Politics of education: The case of social selectivity

To assess social class differences in overweight and health-related behaviours in 5-7-y-old German children. Cross-sectional study. Twenty-nine primary schools in Kiel (inhabitants: 248000), northwest Germany. A total of 1350 German 5-7-y-old children and their parents. Body mass index (BMI), fat mass and health-related behaviours of the children. Self-reported height and weight of their parents, parental school education as a measure of social class. The prevalence of overweight (> or = 90th percentile of reference) was 18.5%. There was an inverse social gradient (P < 0.01): the highest fat mass was observed in children from low social class. The odds ratios for overweight reached 3.1 (CI 1.7-5.4) in boys and 2.3 (CI 1.2-4.3) in girls, respectively (low vs high social class). Overweight parents (BMI > or = 25 kg/m2) were more likely to have overweight children. Parental overweight enhanced the inverse social gradient. The prevalence of overweight was 37.5% (low social class) vs 22.9% (high social class) in children from overweight parents, respectively. There was an inverse social gradient in unhealthy behaviours. Parental BMI and physical inactivity were independent risk factors of overweight in children. In 5 to 7-y-old children overweight and health-related behaviours are inversely related to social class. Parental overweight enhanced the risk of childhood overweight. The familial effect on body weight is most pronounced in children with low social class. Preventive measures should specifically tackle 'overweight families' from low social class.

Social Class and Work Functioning in Treatment for Depression

Popular and elite culture interlacing in the middle ages

Social inequalities in male mortality amenable to medical intervention in British Columbia

Trends in social inequality in physical inactivity among Danish adolescents 1991–2014

Social class and coronary artery disease in India

ObjectiveTo identify differences in socioeconomic factors associated with obesity in adolescents from different social classes.Methods and materialsIn a cross sectional study 328 adolescents from three junior high schools were included; 131 from low, 106 from middle and 91 from high social class. Socioeconomic information was obtained; the body mass index (kg /m2) was used to evaluate the presence of obesity (BMI &gt;95 percentile) or healthy weight (BMI percentile 5‐85). The association between the presence of obesity and socioeconomic characteristics was measured with the odds ratio (OR) and x2 test.ResultsThe prevalence of obesity was higher in middle (24.5%) than low (18.3%) or high class schools (19.8%). There was an association between the presence of obesity in adolescents and mother's obesity in schools of low (OR = 2.77) and middle (OR = 3.0) social classes and with father's obesity in schools of middle (OR = 2.81) and high (OR = 3.62) social classes. The practice of physical activities was a protection factor for obesity in adolescents from low social class (OR = 0.28 [0.10‐0.76]).ConclusionsThe prevalence of obesity was higher in adolescents of middle social class; probably, the highest prevalence is moving from higher to lower social classes in Mexico. Adolescents from low social class might have less oportunities to practice physical activities and look for health attention.

We examined the relationship between social class and envy, and the role of victim justice sensitivity in this relationship among a group of 1,405 Chinese undergraduates. The students completed measures of subjective social class, victim justice sensitivity, and dispositional envy. The results show that a lower social class was significantly and negatively related to envy and victim justice sensitivity, whereas victim justice sensitivity was significantly and positively related to envy. As predicted, a lower social class was very closely correlated with envy. In addition, individuals with a lower (vs. higher) social class had a greater tendency toward victim justice sensitivity, which, in turn, increased their envy. Overall, our results advance scholarly research on the psychology of social hierarchy by clarifying the relationship between social class and the negative emotion of envy.

Hyperactivity and inattention are major effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). Although predominantly women from the high social class consume alcohol during pregnancy, children from the low social class are particularly affected by the adverse effects of PAE. This study aimed to test the hypothesis of a social gradient in hyperactivity/inattention in children with PAE. Children with PAE (N=996) enrolled in the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) were studied. KiGGS was designed and conducted by Robert Koch Institute (RKI) as a nationwide representative survey on the health of German children and adolescents aged 0-17 years. The data include information given by parents and adolescents on the physical and mental health, sociodemographic features, life circumstances and conditions. PAE children with a middle and low parental socioeconomic status (SES) are on a higher risk of developing hyperactivity/inattention compared to those with high parental SES. Cultural-behavioral factors had the strongest effect in the explanation of social inequalities in hyperactivity/inattention among children with PAE. Cultural-behavioral factors, particularly health-related behaviors, need a significant improvement in children from the low and middle social class. To reduce social inequalities in hyperactivity in children with PAE, interventions have to focus on the dietary and television habits of the child by reaching parents from the low and middle social class.

Objectives: To examine if low parental social class increases children's risk of subsequently developing schizophrenia or modifies the presentation.Design: Case-control study with historical controls.Setting: Geographically defined region in south Dublin.Participants:...

The authors make a distinction between such concepts as ‘lower social class’ (‘lumpen-proletariat’), ‘criminal community’ and ‘cultural underground’, and identify significant differences between the lower social strata in traditional and modern societies. The single ‘lower social world’ of traditional societies had its own cults, culture and organization and was an opposite of the ‘upper social world’. The religious definition of its ritual impurity was the basis for discrimination and segregation of its members and social groups. In modern societies, the lower class disintegrates and cannot be considered a single social anti-system: its ‘fragments’ - the prison part of the criminal community, counter-cultural underground and forbidden sects - are not connected with each other; the upper privileged part of criminal communities (a system of patronages with horizontal and vertical social ties) became a part of the modern society elite. At the same time, the system of patron-client relations that invisibly permeates modern societies necessarily implies corruption, at least the ‘soft corruption’. The authors consider such a phenomenon as an ‘underground’ in modern societies defining it as countercultural groups consisting mainly of well-educated representatives of the middle-class. The article also describes the underground of the Soviet society before and after perestroika which cannot be defined as a lower class of the contemporary Russian society. In conclusion, the authors suggest that in the Russian culture there is a kind of refined image of the ‘social bottom’ that influenced scientific ideas about it and is based on the social representations of the lower social class in the traditional society.

A random sample of mothers living in two neighbourhoods of a southern Indian city were interviewed in order to determine the prevalence of serious disability in children 2-9 years old. These areas were selected because residents constitute either the lowest class or the next higher socioeconomic class (next-to-lowest class), with monthly incomes of US$ 10-15 and 32-42 respectively. A previously validated screening instrument was used with documented sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 95% when applied under similar conditions. Disability was found to be more common among children of the lowest class families (17.2%) when compared with the next-to-lowest class families (8.4%); with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.36 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08-3.64). Specific types of disability were examined and found to be consistently more prevalent in the lowest class. These results suggest that comparatively small differences in social status can be associated with important differences in health status.

Objectives: This longitudinal study aims to investigate the association between informal care receipt and self-esteem, and explore the influence of social class on this association.Method: Data from the German Ageing Survey (waves 2002, 2008, 2011, 2014; 7870 observations) drawn from community-dwelling individuals (aged 40 years and older) was used.Results: Results revealed that receiving care was not significantly associated with self-esteem. However, when the sample was stratified by social class, receipt of care was significantly associated with increased self-esteem in individuals from lower social classes (lower class, lower middle class). Moderator analysis demonstrated a significant interaction effect between belonging to the lower middle class and receipt of care.Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that care recipients can benefit from informal care regarding their self-esteem, at least if they are from lower social classes. This implies that informal care should be supported.

Rural revitalization is an important issue of the times that closely follows the development of the times and affects the political, economic and cultural development of China. As an important participant of this issue of the times, rural youths shoulder the important mission of building rural culture and at the same time the important historical responsibility of building a beautiful countryside. The ideological and political education work of rural youth is an important part of realizing rural revitalization, and it is also an important ideological support and source of rural life production and development. For the ideological and political education of youth in rural areas, it is necessary to base on the strategy of rural revitalization and actively carry out the ideological and political education work of rural youth. This paper analyzes the role of youth ideological and political education in rural areas, discusses the problems of rural youth ideological and political education in rural revitalization, starts from the four aspects of education environment, education guidance, education carrier and education mechanism, and puts forward the optimization path of rural youth ideological and political education in the context of rural revitalization in the light of the current political and economic situation in rural areas, hoping that can provide help for the ideological and political education work in rural areas in China.

In this study, the concept of parental perspective taking is hypothesized to explain relationships between social class and parental childrearing behaviors better than parental value orientations do. Using multiple indicators for all variables in a Dutch sample of 237 mothers and fathers, we identified a structural equation model with latent variables for social class, value orientations, perspective taking, and childrearing behaviors. Results show that the level of parental perspective taking plays a mediating role between social class and parental behavior. Moreover, both value orientations and childrearing behaviors appear to be dependent on parental perspective taking. Key Words: childrearing, parental perspective taking, social class, value orientations. In socialization research, much emphasis is traditionally placed on the mediating role of parental goals and values to explain relations between social class and childrearing (Kohn, 1963, 1969, 1976; LeVine 1974, 1988). The general finding is that parents from lower social strata are characterized by more controlling and less supportive childrearing behaviors than parents from higher social strata. These differences in childrearing behaviors are explained by differences in value orientations. In lower social classes, parents give priority to conformity and obedience, rather than to autonomy and self-determination (Kohn, 1969; LeVine, 1974). Although the relationships between social class and value orientations, on one hand, and between value orientations and child-rearing behaviors, on the other hand, are consistent with these hypotheses, they are rather tenuous (Gecas, 1979). This study examines whether parental perspective taking, as a basic social-cognitive structure underlying parents' values and childrearing behaviors, can explain the hypothesized relationships between social class and childrearing behaviors better than parental value orientations. More than 30 years ago, Kohn (1959a, 1959b, 1963) hypothesized that parental values of conformity and self-determination are mediators between socioeconomic circumstances and childrearing. According to Kohn, differences in life circumstances related to the parents' occupational and social status predict differences in parental values and goals. The way parents exercise their authority was found to be different in higher and lower social classes: Parents from lower social classes were found to refer more often to situationspecific consequences of the child's behavior in discipline situations, whereas parents from higher social classes were more inclined to focus on the child's own intentions and self-control when disciplining their child. This difference in parenting behavior was found to be related to differences in goals and values. Lower-class parents emphasize more conformity to rules, regulations, and norms, and the social expectations of the environment, whereas parents from higher social strata tend to be more oriented toward autonomy and selfdetermination, and act and behave according to internalized norms and principles. These value orientations of conformity and self-determination are hypothesized to originate from the working circumstances of the parents and their occupational conditions. Working-class parents are involved in a work environment that is hierarchical, structured, and routinized. Conformity to requests and assignments is expected. Parents who are not working class, on the other hand, find themselves in a work environment with less emphasis on routine and predictable activities and with more emphasis on their own responsibility and selfdirection (Kohn, 1963, 1969). Kohn did not test the entire model being proposed. Specifically, his work failed to test whether value orientations function as a mediating link between social class and childrearing practices (Gecas, 1979). Results from other studies appear to support Kohn's hypotheses. Studies that examined the relationship between social class and parental values (Wright & Wright, 1976) showed that lower-class parents are more likely to value conformity in their children, whereas parents from a higher social class are more likely to value autonomy in their children. …