The first partnership experience and personality development. A propensity score matching study in young adulthood

Personality development in young adulthood has been associated with the experience of a number of new social roles. However, the causal interpretation of these findings is complicated by the fact that it is not possible to randomize young adults by their life experiences. To address this problem in the context of the first partnership experience, we applied propensity score matching to a sample of initially inexperienced singles and followed them across 4 years. Using matched samples, results indicated that the first partnership experience relatively robust increased life satisfaction. The first partnership experience between the ages of 23 and 25 (but not in other ages) was also related to higher self-esteem, extraversion, and conscientiousness and to lower neuroticism. The discussion highlights the effect of the first partnership on the development of a mature personality and the potential for propensity score matching to make useful contributions to social and personality research. (DIPF/Orig.

Power within the exploitation process - A qualitative study of civil servants’ ability to control the development of the built environment in the municipality

Ett flertal aktörer är involverade i processen att planera och bygga nya urbana områden. I Sverige är det kommunalt planmonopol vilket innebär att kommunen ansvarar för planläggning av mark och vatten. Detaljplaneläggningen definierar förutsättningarna för hur ett nytt område kan byggas. Därav har kommunen en betydande maktposition i att kunna kontrollera utvecklingen av den bebyggda miljön. Den här uppsatsen fokuserar på exploateringsprocessen ur ett maktperspektiv. Uppsatsen avser att förstå hur tjänstepersoner upplever deras förmåga att utöva makt inom exploateringsprocessen för att kunna styra utvecklingen av den byggda miljön i en kommun. För att förstå makt baseras det teoretiska ramverket på Steven Lukes och John Forester. Studien avgränsas till en fallstudie av en kommun i Sverige, Upplands-Bro. Det empiriska materialet består av offentliga dokument och intervjuer med tjänstepersoner på exploateringsavdelningen. Studien visar att tjänstepersonerna upplever begränsningar i deras förmåga att utöva direkt makt för att kunna kontrollera utvecklingen av den bebyggda miljön i kommunen. Möjligheten att utöva indirekt makt är betydande för förmågan att kunna kontrollera utvecklingen av den bebyggda miljön. Exploatörerna tenderar att kringgå den formella processen vilket påverkar tjänstepersonernas möjlighet att kontrollera utvecklingen av den bebyggda miljön. Andra faktorer, såsom en hierarkisk organisation och att arbeta inom en politisk kontext, påverkar tjänstepersonernas förmåga att utöva makt för att kunna kontrollera utvecklingen av den byggda miljön i kommunen.Several actors are involved in the process of developing new areas. In Sweden, there is a municipal planning monopoly implying that municipalities are responsible for the planning of land and water. The detailed planning defines the prerequisites for the development of an area. Municipalities thus possess a significant position of power to control the development within municipalities. This research focuses on the exploitation processes from a perspective of power. The research aims to understand how civil servants experience their ability to use their power within the exploitation process to control the development of the built environment in a municipality. A theoretical framework based on Steven Lukes and John Forester is used to understand the concept of power. The research is limited to a case study of one municipality, Upplands-Bro, in Sweden. The empirical material consists of written documents and interviews with civil servants at the exploitation department. The research indicates that civil servants experience a lack of ability to execute direct power in order to control the development of the built environment in the municipality. The ability to execute indirect power is significant with regard to controlling the development of the municipality. The developers are efficient in circumventing the formal processes which affects the civil servants’ possibility to control the development. Other factors, such as a hierarchic organization and working within a political context, affect the civil servants’ ability to execute power in order to control the development within the municipality

Guidance note on the application of coastal monitoring for small island developing states : Part of the NOC-led project “Climate Change Impact Assessment: Ocean Modelling and Monitoring for the Caribbean CME states”, 2017-2020; under the Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme in the Caribbean.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a diverse group of 51 countries and territories vulnerable to human-induced climate change, due to factors including their small size, large exclusive economic zones and limited resources. They generally have insufficient critical mass in scientific research and technical capability to carry out coastal monitoring campaigns from scratch and limited access to data. This guidance report will go some way to addressing these issues by providing information on monitoring methods and signposting data sources. Coastal monitoring, the collection, analysis and storage of information about coastal processes and the response of the coastline, provides information on how the coast changes over time, after storm events and due to the effects of human intervention. Accurate and repeatable observational data is essential to informed decision making, particularly in light of climate change, the impacts of which are already being felt. In this report, we review the need for monitoring and the development of appropriate strategies, which include good baseline data and long-term repeatable data collection at appropriate timescales. We identify some of the methods for collection of in situ data, such as tide gauges and topographic survey, and highlight where resources in terms of data and equipment are currently available. We then go on to explore the range of remote sensing methods available from satellites to smart phone photography. Both in situ and remotely sensed data are important as inputs into models, which in turn feed in to visualisations for decision-making. We review the availability of a wide range of datasets, including details of how to access satellite data and links to international and regional data banks. The report concludes with information on the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and good practice in managing data

Det offentliga rummet - Betydelsen av offentliga rum i den urbana miljön

The urban areas are growing and the public spaces tend to be exploit. In Sweden, the urban planning must strive to achieve a good built environment. The aim of this paper is to study why the public spaces are important in the city, which qualities are important to promote people to use public places and if the municipality of Lomma are planning for a good built environment in the public areas. The study is based on three different theories made by Jane Jacobs, Jan Gehl, Ulla Berglund and Ulla Jergeby. The theories explain in different ways the important of the public spaces and how to make public areas that people want to stay in. The study has an urban planning perspective and therefor has planning documents been used to answer the question about the municipality of Lomma. The study shows that the public spaces is important and has different functions in the city. It’s a prerequisite for people to meet, which is essential in order to feel safe in the city. By creating conditions for activities and by building for the human scale, good built environment in the public space can be achieved. According to the planning documents, the municipality of Lomma do plan for good environment in the public spaces

Guidance note on the application of coastal modelling for small island developing states

This report is part of the NOC-led project “Climate Change Impact Assessment: Ocean Modelling and Monitoring for the Caribbean CME states”, 2017-2020, under the Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme in the Caribbean. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are very diverse, but have something in common: they are all vulnerable to human-induced climate change, but have contributed very little to causing the problem, due to their small size and limited development. Much time has been spent in debating climate change and adaptation strategies for such countries, but little has been done in developing practical tools to assist them in managing the coastal zone. In this report we aim to address that. In April 2017, some senior staff members from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) visited St Vincent and the Grenadines, as part of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office-funded Neptune programme. At that time, some of the issues around coastal erosion on the east coast of St Vincent were identified, as well as some extreme events from which St Vincent and the Grenadines had suffered substantial losses of GDP. This was followed up by a workshop in January 2018 on ‘Implementing and Monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals in the Caribbean: The Role of the Ocean’, which was co-sponsored by the UK Government-funded Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme (CMEP) via the NOC (CMEP being the successor to Neptune). During the period September 2017 to March 2020, the National Oceanography Centre, funded by the CMEP, has been working with St Vincent and the Grenadines to provide knowledge, data and training about data analysis application and software for the use of coastal managers, particularly in order to address the problem of coastal erosion. We held a stakeholder workshop in Kingstown, St Vincent, in March 2018 and a hands-on technical training workshop in January 2019. A final workshop is being held in March 2020. Here we present an overview of coastal modelling methodology for use by Small Island Developing States (SIDS), including references to previous model review studies and guidance on how to access and apply model outputs, which will be presented at the workshop, entitled ‘Applying Knowledge of Coastal Processes for Coastal Zone Management into the Future’. This report seeks to collate the information on Coastal Modelling, which may be relevant to all SIDS, in order to support evidence-based decision-making. The case study is built around work done for St Vincent and the Grenadines. It is not the intention to explain in detail the technical working and development of models, as it is envisaged that SIDS will not want or need to run complex models themselves, but if this is desired, information on further reading and training is provided. Some of the simpler and more accessible models, with particularly useful applications in the coastal zone, which do not require computer resources beyond a laptop computer, are described in more detail for in-house application and their use in decision-making is explained. The way forward in regional collaboration and capacity-building is discussed

Digital Educational Therapy: Pioneering new Paths During the Corona Pandemic

Das schulische Leben und Lernen von Kindern und Jugendlichen hat sich in Deutschland seit März 2020 aufgrund der Corona-Pandemie über einen längeren Zeitraum stark verändert. Ebenso konnte durch die Kontaktbeschränkungen Lerntherapie nicht wie gewohnt stattfinden. In der Lerntherapie werden Kinder und Jugendliche, die Schwierigkeiten im Erwerb von Lesen, Schreiben und/oder Rechnen haben, unterstützt. Ziel dieser Studie ist es herauszufinden, wie Lerntherapie seit Beginn der Corona-Pandemie stattfand und wie dabei die Medienkompetenz sowie die lerntherapeutische Kompetenz auf Distanz von Lerntherapeutinnen und -therapeuten eingeschätzt wurde. Die bundesweite Studie wurde zwischen Juni und November 2020 mittels einer Online-Umfrage durchgeführt. Es nahmen 69 Lerntherapeutinnen und -therapeuten teil (weiblich = 60; 87 %; Alter: M = 50.18; SD = 8.76). Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Zahl der geförderten Schülerinnen und Schüler seit dem Beginn der Pandemie niedriger ist als davor. Ein grosser Teil der Schülerinnen und Schüler wurde zwischenzeitlich ausschliesslich auf Distanz gefördert. Fast alle Lerntherapeutinnen und -therapeuten können Arbeitsblätter und Präsentationen digital herstellen, jedoch werden digitale diagnostische Werkzeuge kaum oder gar nicht genutzt. Ebenso möchte nur die Hälfte der Befragten Lerntherapie auf Distanz auch in Zukunft einsetzen. Weiterhin konnten Zusammenhänge zwischen der Medien- und lerntherapeutischen Kompetenz auf Distanz festgestellt werden. In diesem Bereich ist weitere Forschung notwendig und sollte weitere Faktoren bei Lerntherapeutinnen und -therapeuten, Schülerinnen und Schülern sowie Eltern berücksichtigen.Due to the Corona pandemic, school life and learning has changed for children and adolescents in Germany since March 2020 for a longer period. Likewise, educational therapy could not take place as usual due to the contact restrictions. Educational therapy provides support to students who have difficulties in reading, writing and/or arithmetic. Aim of this study is to determine how educational therapy took place since the beginning of the Corona pandemic and how media literacy and competence in distance educational therapy are estimated by educational therapists. The nationwide study was conducted between June and November 2020 via an online survey. Sixty-nine educational therapists participated (female = 60; 87 %; age: M = 50.18; SD = 8.76). Results show that since the beginning of the pandemic the number of supported students is lower than before. A large part of the students was only supported at distance in the meantime. Almost all educational therapists can produce worksheets and presentations digitally, but digital diagnostic tools are hardly used or not used at all. Likewise, only half of the participants would like to use educational therapy at distance in the future. Furthermore, correlations between media literacy and competence in distance educational therapy could be found. Further research should consider additional factors in educational therapist, students and parents

Water and Risk: Developing sustainable and resilient communities

Key Messages • Sweden has an ideal opportunity to become a more important effect, reflecting the views of several Swedish organisations active international partner in DRR and resilience activities, originating in this area. from its strong history of donor support and long engagement • Acting on this opportunity would enable timely Swedish in DRR. contributions to the increasing global debate on the need to build • The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs plays an important role resilience to a multi-risk environment. This includes small scale and in contributing to relevant global processes; mainly the successor slow-onset disasters, violent conflict, uncontrolled urbanisation, framework to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA2) the rising consumption, environmental degradation Post-2015 Agenda and associated Sustainable Development and climate change. Goals. This document outlines some recommendations to thi

On the interplay of self-esteem, social background and intelligence in predicting educational attainment and occupational success in adulthood

Eine der zentralen Fragen sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschung ist die Vorhersage sozioökonomischen Erfolges im Erwachsenenalter. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Bedeutung des Selbstwertes und dessen Zusammenspiel mit sozialer Herkunft und kognitiven Grundfähigkeiten im frühen Jugendalter für die Vorhersage des Bildungs- und beruflichen Erfolges. Spezifisch wird geprüft, ob die Faktoren interagieren und vor allem Selbstwert kompensatorisch oder verstärkend auf existierende (soziale) Herkunftsunterschiede wirkt. Dies wurde mit der längsschnittlichen Studie Bildungsverläufe und psychosoziale Entwicklung im Jugendalter und jungen Erwachsenenalter (BIJU) mit den Entwicklungen von der 7. Klasse bis ins Alter von knapp 31 Jahren untersucht. Es ließen sich Hinweise auf einen positiven Interaktionseffekt zwischen Selbstwert und sozioökonomischem Hintergrund für die Vorhersage des Bildungserfolges identifizieren. Dieser Interaktionseffekt konnte jedoch auch mit einer Interaktion zwischen sozioökonomischem Hintergrund und kognitiven Grundfähigkeiten erklärt werden. Im Hinblick auf Berufsstatus und Arbeitseinkommen deuteten sich keine Haupt- und Interaktionseffekte des Selbstwerts an. Zusammenfassend fanden sich zumindest für den Bildungserfolg im Erwachsenenalter Indizien für kumulative Vorteile aufgrund vorangehender (sozialer) Unterschiede (Matthäuseffekte). Diese waren jedoch nicht spezifisch für Selbstwert, sondern auch durch kognitive Ressourcen erklärbar. Es fanden sich keine Hinweise auf kompensatorische Effekte zwischen vorangehenden Ressourcenunterschieden. (DIPF/Orig.)One of the central questions in social science research is what predicts socioeconomic success in adulthood. This article investigates the role of self-esteem and its interplay with social background and intelligence in early adolescence in predicting educational attainment and occupational success in adulthood. Specifically, the present study tests for interactions between these factors and examines whether self-esteem, in particular, has a compensatory or amplifying effect on existing (social) background differences. To this end, it draws on data from the longitudinal study Learning Processes, Educational Careers, and Psychosocial Development in Adolescence and Young Adulthood (BIJU), tracking development from the age of 12 to 31 years. The results indicate a positive interaction effect between self-esteem and socioeconomic background in predicting educational attainment. However, this interaction effect was similarly explained by an interaction between socioeconomic background and intelligence. There were no main or interaction effects of self-esteem on occupational status or income. In sum, at least for educational attainment in adulthood, the results point to cumulative advantages of baseline (social) differences (Matthew effects). These were not specific to self-esteem, however, but were also explained by cognitive resources. No evidence was found for compensatory effects between baseline differences in resources. (DIPF/Orig.