Socialization and Individual Antecedents of Adolescents' and Young Adults' Moral Motivation

Socialization and individual differences were examined as antecedents of moral motivation in representative samples of 15-year-old adolescents (N=1,258; 54% female) and 21-year-old young adults (N=584; 53% female). The adolescents' primary caregivers (N=1,056) also participated. The strength of moral motivation was rated by participants' responses to two hypothetical moral dilemmas in terms of action decisions, emotion attributions, and justifications. Socialization was measured by the perceived quality of friendship, parent-child relationships, and educational background. The importance attached to social justice and various personality traits were also assessed. Adolescents' moral motivation was positively associated with the quality of their parent-child relationship and the importance of social justice. Young adults' moral motivation was predicted by the perceived quality of friendships, the importance of social justice, and agreeableness. For both groups, moral motivation was greater in females. The theoretical implications of the findings for the development of moral motivation are discusse

Cohort differences in the development of civic engagement during adolescence

Investigating whether changing societal circumstances have altered the development of civic engagement, this study compared developmental changes from mid- to late adolescence (i.e., age 15–18) across two cohorts of representative Swiss samples (born in 1991, N = 1258, Mage T1 = 15.30, 54% female, 33% migration background representing diverse ethnicities; born in 2000, N = 930, Mage T1 = 15.32, 51% female; 33% migration background). Findings from latent multigroup models revealed similar levels in attitudes about social justice in both cohorts, remaining stable over time. Adolescents reported lower levels of political efficacy and informal helping in the cohort born in 2000. Both aspects slightly increased during adolescence. Informal helping had a steeper increase in the 1991 compared to the 2000 cohort, suggesting developmental differences between cohorts

Subkulturen und gesellschaftliche Individualisierungsprozesse

Es wird versucht den wissenschaftlichen Stellenwert der Begriffe "Subkultur" und "gesellschaftliche Individualisierung" zu klären. Den Erörterungen liegt die These zugrunde, daß im Gefolge sozialstruktureller Wandlungsprozesse in fortgeschrittenen Industriegesellschaften eine rasche Diversifizierung und eine in ersten Ansätzen beobachtbare Dehierarchisierung kultureller Praxisformen stattfindet, wodurch der Anwendungsbereich des Subkulturkonzepts zur Beschreibung sozio-kultureller Gemeinschaften eingeschränkt wird. Zunächst werden zentrale Definitionselemente des klassischen Subkulturkonzeptes erörtert. Anschließend werden Veränderungen kultureller Praxisformen diskutiert und ihre Verknüpfungen mit sozialstrukturellen Wandlungsprozessen aufgezeigt. (GF

Neue Kenngrössen zur Schweizer Stellenmarktentwicklung

Der Stellenmarkt-Monitor Schweiz am Soziologischen Institut der Universität Zürich beobachtet kontinuierlich Umfang und Zusammensetzung des Stellenangebots in der Schweiz. Mit dem im letzten November lancierten Adecco Swiss Job Market Index steht nun erstmals eine quartalsweise Messung des gesamtwirtschaftlichen Stellenangebots zur Verfügung. Jährliche Stichprobenerhebungen von Stellenangeboten aus Presse und Internet ermöglichen zudem Aussagen über langfristige Verschiebungen in der Struktur des betrieblichen Personalbedarfs von 1950 bis in die Gegenwart

Making it to the Academic Path in a Tracked Education System: The Interplay of Individual Agency and Social Origin in Early Educational Transitions

Little is known about the role of agency in transitions in tracked education systems or whether it varies by socioeconomic background. This study addressed this gap by estimating structural equation models based on longitudinal data that are representative of the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland (N = 1273 individuals, surveyed from age 6 to 18, mean age at wave 1: Mage = 6.54, SDage = 0.50, female = 49%). The findings reveal that agency (captured by study effort and occupational aspirations) and socioeconomic background (measured by parental education and family income) significantly predicted students’ transitions to academically demanding tracks in lower- and upper-secondary education. In the transition to upper-secondary education, students with fewer socioeconomic resources benefitted less than their more advantaged peers from ambitious aspirations, but they benefitted more from exerting effort. These findings suggest that both an optimistic forward-looking orientation and the exertion of effort are required to make it to an academic track. Effort may serve as a “substitutive” resource for less socioeconomically advantaged students, whereas ambitious aspirations may enhance the positive effect of family socioeconomic resources on academic educational trajectories. Overall, the evidence from this study calls for greater attention to investigating not only how agency shapes adolescents’ educational trajectories and opportunities but also how its role differs across social groups

Children's Peer Victimization, Empathy, and Emotional Symptoms

This study investigated the concurrent and longitudinal relations among children's peer victimization, empathy, and emotional symptoms. The sample consisted of 175 children (85 girls, mean age=6.1years) recruited from kindergartens in Switzerland and followed for 1year (Time 2). Parents and teachers reported on the children's emotional symptoms, empathy, and victimization. Children reported their empathy and victimization experiences. Peer victimization was a predictor of emotional symptoms at Time 1; this association was stronger for children with average or high levels of empathy. Increases in peer victimization predicted increases in boys' emotional symptoms, and increases in victimization were related to decreases in empathy. The results emphasize the role of negative peer relations and children's social-emotional information processing for the development of emotional symptom

Labour Market, Job Opportunities, and Transitions to Self-Employment: Evidence from Switzerland from the Mid-1960s to the Late 1980s

In recent years, self-employment has risen in several Western countries including Switzerland. The controversial discussion of this rise is attributable to shortcomings of empirical research, namely, to the lack of systematically considering, both at the macro- and the micro-level, the push and pull factors that may account for entry into self-employment. Little is known about how macroeconomic forces together with individual-level push and pull factors shape transitions into self-employment. Even less is known about how these factors play out in occupationally segmented labour markets. This paper thus examines how the overall climate for setting up a business, individual job opportunities, and structural characteristics of labour-market positions affect transitions to self-employment in the occupationally segmented Swiss labour market. Based on two data sets, we run event history models. The Swiss Life History Study provides information on transitions into self-employment. With the Swiss Job Monitor, we construct indicators of the time-variant aggregate- and individual-level opportunities and incentives for setting up a business. Results indicate that moves into self-employment are affected both by macroeconomic conditions, individual job opportunities, and structural characteristics of the labour market position, whereby pull factors dominate at the macro level and the interplay of push and pull factors at the individual leve

Making it to the Academic Path in a Tracked Education System: The Interplay of Individual Agency and Social Origin in Early Educational Transitions

Little is known about the role of agency in transitions in tracked education systems or whether it varies by socioeconomic background. This study addressed this gap by estimating structural equation models based on longitudinal data that are representative of the German- and French-speaking parts of Switzerland (N = 1273 individuals, surveyed from age 6 to 18, mean age at wave 1: M$_{age}$ = 6.54, SD$_{age}$ = 0.50, female = 49%). The findings reveal that agency (captured by study effort and occupational aspirations) and socioeconomic background (measured by parental education and family income) significantly predicted students’ transitions to academically demanding tracks in lower- and upper-secondary education. In the transition to upper-secondary education, students with fewer socioeconomic resources benefitted less than their more advantaged peers from ambitious aspirations, but they benefitted more from exerting effort. These findings suggest that both an optimistic forward-looking orientation and the exertion of effort are required to make it to an academic track. Effort may serve as a “substitutive” resource for less socioeconomically advantaged students, whereas ambitious aspirations may enhance the positive effect of family socioeconomic resources on academic educational trajectories. Overall, the evidence from this study calls for greater attention to investigating not only how agency shapes adolescents’ educational trajectories and opportunities but also how its role differs across social groups

Selbstbilder und Beziehungsideale im 20. Jahrhundert: Individualisierungsprozesse im Spiegel von Bekanntschafts- und Heiratsinseraten

"Praktiken der privaten Lebensführung sind immer sowohl das Ergebnis strukturell vorgegebener Lebensbedingungen wie auch das Resultat kulturell geprägter Idealvorstellungen des richtigen Lebens. Im Mittelpunkt unseres Beitrages steht die letztere analytische Ebene, die kulturelle Ebene des Wandels von Leitidealen des Selbst sowie deren Zusammenhang mit Idealvorstellungen der privaten Beziehung im 20. Jahrhundert. Im Verlauf der Entwicklung der modernen Gesellschaft ist es zu erheblichen Veränderungen sowohl hinsichtlich der kulturellen Einstufung des Stellenwertes des Individuums wie auch hinsichtlich der Kodierung seiner Qualitäten, Eigenschaften und Tugenden gekommen. Aus dieser Sicht bedeutet Individualisierung zweierlei. Sie impliziert erstens eine Steigerung der Rechte und Pflichten, die dem Individuum zugestanden und auferlegt werden. Zweitens kommt es im Modernisierungsprozess zu einer qualitativen Umkodierung von individueller Identität im Sinne einer stärkeren Betonung von Reflexivität und Autonomie. Zwischen solchen Veränderungen von Leitidealen des Selbst und dem Wandel von Beziehungsidealen ist ein enger Zusammenhang anzunehmen: In dem Maße, in dem sich Individuen eher als autonome, reflexive, erlebnisorientierte Entitäten definieren, werden ihre auf Beziehungen bezogenen Ideale der Lebensführung sich eher an Vorstellungen wie Partnerschaft, gegenseitigem Verständnis und gemeinsamem Erleben orientieren. Die erwarteten Zusammenhänge werden anhand einer äußerst geeigneten, aber bislang weitgehend vernachlässigten historischen Datenquelle untersucht. Es handelt sich um einen repräsentativen Datensatz von rund 7300 Bekanntschafts- und Heiratsinseraten, die zwischen 1900 und 1992 in zwei schweizerischen Tageszeitungen erschienen sind. Das analytische Ziel besteht darin, mittels computergestützter Inhaltsanalyse die vorgefundenen semantischen Elemente der Inserate auf eine möglichst geringe Anzahl von Grundtypen von Selbstidealen und solchen von Bezichungsidealen zu reduzieren und diese zueinander in Beziehung zu setzen." (Autorenreferat