Colette Sabatier

The Intergenerational Transmission of Values in National and Immigrant Families: The Role of Zeitgeist

Correspondence in value orientation between parents and their offspring may be due to actual transmission processes between generations, but it may also be due to influences from the general value context in society that are common to parents and their offspring. This common value context is referred to as Zeitgeist. The present study deals with one family relationship value (i.e., parents’ and adolescents’ obligations toward the family). Participants were 1,252 immigrant and 726 national adolescent–parent dyads from 10 Western countries. There were significant relationships between the value placed on family obligations among parents and offspring, and these were independent of gender. Zeitgeist effects, both intergenerational and intragenerational, were found. The strength of these Zeitgeist effects depended on the basis for defining Zeitgeist, either a person’s own ethnic group or the wider community including both nationals and immigrants. For explaining national adolescents’ acceptance of their family obligations, both the ethnic and the national Zeitgeist played a role, whereas in the immigrant groups only the ethnic Zeitgeist played a significant role. In short, in an immigration context it makes sense to distinguish the influence of a person’s own ethnic group from the influence of the wider community, including other ethnic groups. Explanations are suggested and implications are discussed.

Religiosity, Family Orientation, and Life Satisfaction of Adolescents in Four Countries

This study examined the rarely investigated interplay between religiosity, family orientation, and life satisfaction of adolescents across four countries with a Christian tradition and different religious contexts. A mediation relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction through family orientation moderated by the country context of religiosity was examined. In a sample of 1,077 adolescents from France (n = 172), Germany (n = 270), Poland (n = 348), and the United States (n = 287), we found that in all cultures, religiosity had a positive impact on adolescents’ family orientation, which was in turn related to a higher life satisfaction. This link was stronger in cultures with a high overall religiosity (Poland and the United States) as compared to one of the two cultures with the lowest importance of religion (Germany).

Quality of Life and Health in Displaced Communities Affected by the Armed Conflict in Colombia

This chapter examines the factors that affect the quality of life (QoL) of displaced people in Colombia. First, previous studies on the factors that affect QoL of displaced persons including, inter alia, individual factors, traumatic events, situations of escape, and the adaptation of the refugee to host communities and new places of residence are reviewed. Second, the results of three studies carried out in the Atlantic Department (Northern Colombia) are summarized, with quantitative and qualitative data on the process of restoration and adaptation of displaced communities. The first study analyzes the impact of political violence on mental health and social networks on 49 displaced and 50 not displaced young people living in Barranquilla (Palacio and Sabatier in Impacto psicologico de la violencia politica en las familias: Salud mental y redes sociales en los desplazados. Ediciones Uninorte, Barranquilla, 2002). The second study explores the social identity construction of families displaced by collective violence that participated in a project of self-construction of housing for food in urban area of Cartagena (Revivir de los Campanos). In this project, which promoted social integration, 100 displaced families worked together to build their own homes. These families were supported both by different governmental institutions and nongovernmental organizations (Correa et al. in Desplazamiento interno forzado, restablecimiento urbano e identidad social. Ediciones Uninorte, Barranquilla, 2009). The third study analyzes the relationship between social networks and QoL of 19 individuals displaced by violence (Palacio and Madariaga in Investigacion y Desarrollo 14(1): 86–119, 2006) that live in a suburb of Barranquilla (Pinar del Rio). In the conclusion section two main issues are discussed: the dilemma for the restoration and reconstruction of a new life plan (between returning to the place of origin or resettling in a host community), and the need to integrate displaced persons and demobilized armed, with host communities.

Estimation de l’importance relative des prédicteurs dans un modèle de régression multiple. Intérêt et limites des méthodes récentes

Resume Quantifier et comparer l’importance des predicteurs dans des modeles de regression multiple est un objectif poursuivi par le chercheur en psychologie. Couramment, les coefficients de regression standardises sont employes dans cette visee. Pourtant, depuis plus de 50 ans, de nombreuses alternatives ont ete proposees afin d’ameliorer l’estimation et la definition de l’importance relative. En s’appuyant sur une etude de psychologie du developpement, l’objectif de cet article est de presenter et discuter differents indices d’importance en les mettant en perspectives avec deux methodes actuellement employees en psychologie, l’analyse de Dominance (Budescu, 1993) et l’analyse des poids relatifs (J. W. Johnson, 2000). Les resultats soulignent l’interet de l’utilisation de ces methodes, qui sans reellement remedier aux limites des indices plus traditionnels, offrent une formalisation conceptuelle interessante de l’importance relative.