Do Individual-level Value Preferences Impact Country-level Social Cohesion? An Exploratory Multi-level Analysis Based on ESS Data

This chapter links macro-level social cohesion to individual value preferences. It explores the predictive, concomitant, and consequential character of cohesion in relation to individual value preferences. Is it that prior cohesion predicts later value preferences? Or is it that certain earlier value preferences impact later social cohesion? Or is there, if at all, only contemporaneous covariation? To answer these research questions, ESS values data from rounds 1-4 (2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 waves) were separately linked with country-level social cohesion scores from (1) a prior time period, (2) the same time period, and (3) a later time period [e.g., ESS values data from 2008 were linked with social cohesion scores from (1) 1996-2003, (2) 2004-2008, and (3) 2009- 2012]. Multilevel regression analyses show that conservation and self-enhancement values are negatively related to social cohesion, whereas self-transcendence and openness values exhibit a positive relationship. Evidence remains inconclusive with respect to the causal direction. If one wants to interpret small differences between the obtained coefficients, it seems that security values are rather a consequence than a concomitant or cause of cohesion whereas for self-direction we rather find a vice-versa relationship

Rendering Borders Obsolete: Cross-Cultural and Cultural Psychology as an Interdisciplinary, Multi-Method Endeavor

A peer-reviewed book based on presentations at the XIX Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2008, Bremen, Germany. (c) 2011, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychologyhttps://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/iaccp_proceedings/1003/thumbnail.jp

Can Happiness change? An Interdisciplinary, Multi-Method Investigation of the Dynamics of Happiness

None of the major basic questions social sciences are concerned with can satisfyingly be answered from the perspective of one discipline alone. Each of them proposes theories and perspectives that make unique and important contributions. At the same time theoretical perspectives in general inevitably do have their blind spots. This fundamental insight was the reason for us to choose as the motto for the 19th IACCP congress held in Bremen in 2008 “Crossing borders – (Cross-) Cultural Psychology as an Interdisciplinary, Multi-Method Endeavor”. In this chapter we first want to illustrate this motto and our reasons for choosing it by reviewing recent research on one exemplary basic question of the social sciences: Can happiness change? We will cover findings across the social science disciplines in order to illustrate the benefits of interdisciplinary, multi-method investigations. This review will also reveal that the recent evidence violates traditional mono-disciplinary views on the respective question. After that, we will briefly introduce the contributions of this volume

Gut gebildet = kinderlos? Zu feinen deutsch-deutschen Unterschieden im Umgang mit dem Kinderwunsch

Ziel der Untersuchung ist, Motive für oder gegen Kinder bei - kinderlosen - ost- und westdeutschen Frauen nachzuzeichnen und dabei eventuell bestehende Unterschiede aufzudecken. Es werden eine Reihe von Unterschieden ausgemacht, die sich zunächst einmal auf generelle Ost-West-Unterschiede bei zwischen 1967 und 1982 geborenen Frauen beziehen. Am deutlichsten treten diese Unterschiede bei der grundsätzlichen Bedeutung von Kindern, beim Timing von Kindern und bei möglichen Ambivalenzen gegenüber Kindern sowie bei der Bewertung von Konsequenzen einer Elternschaft hervor: Die befragten kinderlosen "Westfrauen" zeigen sich eher ambivalent in ihrem Kinderwunsch, befürchten massive berufliche Einbußen, bewerten Kinder als nicht so bedeutsam und verschieben die Familienplanung lieber auf unbestimmte Zeit, während für die befragten "Ostfrauen" Kinder in der Regel integraler Bestandteil ihrer Lebensplanung und ihres Lebenssinns sind, der lieber früher als später realisiert werden soll und mit dem das Leben (auch das berufliche Leben) - leicht verändert weiter geht. Es wird hervorgehoben, dass die vorgestellten Interviews mit Frauen durchgeführt wurden, die zumindest teilweise eine sehr selektive Gruppe sind. (ICF2

Ungeplante Schwangerschaften: wider das Ideal der Naturbeherrschung?

"Prozesse einer allgemein zunehmenden Informalisierung und Technisierung der Gesellschaft machen auch vor dem generativen Verhalten nicht halt. Zwischen einer ursprünglich vorherrschenden Natürlichkeit von Reproduktion ist vermittelt über den medizinisch-technischen Fortschritt das Ideal der Planbarkeit fertilen Verhaltens getreten. Gegenwärtige mediale und wissenschaftliche Diskurse verweisen auf zwei Seiten von Planbarkeit und Fertilität: einerseits die durch Verhütung gesicherte Planbarkeit gegen ein Kind wie auch andererseits die - notfalls medizinisch unterstützte - Planbarkeit zum Kind. Empirisches Material spricht jedoch eine andere Sprache, deuten sie doch auf diametrale Prozesse zu diesem Planbarkeitsideal. Der Beitrag wird sich auf einen der beschriebenen zwei Aspekte konzentrieren: die ungeplanten Schwangerschaften. Wie 'natürlich' bzw. ungeplant sind ungeplante Schwangerschaften? Die sehr wenigen Studien (z.B. DESIS, Frauen leben, SOEP), die über ungeplante Schwangerschaften berichten, geben für die Bundesrepublik einen Anteil zwischen 30 und 40 Prozent ungeplanter Schwangerschaften an. International betrachtet schwanken die Ergebnisse hierzu beträchtlich. In Zeiten sicherer Verhütungsmittel und wenn man berücksichtigt, dass Schwangerschaften biologisch betrachtet nur in recht engen Zeitfenstern ('fruchtbare Tage') eintreten können, stellt sich die Frage, wie sich der hohe Anteil von ungeplanten Schwangerschaften erklärt. Die diesbezüglich üblicherweise zu findenden Erklärungen, die auf geringe Bildung, niedriges Alter sowie unsichere Anwendung von und geringes Wissen über Kontrazeptiva, oder auch auf ein uneindeutiges Verständnis des Begriffes von Planbarkeit verweisen, sind nicht wirklich überzeugend, zieht man etwa neuere Ergebnisse zum Verhütungsverhalten heran. Denkbar ist zusätzlich, dass gerade auch Ambivalenzen im Kinderwunsch das generative Verhalten beeinflussen und eher auf inkonsequente Verhütungspraxen hinweisen. Der Beitrag wird versuchen, diesen Aspekten mittels vorliegender nationaler und ggf. internationaler Studien zu ungeplanten Schwangerschaften näher zu kommen. Aktuelles empirisches Material bietet der Datensatz des so genannten Mini-Panels des PAIRFAM-Projekts (Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics). Er ist einer der wenigen Datensätze, der neben der expliziten Erhebung generativer Intentionen prospektiv auch die proximalen Faktoren (wie z.B. das Verhütungsverhalten, Einstellungen zur Schwangerschaft usw.) mit erhebt und nähere Antworten auf das Planungsverhalten von fertilen Verhaltens verspricht." (Autorenreferat

The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits

Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P < 5 x 10(-8)), 80% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99% credible sets by a median of 37.5%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution. A trans-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS of glycemic traits in up to 281,416 individuals identifies 99 novel loci, of which one quarter was found due to the multi-ancestry approach, which also improves fine-mapping of credible variant sets.Peer reviewe

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is associated with a variant in low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality and has a significant heritability. We carried out a genome-wide association discovery study of 1866 patients with AAA and 5435 controls and replication of promising signals (lead SNP with a p value &lt; 1 × 10-5) in 2871 additional cases and 32,687 controls and performed further follow-up in 1491 AAA and 11,060 controls. In the discovery study, nine loci demonstrated association with AAA (p &lt; 1 × 10-5). In the replication sample, the lead SNP at one of these loci, rs1466535, located within intron 1 of low-density-lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) demonstrated significant association (p = 0.0042). We confirmed the association of rs1466535 and AAA in our follow-up study (p = 0.035). In a combined analysis (6228 AAA and 49182 controls), rs1466535 had a consistent effect size and direction in all sample sets (combined p = 4.52 × 10-10, odds ratio 1.15 [1.10-1.21]). No associations were seen for either rs1466535 or the 12q13.3 locus in independent association studies of coronary artery disease, blood pressure, diabetes, or hyperlipidaemia, suggesting that this locus is specific to AAA. Gene-expression studies demonstrated a trend toward increased LRP1 expression for the rs1466535 CC genotype in arterial tissues; there was a significant (p = 0.029) 1.19-fold (1.04-1.36) increase in LRP1 expression in CC homozygotes compared to TT homozygotes in aortic adventitia. Functional studies demonstrated that rs1466535 might alter a SREBP-1 binding site and influence enhancer activity at the locus. In conclusion, this study has identified a biologically plausible genetic variant associated specifically with AAA, and we suggest that this variant has a possible functional role in LRP1 expression

Genome-wide association identifies nine common variants associated with fasting proinsulin levels and provides new insights into the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Proinsulin is a precursor of mature insulin and C-peptide. Higher circulating proinsulin levels are associated with impaired β-cell function, raised glucose levels, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Studies of the insulin processing pathway could provide new insights about T2D pathophysiology. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We have conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association tests of ∼2.5 million genotyped or imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and fasting proinsulin levels in 10,701 nondiabetic adults of European ancestry, with follow-up of 23 loci in up to 16,378 individuals, using additive genetic models adjusted for age, sex, fasting insulin, and study-specific covariates. RESULTS: Nine SNPs at eight loci were associated with proinsulin levels (P < 5 × 10(-8)). Two loci (LARP6 and SGSM2) have not been previously related to metabolic traits, one (MADD) has been associated with fasting glucose, one (PCSK1) has been implicated in obesity, and four (TCF7L2, SLC30A8, VPS13C/C2CD4A/B, and ARAP1, formerly CENTD2) increase T2D risk. The proinsulin-raising allele of ARAP1 was associated with a lower fasting glucose (P = 1.7 × 10(-4)), improved β-cell function (P = 1.1 × 10(-5)), and lower risk of T2D (odds ratio 0.88; P = 7.8 × 10(-6)). Notably, PCSK1 encodes the protein prohormone convertase 1/3, the first enzyme in the insulin processing pathway. A genotype score composed of the nine proinsulin-raising alleles was not associated with coronary disease in two large case-control datasets. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified nine genetic variants associated with fasting proinsulin. Our findings illuminate the biology underlying glucose homeostasis and T2D development in humans and argue against a direct role of proinsulin in coronary artery disease pathogenesis