Personality Traits Increasingly Important for Male Fertility: Evidence from Norway

We study the relationship between personality traits and fertility using a survey of Norwegian men and women born from 1927 to 1968 (N = 7017 individuals). We found that personality relates to men's and women's fertility differently; conscientiousness decreases female fertility, openness decreases male fertility and extraversion raises the fertility of both sexes. Neuroticism depresses fertility for men, but only for those born after 1956. The lower male fertility in younger cohorts high in neuroticism cannot be explained by partnership status, income or education. The proportion of childless men (at age 40 years) has increased rapidly for Norwegian male cohorts from 1940 to 1970 (from about 15 to 25 per cent). For women, it has only increased marginally (from 10 to 13 per cent). Our findings suggest that this could be partly explained by the increasing importance of personality characteristics for men's probability of becoming fathers. Men that have certain personality traits may increasingly be avoiding the long‐term commitment of having children, or their female partners are shunning entering this type of commitment with them. Childbearing in contemporary richer countries may be less likely to be influenced by economic necessities and more by individual partner characteristics, such as personality. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Personal Dispositions and Shift‐Work Tolerance: A Longitudinal Study of Municipality Shift Workers

The aim of this study was to investigate how dispositional resistance to change and neuroticism could predict shift‐work tolerance (SWT) over a period of 6 months. Electronic questionnaires were completed by 74 shift workers employed in a municipality in Norway in January 2013 (1st wave of data collection) and in June 2013 (2nd wave of data collection). The findings suggest that individual differences, especially neuroticism, can predict SWT over a period of 6 months.     

The End of Secularisation through Demography? Projections of Spanish Religiosity

This article presents the first projection, to our knowledge, of the intensity of religiosity in a population, which has a strong bearing on the critical question of the religious future of Europe. Spain has, in recent decades, simultaneously experienced rapid religious decline and marked demographic change through high immigration and declining fertility. To investigate future trends, we carry out population projections by religion and religiosity to the year 2050. We find that both fertility and immigration increase the share of the highly religious, as the more religious tend to have more children and immigrants tend to be more religious than non-immigrants. The non-religious population grows because people switch from religion to no-religion and because they are younger. Our findings suggest that in the longer term (2050), there may be growth in the no-religion population, a decline in the share of highly religious Christians, and moderate development of low religious Christians. The Muslim population would substantially increase, unless there is an end to migration and fertility differentials.     

Secularism,Fundamentalism, or Catholicism? The Religious Composition of the United States to 2043

We provide a cohort‐component projection of the religious composition of the United States, considering differences in fertility, migration, intergenerational religious transmission, and switching among 11 ethnoreligious groups. If fertility and migration trends continue, Hispanic Catholics will experience rapid growth and expand from 10 to 18 percent of the American population between 2003 and 2043. Protestants are projected to decrease from 47 to 39 percent over the same period, while Catholicism emerges as the largest religion among the youngest age cohorts. Liberal Protestants decline relative to other groups due to low fertility and losses from religious switching. Immigration drives growth among Hindus and Muslims, while low fertility and a mature age structure causes Jewish decline. The low fertility of secular Americans and the religiosity of immigrants provide a countervailing force to secularization, causing the nonreligious population share to peak before 2043.     

The Relationship Between Sluggish Cognitive Tempo,Subtypes of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,and Anxiety Disorders

The objective of the present study was to examine the relationship between sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety disorders (AnxDs). One hundred and forty-one children (90 males, 51 females) aged 7–13 years were assigned to four groups, i.e., referred children with comorbid AnxDs and ADHD (n = 25), ADHD (n = 39), AnxDs (n = 41), and nonreferred controls (n = 36). Furthermore we explored the association between SCT and several neurocognitive measures (reaction time, verbal memory, and spatial memory). Diagnoses were established using Kiddie-SADS P/L. SCT was assessed using a 17-item mother-reported questionnaire. SCT correlated significantly with inattentiveness, regardless of the subtype of ADHD. Furthermore, we found significant differences in the levels of SCT among the four groups, with the highest SCT scores observed in the comorbid group. SCT correlated with variability in spatial memory; in contrast, there was no correlation between SCT and reaction time.     

The role of early maladaptive schemas in predicting exposure and response prevention outcome for obsessive-compulsive disorder

This is the first study that explores whether early maladaptive schemas are related to treatment outcome for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The sample consisted of 88 outpatients with a diagnosis of OCD who completed exposure and response prevention treatment. The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Beck Depression Inventory and Young Schema Questionnaire – Short Form were administered before and after treatment. Regression analyses using post-treatment Y-BOCS as the dependent variable indicated that higher scores on the abandonment schema at pre-treatment were related to poor outcome and explained 7% of the variance in symptoms at post-treatment. Higher scores on the self-sacrifice schema at pre-treatment were related to good outcome and explained 6% of the variance in obsessive-compulsive symptoms at post-treatment. During treatment, only changes in the failure schema were significantly related to good outcome and explained 18% of the variance in symptoms at post-treatment.     

The Religious Composition of the Chinese Diaspora,Focusing on Canada

The religious composition of the Chinese Diaspora varies by countries with the highest Christian share in the Philippines (86 percent) and the highest Buddhist share (84.3 percent) in Cambodia. The religiously unaffiliated are more likely found in Vietnam (74.7 percent), Canada (70.1 percent), and Austria (63 percent) and less likely found in the Philippines (0.6 percent) and Malaysia (1.5 percent). A further analysis of high‐quality Canadian census data allows for a more in‐depth focus. In 2001, 81 percent of the 125,000 Chinese migrants (those born in mainland China who had moved to Canada between 1996 and 2001) were unaffiliated, 11 percent were Christian, and 7 percent Buddhist. Relative to the topic of conversion, data on Chinese migrants admitted to Canada between 1981 and 1990 reveals growth in the proportion that self‐identified as religiously affiliated (Christian as well as Buddhist) and a decline in the proportion who reported no religion.