Legitimating status: perceptions of meritocracy and inequality among undergraduates at an elite British university

Given the frequent critiques of elite universities for admitting low numbers of state-school graduates and, more recently, British Afro-Caribbean students, how do students attending those universities make meaning of the admissions process? Through an analysis of 46 one-on-one in-depth interviews with undergraduates attending Oxford University, we show that students believe in the fairness of the admissions process, while lamenting the lack of opportunities for educational advancement faced by some disadvantaged youth in British society. Despite their understanding that many British youth do not have access to educational experiences that make Oxbridge an attainable goal, most students do not support changes to make access more equitable across class or racial/ethnic lines. This perspective, which legitimates the status students gain through matriculation at an elite university, supports the maintenance of unequal access to an Oxford education despite the advantages that education is known to confer to graduates. The findings demonstrate elites acknowledging the disadvantages of particular groups in society without acknowledging their own advantages in the same system. They do so by recognizing two elements of merit: (1) intelligence, which most students assume led to their own admission; and (2) cultivation of that intelligence, which requires elite secondary schools and which most students see as disadvantaging particular groups in society. In the paper we highlight differences in meaning-making between graduates of grammar, comprehensive, and private schools

Understanding the protective effect of social support on depression symptomatology from a longitudinal network perspective

Background: Higher social support protects people from developing mental disorders. Limited evidence is available on the mechanism through which social support plays this protective role. Objective: To investigate the stress-buffering process of social support on depressive symptoms using a novel longitudinal dynamic symptom network approach. Methods: A total of 4242 adult participants who completed the first two waves (from May to October 2020) of the International Covid Mental Health Survey were included in the study. Cross-lagged panel network modelling was used to estimate a longitudinal network of self-reported social support, loneliness and depressive symptoms. Standardised regression coefficients from regularised cross-lagged regressions were estimated as edge weights of the network. Findings: The results support a unidirectional protective effect of social support on key depressive symptoms, partly mediated through loneliness: A higher number of close confidants and accessible practical help was associated with decreased anhedonia (weight=-0.033) and negative self-appraisal symptoms (weight=-0.038). Support from others was also negatively associated with loneliness, which in turn associated with decreased depressed mood (weight=0.086) and negative self-appraisal (weight=0.077). We identified a greater number of direct relationships from social support to depressive symptoms among men compared with women. Also, the edge weights from social support to depression were generally stronger in the men's network. Conclusions: Reductions in negative self-appraisal might function as a bridge between social support and other depressive symptoms, and, thus, it may have amplified the protective effect of social support. Men appear to benefit more from social support than women. Clinical implications: Building community-based support networks to deliver practical support, and loneliness reduction components are critical for depression prevention interventions after stressful experiences

Resilience of people with chronic medical conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a 1-year longitudinal prospective survey

Backgrounds: Individuals with chronic medical conditions are considered highly exposed to COVID-19 pandemic stress, but emerging evidence is demonstrating that resilience is common even among them. We aimed at identifying sustained resilient outcomes and their predictors in chronically ill people during the first year of the pandemic. Methods: This international 4-wave 1-year longitudinal online survey included items on socio-demographic characteristics, economic and living situation, lifestyle and habits, pandemic-related issues, and history of mental disorders. Adherence to and approval of imposed restrictions, trust in governments and in scientific community during the pandemic were also investigated. The following tools were administered: the Patient Health Questionnaire, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale, the PTSD Checklist DSM-5, the Oslo Social Support Scale, the Padua Inventory, and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Results: One thousand fifty-two individuals reporting a chronic condition out of 8011 total participants from 13 countries were included in the study, and 965 had data available for the final model. The estimated probability of being “sustained-resilient” was 34%. Older male individuals, participants employed before and during the pandemic or with perceived social support were more likely to belong to the sustained-resilience group. Loneliness, a previous mental disorder, high hedonism, fear of COVID-19 contamination, concern for the health of loved ones, and non-approving pandemic restrictions were predictors of not-resilient outcomes in our sample. Conclusions: We found similarities and differences from established predictors of resilience and identified some new ones specific to pandemics. Further investigation is warranted and could inform the design of resilience-building interventions in people with chronic diseases

Vicarious Group Trauma among British Jews

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11133-016-9337-4Given that literature on the intra- and inter-generational transmission of traumas is mainly based on secondary literature and focuses on the transmission of trauma memory in terms of the historical knowledge of group trauma, this article develops the theory of vicarious group trauma and tests this theory by exploring vicarious traumatization in the everyday lives of Jews in Britain through the methods of observation and in-depth interviewing. Vicarious group trauma is defined as a life or safety-threatening event or abuse that happened to some members of a social group but is felt by other members as their own experience because of their personal affiliation with the group. The article finds that the vicarious sensation of traumatic group experiences can create anxiety, elicit perceptions of threat and, by extension, hypervigilance among Jews. The findings demonstrate that group traumas of the past interpenetrate and interweave with members’ current lives and in this way can also become constitutive of their group identity. An institutional focus on threats to Jews can inform the construction and reinforcement of traumatization symptoms and accordingly vicarious group trauma. This article suggests an association between the level of involvement of group members in the collective’s social structure and the prominence of vicarious group trauma among them

Jewish identity construction and perpetuation in contemporary Britain

This thesis attends to the major question ‘how is Jewish identity created and maintained in contemporary Britain?’ To answer this question, I have done one year of ethnographic fieldwork in Britain, which included 121 interviews with Jewish people of various ages and across different religious as well as non-religious denominations. This thesis identifies four major elements informing the creation and perpetuation of Jewish identity: One, a sense of difference from the majority population creates and maintains the identity. Jews can perceive themselves to be different religiously, nationally, ethnically and/or culturally from white Christian British people. Two, trauma memory has an impact on the creation and sustenance of this identity. Vicarious group trauma, meaning trauma experienced by proxy of previous generations, can inform identity through its influence on everyday experiences. Three, community affiliation plays a role in creating and particularly reinforcing the identification. The Jewish community provides resources, social interaction and thus signalled attention, and regard; all of them respond to innate human needs that a person aims to have satisfied. Four, a group norm of continuity is important in the perpetuation of this identity within and across generations. This norm is created and sustained by its members through their focus on endogamy. Wanting to have a partner from one’s own group, have Jewish children and raise them in a Jewish lifestyle can, thereby, reinforce and maintain a sense of Jewishness (inter-) generationally. Without members marrying within the faith and having children that are raised with Judaism, it would be difficult to preserve Jewish identity in a country where the group does not constitute the majority. The thesis concludes that there are two reasons why Jews in diaspora have been able to sustain as a group and maintain their identity over time. Firstly, the multi-dimensionality of the Jewish group and respective affiliation platforms have allowed its members to create a multi-faceted meaning of being Jewish, and, secondly, continuous external challenges to the group’s security together with constant reminders of those challenges; both have prevented the group from assimilating into mainstream society. </p

Multikriterielle Regelungsstrategien für ein inverterbasiertes Niederspannungs-Microgrid

Die Energiewende ist Vision und aktueller Forschungsschwerpunkt zugleich. Die dafür essenzielle Transformation der Energieversorgung ist bereits in Umsetzung. Der Trend hin zur dezentralen Energieerzeugung mit Hilfe einer Vielzahl an Erneuerbaren-Energien-Anlagen mit im Vergleich zu Großkraftwerken kleinen Erzeugungsleistungen erfordert neue Regelungskonzepte. Während die Stabilität bislang hauptsächlich auf der Übertragungsnetzebene sichergestellt wird, werden Regelungs-strategien notwendig, die auch die inverterbasierten Erzeugungseinheiten im Rahmen der Netzstützung einbinden. Dafür werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit Netzregelungsstrategien entwickelt, die sowohl bei der ungeplanten als auch der geplanten Abtrennung eines Microgrids der Niederspannungsebene vom überlagerten Netz einen sicheren Betrieb gewährleisten können. Ein solcher Betrieb ist durch die Einhaltung von multikriteriellen Funktionalitäten der Regler gewährleistet. Weist ein Regler die Funktionalitäten auf, kann er sicherstellen, dass definierte Spezifikationsbereiche für die Frequenz, die Spannung sowie eine Leistungsaufteilung bei Anregung des Energieversorgungssystems mit Leistungsschwankungen sowie bei Verinselung eingehalten werden. Das Regelungskonzept ist von kaskadierter Form und beinhaltet einen Leistungs- bzw. Primärregler sowie einen Transitionsregler für die Inverter. Für die ungeplante spontane Netzabtrennung werden drei verschiedene Primärregelungs-Typen entwickelt und bewertet. Ein robuster Multi-Modell-Regler wird als Primärregelungs-Typ favorisiert und Primärregelstrategien werden auf Basis dessen abgeleitet. Für den Reglerentwurf des Primärreglers wird ein Optimierungsproblem bestehend aus multiplen H∞- Normen als Zielfunktion und einer Polbereichsvorgabe als Nebenbedingung entwickelt. Basis des Reglerentwurfs stellen die linearisierten Modelle des Microgrids als Strecke dar. Für die geplante Verinselung wird ein Transitionsregler entwickelt, der den Übergang ohne Sprünge in den Systemen realisiert. Die Netzregelstrategie für die ungeplante Verinselung umfasst eine Primärregelstrategie. Die Netzregelstrategie für die geplante Verinselung umfasst eine alternative Primärregelstrategie kombiniert mit dem Transitionsregler. Die Netzregelstrategien ermöglichen den stabilen Betrieb eines Microgrids und tragen damit zur Weiterentwicklung von Regelungskonzepten von inverterbasierten Microgrids bei