In recent years, a widespread consensus has emerged about the necessity of establishing bridges between quantitative and qualitative approaches to empirical research in political science. In this ...article, we discuss the use of the synthetic control method as a way to bridge the quantitative/qualitative divide in comparative politics. The synthetic control method provides a systematic way to choose comparison units in comparative case studies. This systematization opens the door to precise quantitative inference in small-sample comparative studies, without precluding the application of qualitative approaches. Borrowing the expression from Sidney Tarrow, the synthetic control method allows researchers to put "qualitative flesh on quantitative bones." We illustrate the main ideas behind the synthetic control method by estimating the economic impact of the 1990 German reunification on West Germany.
Parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic is highly challenging, with parents having to meet various demands simultaneously. An increase in adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has been widely ...predicted, but empirical evidence is still scarce. This study aimed to (1) generate representative data on pandemic-related stress, parental stress, general stress, parental subjective and mental health, and the occurrence of ACEs; (2) identify risk factors for an increase in ACEs, and (3) provide qualitative data on parents’ experiences. A representative survey was conducted in Germany in August 2020 with 1024 parents of underage children (
M
age
= 41.70, 50.9% female). More than 50% of parents reported being stressed by social distancing and the closure of schools and childcare facilities. Parental stress increased significantly during the pandemic (
d
= 0.21). Subgroups of parents also reported very high levels of depressive symptoms (12.3%) and anxiety (9.7%). Up to one-third of the sample reported ACEs in the child’s lifetime. In this group, 29.1% reported an increase in children witnessing domestic violence during the pandemic, and 42.2% an increase verbal emotional abuse. These families were characterized by higher parental stress, job losses, and younger parent and child age. Positive aspects of the pandemic related primarily to personal or family life (e.g. slower pace of life, increase in family time). While some parents coped well, a particularly negative pattern was observed in a subgroup of families that experienced an increase in ACEs. Parental stress emerged as important target point for interventions addressing the negative sequelae of the pandemic.
Why do voters agree to bear the costs of bailing out other countries? Despite the prominence of public opinion in the ongoing debate over the eurozone bailouts, voters' preferences on the topic are ...poorly understood. We conduct the first systematic analysis of this issue using observational and experimental survey data from Germany, the country shouldering the largest share of the EU's financial rescue fund. Testing a range of theoretical explanations, we find that individuals' own economic standing has limited explanatory power in accounting for their position on the bailouts. In contrast, social dispositions such as altruism and cosmopolitanism robustly correlate with support for the bailouts. The results indicate that the divide in public opinion over the bailouts does not reflect distributive lines separating domestic winners and losers. Instead, the bailout debate is better understood as a foreign policy issue that pits economic nationalist sentiments versus greater cosmopolitan affinity and other-regarding concerns.
Segregation along lines of race/ethnicity and class has created multi‐ethnic and rather class‐homogeneous neighbourhoods in various European cities, commonly labelled as ‘disadvantaged’. Such ...neighbourhoods are often seen as ‘lacking’ community, as local networks are crucial for belonging and mixed neighbourhoods are too diverse to provide homogeneous identifications. However, in contrast to the understandings of the sociology of community, people might still experience ‘belonging’, yet in different ways. This article argues that we have to focus on the under‐researched ‘time in‐between’ (Byrne, 1978), the absent ties that Granovetter (1973) pointed to, to understand belonging, while moving away from a conception of the anonymous city and from the urban village. This article explores how absent ties affect belonging by empirically sustaining the notion of public familiarity: both recognizing and being recognized in local spaces. Using regression models on survey data from two mixed neighbourhoods in Berlin, Germany, we analyse the importance of neighbourhood use for public familiarity as well as how it relates to residents' comfort zone: people's feeling of belonging and their sense that others would intervene on their behalf. Our findings indicate that research on neighbourhoods could benefit greatly from a careful consideration of the ‘time in‐between’.
The German parental leave reform of 2007 created a new incentive for men to take parental leave by introducing ‘daddy months’: 2 months of well-remunerated leave exclusively reserved for fathers. ...Against the backdrop of the reform, this study examines how fathers’ uptake of parental leave affects the amount of time they spend on paid work, housework, and childcare after the leave has ended. It investigates whether the effect of parental leave differs by the length of leave taken and by whether fathers took the leave alone or at the same time as their partners. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2006 to 2012 and Families in Germany from 2010 to 2012, the results of fixed-effects regressions indicate that fathers who took parental leave subsequently reallocated their time from work to home. They reduced their working hours and increased their involvement in childcare even after short and joint periods of parental leave. But only those who took >2 months of leave or were on leave while their partner was working subsequently increased their participation in housework. Hence, fathers increased their involvement in childcare already after short leaves, whereas enhanced gender equality in couples’ division of labour especially emerged after longer or solo leaves.
Background and aims
Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is included as a condition for further study in Section 3 of the DSM‐5. Nine criteria were proposed with a threshold of five or more criteria ...recommended for diagnosis. The aims of this study were to assess how the specific criteria contribute to diagnosis and to estimate prevalence rates of IGD based on DSM‐5 recommendations.
Design
Large‐scale, state‐representative school survey using a standardized questionnaire.
Setting
Germany (Lower Saxony).
Participants
A total of 11 003 ninth‐graders aged 13–18 years (mean = 14.88, 51.09% male).
Measurements
IGD was assessed with a DSM‐5 adapted version of the Video Game Dependency Scale that covered all nine criteria of IGD.
Findings
In total, 1.16% 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96, 1.36 of respondents were classified with IGD according to DSM‐5 recommendations. IGD students played games for longer periods, skipped school more often, had lower grades in school, reported more sleep problems and more often endorsed feeling ‘addicted to gaming’ than their non‐IGD counterparts. The most frequently reported DSM‐5 criteria overall were ‘escape adverse moods’ (5.30%) and ‘preoccupation’ (3.91%), but endorsement of these criteria rarely related to IGD diagnosis. Conditional inference trees showed that the criteria ‘give up other activities’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘withdrawal’ were of key importance for identifying IGD as defined by DSM‐5.
Conclusions
Based on a state‐wide representative school survey in Germany, endorsement of five or more criteria of DSM‐5 internet gaming disorder (IGD) occurred in 1.16% of the students, and these students evidence greater impairment compared with non‐IGD students. Symptoms related to ‘give up other activities’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘withdrawal’ are most relevant for IGD diagnosis in this age group.
In this paper, the authors investigate how Twitter is used for political communication during election periods with a specific focus on characteristics and communication behavior of influential ...accounts. Our analysis focuses on the state parliament election in Berlin (Germany) on 18 September 2011. Tweets of the top-30 most retweeted users are analyzed with respect to content-related features such as emotionality, appraisal of political parties or politicians, and topics. Furthermore, the authors test hypotheses regarding the relationship between sentiment in terms of emotionality and appraisals occurring in tweets and their quantity and speed of dissemination. Our work helps both researchers and politicians to better understand the nature of influentials in political communication and the role of sentiment in information diffusion on Twitter.
In this article, we examine the programmatic reactions to the rise of populist parties. It has been argued that populism is not necessarily the prerogative of populist parties; it has been adopted by ...mainstream parties as well. The article investigates whether populism is contagious. On the basis of the results of a content analysis of election manifestos of parties in five Western European countries (France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom), we conclude that the programmes of mainstream parties have not become more populist in recent years. We find no evidence that mainstream parties change their programmes when confronted with electoral losses or successful populist challengers. Yet, we do find that populist parties change their own programmes when they have been successful: Their initial success makes them tone down their populism.
•We conducted an online survey with 581 SNS users.•We developed a scale measuring SNS addiction.•SNS specific motives mediate the effect of intrinsic needs on SNS addiction.•People try to compensate ...thwarted intrinsic needs with gratifications from SNS use.•Gratifications sought from SNS use can cause addictive SNS usage patterns.
The present paper aims at exploring the new phenomenon of social network site (SNS) addiction and at identifying predictors of problematic SNS use. For this purpose, a scale measuring addictive behavior specifically with regard to SNS use was developed. The effects of intrinsic need satisfaction in the offline context and of SNS-specific motives on SNS addiction were tested in an online-survey among 581 SNS users in Germany. It was hypothesized that motives mediate the influence of thwarted intrinsic need satisfaction on addictive behavior on SNSs. More precisely, we assumed that a lack of autonomy leads to a higher motivation to use SNSs for self-presentation and escapism, a lack of competence predicts the motive to use SNSs for acquiring information and self-presentation, and a lack of relatedness fosters users’ motives to use SNSs for self-presentation and meeting new people. These motives, in turn, were predicted to be associated with higher levels of SNS addiction. All proposed mediation models were supported by the data. The results emphasize the importance of incorporating both offline need satisfaction and gratifications sought through the use of SNS to provide a comprehensive perspective on addictive behavior on SNSs.
Historicamente, Alemanha construiu o maior parque industrial fora do seu próprio território no estado de São Paulo. Várias empresas multinacionais instalaram-se no Brasil como a Volkswagen e a ...Siemens que são objetos do presente artigo. Em 1975, foi assinado o maior acordo nuclear da história industrial entre Brasil e República Federal da Alemanha (RFA). Todavia, nem sempre a história dos negócios teuto-brasileiros foi bem-sucedida. O objetivo deste trabalho é compreender a atuação empresarial alemã e as violações de direitos humanos que ocorreram atreladas a ela durante a ditadura militar brasileira. A pergunta de pesquisa é: Quais fatores justificaram a atuação empresarial alemã em conluio com a junta militar? A hipótese é: Alemanha necessitou da privação de direitos da população para projetar seus negócios lucrativos no Brasil. A metodologia usada é qualitativa baseada em arquivos da Alemanha, do Brasil e dos EUA e na revisão da literatura sobre a temática.
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