction, my negative answer will demonstrate that classifying abduction is yet to get off the ground.     

Preadolescents' borderline personality features in a non‐Western urban context: Concurrent and longitudinal associations with physical and relational aggression,friendship exclusivity and peer victimization

The present study examined children's borderline personality features and their association with developmentally appropriate factors, including friendship exclusivity, forms of aggression and peer maltreatment with a non‐Western urban sample. The participants consisted of 234 Japanese preadolescents who were in the fourth and fifth grade (50% girls; ages: 9–11). Results of correlational analyses show that borderline personality features were stable during a six‐month period (r = 0.55). Moreover, results of mixed linear models indicate that friendship exclusivity was associated with elevated borderline personality features concurrently and longitudinally, after controlling for the effects of physical and relational aggression. Physical aggression (not relational aggression) and physical victimization (not relational victimization) also predicted relative increases in borderline personality features. These findings are discussed from a cultural‐developmental perspective.