Assessing outgroup prejudice among 13–15-year-old students attending Catholic and Protestant secondary schools in Northern Ireland: An empirical enquiry

Northern Ireland has been and remains a religiously divided community. This study sets out to examine outgroup prejudice among a sample of 1799 13–15-year-old students attending Catholic or Protestant schools and employs both bivariate analyses and hierarchical modelling to chart the associations between outgroup prejudice and personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism), and religious factors (affiliation, church attendance, and personal prayer). After taking personal, psychological, and religious factors into account, little variance in levels of outgroup prejudice between students could be attributed to the type of school they attended.     

Does Teacher Education Matter? An Analysis of Relations to Knowledge among Norwegian and Finnish Novice Teachers

This article examines relations to knowledge among novice teachers educated in a research-based program in Finland and a general professional program in Norway. The curricula of the 2 programs differ in distinct ways with regard to selection and organization of knowledge. We ask whether such differences also play out in the relations to knowledge of the 2 groups of teachers. Bernstein's concepts of knowledge discourses, classification, and framing are employed to analyze in-depth interviews with 12 teachers. The analysis revealed many similarities on the surface, but a closer examination of the teachers' use of professional language revealed significant differences. The Finnish teachers used more specialized language to frame their conceptions, and their knowledge relations reflected a stronger classification and framing than those of the Norwegian teachers. We discuss how these differences may be related to their educational programs, and the possible implications for the teachers' professional identities.     

Does work pay psychologically as well as economically? The role of employment in predicting depressive symptoms and parenting among low-income families

This longitudinal study examined quantity and quality of maternal employment as predictors of depressive symptoms and parenting style in a sample of 94 low-income mothers whose 4-year-old children were enrolled in Head Start at baseline. Results suggest that answers to the question of whether work "pays" are complex: Findings suggest some benefits of greater employment participation while also indicating that women holding lower prestige jobs experienced increases in their use of negative parenting style, net of baseline demographic and psychological characteristics. Sparse evidence for selection processes was found, with cohabitation and maternal depressive symptoms modestly predictive of subsequent maternal employment. Implications of these findings for welfare reform and educationally related policies for low-income families are discussed.     

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms among Palestinian adolescents from Israel as consequences of their exposure to community violence: Are they moderated by their self-efficacy and collective efficacy?

This article presents the findings of a study that examined the rates and the consequences of exposure to community violence (ECV) as reflected in witnessing and experiencing such violence, among Palestinian adolescents from Israel. In particular, it examined the extent to which these adolescents exhibit high levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms as consequences of such exposure, and the extent to which self-efficacy and collective efficacy moderate these consequences. A systematic random sample of 760 Palestinian adolescents in Israel (320 boys, and 440 girls) filled out a self-administered questionnaire. The results show that most of the adolescents had witnessed community violence during the last year and during lifetime, and more than one third had directly experienced such violence during their lifetime compared with 19.6% during the last year. Boys were exposed to community violence more often than girls. Moreover, participants' ECV predicted high levels of externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that collective efficacy moderated the correlation between experiencing community violence and internalizing symptoms, whereas self-efficacy moderated the correlation between witnessing community violence and externalizing symptoms. There is a need for providing support for youth from close adults as well as from formal and informal resources in the community before and after their ECV.     

Does the reason matter? How student‐reported reasons for school absence contribute to differences in achievement outcomes among 14–15 year olds

While an emerging body of research has examined the effects of school absences on student outcomes, there is comparatively little research examining the different reasons contributing to school absence, how common these reasons are, and the extent to which different types of absences are differentially associated with achievement. To address these gaps, we used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to examine the reasons for school absence as reported by 14–15 year olds and how these reasons relate to achievement outcomes in Year 9. Only 7% of 14–15 year olds indicated they had been absent in the previous six months without parental consent, of which 46% indicated the most recent absence was due to problems at school. Of the 90% of students who had been absent with parental consent, only 6% said the most recent absence was due to problems at school. After controlling for student, family and school characteristics and Year 7 achievement, Year 9 achievement was most strongly associated with absences related to student‐ or family‐level reasons. While schools typically bear the responsibility for monitoring and responding to absenteeism, the drivers of absence may not be related to factors that schools can realistically address. For schools, addressing absenteeism requires a dual approach of preventing avoidable absences and mitigation strategies for when either avoidable or unavoidable absences occur.