Socio-contextual Factors Research Articles

Toward understanding the variability in the language proficiencies of Arabic heritage speakers

Previous research on Arabic heritage speakers points to notable variability in the language proficiencies of Arabic heritage speakers, both as individuals and as groups (Albirini & Benmamoun, 2012; Albirini, Benmamoun, & Saadah, 2011). This study examines the language proficiencies of Egyptian and Palestinian heritage speakers, assesses the relationship between their L1 proficiency levels and other linguistic, socio-affective, socio-contextual, and demographic factors, and explores the relative significance of these factors in determining proficiency in heritage Arabic. A total of 20 Egyptian and 20 Palestinian heritage speakers completed an oral narrative that was used for assessing three dimensions of their language proficiencies, namely fluency, grammatical accuracy, and syntactic complexity. In addition, the participants filled in a 182-item questionnaire about the factors potentially influencing their heritage language skills, including language input, language use, language attitudes, ethnic identity, family role, community support, school, and demographics. The study also involved follow-up interviews with a sample of five Palestinian and five Egyptian participants.The results showed that the Palestinian speakers outperformed their Egyptian counterparts in terms of language fluency, accuracy, complexity, and overall proficiency. Pearson and Spearman correlations indicated that language use, language input, family role, community support, and parents’ language correlate positively with language proficiency. Multiple regression analyses showed that language use (in terms of frequency, range, and contexts) is the only significant predictor of the variability in heritage language proficiency. Lastly, the interviews revealed that the Palestinian heritage speakers’ linguistic advantage over their Egyptian counterparts might be attributed to their commitment to Arabic as a main marker of their heritage and identity, the encouragement of their families to maintain their heritage language, and the wider social networks to which they had access. The implications of the study are discussed.

Placing Rehabilitation and Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury Into a Biographical Context

Although medical and technological advances have extended survival rates through ever more effective acute clinical management for people with spinal cord injuries, the links between rehabilitation and recovery are less well understood. With ever shorter length of stays in inpatient rehabilitation, the focus of support has been shifting toward outpatient support pathways. In this article, the narrated rehabilitation experiences of two young men with comparable spinal cord injuries in the United States and Denmark are contrasted. From their biographical narratives, we examine the sociocontextual factors that underpin the rehabilitation pathways in two quite distinctive social and healthcare environments. Our analysis raises questions about the importance of factors such as readiness, timeliness, duration, and appropriateness of rehabilitation to facilitate independent living, achieve meaningful recovery, and provide equitable access to the goods and services afforded by society.

What Matters When: A Multistage Model and Empirical Examination of Job Search Effort

We develop a multistage self-regulatory perspective on job search effort assuming active job seekers conducting job searches within a job search goal life span. Specifically, we propose that time pressure increases as the goal of finding employment becomes more proximal, while job search uncertainty decreases. Drawing on these premises, we integrate social comparison theory, control theory, and the attentional focus model of time pressure to hypothesize how various intrapersonal (i.e., prior effort, job search progress) and sociocontextual (i.e., effort put forth by peers in a social network) factors relate to job seekers' self-regulation of effort at different stages (i.e., preparatory, active-extensive, and active-intensive) of a job search process. In two studies of job seekers, we found that (1) prior job seeker effort is positively related to current effort across stages, (2) average peer job search effort is more strongly and positively related to job seeker effort earlier in job search, and (3) job search progress (i.e., the ratio of interviews to applications in Study 1 and perceived progress in Study 2) is negatively related to job seeker effort later in job search. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Do Therapists Address Gender and Power in Infidelity? A Feminist Analysis of the Treatment Literature

Sociocontextual factors such as gender and power play an important role in the etiology of affairs and in recovery from them, yet it is unclear how current treatment models address these issues. Drawing on feminist epistemology, this study utilized a grounded theory analysis of 29 scholarly articles and books on infidelity treatment published between 2000 and 2010 to identify the circumstances under which gender and power issues were or were not part of treatment. We found five conditions that limit attention to gender and power: (a) speaking (or assuming) as though partners are equal, (b) reframing infidelity as a relationship problem, (c) limiting discussion of societal context to background, (d) not considering how societal gender and power patterns impact relationship dynamics, and (e) limiting discussion of ethics on how to position around infidelity. Analysis explored how each occurred across three phases of couple therapy. The findings provide a useful foundation for a sociocontextual framework for infidelity treatment.

Does country-context matter? A cross-national analysis of gender and leisure time physical inactivity in Europe

It is well known that European women are less physically active in their leisure time than European men. Attempts to explain this gender difference often do not succeed in raising the problem above the individual level. However, the size of the disadvantage for women varies considerably across countries, proving that leisure time physical (in)activity takes place in a broader societal context and must also be approached as such. In this sense, some authors have explained women's lack of leisure time physical activity in terms of gendered power relations in society. Therefore, the present article postulates that over and above the individual effect of gender, there is an additional impact of a society's gender-based (in)equality distribution. By means of the 2005 Eurobarometer survey (comprising 25,745 adults from 27 European countries), gender differences in leisure time physical inactivity (LTPI) were analysed by means of multilevel logistic regression analysis. National gender-based (in)equality was measured by the Gender Empowerment Measure and the Gender Gap Index. Controlled for compositional effects, gender differences in LTPI varied as a function of gender-related characteristics at the macro-level. In particular, in countries characterized by high levels of gender-based equality, LTPI differences between men and women even disappeared. The findings underscore the need to adopt a society-level approach and to incorporate socio-contextual factors in the study of gender disparities in LTPI.

Variations in subjective well-being when ‘aging in place’ — A matter of acceptance, predictability and control

The aim of the present study is to explore how older home-help recipients regard their life situation in terms of subjective well-being. The background is that there seem to be two counteracting forces affecting the achievement of subjective well-being among home-help recipients: on one hand, both diminished everyday competence and dependence on others' help are supposed to reduce subjective well-being, and on the other hand, living in one's own home is supposed to affect subjective well-being positively. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 21 home-help recipients between the ages of 78 and 93. The findings indicate that the informants' expressions of subjective well-being fall into four main categories: ‘well-being’, ‘well-being despite it all’, ‘well-being so far’, and ‘lack of well-being’. Three comprehensive core themes were identified as relevant to a deeper understanding of the informants' various expressions of well-being. These core themes are acceptance, predictability, and control. The findings point to the possibility of experiencing subjective well-being despite diminished everyday competence and dependence on help and support from others. They suggest, in short, that subjective well-being among older people who receive help and support in their everyday lives is not only related to socio-contextual factors – such as physical and mental capability, activities and/or engagement in the outside world, the spatial and social consequences of physical limitations, social and emotional relations, as well as the social support they receive – but also to how they regard and handle these matters in terms of acceptance, predictability and control.

In Consideration of Social Context: Re-examining the Linguistic Intergroup Bias Paradigm

The role of language in the transmission of prejudice, including the features of the linguistic intergroup bias (LIB) paradigm, has received much theoretical attention. This study investigates whether LIB predictions hold true within a relatively harmonious bilingual context. The LIB is examined as a function of several individual and sociocontextual factors, including second language confidence, group identification, and group vitality. Results support, but with qualification, the LIB phenomenon. While some participants demonstrated a LIB effect, others communicated out-group favoritism. Minority-group members used linguistic bias differently than majority-group members. Results are discussed within the context of social psychological theories of communication.

Sociocontextual Variables that Affect Spousal Perception of Social Support

The aim in this study was to determine the effect of certain sociocontextual variables on the level of perceived spousal support. Family members are the most significant source of social support for an individual throughout his or her life. Spouses' mutual support in a marital relationship, however, seems to be particularly important compared to other sources of social support. We interviewed 579 randomly selected married individuals in Ankara, Turkey. They responded to the Spousal Support Scale and completed the personal information form that included individual and family data. Results showed a significant relationship between the level of perceived spousal support and a variety of sociocontextual factors such as number of children, length of marriage, form of marriage, and income level. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Socio-Contextual Influences on the Korean News Media's Interpretation of Samsung's $847.6 Million Donation

By content analyzing a multinational company's philanthropic activities after a series of illegal issues based on the framework of the contingency theory of conflict management, Shoemaker and Reese's (1996) onion model of media message production process, and crisis communication theory, this study shows that the failure to fulfill legal responsibility cannot satisfy the important public (mass media in this case), even though the company tries to fulfill philanthropic responsibility as a crisis communication strategy. Although Samsung wanted to express its apology through a donation, the Korean news media interpreted Samsung's philanthropic donation as an excuse or justification to minimize negative outcomes such as a tarnished reputation. The different interpretations of the donation by Samsung and the Korean news media can be attributed to the sudden change of corporate stance, influence of similar events of other companies, and socio-contextual factors (i.e., media types and affiliation).

From the Editors

This issue highlights public perception, homeland security, and exposure assessment. In 2009, considerable worldwide concern focused on an H1N1 influenza epidemic. Supported by the Italian Ministry of Health, Gabriele Prati found that public response to H1N1 was associated with the public's affective response even beyond cognitive and sociocontextual factors. Notably, institutional preparedness did not predict either affective response or recommended behaviors. We have published many articles about risk beliefs, values, and preferences associated with nuclear power plants. Sponsored by the National Science Council, Taiwan, Hung-Chih Hung and Tzu-Wen Wang map the spatial distribution of preferences for a second nuclear power plant in Taiwan, and they observe that many respondents perceive a nuclear power plant as an extremely high-risk facility, leading respondents to reject a proposed compensation payment. Hank Jenkins-Smith et al. examine the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a large nuclear defense waste management facility in southern New Mexico, to determine if public perceptions and preferences regarding nuclear waste management changed during the 1990s. Thirty-five statewide surveys show that acceptance of WIPP is greater among those whose residences are closest to the WIPP facility and even along the transport route (a surprise). Homeland security has become a major theme in our journal. Radiation exposure devices are weapons built by hiding a strong gamma-emitting source in a place frequented by the public. Using Monte Carlo simulation, Alessandro Tofani examined the impacts of a weapon's location and the shape of the facility on public exposure. Mohsen Golalikhani and Jun Zhuang create a game theory design that permits defenders to assign continuous-level defensive resources to layers of proximate targets. Funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the model offers some interesting options to defenders to invest in protecting multiple targets rather than a single one. The last six articles are about exposure. Scaling down toxicity estimates from animal studies to humans is an ongoing challenge for risk assessors. Lidia Burzala-Kowalczyk and Geurt Jongbloed use regression analysis to test an existing model and find a good fit but high variance estimates and hence wide-ranging prediction estimates. Ye Cao and Christopher Frey consider the contribution of tobacco smoke to fine particulate concentration. Supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health, the authors evaluate EPA's current models and offer both valuable insights about and suggestions for improving the estimates. Timothy Downs et al. examine the issue of assessing multiple stressors in densely developed urban environments. Using Worcester, Massachusetts as a pilot and supported by the U.S. NIEHS, the authors develop a vulnerability assessment tool and test it with 80 households. Turkey, like many countries, faces the issue of how to use limited resources to manage contaminated sites. Funded by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, Elcin Kentel et al. discuss the difficulties of developing guidelines because of different definitions and methodologies in different countries, existence of inconsistent risk assessment tools, difficulties in accessing relevant documents and reports, and lack of specific data. The journal EIC recalls being involved with a very public soil contamination case where general soil/dust ingestion rates were used in risk assessments when more precise pathway-specific values would have been preferred. Funded by the U.S. EPA, Haluk Ozkaynak et al. develop a modeling approach that estimates dust and soil ingestion by pathway, source type, population group, geographic location, and other factors, offering what they assert is a better characterization of exposures than a single value estimate. Michael Williams et al. propose a framework for conducting microbial food safety risk assessments leading to probabilistic estimates of uncertainty and variability in input parameters. The authors test the model with Campylobacter in chicken. Finally, Jean-Michel Panoff reviews the 2009 book Risks and Environment: Interdisciplinary Research on Societal Vulnerability by Sylvia Beccerra and Anne Peltier. He notes that the authors attempt to show through the many articles in the edited collection that societal vulnerability to natural and environmental hazards is a concept that is being approached from multi-disciplinary perspectives.

Long-term autobiographical memory for legal involvement: Individual and sociocontextual predictors

We examined adults’ long-term autobiographical memory for a dramatic life event—participating as a child victim in a criminal prosecution because of alleged sexual abuse. The study is unique in several ways, including that we had extensive documentation concerning the sexual abuse allegations, the children's involvement in their legal case, and other factors known to affect long-term memory. Approximately 14 years after their legal involvement, 94 adolescents and young adults, aged 16–30 years, were interviewed about their childhood legal experiences. A subset of the victims had taken the stand in criminal court, and memory for testifying was examined. Results revealed that greater severity of the abuse, a closer relationship to the perpetrator, testifying more frequently, and greater distress were associated with more accurate memory. Findings suggest that both individual and sociocontextual factors must be considered in pursuing a scientific understanding of autobiographical memory for stressful childhood experiences.

Early childhood education voucher in Hong Kong: Perspectives from online communities

Educational authorities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China introduced an early childhood education voucher system in 2007 with two implicit goals: to turn profit kindergartens into non-profit ones and to curtail parental choice. This initiative has caused a great deal of controversy locally and internationally, so the development of the voucher theory and practice in the Chinese context has become an interesting case to study. To investigate public views in Hong Kong on how well this voucher scheme adapts to local needs and to the local context, we collected Internet posts and analysed all the views presented in both Chinese and English virtual communities. Content and statistical analyses were conducted on the search results, and it was found that (1) there is overwhelming support for the voucher system; and (2) there is a range of opposing or supporting opinions and rationales on the two implicit goals. Based on the results, this unique Hong Kong voucher scheme is judged to be a rationally localised development of the voucher theory. The sociocontextual factors that shape the policy-making process are discussed, and the implications of this policy beyond Hong Kong and the field of ECE are also addressed.

The Human Capacity to Thrive in the Face of Potential Trauma

For decades, researchers have documented remarkable levels of resilience in children who were exposed to corrosive early environments, such as those in which poverty or chronic maltreatment were present; however, relatively little research has examined resilience in children or adults who were exposed to isolated and potentially traumatic events. The historical emphasis on psychological and physiologic dysfunction after potentially traumatic events has suggested that such events almost always produce lasting emotional damage. Recent research, however, has consistently shown that across different types of potentially traumatic events, including bereavement, serious illness, and terrorist attack, upward of 50% of people have been found to display resilience. Research has further identified substantial individual variation in response to potentially traumatic events, including 4 prototypical and empirically derived outcome trajectories: chronic dysfunction, recovery, resilience, and delayed reactions. Factors that promote resilience are heterogeneous and include a variety of person-centered variables (eg, temperament of the child, personality, coping strategies), demographic variables (eg, male gender, older age, greater education), and sociocontextual factors (eg, supportive relations, community resources). It is surprising that some factors that promote resilience to potentially traumatic events may be maladaptive in other contexts, whereas other factors are more broadly adaptive. Given the growing evidence that resilience is common, psychotherapeutic treatment should be reserved for those in genuine need.

What predicts psychological resilience after disaster? The role of demographics, resources, and life stress.

A growing body of evidence suggests that most adults exposed to potentially traumatic events are resilient. However, research on the factors that may promote or deter adult resilience has been limited. This study examined patterns of association between resilience and various sociocontextual factors. The authors used data from a random-digit-dial phone survey (N = 2,752) conducted in the New York City area after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Resilience was defined as having 1 or 0 posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and as being associated with low levels of depression and substance use. Multivariate analyses indicated that the prevalence of resilience was uniquely predicted by participant gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, level of trauma exposure, income change, social support, frequency of chronic disease, and recent and past life stressors. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed.

Variations in Condom Use by Locale: A Comparison of Mobile Chinese Female Sex Workers in Hong Kong and Mainland China

The present study investigated the prevalence of HIV and HIV-related behaviors and perceptions among 336 female sex workers (FSW) traveling from mainland China to work in Hong Kong. None of the participants tested HIV positive. Of the participants, 13.2% and 26.8%, respectively, would have unprotected sex with a client in Hong Kong or in mainland China if they liked the client; 16.7% and 21.7%, respectively, would have unprotected sex with a client in Hong Kong and in mainland China if he paid more. Of the participants, 98.5% used condoms in the last episode of sex work in Hong Kong and 78.1% were consistent condom users in Hong Kong in the last month. Yet, among those who previously worked as FSW in mainland China (n = 141), only 28.6% used condoms consistently in mainland China in the last year; 60% of those who used condoms inconsistently while in mainland China became consistent condom users in Hong Kong. Among those who did not use condoms in mainland China, willingness to have unprotected sex with a client who was liked by the FSW was a strong predictor for consistent condom use in Hong Kong (OR = 18.67, p < .001). Among those who were consistent condom users in Hong Kong, the same variable predicted inconsistent condom use while in mainland China (OR = 14.02, p < .05). Condom use behaviors change when FSW are working in different social contexts and behavioral changes are possible. Education programs should take socio-contextual factors into account.

‘It's like a revolving door syndrome’: Professional perspectives on models of access to services for people with early-stage dementia

As the need for services for people with dementia grows, and the benefits of early intervention become clear, it has become important to understand what factors may improve access to services for people with early-stage dementia. There are a number of models of service access, and these emphasise different areas, whether individual factors, relationships, or social context. The relevance of these models to variations in service access for people with early-stage dementia, and how well they relate to professional accounts, is not well known. In this study, 30 key professionals were interviewed about access to services for people with early-stage dementia in order to explore how different models of access were reflected in their own understandings. People with early-stage dementia were thought to have a range of complex needs, but participants felt these needs remained largely unmet. When articulating the reasons why they thought needs were unmet, participants focused on the impact of the framework within which services are delivered. The findings highlight the importance of considering relationships and socio-contextual factors, such as the impact of the framework of service delivery, when attempting to understand variations in access to services. In order to improve access to services, it will be necessary to move beyond addressing individual factors relating to access, and to consider the impact of the framework for service delivery and the relationships that influence contact with services.

Cross-national variation of gender differences in adolescent subjective health in Europe and North America

The cross-national consistency and variation of gender differences in subjective health complaints was examined in a sample of 125732 11- to 15-year-olds from 29 European and North American countries, participating in the WHO collaborative study ‘Health behaviour in school-aged children (HBSC) 1997/98’. Health complaints were measured with the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Symptom Checklist. Gender differences in health complaints were analysed through multilevel logistic regression analysis. The results indicated a very robust pattern of increasing gender differences across age, with 15-year-old girls as a group at increased risk for health complaints across all countries. The magnitude of gender differences varied across countries, with some countries showing a consistently strong gender difference across age group and different health complaints, and other countries showing a consistently weak gender difference. The gender difference in health complaints was stronger in countries with a low gender development index score. The findings underscore the need to incorporate socio-contextual factors in the study of gender health inequalities during adolescence.

Primary Schooling in China and India: Understanding How Socio-Contextual Factors Moderate the Role of the State

This paper considers how state educational policy and other sociocontextual factors influence primary schooling in two large developing countries. In the late 1940s, national statistics for primary school enrolment and other human development indicators were comparable between China and India. Both countries then experienced major political transitions and embraced similar economic development priorities. Half a century later, reports prepared for the 2000 World Education Forum indicate that China had far outperformed India in terms of school enrolment ratios and on indices of the efficiency of primary education. This article considers the reasons for these differences. It discusses the role of the state, educational policy and its implementation, linkages among educational, economic and social policies, cultural belief systems that are relevant to education, classroom teaching and learning, teacher characteristics, and the physical conditions of schools.

Assessing the longitudinal course of depression and economic integration of south-east Asian refugees: an application of latent growth curve analysis.

This paper has both methodological and substantive application for mental-health researchers. Methodologically, it presents the latent growth curve (LGC) technique within a structural equation modelling (SEM) framework as a powerful tool to analyse change in depressive symptoms and potential correlates of such changes. The rationale for LGC analysis and subsequent elaboration of this statistical approach are presented. The limitations of traditional analytical methods are also addressed. Substantively, the paper considers socio-contextual factors as correlates of change in symptoms, and examines the dynamic systematic relationship with the degree of economic integration of south-east Asian immigrants in Canada over time. Using the LGC technique, this study also investigated how the longitudinal course of subclinical depression places individuals at risk for developing full-blown major depression. The LGC results provided strong evidence for the reciprocal influence between economic integration and subclinical depression of immigrants. The initial level of economic integration negatively influenced the rate of change in subclinical depression whereas the initial level of subclinical depression negatively influenced the rate of change in economic integration. Both initial level and the rate of change in subclinical depression placed individuals at risk for full-blown major depression. However, traditional auto-regressive models were not capable of revealing these dynamic associations. Thus, an investigation of within-individual change in symptoms and potential correlates of such changes is necessary to understand the process that results in full-blown mental disorder.

Sex differences in syntactic development: Evidence from Cantonese-speaking preschoolers in Hong Kong

Utterances produced during spontaneous play activities by 180 Cantonese-speaking children, ranging in age from 3 to 5 years, were analysed with the focus on declaratives. Syntactic development was gauged in terms of changes in the mean length of utterance, sentence type and structure, syntactic complexity, and verb pattern, and age-related develpments in these were found. Significant sex differences were found in syntactic development, with girls outperforming boys in mean utterance length, some sentence types and structures, and syntactic complexity, with a significant age by sex interaction in the group of 4-year-olds. The period between age 3 and age 4 was identified as critical for syntactic development, as many linguistic changes occurred in this time. Growth in the ability to use compound sentences was found to be the most significant contributor to increased mean length of utterance. Biological, psychological, and sociocontextual factors influencing these sex differences in language performance are explored and discussed. The generality of the educational implications is discussed.