Jewish Religious Intermarriage in Canada

Drawing on secondary literature, this paper first identifies trends in Jewish religious intermarriage in Canada—including variation over time, gender, age and community size. It then critically examines results from the 2018 Survey of Jews in Canada to explore factors associated with intermarriage. Binary logistic regression demonstrates that intermarriage is significantly and independently associated with residing in cities other than Montreal and Toronto, relative youth, male gender, having little Jewish secondary socialization outside the family and having both parents born in Canada. The statistically positive effect of having intermarried parents on children’s likelihood of intermarriage falls if children attend full-time Jewish school and summer camp with Jewish content. The effect disappears if at least one parent is an immigrant. These findings imply that the rising rate of intermarriage can be significantly mitigated if the Jewish community finds the means to increase the proportion of children who undergo intensive Jewish secondary socialization and the proportion of immigrants in the Jewish community. The paper concludes by discussing policies that could facilitate this outcome.   En s’appuyant sur la littérature secondaire, cet article identifie d’abord les tendances des mariages interreligieux juifs au Canada, y compris les variations dans le temps, le sexe, l’âge et la taille des communautés. Il examine ensuite de manière critique les résultats de l’enquête de 2018 sur les Juifs au Canada afin d’étudier les facteurs associés aux mariages mixtes. La régression logistique binaire démontre que les mariages mixtes sont associés de manière significative et indépendante à la résidence dans des villes autres que Montréal et Toronto, à la jeunesse relative, au sexe masculin, à une faible socialisation secondaire juive en dehors de la famille et au fait que les deux parents sont nés au Canada. L’effet statistiquement positif du fait d’avoir des parents mariés à des non-Juifs sur la probabilité de mariage mixte diminue si les enfants fréquentent une école juive à temps plein et un camp d’été à contenu juif. L’effet disparait si au moins un des parents est un immigrant. Ces résultats impliquent que le taux croissant de mariages mixtes peut être considérablement atténué si la communauté juive trouve les moyens d’augmenter la proportion d’enfants qui poursuivent une socialisation secondaire juive intensive et la proportion d’immigrants dans la communauté juive. L’article conclut en discutant des politiques qui pourraient faciliter ce résultat

Parental Discipline and Child Abuse

This thesis demonstrates the explanatory benefits that derive from reconceptualising child abuse as a form of child discipline. By testing five theories of child discipline on data derived from a random sample of Toronto families, it is shown that various styles of child discipline--labelled violent, mixed and proactive-- are influenced to varying degrees by different subsets of causes, and that the importance of different subsets of causes varies by parent's gender. Methodological and practical issues pertaining to the study and prevention of child abuse are also discussed. Specifically, the thesis shows that: (1) The important factors determining the use of violent disciplining by mothers are belief in the efficacy of physical punishment and family income. Only employment status was able to explain variation in the fathers' use of a violent discipline style. (2) In the case of the proactive, positive discipline pattern, there is a strong social learning component. Childhood experience with proactive discipline is the single most important predictive factor for both mothers and fathers. Fathers who work fewer hours are also more likely to use a proactive discipline style. (3) The intergenerational transmission of discipline patterns further accounts for the greatest amount of variation in the fathers' use of the mixed style. Scores also increase according to the amount of time that fathers spend with their children. In the case of the mothers, the important factors were number of hours employed, belief in the efficacy of physical punishment, and whether the mother was raised with this style as a child.Ph.D