To use it or not to use it: differences between adolescent males carrying a weapon and those using it in a fight

Purpose Data indicate that 19% of male adolescents living in Switzerland carried a weapon in the last 12 months. The main objective of this research is to compare the characteristics of male adolescents carrying a weapon and having used it in a fight from those who have carried but not used it in the previous 12 months. Methods Data were drawn from the 2002 Swiss Multicenter Adolescent Survey on Health (SMASH02) data base, a survey including 7,548[3,710 males] in-school adolescents aged 16-20 years in Switzerland. Only males declaring having carried a weapon (N = 711; 19.2% of the sample) were included in the analysis. Three groups were created: those not having used a weapon (WO; N = 538 subjects), those having used a weapon in a fight once or twice (W12; N = 127), and those having used a weapon in a fight 3 or more times (W3+; N = 46). Multinomial logistic regression was performed to compare the 3 groups on individual, family, school, and social factors using WO as the reference category. Analyses were performed with STATA9. Results are presented as relative risk ratios (RRR). Results W12 males were significantly more likely to perceive their puberty as advanced compared to their peers (RRR: 2.1), to be foreign born (RRR: 2.6), to live in an urban environment (RRR: 1.9), to be in vocational school (RRR: 4.7), to have a poor school connectedness (RRR: 1.8), to skip classes (RRR: 2.1) and to quarrel while intoxicated (RRR: 5.3). W3+ males were significantly more likely to be foreign born (RRR: 3.6) and to live in an urban environment (RRR: 2.4), to be current users of illegal drugs other than cannabis (RRR: 3.8) and to quarrel while intoxicated (RRR: 4.1). No differences were found between groups for tobacco, alcohol, or cannabis use. Conclusions Within a national sample of Swiss youth aged 16-20 years, almost one fifth of male adolescents have carried a weapon in the previous 12 months. Nevertheless, most of them (75.7%) have never used a weapon in a fight. Whether they carry a weapon for defense purposes or as a manly behavior remains to be elucidated. However, urban foreign-born adolescents who quarrel while intoxicated are the most at risk of using a weapon in a fight, and therefore culturally-sensitive prevention approaches need to be developed to decrease violence in this specific population of youth. Having school problems or using illegal drugs other than cannabis seem to differentiate between those who use it in a fight occasionally (once or twice) and those who do it more often.

Comportamentos de saúde e doença numa comunidade Cabo-Verdiana em Lisboa

O objetivo foi compreender como os indivíduos se comportam em termos de saúde e o que fazem em caso de doença. Análise comparativa realçou semelhanças e divergências de práticas de saúde ou em caso de doença. O estudo foi efetuado numa amostra de 40 cabo-verdianos da primeira geração residentes na região de Lisboa, dividida em subgrupos: grupo social, geração e genero. Baseou-se em metodologia qualitativa com entrevistas semi-estruturadas. As práticas analisadas foram agrupadas em preventivas e de saúde, práticas utilizadas em episódios de doença, recursos para prevenção e tratamento, utilização de remédios caseiros e outros recursos ou terapeutas. Indivíduos experimentaram, ao nível das práticas, três sistemas de saúde que coexistiam em Cabo Verde, oficial, popular e tradicional e o recurso à religião. O discurso acerca das práticas de saúde e de doença demonstrou existirem diferenças, em alguns aspectos, entre grupos sociais e entre generos e gerações. Práticas de saúde destes imigrantes são idênticas às dos portugueses em contextos socioeconomicos semelhantes. Resultados sugerem existência de diferenças entre grupos sociais relativamente às práticas, na esfera da saúde e da doença. Mais que cultura e etnicidade, que se moldam às condições materiais de existência, neste estudo, o nível socioeconomico determinou as maiores diferenças a interferir nas práticas de saúde e doença, de grupo com cultura de base comum. Em geral, os indivíduos sobrevalorizaram sua identidade étnica e cultura de origem. Pertencimento a grupos sociais diferentes dá origem a partilha do sentimento de pertença cultural, mas não a comportamentos e práticas idênticos.

Active civic participation of immigrants in Portugal

Portugal’s historical past strongly influences the composition of the country’s immigrant population. The main third-country foreign nationals in Portugal originate traditionally from Portuguese-speaking African countries (namely Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and S. Tomé e Príncipe) and Brazil. In 2001, a newly created immigrant status entitled “permanence” authorization uncovered a quantitative and a qualitative change in the structure of immigrant population in Portugal. First, there was a quantitative jump from 223.602 foreigners in 2001 to 364.203 regularized foreigners in 2003. Secondly, there was a substantial qualitative shift in the composition of immigrants. The majority of the new immigrants began coming from Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, and the Russian Federation. Thus, European countries outside the E.U. zone now rank second (after African countries) in their contribution of individuals to the stocks of immigrant population in Portugal. The differences between the new and traditional immigration flows are visible in the geographical distribution of immigrants and in their insertion into the labour market. While the traditional flows would congregate around the metropolitan area of Lisbon and in the Algarve, the new migratory flows tend to be more geographically dispersed and present in less urbanized areas of Portugal. In terms of insertion in the labour market, although the construction sector is still the most important industry for immigrant labour, Eastern European workers may also be found in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The institutional conditions that encourage immigrants’ civic participation are divided at three different levels: the state, the local, and the civil society levels. At the state level, the High Commissioner for Migrations and Ethnic Minorities is the main organizational structure along with a set of interrelated initiatives operating under specific regulatory frameworks, which act as mediators between state officials and the Portuguese civil society, and more specifically, immigrant communities. At the local level, some municipalities created consultative councils and municipal departments aiming at encouraging the participation and representation of interests from immigrant groups and association in local policies. In the civil society sphere, the main actors in Portugal spurring immigrants civic participation are immigrant associations, mainstream associations directed toward immigration topics, and unions. The legal conditions framing immigrants’ access to social housing, education, health, and social security in Portugal are also considered to be positive. Conditions restricting immigrants’ civic participation are mainly normative and include the Portuguese nationality law, the regulations shaping the political participation of immigrants, namely in what concerns their right to vote, and employment regulations restricting immigrants’ access to public administration positions. Part II of the report focuses on the active civic participation of third country immigrants. First, reasons for the lack of research on this issue in Portugal are explained. On the one hand, the recent immigration history and the more urgent needs regarding school and economic integration kept this issue out of the research spotlight. On the other hand, it was just in the beginning of the 1990s that immigrants took the very first steps toward collective mobilisation. Secondly, the literature review of Portuguese bibliography covers research on third country immigrants’ associative movement, research on local authorities’ policies and discussion about ethnic politics and political mobilisation of immigrants in Portugal. As political mobilisation of these groups has been made mainly through ethnic and/or migrant organisations, a brief history of immigrants' associative movement is given. Immigrant associations develop multiple roles, covering the social, the cultural, the economic and the political domains. Political claiming for the regularisation of illegal immigrants has been a permanent and important field of intervention since the mid-1990s. Research results reveal the com5 plex relations between ethnic mobilisation and the set of legal and institutional frameworks developed by local and national governmental authorities targeted to the incorporation of minority groups. Case studies on the Oeiras district and on the Amadora district are then presented. Conclusions underline that the most active immigrant groups are those from Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, since these groups have constituted a higher number of ethnic associations, give priority to political claiming and present a more politicised discourse. Reflecting on the future of research on civic participation of third country immigrants in Portugal, the authors state that it would be interesting and relevant to compare the Portuguese situation with those of other European countries, with an older immigration history, and analyse how the Portuguese immigrants’ associative movement will be affected by a changing legal framework and the emergence of new opportunities within the set of structures regarding the political participation of minority groups.

Comportamentos de saúde e doença numa comunidade Cabo-Verdiana em Lisboa

This study aims at analysing, through personal reports, the way individuals behave in terms of health and illness. A comparative analysis of the collected data was performed, with the purpose of highlighting divergences in the health and illness practices. The study was undertaken with a sample of 40 «first generation» Cape Verdeans living in the Metropolitan area of Lisbon, divided into distinct groups: social (popular and elite), generation (younger and older) and gender (men and women). A qualitative methodology was employed, by conducting semi-structured interviews for the collection of information. The health and illness practices were grouped into preventive and health care practices, practices used in episodes of illness, resources used for prevention and treatment, use of home remedies, and other alternative resources. Individuals who are part of our study experimented, at the level of practices, with the three health systems that existed in Cape Verde, namely, the official, popular and traditional, and recourse to religion. The discourse analysis concerning health and disease practices showed there are differences, in some respects, between social groups. There were also slight differences between genders and generations. These immigrants’ health practices are identical to those of the Portuguese who are in similar socioeconomic contexts, with no significant effects of immigration itself on these practices. The analysis of the results confirms the existence of differences between social groups concerning the health and illness practices. They were more determined by the socioeconomic factors than by the cultural and ethnic aspects. Those differences also highlighted the existence of a unifying aspect, resulting from their cultural heritage. Although belonging to different social groups, the existence of a common culture and ethnic identity originates a shared feeling of cultural belonging, but not identical behaviours and practices.

How wide is the gap? An investigation of gender wage differences using quantile regression

In this paper we examine the determinants of wages and decompose theobserved differences across genders into the "explained by differentcharacteristics" and "explained by different returns components"using a sample of Spanish workers. Apart from the conditionalexpectation of wages, we estimate the conditional quantile functionsfor men and women and find that both the absolute wage gap and thepart attributed to different returns at each of the quantiles, farfrom being well represented by their counterparts at the mean, aregreater as we move up in the wage range.

Why do differences in the degree of fiscal decentralization endure?

A notable difference between the U.S. and many countries in Europe is in the degree of fiscal decentralization. Regional (and local) governments in the U.S. have significant autonomy in setting their own taxes and determining how to spend their revenues. This is not true of their counterparts in Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and many other European countries. In recent years, many countries formerly subject to dictatorshipsor communism have been considering decentralizing fiscal responsibility to sub-national governments as part of the process of democratization (see Bird and Ebel, forthcoming). Yet, much of Europe remains immune to adopting effective decentralization in which sub-national units have true taxing authority.

Comportamentos de saúde e doença numa comunidade Cabo-Verdiana em Lisboa

O objetivo foi compreender como os indivíduos se comportam em termos de saúde e o que fazem em caso de doença. Análise comparativa realçou semelhanças e divergências de práticas de saúde ou em caso de doença. O estudo foi efetuado numa amostra de 40 cabo-verdianos da primeira geração residentes na região de Lisboa, dividida em subgrupos: grupo social, geração e genero. Baseou-se em metodologia qualitativa com entrevistas semi-estruturadas. As práticas analisadas foram agrupadas em preventivas e de saúde, práticas utilizadas em episódios de doença, recursos para prevenção e tratamento, utilização de remédios caseiros e outros recursos ou terapeutas. Indivíduos experimentaram, ao nível das práticas, três sistemas de saúde que coexistiam em Cabo Verde, oficial, popular e tradicional e o recurso à religião. O discurso acerca das práticas de saúde e de doença demonstrou existirem diferenças, em alguns aspectos, entre grupos sociais e entre generos e gerações. Práticas de saúde destes imigrantes são idênticas às dos portugueses em contextos socioeconomicos semelhantes. Resultados sugerem existência de diferenças entre grupos sociais relativamente às práticas, na esfera da saúde e da doença. Mais que cultura e etnicidade, que se moldam às condições materiais de existência, neste estudo, o nível socioeconomico determinou as maiores diferenças a interferir nas práticas de saúde e doença, de grupo com cultura de base comum. Em geral, os indivíduos sobrevalorizaram sua identidade étnica e cultura de origem. Pertencimento a grupos sociais diferentes dá origem a partilha do sentimento de pertença cultural, mas não a comportamentos e práticas idênticos.

On the accuracy of Latin American trade statistics: A nonparametric test for 1925

This paper proposes a nonparametric test in order to establish the level of accuracy of theforeign trade statistics of 17 Latin American countries when contrasted with the trade statistics of the main partners in 1925. The Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Ranks test is used to determine whether the differences between the data registered by exporters and importers are meaningful, and if so, whether the differences are systematic in any direction. The paper tests for the reliability of the data registered for two homogeneous products, petroleum and coal, both in volume and value. The conclusion of the several exercises performed is that we cannot accept the existence of statistically significant differences between the data provided by the exporters and the registered by the importing countries in most cases. The qualitative historiography of Latin American describes its foreign trade statistics as mostly unusable. Our quantitative results contest this view.

Regional differences in socio-economic health inequalities in Spain

This paper reports an analysis of income related health inequalities at the AutonomousCommunity level in Spain using the self assessed health measure in the 2001 edition of theEncuesta Nacional de Salud. We use recently developed methods in order to cardinalise andmodel self assessed health within a regression framework, decompose the sources ofinequality and explain the observed differences across regions. We find that the regions with the highest levels of mean health tend to enjoy the lowest degrees of income related health inequality and vice-versa. The main feature characterizing regions where income related health inequality is low is the absence of a positive gradient between income and health. In turn, the regions where income related health inequality is greater are characterized by a strong and significant positive gradient between health and income. These results suggest that policies aimed at eliminating the gradient between health and income can potentially lead to greate r reductions in socio-economic health inequalities than policies aimed at redistributing income.

Leadership and individual differences: at the cusp of a renaissance

In this introductory editorial, we provide a brief overview of the history of individual difference research in leadership. We explain the major challenges that trait research faced, and why it was revived primarily because of methodological advancements. Next, we argue that leadership individual difference research is at a cusp of a renaissance. We explain why we are at this cusp and what researchers should do reify the renaissance in terms of theoretical extensions of trait models, the application of robust methodological advancements, and the development of process models linking distal (i.e., traits) predictors to proximal predictors (e.g., behaviors, skills, attitudes), and the latter to leader outcomes. We then summarize the papers we accepted for the special issue, and conclude with an optimistic note for leadership individual difference research.