School variation in offending: A macro-level strain approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 701-722
Author(s):  
Julia Sandahl

This study employs Macro-level Strain Theory (MST) as a framework to provide a better understanding of the way in which the structural and social context of Stockholm schools covaries with self-reported violent and general offending. The findings contribute to the literature in this area by directing a special focus at the interplay between the theory’s macro-level components and some individual-level mechanisms that may be assumed to condition the effect of strain on offending. Using multi-level data on 4789 students nested in 82 schools (violent offending) and 4643 students nested in 83 schools (general offending) in the City of Stockholm, the study notes significant contextual effects of anger, meaninglessness and life dissatisfaction on offending. School-level deprivation appears to have a confounding effect on the relationship between school-contextual negative affect and offending. Further, school-contextual anger influences some individuals more than others. Implications of these findings are discussed.

2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110223
Author(s):  
Natasha Pusch

School delinquency in public elementary, middle, and high schools has decreased in recent years, but is still a major issue that has negative mental health and academic implications for adolescents. Although research has focused on both individual-level and school-level explanations of school delinquency, it is not yet clear which macro-level criminological perspectives best explains it. Using 656 effect sizes nested within 75 studies and 30 unique datasets, this study addresses two questions using meta-analytic methods: Which macro-level criminological perspectives explain between-school differences in delinquency? Are effect sizes invariant across samples and research design? Results indicate that only concentrated disadvantage and social cohesion are significantly related to school delinquency. With the exception of concentrated disadvantage, effects are homogenous. This suggests that some school-level explanations are useful and future research should not exclude these factors. Practical implications suggest that improving social cohesion in schools may be more effective at preventing violence than target-hardening efforts.


Psihologija ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ljiljana Lazarevic ◽  
Ana Orlic

In PISA 2012 cycle, the focus was on the mathematics literacy. Data collected in PISA survey in Serbia on 4684 respondents show that students on average have significantly lower performance compared to average OECD performance. The aim of the study was to explore student (variables at the first level) and school level predictors (variables at the second level) of the PISA mathematics literacy using multi-level modelling. The most important finding is that student and school level variables are explaining variability in PISA mathematics performance almost equally. Results show that on the student level, significant predictors are gender, noncognitive characteristics (mathematics anxiety, mathematics self-efficacy, mathematics self-concept, openness for problem-solving), student perceived teaching quality and studying habits. Results also indicate that several school-level variables have direct effects on the PISA math performance and that several school-level variables moderate the relationship between student characteristics and PISA performance.


2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (10) ◽  
pp. 2221-2231 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. M. Menezes ◽  
K. Georgiades ◽  
M. H. Boyle

BackgroundMany studies have reported an increased incidence of psychiatric disorder (particularly psychotic disorders) among first generation adult immigrants, along with an increasing risk for ethnic minorities living in low-minority concentration neighborhoods. These studies have depended mostly on European case-based databases. In contrast, North American studies have suggested a lower risk for psychiatric disorder in immigrants, although the effect of neighborhood immigrant concentration has not been studied extensively.MethodUsing multi-level modeling to disaggregate individual from area-level influences, this study examines the influence of first generation immigrant status at the individual level, immigrant concentration at the neighborhood-level and their combined effect on 12-month prevalence of mood, anxiety and substance-dependence disorders and lifetime prevalence of psychotic disorder, among Canadians.ResultsIndividual-level data came from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 1.2, a cross-sectional study of psychiatric disorder among Canadians over the age of 15 years; the sample for analysis wasn=35 708. The CCHS data were linked with neighborhood-level data from the Canadian Census 2001 for multi-level logistic regression. Immigrant status was associated with a lower prevalence of psychiatric disorder, with an added protective effect for immigrants living in neighborhoods with higher immigrant concentrations. Immigrant concentration was not associated with elevated prevalence of psychiatric disorder among non-immigrants.ConclusionsThe finding of lower 12-month prevalence of psychiatric disorder in Canadian immigrants, with further lessening as the neighborhood immigrant concentration increases, reflects a model of person–environment fit, highlighting the importance of studying individual risk factors within environmental contexts.


ILR Review ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangmin Liu ◽  
Rosemary Batt

This study examines the relationship between informal training and job performance among 2,803 telephone operators in a large unionized U.S. telecommunications company. The authors analyze individual-level data on monthly training hours and job performance over a five-month period in 2001 as provided by the company's electronic monitoring system. The results indicate that the receipt of informal training was associated with higher productivity over time, when unobserved individual heterogeneity is taken into account. Workers with lower pre-training proficiency showed greater improvements over time than did those with higher pre-training proficiency. Finally, whether the trainer was a supervisor or a peer also mattered: workers with below-average pre-training proficiency achieved greater productivity gains through supervisor training, while workers with average pre-training proficiency achieved greater productivity gains through peer training.


1991 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
PER SELLE ◽  
LARS SVÅSAND

This article questions assumptions in the literature dealing with party decline. First, European aggregate membership data do not support a general conclusion of party decline. Second, individual-level data for Norway demonstrate the complexities of the relationship between membership, party identification, activity in parties, and membership stability. Third, we discuss societal changes commonly associated with party decline, such as the rise of corporatism, the new political movements, and the rise of the electronic media. The aurthors argue that these developments change the structural position of parties (external) and the relationship between different levels of the party organization itself (internal). While such developments may lead to party decline, they also give party organizations new political maneuverability. Furthermore, the growth of new parties, the politicization of new arenas, and the nationalization of party apparatuses counteract the factors associated with party decline.


2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 208-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Stratton ◽  
D.L. Mowat ◽  
R. Wilkins ◽  
M. Tjepkema

Introduction To understand the lack of a gradient in mortality by neighbourhood income in a previous study, we used individual-level data from the 1991–2001 Canadian census mortality follow-up study to examine income-related disparities in life expectancy and probability of survival to age 75 years in the City of Toronto and Region of Peel. Methods We calculated period life tables for each sex and income adequacy quintile, overall and separately for immigrants and non-immigrants. Results For all cohort members of both sexes, including both immigrants and non-immigrants, there was a clear gradient across the income quintiles, with higher life expectancy in each successively richer quintile. However, the disparities by income were much greater when the analysis was restricted to non-immigrants. The lesser gradient for immigrants appeared to reflect the higher proportion of recent immigrants in the lower income quintiles. Conclusion These findings highlight the importance of using individual-level ascertainment of income whenever possible, and of including immigrant status and period of immigration in assessments of health outcomes, especially for areas with a high proportion of immigrants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-641
Author(s):  
Julian Strizek ◽  
Josefine Atzendorf ◽  
Ludwig Kraus ◽  
Karin Monshouwer ◽  
Alexandra Puhm ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundNot much is known about the correlation between gaming problems and substance use across different countries. This paper presents cross-national analyses of different gaming indicators and their relationship to substance use.MethodsBased on data from the 2015 ESPAD study, differences in the relationship between gaming and substance use across 35 countries were analysed using multi-level logistic regression, using substance use as an individual level predictor, economic wealth as a country-level predictor and a combined problem gaming indicator as the outcome.ResultsMulti-level logistic regressions revealed significant correlations between individual substance use and gaming problems, which varied across countries and were moderated by economic wealth. Students who used alcohol, tobacco or cannabis and who lived in high-income countries had a smaller risk of scoring positively on a combined problem gaming indicator than students who used alcohol, tobacco or cannabis and who lived in less prosperous countries.DiscussionDifferent gaming indicators varied substantially across countries, with self-perceived gaming problems being more common in countries with a low prevalence of gaming. Significant cross-level effects demonstrate the need to take the societal context into account when the relationship between problem gaming and substance use is analysed. Prevention measures need to take the fact into account that patterns of substance use among problem gamers vary across countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 21-45
Author(s):  
George Hawley

Political scientists have long examined the degree to which the American electorate exhibits partisan and ideological polarization and sought to explain the causal mechanism driving this phenomenon. Some scholars have argued that there is an increasing degree of geographic polarization of the electorate—that is, a large percentage of geographic units are becoming less politically heterogeneous. In this study, I argue that the two trends are related. Using individual-level data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey, I examine the relationship between local partisan context and political attitudes using multilevel models. I find that, as the local political context becomes less competitive in national elections; those in the local political majority become more ideologically extreme, strengthen their partisan attachments, and hold more polarized attitudes toward the two major-party presidential candidates. These findings suggest that the growing geo- graphic partisan segregation of the electorate is an important source of ideological and partisan polarization.


Author(s):  
Ramona Sue McNeal ◽  
Mary Schmeida ◽  
Lisa Dotterweich Bryan

Early researchers had predicted that the Internet might help to encourage political participation through its ability to make political information more accessible. Unfortunately, disparities in Internet access made it unlikely that the Internet would have much of an impact on voter turnout. Telecommunication technology has evolved and among these new advances is smartphones, which help to increase Internet access. The purpose of this chapter is to examine this argument by exploring the relationship between smartphone ownership and voting. This topic is explored using multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the 2012 American National Election Studies. Findings suggest that smartphones are helping to increase voter turnout through their ability to facilitate other online activities such as visiting candidate websites and taking part in political discussion through social networking sites.


Author(s):  
Ramona Sue McNeal ◽  
Mary Schmeida ◽  
Lisa Dotterweich Bryan

Early researchers had predicted that the Internet might help to encourage political participation through its ability to make political information more accessible. Unfortunately, disparities in Internet access made it unlikely that the Internet would have much of an impact on voter turnout. Telecommunication technology has evolved and among these new advances is smartphones, which help to increase Internet access. The purpose of this chapter is to examine this argument by exploring the relationship between smartphone ownership and voting. This topic is explored using multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the 2012 American National Election Studies. Findings suggest that smartphones are helping to increase voter turnout through their ability to facilitate other online activities such as visiting candidate websites and taking part in political discussion through social networking sites.


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