Reciprocal Associations between Parenting Challenges and Parents' Personality Development in Young and Middle Adulthood

Having children affects many aspects of people's lives. However, it remains unclear to what degree the challenges that come along with having children are associated with parents' personality development. We addressed this question in two studies by investigating the relationship between parenting challenges and personality development in mothers of newborns (Study 1, N = 556) and the reciprocal associations between (mastering) parenting challenges and personality development in parents of adolescents (Study 2, N = 548 mothers and 460 fathers). In Study 1, we found the stress of having a newborn baby to be associated with declines in maternal Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. Parenting challenges were also related to personality development in parents of adolescent children in Study 2, with parent–child conflict being reciprocally associated with decreases in Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability. Mastering parenting challenges in the form of high parenting self-efficacy, on the other hand, was found to be associated with increases in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability, and vice versa. In sum, our results suggest that mastering the challenges associated with the social role of parenthood is one of the mechanisms underlying personality development in young and middle adulthood

Education, Personality and Separation: The Distribution of Relationship Skills Across Society

The reasons why the lower educated divorce more than the higher educated in many societies today are poorly understood. Distinct divorce risks by education could be caused by variation in pressures to the couple, commitment, or relationship skills. We concentrate on the latter explanation by looking at the distribution of personality traits across society and its impact on the educational gradient in divorce in Germany. Using data on married couples from the German Socio Economic Panel (N = 9 417) we first estimate the effect of several personality traits on divorce: the tendency to forgive, negative reciprocity, positive reciprocity, and the Big Five. We also account for and find non-linear effects of several personality traits on divorce risk, which is relevant for future research on the effects of personality. In addition, effects differ by level of education. We find personality traits that affect divorce risk to be unevenly distributed over educational groups, but contrary to expectation to favor the lower educated. Once taking into account personality the educational gradient in divorce becomes more negative. This is due to especially high scores on openness to experience for the higher educated, which is a very significant predictor of divorce risk. Overall, we find no support for the hypothesis that the lower educated have less relationship skills in Germany

Interface Methods: Renegotiating relations between digital social research, STS and sociology

This paper introduces a distinctive approach to methods development in digital social research called “interface methods.” We begin by discussing various methodological confluences between digital media, social studies of science and technology (STS) and sociology. Some authors have posited significant overlap between, on the one hand, sociological and STS concepts, and on the other hand, the ontologies of digital media. Others have emphasised the significant differences between prominent methods built into digital media and those of STS and sociology. This paper advocates a third approach, one that a) highlights the dynamism and relative under-determinacy of digital methods, and b) affirms that multiple methodological traditions intersect in digital devices and research. We argue that these two circumstances enable a distinctive approach to methodology in digital social research – thinking methods as ‘interface methods’ - and the paper contextualizes this approach in two different ways. First, we show how the proliferation of online data tools or ‘digital analytics’ opens up distinctive opportunities for critical and creative engagement with methods development at the intersection of sociology, STS and digital research. Second, we discuss a digital research project in which we investigated a specific ‘interface method’, namely co-occurrence analysis. In this digital pilot study we implemented this method in a critical and creative way to analyse and visualise ‘issue dynamics’ in the area of climate change on Twitter. We evaluate this project in the light of our principal objective, which was to test the possibilities for the modification of methods through experimental implementation and interfacing of various methodological traditions. To conclude, we discuss a major obstacle to the development of ‘interface methods’: digital media are marked by particular quantitative dynamics that seem adverse to the methodological commitments of sociology and STS. To address this, we argue in favour of a methodological approach in digital social research that affirms its mal-adjustment to the research methods that are prevalent in the medium

Parents Transmit Happiness Along with Associated Values and Behaviors to their Children - A Lifelong Happiness Dividend?

There are strong two-way links between parent and child happiness (life satisfaction), even for 'children' who have grown up, moved to their own home and partnered themselves. German panel evidence shows that transmission of (un)happiness from parents to children is partly due to transmission of values and behaviors known to be associated with happiness (Headey, Wagner and Muffels, 2010, 2012). These values and behaviors include giving priority to pro-social and family values, rather than material values, maintaining a preferred balance between work and leisure, active social and community participation, and regular exercise. Both parents have about equal influence on the values and behaviors which children adopt. However, the life satisfaction of adult 'children' continues to be directly influenced by the life satisfaction of their mothers, with the influence of fathers being only indirect, via transmission of values and behaviors. There appears to be a lifelong happiness dividend (or unhappiness dividend) due to parenting. Structural equation models with two-way causation indicate that the life satisfaction of offspring can significantly affect the satisfaction of their parents, as well as vice-versa, long after the 'children' have left home. Data come from 25 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP, 1984-2008). SOEP is the only panel survey worldwide in which data on life satisfaction have been obtained from parents and an adequate sub-sample of children no longer living in the parental home

Economic Beliefs and Party Preference

This paper reports the results of a questionnaire study used to explore the economic understanding, normative positions along the egalitarian-libertarian spectrum, and the party preferences of a large student sample. The aim of the study is both to find socio-economic determinants of normative and positive beliefs and to explore how beliefs about the economy influence party support. We find that positive beliefs of lay people differ systematically from those of economic experts. Positive beliefs can be explained by high school grades, field of study, reasons for the choice of subject, personality traits, and - in part - by gender. Normative beliefs are self-serving in the sense that students whose father have high-status jobs and who seek high incomes are more libertarian than others. Party preferences are explained by the professional status of the father, religion, gender, and economic beliefs. Normative beliefs are more important for party support than positive beliefs. While there is a clear positive relation between libertarianism and support for right-leaning parties, positive beliefs only matter for some parties. A parochialism bias in positive beliefs seems to reinforce libertarian views favoring the most conservative party.Dieser Artikel berichtet die Resultate einer Umfrage, die genutzt wurde, um das ökonomische Verständnis, die normative Einstellung entlang des egalitär-libertären Spektrums und die Parteipräferenzen eines großen studentischen Samples zu untersuchen. Das Ziel der Studie ist es, sowohl die sozioökonomischen Determinanten der normativen und positiven Beliefs zu ermitteln, als auch zu untersuchen, wie diese Beliefs über die Wirtschaft die Parteipräferenz beeinflussen. Wir finden, dass die positiven Beliefs von Laien sich signifikant von denen der ökonomischen Experten unterscheiden. Die positiven Beliefs können durch Abiturnoten, Studienfachwahl, die Gründe für die Wahl des Studienfachs, Persönlichkeitsmerkmale und - zum Teil - durch das Geschlecht erklärt werden. Normative Beliefs sind einer selbstwertdienlichen Verzerrung in dem Sinne unterworfen, dass Studierende, deren Vater einer Beschäftigung mit hohem Status nachgeht und die ein hohes Einkommen anstreben, libertärer als andere sind. Parteipräferenzen werden durch den Beschäftigungsstatus des Vaters, die Religionszugehörigkeit, das Geschlecht und die ökonomischen Beliefs erklärt. Normative Beliefs sind für die Parteipräferenz wichtiger als positive Beliefs. Während es eine klare positive Beziehung zwischen Libertarismus und der Unterstützung nach rechts tendierender Parteien gibt, sind positive Beliefs nur für einige Parteien wichtig. Ein Parochialismus-Bias der positiven Beliefs scheint die libertären Ansichten zu verstärken und die konservativste Partei zu begünstigen

A closer look at neuron interaction with track-etched microporous membranes

Microporous membranes support the growth of neurites into and through micro-channels, providing a different type of neural growth platform to conventional dish cultures. Microporous membranes are used to support various types of culture, however, the role of pore diameter in relation to neurite growth through the membrane has not been well characterised. In this study, the human cell line (SH-SY5Y) was differentiated into neuron-like cells and cultured on track-etched microporous membranes with pore and channel diameters selected to accommodate neurite width (0.8 µm to 5 µm). Whilst neurites extended through all pore diameters, the extent of neurite coverage on the non-seeded side of the membranes after 5 days in culture was found to be directly proportional to channel diameter. Neurite growth through membrane pores reduced significantly when neural cultures were non-confluent. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that neurites bridged pores and circumnavigated pore edges – such that the overall likelihood of a neurite entering a pore channel was decreased. These findings highlight the role of pore diameter, cell sheet confluence and contact guidance in directing neurite growth through pores and may be useful in applications that seek to use physical substrates to maintain separate neural populations whilst permitting neurite contact between cultures

A Cellular Potts Model simulating cell migration on and in matrix environments

Cell migration on and through extracellular matrix plays a critical role in a wide variety of physiological and pathological phenomena, and in scaffold-based tissue engineering. Migration is regulated by a number of extracellular matrix- or cell-derived biophysical parameters, such as matrix fiber orientation, gap size, and elasticity, or cell deformation, proteolysis, and adhesion. We here present an extended Cellular Potts Model (CPM) able to qualitatively and quantitatively describe cell migratory phenotype on both two-dimensional substrates and within three-dimensional environments, in a close comparison with experimental evidence. As distinct features of our approach, the cells are represented by compartmentalized discrete objects, differentiated in the nucleus and in the cytosolic region, while the extracellular matrix is composed of a fibrous mesh and of a homogeneous fluid. Our model provides a strong correlation of the directionality of migration with the topological ECM distribution and, further, a biphasic dependence of migration on the matrix density, and in part adhesion, in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional settings. Moreover, we demonstrate that the directional component of cell movement is strongly correlated with the topological distribution of the ECM fibrous network. In the three-dimensional networks, we also investigate the effects of the matrix mechanical microstructure, observing that, at a given distribution of fibers, cell motility has a subtle bimodal relation with the elasticity of the scaffold. Finally, cell locomotion requires deformation of the cell's nucleus and/or cell-derived proteolysis of steric fibrillar obstacles within rather rigid matrices characterized by small pores, not, however, for sufficiently large pores. In conclusion, we here propose a mathematical modeling approach that serves to characterize cell migration as a biological phenomen in health, disease and tissue engineering applications. The research that led to the present paper was partially supported by a grant of the group GNFM of INdA