26 research outputs found
Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental-leave
policies and women’s political representation partially explained cross-national
variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically
larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national
variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women’s (rather than men’s) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men’s higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men’s leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed
Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 Countries
Despite global commitments and efforts, a gender-based division of paid and unpaid work persists. To identify how psychological factors, national policies, and the broader sociocultural context contribute to this inequality, we assessed parental-leave intentions in young adults (18–30 years old) planning to have children (N = 13,942; 8,880 identified as women; 5,062 identified as men) across 37 countries that varied in parental-leave policies and societal gender equality. In all countries, women intended to take longer leave than men. National parental-leave policies and women’s political representation partially explained cross-national variations in the gender gap. Gender gaps in leave intentions were paradoxically larger in countries with more gender-egalitarian parental-leave policies (i.e., longer leave available to both fathers and mothers). Interestingly, this cross-national variation in the gender gap was driven by cross-national variations in women’s (rather than men’s) leave intentions. Financially generous leave and gender-egalitarian policies (linked to men’s higher uptake in prior research) were not associated with leave intentions in men. Rather, men’s leave intentions were related to their individual gender attitudes. Leave intentions were inversely related to career ambitions. The potential for existing policies to foster gender equality in paid and unpaid work is discussed.Gender Gap in Parental Leave Intentions: Evidence from 37 CountriespublishedVersio
Monitoring Attitudes towards Research Biobanking in Central and Eastern Europe: An Alarming Absence of Data
Objective: Understanding the driving forces and barriers to laypeople’s participation in biobanking is a key challenge. The present paper aims to i) provide the results of a systematic review of psychological correlates of engagement in biobanking in CEE, and ii) compare the attitudes of Slovaks toward biobanking in 2010 and 2022. Methods: A systematic review of the literature that focuses on laypeople’s attitudes toward biobanking and its psychosocial correlates in CEE countries was conducted in 2021. Then, simple data on attitudes towards biobanking using Eurobarometer questions were collected in 2022. Results: A systematic review revealed a lack of behavioral data on this topic in CEE countries. Altogether, four studies, conducted in Poland, Slovakia, and Latvia, supported the role of preferred forms of informed consent, awareness, trust (self- and other-oriented, medical researchers or scientists), and values (tradition and self-development; altruism and individualism) in the willingness to donate materials to biobanks. A comparison of Slovak data on attitudes towards biobanking revealed decreased awareness on biobanking and increased concerns about providing personal data to biobanks over 12 years. Conclusions: For progress in this field, future in-depth social science research on attitudes towards, trust to biobanks and donor behaviour in CEE countries is needed
Modeling the effect of psycho-socio-economic consequences of COVID-19 on life satisfaction: The role of deviation from a balanced time perspective
This paper aims to study the role of deviation from a balanced time perspective in the broader context of COVID-19-related variables. We examined a structural model that depicted how the difficulty with adhering to COVID-19 restrictions and their psycho-socio-economic consequences were related to life satisfaction in a sample of 1423 participants. The results suggest that the difficulty with adhering to the anti-pandemic measures was associated with increased loneliness, decreased contentment with the authorities’ management of the pandemic situation and a worsened personal economic situation. These factors were related to higher levels of COVID-19-related stress and anxiety and lower levels of life satisfaction. Importantly, deviation from the balanced time perspective was one of the strongest predictors of overall life satisfaction within the model
Perception of hate speech by the public and experts: Insights into predictors of perceived hate speech toward migrants
Online hate speech is a matter of concern for social media platforms, regulators, researchers, and the public. Despite its widespread prevalence and contentious nature, little research has been done on the perception of hate speech and its psychosocial predictors. To address this gap, we conducted a study on the perception of hate speech towards migrants in online comments, analyzing the differences between a public group (NPublic = 649) and an expert group (NExperts = 27), and exploring the correlation between the proposed hate speech indicators and perceived hate speech in both groups. Additionally, we explored various predictors of hate speech perception, including demographic and psychological variables such as human values, prejudice, aggression, impulsiveness, social media behavior, attitudes toward migrants and migration, and trust in institutions. Our results show that the public and experts have differing sensitivities towards hate speech, with the expert group perceiving comments as more hateful and emotionally harmful compared to the general population, who tend to agree more with anti-migrant hateful comments. The proposed hate speech indicators, and especially their total score, have a strong correlation with both groups' perceptions of hate speech. Psychological predictors, such as the human values of universalism, tradition, security, and subjective social distance, were significant predictors of online hate speech sensitivity. Our findings emphasize the need for public and scholarly discussions, more robust educational policies, and intervention programs with specific measures to counter hate speech online
Parents’ intention to vaccinate their children against COVID-19
Usually, parents and caregivers are the ones responsible for children's vaccination, their intention to vaccinate children depending on many factors. In a society where almost half of adults have refused to take a jab against COVID-19, it is important to know which factors increase or decrease the odds of a child getting vaccinated. In the present study, we examined parents’ reasons for/against children vaccination and predictors of this intention. We found that about 30% of parents intended to have their children vaccinated to protect the health of children and their close ones. On the other hand, parents who did not intend to have their children vaccinated were typically afraid of long-term consequences of vaccination and its side effects, with less than one fifth of them being skeptical about vaccination per se. Using logistic regression analyses, we found that a higher willingness to vaccinate was in male, older parents, and those with higher (socio)economic status. Parents with a higher adherence to restrictions, and higher trust in government and authorities were more likely to vaccinate their children. Moreover, parents who had themselves been vaccinated or were more positive towards vaccination in general were much more willing to vaccinate their children. On the contrary, belief in conspiracy theories decreased this intention 10-times. No other variables (e.g., demographic characteristics, mental health indicators, or direct experience with COVID-19) significantly predicted parents’ intention to vaccinate their children. The study offers several implications related to the complexity of factors which determine hesitant parents’ intention to vaccinate their children. We aimed to answer questions on how, when, and by whom parents should be approached to improve their awareness on vaccination decisions