Papers by Rainer Silbereisen
Urie Bronfenbrenners Einfluss auf die Psychologie wird charakterisiert mit besonderer Berücksicht... more Urie Bronfenbrenners Einfluss auf die Psychologie wird charakterisiert mit besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Rolle für die Forschungsagenda in der Jugendforschung. Seine Differenzierung von Entwicklungskontexten, obwohl ursprünglich vor allem ein metatheoretisches Modell, verschaffte durch spätere Erweiterungen neue konzeptionelle und methodologische Einsichten in das Wie der Interaktion zwischen Person und Kontexten, welches Entwicklungsergebnisse schafft. Seine interdisziplinäre Perspektive und seine engagiert vorgetragenen Visionen für Wissenschaft und Politik stellten für Generationen von jungen Wissenschaftlern ein Verhaltensmodell dar. (DIPF/Orig.)
Ein zentrales Problem der Erforschung von Kontexteffekten auf die menschliche Entwicklung besteht... more Ein zentrales Problem der Erforschung von Kontexteffekten auf die menschliche Entwicklung besteht darin, dass Effekte der Umwelt methodisch nur schlecht von Effekten der Erbanlagen zu trennen sind. Verhaltensgenetische Studien bieten hierfür Lösungsansätze. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über verhaltensgenetische Konzepte, die das Verständnis von Kontextwirkungen auf die psychische Entwicklung erweitert haben (geteilte und nicht geteilte Umwelt, Genom-Umwelt-Korrelation und Genom-Umwelt-Interaktion). Anschließend werden verhaltensgenetische Untersuchungsdesigns vorgestellt und sechs wichtige Befunde der Verhaltensgenetik über Kontexteffekte zusammengefasst. So zeigen Studien, dass die von den Kindern nicht geteilte Umwelt im Mittel wichtiger für die Entwicklung ist als die geteilte Umwelt, dass Umweltmerkmale - wie Elternverhalten - genetisch beeinflusst sind, und dass Zusammenhänge zwischen Umwelt- und Verhaltensmerkmalen häufig von genetischen Dispositionen beeinflus...
In dieser Arbeit wurden 827 Jugendliche aus den alten und den neuen Bundesländern im Alter 15 bis... more In dieser Arbeit wurden 827 Jugendliche aus den alten und den neuen Bundesländern im Alter 15 bis 18 Jahren zu den Bereichen Freizeitverhalten, Identitätsstatus und Merkmalen der Zukunftsplanung befragt. Zum einen wurde festgestellt, daß ost- und westdeutsche Jugendliche mit hohem Identitätsstatus auch eine genaue Planung ihrer beruflichen Zukunft sowie eine Orientierung an realistischen Lebenszielen befürworten. Zum anderen wurde gefragt, inwieweit sich das Freizeitverhalten Jugendlicher als Funktion des erreichten Identitätsstatus unterscheidet. Neben Unterschieden zwischen den Landesteilen und den Geschlechtern fand sich ein signifikanter Haupteffekt des Identitätsstatus beim devianten und beim kreativ-gestaltenden, nicht jedoch beim sozial- romantischen Freizeitverhalten. Jugendliche mit hohem Identitätsstatus zeigten eine geringere Ausprägung an deviantem sowie eine vermehrte Aktivität im kreativ-gestaltenden Freizeitverhalten. (DIPF/Orig.)
This edited volume presents an interdisciplinary collection of papers on the transition to adulth... more This edited volume presents an interdisciplinary collection of papers on the transition to adulthood, resulting from the PATHWAYS to Adulthood Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, funded by the Jacobs Foundation. The book has three sections exploring how the transition to adulthood and specifically educational opportunities and attainment are affected by (1) socioeconomic inequality; (2) motivation; and (3) social change. The section on socioeconomic inequality has four chapters, which present cross-national evidence and commentary on the prevalence and potential causes of socioeconomic inequality and limited solutions to equalising educational opportunities. Jerrim and Anders review crossnational results from a variety of international assessments (e.g. PISA and PIAAC) and national longitudinal data for Australia, Canada, UK and USA to examine when socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities emerge and how they change as young people transition into adulthood. They find that SES inequality is lowest in Canada and highest in the USA through most of the youth life course and advocate for prolonged interventions across an individual's life in order to equalise opportunity. Bringing together the range of data from kindergarten to adulthood enables the reader to get a complete picture of SES inequality in education in these four countries. Chmielweski provides convincing evidence on the prevalence of socioeconomic inequality in tracked school systems versus systems that differentiate on a course-by-course basis. She finds that SES segregation is lower in the latter and that tracking particularly affects self-concept and aspirations for university study. Low SES pupils in course-by-course systems have higher self-concept,
Gefragt, warum sie nach Deutschland übergesiedelt sind, betonen viele Aussiedlereltem, die Übersi... more Gefragt, warum sie nach Deutschland übergesiedelt sind, betonen viele Aussiedlereltem, die Übersiedlung sei "um der Kinder willen" erfolgt, die sich nun eine erfolgreiche Existenz aufbauen sollen (Interviews der Pilotbefragung EVA-A 1991). Mit dieser Erwartung ist eine große Last rur die deutschstärnmigen Jugendlichen verbunden. Sie sind die dritte, wenn nicht schon vierte Nachkriegsgeneration, die von Verfolgung während der Stalinzeit nur noch aus Erzählungen weiß. Deshalb ftihlen sie sich nicht in erster Linie als Deutsche, sondern eher als deutschstärnrnige Bürger ihres Herkunftslandes (HagerIWandeI 1978). Während unter den Rumäniendeutschen Deutsch noch gesprochene Sprache ist, beherrschen rußlanddeutsche oder polendeutsche Kinder und Jugendliche die deutsche Sprache nicht mehr (DietzlHilkes 1992). Viele junge Leute kommen nach Deutschland, ohne daß sie dies ausdrücklich gewünscht hätten (Stepien 1981). Tatsächlich berichteten in einer Befragung unter jüngeren Jugendlichen (12 bis 16 Jahre) die meisten über "gemischte Geftihle" bei der Ausreise aus dem vertrauten in einen neuen Lebensraum. Ältere dagegen, also etwa ab 17 Jahren, sprechen eher über "positive Aufbruchsstimmung" (Kossolapow 1987, S. 266). Dies mag den Hintergrund haben, daß die älteren selbst den Entschluß zur Ausreise ihrer Familie mitgetragen haben. Tatsächlich gaben aber in einer Befragung 1991 nur 40010 der erwachsenen Aussiedler an, die Entscheidung zur Übersiedlung nach Die diesem Beitrag zugrunde liegenden Daten entstammen dem interdisziplinlIren Projekt "Erfolg und Verlauf der Aneignung neuer Umwelten durch Aussiedler -EVA-A", das von 1990 bis 1993 mit finanziellen Mitteln des Bundesministeriums filr Inneres unter der Leitung von E.-D. Lantermann und R. K. Silbereisen an den Universitäten Gießen (S. Hormuth, R K. Silbereisen), Kassel (E.-D. Lantermann, 1. Weiß), Osnabrock (S. Greif) und Wuppertal (8. Six) durchgefilhrt wurde. Insbesondere Abschnitt 4 dieses Beitrags bezieht sich auf Auswertungen, die in einem frlIheren Manuskript, 39. Kongreß der Deutschen Gesellschaft filr Psychologie, Hamburg, 25.-29. September 94, ausfiIhrIich behandelt wurden.
European Psychologist, 2020
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of European Psychologist (EP). The journal was... more This year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of European Psychologist (EP). The journal was started in 1996 as the flagship journal of what was then known as the European Federation of Professional Psychologists' Associations (EFPPA), with Kurt Pawlik serving as the first Editor-in-Chief. To celebrate this milestone, we have invited all of European Psychologists' past and present Editors-in-Chief to reflect on the journal, sharing their unique perspectives, visions, and stories about changes and growth throughout the years.
Journal of Family Research, 2009
The present paper describes the development of two instruments for the direct versus indirect ass... more The present paper describes the development of two instruments for the direct versus indirect assessment of ambivalence concerning the beginning of an intimate relationship. Ambivalence was defined as coexistence of contradictory thoughts, feelings, or intentions regarding the start of an intimate relationship. The new scales show good to satisfactory psychometric properties. Ambivalence was related to neuroticism, shyness, anxious attachment representations, and low relationship quality. However, the direct assessment of ambivalence was more strongly correlated with other variables than the indirect measure. In addition, results are reported on the discriminant validity of the three subscales of the direct assessment of ambivalence. Zusammenfassung Vorgestellt wird die Entwicklung von zwei Instrumente zur direkten bzw. indirekten Erfassung von Ambivalenz in Entscheidungen über das Eingehen einer Partnerschaft. Ambivalenz wurde hierbei definiert als Nebeneinanderbestehen von sich wi...
Small Business Economics, 2018
Regional personality differences have been linked to regional entrepreneurship in Western countri... more Regional personality differences have been linked to regional entrepreneurship in Western countries. Here, we offer a first analysis of the relationship between regional personality and manifest and latent entrepreneurship in China. Because Western research has highlighted the role of an entrepreneurial constellation of the Big Five traits, we compare region-level correlates of Big Five scores with corresponding correlates of indigenous "Confucian" traits, Interpersonal Relatedness and its sub-facets Traditionalism, Renqing, Face, Discipline, and Harmony. We utilize personality data collected from a representative sample (N = 26,405) of 44 major Chinese cities. We find substantial, meaningful, and robust negative correlations of Interpersonal Relatedness and its sub-facet Traditionalism, Face, and Discipline with indicators of both manifest entrepreneurship (e.g., rate of newly-registered individuallyowned businesses) and latent entrepreneurship (e.g., number of entrepreneurship-related search queries in the leading Chinese internet search engine: Baidu.com). Robustness checks using the geographical distance to the Forbidden City in Beijing as an exogenous instrument for regional "Confucian" traits supported our findings. In contrast, regional levels in the Big Five traits and in an entrepreneurial Big Five profile were rather irrelevant (e.g., Openness was negatively associated with indicators of manifest entrepreneurship). Our results indicate the usefulness of an indigenous personality approach in the study of entrepreneurship in China. The present results give rise to the idea that in populations with less emphasis on traditional Confucian values and norms, the development of an active entrepreneurial culture is more accelerated. "Confucian" traits, entrepreneurial personality, and entrepreneurship in China: A regional analysis trajectories (e.g., entrepreneurial vitality) and is not just the product (Garretsen et al. in press;
Applied Developmental Science, 2017
We investigated whether the link between family-of-origin socioeconomic status (SES) and civic en... more We investigated whether the link between family-of-origin socioeconomic status (SES) and civic engagement in young adulthood is mediated by youth's work values, i.e., the desired characteristics of their current or future jobs. We used data from a Finnish study: 2004 (age 16-18, NT1 = 1,301); 2011 (age 23-25, N T2 = 1,096); and 2014 (age 25-27, NT3 = 1,138). A lower family SES in 2004 was negatively related to youth's civic engagement in 2014. Lower family SES predicted the importance that youth attached to extrinsic job rewards (e.g., good pay) in 2011, but not the importance of intrinsic job rewards (e.g., learning opportunities). Extrinsic work values, in turn, predicted lower civic engagement in 2014, above and beyond sociodemographic and personality characteristics. Conversely, intrinsic work values predicted higher civic engagement. Thus, extrinsic, but not intrinsic, work values partly mediated the link between SES and youth civic engagement.
Research in Human Development, 2016
Longitudinal data collected between 2005 and 2009, i.e., before and during the outset of the Glob... more Longitudinal data collected between 2005 and 2009, i.e., before and during the outset of the Global Financial Crisis, is analyzed to investigate the interplay of trajectories of perceived demands in the domains of work and family. Quadratic latent growth curve models were used to mimic the increase of demands in N = 1,296 young adults from Germany as structural uncertainty increased in the second half of the study. Although we hypothesized that these trajectories would depend on core socio-demographic variables, we found no evidence that this is the case. Demands in the different domains of functioning develop highly parallel, reflect possible spill-over effects between the domains, and seem to indicate changes of objective uncertainty during the outset of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, we find evidence for both cumulative disadvantage and inoculation effects. We argue that the global financial crisis has left a mark on individuals in terms of more perceived uncertainty and higher perceived expectations.
Time & Society, 2015
Our study focuses on everyday manifestations of contemporary socioeconomic change. For a sample o... more Our study focuses on everyday manifestations of contemporary socioeconomic change. For a sample of young- and middle-aged German employees gathered in 2008 ( N = 281), we investigate the relationship of perceived rising demands regarding (a) the labor market and (b) the workplace context with subjective job insecurity. Regression analyses reveal a positive effect of rising labor market demands on job insecurity, which is buffered by education. The effect of education on job insecurity is mediated by rising labor market demands. Rising workplace demands show no effect on job insecurity for West German employees. In contrast, East Germans who experience rising workplace demands report lower levels of job insecurity. Results are discussed with a particular focus on rising demands in employment relationships.
Approaches to Positive Youth Development
In the preceding chapter Peter Benson described the positive youth development (PYD) model of app... more In the preceding chapter Peter Benson described the positive youth development (PYD) model of applied research and its implications for action. The PYD has two central ideas: (1) development is promoted by developmental assets, both internal and external; and (2) individuals, communities, and societies vary in the qualities that promote the development of these assets. This approach offers direct guidance for both research and action. One goal of research is to identify individual, community, and society assets, and one goal of policy then is to promote the development of community and society resources that promote the development of assets. Research indicates that the more internal and external assets that youth possess, the healthier and more successful is their development into adulthood . Yet research also indicates that young people have only 16.5-21.6 assets on average of 40 identified, and youth in New York have only 5% of the optimal number of assets . The PYD approach is valuable because it (1) allows an assessment of youth's well-being and of the conditions that contribute to it and (2) provides a tool for monitoring the success of our young people and the extent to which the contexts in which they grow up promote their development, thereby serving as an important social indicator. This information then becomes critical for designing youth policies in countries across the globe. This PYD approach is also attractive for several theoretical reasons. First, its focus on positive development instead of risks or deficiencies is its overarching contribution. This view reasons that all young people have needs; youth differ not in individual qualities such as resiliency but in the extent to which their needs are met by the resources in their environment. The research and policy focus is shifted from solely focusing on individual qualities and from preventing negative behaviors to focusing on deficiencies in the environment and to promoting positive outcomes. It also tends toward universal policies, as the target is all youth, not just "those at risk." Second, this approach focuses on the whole individual, viewing socioemotional
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2013
Religiousness has been found to act as a protective factor against the adverse effects of stresso... more Religiousness has been found to act as a protective factor against the adverse effects of stressors originating from a variety of sources. Despite ample precedent in sociological theories of religion, however, the potential stress-buffering role of religiousness in relation to stressors arising from macrolevel societal trends has not received empirical scrutiny. Recent psychological conceptualizations of social and economic change (SEC) suggest that such change manifests itself in people's lives in the form of perceived demands that act as individual-level stressors and impinge on subjective well-being (SWB). Building on this line of research, we examined whether religious attendance and subjective religiosity buffered the negative association between perceived work-related demands of SEC and depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and work satisfaction in a sample of 1,581 Polish adolescents and adults aged 16 to 46 years. Analyses revealed that both dimensions of religiousness were positively related to SWB and buffered the impact of work-related demands on depressive symptoms. Contrariwise, no buffering effect of religiousness on either life or work satisfaction was found. Taken together, results partly confirm religiousness as a protective factor for SWB in relation to SEC but underscore the importance of taking the multifaceted nature of the construct into account in evaluating the interplay of stressors and religiousness.
The increasingly global world is giving rise to the new form of immigrant movement called transna... more The increasingly global world is giving rise to the new form of immigrant movement called transnationalism, characterized by immigrants' close ties with both host and home nations as well as frequent trips between the two countries. Despite lively theoretical discussion of transnationalism there is very little empirical research on patterns and predictors of transnational migration. The current study investigates predictors of group and individual variability in transnationalism within three largest immigrant groups in Germany: ethnic Germans, Russian Jews, and Turks. Impacts of context of exit and entry, demographic variables, and sociocultural retention variables on transnationalism are investigated. Results show that ethnic groups are indeed different in the frequency of visiting the country of origin, and demonstrate the importance of cultural and identification variables in predicting betweenindividual variability in transnationalism.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1996
Little is known, however, about factors that underlie individual differences in adolescent girls'... more Little is known, however, about factors that underlie individual differences in adolescent girls' reports of depression. In this study, we explored individual differences in depressive symptoms as a function of young adolescent girls' gender role orientations (i.e., level of masculinity) and the degree of sex typing in their parents' marital roles. Participants were 89 seventhand eighth-grade girls from white, rural maritally intact families. Results revealed that girls who rated themselves as more masculine and their parents' The research reported in this paper was supported by funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. We gratefully acknowledge the comments and help provided by Dr. Ann Crouter, Kimberly Updegraff, Alison Baker, and Sharon McGroder. We also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their help on this work.
Journal of Personality, 2013
ObjectiveWe investigated the relationship between dispositional optimism and coping with growing ... more ObjectiveWe investigated the relationship between dispositional optimism and coping with growing occupational uncertainty, drawing on the life span theory of control to assess coping.MethodParticipants were 606 German adults with various sociodemographic backgrounds, aged 16–43. They were interviewed at the end of 2005 (Time 1) and at the beginning of 2007 (Time 2). We regressed each control strategy at Time 2 on its scores at Time 1, optimism at Time 1, three moderating variables, and their interactions with optimism.ResultsDispositional optimism predicted an increase in both goal engagement strategies (selective primary and compensatory primary control) only under favorable conditions (low regional unemployment rate, low perceived growth in occupational uncertainty, and high perceived controllability of this stressor). Specific conditions moderating the effects of optimism differed between the two engagement strategies. In addition, an unfavorable labor market situation as such pr...
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2012
The Jena Study on Social Change and Human Development (PI: Rainer K. Silbereisen) was funded by t... more The Jena Study on Social Change and Human Development (PI: Rainer K. Silbereisen) was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as a subproject of the Collaborative Research Center 580 "Social Developments in Post-Socialistic Societies: Discontinuity, Tradition, Structural Formation" [SFB580-04-C6]. Maria K. Pavlova is a postdoctoral fellow at the GSBC, which is funded by the Federal Programme "ProExzellenz" of the Free State of Thuringia. We thank Verona Christmas-Best and the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on the manuscript.
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2012
Pavlova, M.K., & Silbereisen, R.K. (2012). Participation in voluntary organizations and volunteer... more Pavlova, M.K., & Silbereisen, R.K. (2012). Participation in voluntary organizations and volunteer work as a compensation for the absence of work or partnership? evidence from two German samples of younger and older adults.
Journal of Adolescence, 2002
The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay between parenting, adolescent academic cap... more The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay between parenting, adolescent academic capability beliefs and school grades. First, we examined how aspects of parenting and adolescent's cognitive ability predicted adolescent academic capability beliefs and school grades at 6th grade, which, in turn, predicted adolescent school outcomes at 9th grade. Second, we examined how configurations of adolescents (based on cognitive ability, parental involvement, and capability beliefs) at 6th grade, related to their school grades at 9th grade. The sample included 641 German adolescents. The first set of analyses suggest that parents who demonstrated more warmth, engaged in more discussions concerning academic and intellectual matters with their adolescents, had higher school aspirations for their adolescents, and reported more interest/ involvement in their adolescent's schooling, had adolescents with higher capability beliefs at 6th grade, and this, in turn, related to better school grades for adolescents at 9th grade. In the second set of analyses, results show that adolescents who were characterized by the configuration of having above average ability, parental school involvement and capability beliefs, received the best school grades. In contrast, adolescents who were characterized by below average ability, parental school involvement and capability beliefs, demonstrated the worst school performance.
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Papers by Rainer Silbereisen