Sukupolvien ketju : Suuret ikäluokat ja sukupolvien välinen vuorovaikutus Suomessa

Tutkimuksessa selvitään sukulaisten välistä vuorovaikutusta sekä avunantoa suomalaisissa perheissä ja suvuissa. Tutkimuskohteena on kolme perhesukupolvea: suuret ikäluokat, heidän aikuiset lapsensa ja vanhempansa, joista on kerätty laaja postikysely-, lomakehaastattelu- ja teemahaastatteluaineisto. Tutkimuskysymysten muodostamisessa ja tulosten tarkastelussa hyödynnetään aikaisempaa sosiologista sukupolvi- ja perhetutkimusta sekä evoluutioteorian esittämiä vastavuoroisuutta ja altruismia koskevia teorioita ja tuloksia. Tutkimuksessa kysytään, miten eri sukupolvet auttavat toisiaan, millaisia sukupolvikohtaisia eroja auttamiskäytännöissä esiintyy ja mitkä taustatekijät selittävät auttamista. Lisäksi selvitetään sukulaisten auttamisasenteita ja tyytyväisyyttä saatuun apuun sekä auttamiseen liittyviä ristiriitoja. Näiden ohella tarkastellaan, miten sukupolvien väliset sosiaaliset suhteet kytkeytyvät auttamiskäytäntöihin. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että sukulaisapu on tärkeä tekijä ihmisten välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa. Ihmiset ovat eniten yhteydessä biologisiin sukulaisiinsa, auttavat heitä eniten ja saavat heiltä eniten apua. Mitä keskeisemmästä avun muodosta on kysymys, sitä tärkeämpiä lähisukulaiset ovat. Toisaalta apua annetaan useille eri sukulaisille, mutta avun nettovirta kulkee sukulinjassa vanhemmilta nuoremmille polville. Keskeinen tulos onkin se, että suuret ikäluokat antavat apua enemmän lapsilleen kuin vanhemmilleen. Sukupolvien väliset erot auttamisessa liittyvät yleensä vastaajien ikään tai elämänvaiheeseen. Vastaajat ovat tavallisesti saaneet pyytäessään apua ja ovat yleensä myös tyytyväisiä saamaansa apuun. Sukulaisten auttaminen onkin valtaosalle itsestään selvää riippumatta siitä, koetaanko sitä varsinaisesti velvollisuudeksi. Huolimatta siitä, että sukulaisten auttaminen on runsasta, vain harvat mieltävät esimerkiksi vanhusten auttamisen yksinomaan perheen velvollisuudeksi.11,00 euro

Grandparental Childcare for Biological, Adopted, and Step-Offspring: Findings From Cross-National Surveys

Based on kin selection theory, amounts of grandparental investment should reflect the probability to share common genes with offspring. Adoption may represent a special case, however, yet grandparental investment in adopted children has previously been both theoretically misconstrued and little investigated. Here, we study for the first time how grandparental childcare provision is distributed between biological, adopted, and step-offspring. Using Generations and Gender Surveys (n = 15,168 adult child–grandmother and 12,193 adult child–grandfather dyads) and the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (n = 17,233 grandmother–adult child and 13,000 grandfather–adult child dyads), we find that grandparents were less likely to provide care to stepchildren than to adopted and biological children, but no difference between adopted and biological children. These findings were present in both data sets and for both grandmothers and grandfathers, after several potentially confounding factors were taken into account. The stepchild disadvantage is in line with kin selection theory. The congruent amounts of care provided to adopted and biological children may reflect similar levels of adult–child attachment, selection effects, and greater need in adoptive families, as well as some degree of genetical relatedness in the case of kin adoption. The study provides new evidence of biased kin investments in contemporary societies and stresses the importance of psychological motivation and attachment in evolutionary studies of kin investment.</p

Relationship quality among younger and middle-aged siblings: the role of childhood family arrangements

Sibling relationships are the social bonds with longest duration across the life course. Using a large and population-based data of younger and middle-aged Finns, we test how childhood co-residence duration and maternal perinatal association (MPA) correlate with contact frequency, emotional closeness and provision of help between adult siblings. Employing sibling fixed-effect models we find that duration of co-residence in childhood and MPA are indeed associated with increased relationship quality in all three measures. Provided MPA, sibling relationship quality is high independent of co-residence length, but in the absence of MPA, increased co-residence duration is associated with better relationship quality. Co-residence duration is more strongly associated with provision of help in same-gender than opposite-gender sibling dyads. Full siblings report better relationship quality than half siblings do, although the co-residence duration mediates the effect of genetic relatedness in emotional closeness between full and maternal half siblings and in provision of help between full and paternal half siblings. Moreover, MPA serves as a mediator in the case of contact frequency and emotional closeness between full and maternal half siblings. These findings are discussed with reference to key theories of kin detection.</p

Singing together or apart: The effect of competitive and cooperative singing on social bonding within and between sub-groups of a university Fraternity

Singing together seems to facilitate social bonding, but it is unclear whether this is true in all contexts. Here we examine the social bonding outcomes of naturalistic singing behaviour in a European university Fraternity composed of exclusive "Cliques": recognised sub-groups of 5-20 friends who adopt a special name and identity. Singing occurs frequently in this Fraternity, both "competitively" (contests between Cliques) and "cooperatively" (multiple Cliques singing together). Both situations were recreated experimentally in order to explore how competitive and cooperative singing affects feelings of closeness towards others. Participants were assigned to teams of four and were asked to sing together with another team either from the same Clique or from a different Clique. Participants (N = 88) felt significantly closer to teams from different Cliques after singing with them compared to before, regardless of whether they cooperated with (singing loudly together) or competed against (trying to singing louder than) the other team. In contrast, participants reported reduced closeness with other teams from their own Clique after competing with them. These results indicate that group singing can increase closeness to less familiar individuals regardless of whether they share a common motivation, but that singing competitively may reduce closeness within a very tight-knit group

Homophily in personality enhances group success among real-life friends

Personality affects dyadic relations and teamwork, yet its role among groups of friends has been little explored. We examine for the first time whether similarity in personality enhances the effectiveness of real-life friendship groups. Using data from a longitudinal study of a European fraternity (10 male and 15 female groups), we investigate how individual Big Five personality traits were associated with group formation and whether personality homophily related to how successful the groups were over 1 year (N = 147–196). Group success was measured as group performance/identification (adoption of group markers) and as group bonding (using the inclusion-of-other-in-self scale). Results show that individuals’ similarity in neuroticism and conscientiousness predicted group formation. Furthermore, personality similarity was associated with group success, even after controlling for individual’s own personality. Especially higher group-level similarity in conscientiousness was associated with group performance, and with bonding in male groups.Computer Systems, Imagery and Medi

Nebuliser therapy in the intensive care unit

The relationship between identity, lived experience, sexual practices and the language through which these are conveyed has been widely debated in sexuality literature. For example, ‘coming out’ has famously been conceptualised as a ‘speech act’ (Sedgwick 1990) and as a collective narrative (Plummer 1995), while a growing concern for individuals’ diverse identifications in relations to their sexual and gender practices has produced interesting research focusing on linguistic practices among LGBT-identified individuals (Leap 1995; Kulick 2000; Cameron and Kulick 2006; Farqhar 2000). While an explicit focus on language remains marginal to literature on sexualities (Kulick 2000), issue of language use and translation are seldom explicitly addressed in the growing literature on intersectionality. Yet intersectional perspectives ‘reject the separability of analytical and identity categories’ (McCall 2005:1771), and therefore have an implicit stake in the ‘vernacular’ language of the researched, in the ‘scientific’ language of the researcher and in the relationship of continuity between the two. Drawing on literature within gay and lesbian/queer studies and cross-cultural studies, this chapter revisits debates on sexuality, language and intersectionality. I argue for the importance of giving careful consideration to the language we choose to use as researchers to collectively define the people whose experiences we try to capture. I also propose that language itself can be investigated as a productive way to foreground how individual and collective identifications are discursively constructed, and to unpack the diversity of lived experience. I address intersectional complexity as a methodological issue, where methodology is understood not only as the methods and practicalities of doing research, but more broadly as ‘a coherent set of ideas about the philosophy, methods and data that underlie the research process and the production of knowledge’ (McCall 2005:1774). My points are illustrated with examples drawn from my ethnographic study on ‘lesbian’ identity in urban Russia, interspersed with insights from existing literature. In particular, I aim to show that an explicit focus on language can be a productive way to explore the intersections between the global, the national and the local in cross-cultural research on sexuality, while also addressing issues of positionality and accountability to the communities researched

The impact of grandparental investment on mothers' fertility intentions in four European countries

Peer reviewe

Maternal Risk of Breeding Failure Remained Low throughout the Demographic Transitions in Fertility and Age at First Reproduction in Finland

Radical declines in fertility and postponement of first reproduction during the recent human demographic transitions have posed a challenge to interpreting human behaviour in evolutionary terms. This challenge has stemmed from insufficient evolutionary insight into individual reproductive decision-making and the rarity of datasets recording individual long-term reproductive success throughout the transitions. We use such data from about 2,000 Finnish mothers (first births: 1880s to 1970s) to show that changes in the maternal risk of breeding failure (no offspring raised to adulthood) underlay shifts in both fertility and first reproduction. With steady improvements in offspring survival, the expected fertility required to satisfy a low risk of breeding failure became lower and observed maternal fertility subsequently declined through an earlier age at last reproduction. Postponement of the age at first reproduction began when this risk approximated zero–even for mothers starting reproduction late. Interestingly, despite vastly differing fertility rates at different stages of the transitions, the number of offspring successfully raised to breeding per mother remained relatively constant over the period. Our results stress the importance of assessing the long-term success of reproductive strategies by including measures of offspring quality and suggest that avoidance of breeding failure may explain several key features of recent life-history shifts in industrialized societies