Suchergebnisse

Using a four-wave longitudinal sample of young Canadian adults (18–24), this study identified five latent trajectory classes: low stable, high stable, high decreasing, moderate decreasing, and low increasing. The identification of a class characterized by an increasing trajectory of depression symptoms across the transition to adulthood is a novel finding. Of the risk and protective factors assessed, only initial student status and perceived family support helped prospectively distinguish between trajectory classes—students with higher depression symptomology in late adolescence are at increased risk for depression across the transition to adulthood, while perceived family social support in late adolescence is a protective factor associated with reduced probability of being in more symptomatic depression trajectories. Although limitations related to sample size warrant due caution, the findings still have diagnostic, prevention, and treatment implications related to the prospective differentiation of diverging depression symptom trajectories (i.e., multifinality) in the transition to adulthood.

There is a lack of recent research exploring the differences between binge and non-binge drinkers among Canadian university students. The current study aims to address this gap in the literature through an exploratory statistical analysis. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate (logistic regression) analyses were employed to identify the prevalence of binge drinking, as well as its various sociodemographic, behavioural, and mental health correlates. A large majority (83.1%) of the 507 respondents reported consuming alcohol in the previous 12 months; of these, 69.7% (67.0% of males, 70.9% of females) reported engaging in binge drinking (5 drinks in one session for males, 4 for females) at least once in the previous 30 days. Although there was no significant gender difference in the prevalence of binge drinking, there were several gender differences among the correlates. Compared to non-binge drinkers, male binge drinkers reported greater life satisfaction, and greater probability of smoking cigarettes and engaging in risky sex, while females reported greater impulsivity and lower religiosity. As expected, binge drinkers experienced more adverse consequences from alcohol consumption than did non-binge drinkers, but unexpectedly did not differ significantly in mental health and wellbeing. Limitations of the present study and future research directions are discussed with a view to improving our understanding of risk and protective factors related to unhealthy alcohol consumption among university students in Canada and abroad.

Educational systems considerably influence educational opportunities and the resulting social inequalities. Contrasting institutional regulations of both structures and contents, the authors present a typology of educational system types in Germany to analyze their effects on social inequality in eastern Germany after unification. After 1990, the comprehensive secondary school was replaced by three types of differentiated secondary schooling. In this unique field experiment of model transfer and institutional change in a federal country, reforms in these state educational systems—all originally of a uniform socialist type—led to participation rates rising to western enrollment levels, yet with substantial state-level differences. These are attributable to the divergence of educational systems reformed according to contrasting western German models. These types substantially and differentially generate intergenerational inequalities. The authors chart the sharp and significant effects of education policy reforms and societal transformation following German unification.

How symbolic rather than institutionalized multiculturalism characterizes ethnic social incorporation for new groups experiencing the recognition of ethnic pluralism.