Chris Baerveldt

Assessing Cross-Cultural Item Bias in Questionnaires Acculturation and the Measurement of Social Support and Family Cohesion for Adolescents

A method is presented for evaluating the presence and size of cross-cultural item biases. The examined items concern parental support and family cohesion in a Likert-type questionnaire for adolescents in The Netherlands. Each evaluated item has two versions, a collectivist and an individualistic one, that measure the same theoretical construct. The standardized difference between the score means of the item versions, called the Δe score, gives an indication of the cultural bias of the item. As expected, most items were found to yield a higher Δe when respondents scored low on an individualistic scale for acculturation or originated from countries that are (more) collectivist. This procedure is recommended for use in testing items in pilot studies.

Social capital in the classroom: a study of in-class social capital and school adjustment

Social capital is generally considered beneficial for students’ school adjustment. This paper argues that social relationships among pupils generate social capital at both the individual and the class levels, and that each has its unique effect on pupils’ performance and well-being. The sample in this study consists of 1036 children in 60 first-grade classes in 46 Dutch elementary schools. Multilevel regression results show that a substantial proportion of the variance in school adjustment can be attributed to the class level and that both individual-level and classroom-level social capital have substantial effects on school adjustment. At the individual level, the size of one’s network is more important than its structure. At the collective level, social capital also has a ‘dark side’ because it can have negative effects on adjustment, lowering the academic performance in a class.

Assessing a moral panic relating to crime and drugs policy in the Netherlands: Towards a testable theory

Using criteria from recent work by Goode and Ben Yehuda, this article tests the hypothesis that a moral panic relating to (youth) crime has been going on in the Netherlands since 1990. Most of the criteria are met. There is concern about the problem of crime and a consensus on solutions. There are also indications that public disquiet grew out of proportion compared to trends in crime and victimization, and that the panic erupted fairly suddenly. It is not possible to identify a clearer scapegoat than a diffuse image of “the” criminal. It is unclear what caused this panic. It seems unlikely that the panic started as a reaction to public problems, but nor is it possible to state that elites started it or that it was caused by bureaucratic processes at an intermediate level. Several methodological problems connected with the testing of the criteria are discussed. It is recommended that one criterion be added: that of misdirection of reactions to a social problem. It is also recommended that future research should be comparative, either comparing several minor local panics, or comparing panics or non-panics related to equivalent social problems.

Social Discrimination in Classrooms: The Contribution of a Social Networks Approach to Theory and Methods, and Empirical Evidence

Policy makers have promoted ethnically mixed school populations, the underlying assumption being that an ethnic mix improves interethnic contacts and consequently prevents social discrimination. However, scientific research did not decisively support this assumption, partly because of methodological shortcomings. In this paper an investigation is presented of social discrimination within classroom networks. The social networks tradition entered the field in the 1980s, and initially focused on methodological topics, particularly on the measurement of ethnic segregation, and inspired the development of new statistical models. However, the consequences were far beyond methodological. Our investigation specifically adapted central constructs and developed operational network definitions for opportunity, ethnic mix, ethnic boundaries, segregation, and social discrimination. Some other changes came about more implicitly: the focus changed from prejudices to actual behaviour; the dyad became the central unit; and social discrimination by minority members obtained the same status in research as discrimination by majority members. Moreover, our analysis of three datasets of classroom networks, led to some striking results. While most majority members had only few positive relationships with minority members in their classroom, minority members had ample relationships with majority members. However, while majority members (almost) did not discriminate socially, minority members did. The ethnic classroom composition had no effect on social discrimination. In contrast, minority members discriminated more and majority members less in neighbourhoods with a larger proportion of minority members. None of the current mainstream theories seems to be able to explain these findings. Other mechanisms seem to affect social discrimination more strongly than the development of prejudices. Also, the findings illustrate why mixing projects can have positive outcomes for minority members, even when these projects do not reduce discrimination.

Limits to growth: The case of Dutch prison capacity

This article deals with the question of why the dentention capacity in the Netherlands has been increasing since 1975, and what the consequences are for the future. Analysis is based on literature. Dutch policy is reactive: capacity depends on the sum of detention sentences. The interaction between the judicial system and its political imbedding leads to a continuous growth in detention capacity. This spin-off process is also active when crime is not increasing. As a consequence, continuation of this growth is to be expected. It is not clear whether judges allow capacity to affect the length of the prison sentences they pass. If so, a spiral process is going on, where the increase in capacity fuels the need for a greater capacity in the future. In theory, this spiral could also go downwards. Therefore, when the spiral is stronger than the spin-off, a pro-active government policy could lead to a reduction in capacity. However, as it is not clear that this is the case, it is concluded that the detention capacity could best be reduced by ad hoc measures like legalising drugs.

De samenhang tussen de kwaliteit van de wijk en psychosociale problemen bij jongeren in Rotterdam

SamenvattingEr wordt aangenomen dat de kwaliteit van de wijk invloed heeft op de ontwikkeling van psychosociale problemen bij jongeren. Deze aanname is vooral gebaseerd op onderzoek uit het buitenland. In Nederland is hier nog weinig onderzoek naar gedaan. Daarom is onderzocht of er een samenhang bestaat tussen kwaliteit van Rotterdamse wijken en psychosociale problemen bij jongeren in de eerste en derde klas. De kwaliteit van de wijk is gemeten met de Sociale Index Rotterdam en de psychosociale problemen van jongeren zijn door de GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond gemeten met de SDQ. Jongeren die vinden dat er veel sociale controle is in hun woonwijk en de wijk waarderen hebben minder vaak psychosociale problemen. De samenhang tussen de kwaliteit van de wijken volgens de Sociale Index en psychosociale problemen bij jongeren uit die wijken is echter nauwelijks waarneembaar en kan slechts 0,1% van de verschillen tussen wijken verklaren. Deze kleine effecten komen voort uit verschillen in samenstelling (naar sekse, opleiding en etniciteit) van de wijk.SamenvattingThe relationship between quality of the neighborhood and psychosocial problems among young people in RotterdamIt is assumed that neighborhood characteristics influences the development of psychosocial problems in adolescents. This assumption is mainly based on research from abroad, in the Netherlands still little research is done. Therefore in this article we examined whether there is a correlation between the quality of the neighborhood and psychosocial problems among teenagers in first and third grade. The quality of the neighborhood is measured by the social index of Rotterdam and the psychosocial problems is measured with the SDQ. Youth who experienced a lot social control and a high perception have fewer psychosocial problems. No relevant correlation was found between the quality of the neighborhood and psychosocial problems among young people. The quality of the neighborhood explained only 0.1% of the differences between the neighborhoods. This small difference can be explained by the composition (by sex, level of education en ethnicity) of the neighborhood.