Thoroddur Bjarnason

Modeling Durkheim on the micro level : A study of youth suicidality

Durkheims classic theory of suicide deals with central and recurrent themes of sociological inquiry, such as the nature of social order deviance, and individual well-being. In this study, family integration and parental regulation are operationalized as independent constructs and tested in relation to anomie, suicidal suggestion, and suicidality. The authors find that integration and regulation can be meaningfully distinguished on both the theoretical and empirical levels. The findings support the primacy of integration, while accommodating the independent role of regulation. Youths who are strongly integrated into their families are less likely to succumb to anomie and suicidality, but parental regulation does not appear to have such an effect. However family integration and parental regulation have independent effects on suicidal suggestion

Hate crime reporting as a successful social movement outcome

Variation in compliance with public policies across local settings is examined through an analysis of the number of reported hate crime incidents in United States counties. Particular attention is given to the role that activist organizations play in promoting, or impeding, compliance with public policies. Each hate crime reported to the federal government is conceptualized as a successful outcome of social movement mobilization. Drawing upon political mediation theory and Fines model of discursive rivalry, the analysis shows how social movement resources, framing processes, political incentives, and features of local contexts combine to promote successful social movement outcomes. The presence of resourceful civil rights organizations in a county can lead to higher numbers of reported hate crimes, but the influence of civil rights organizations is contingent upon the political context and upon objective conditions that lend credibility to civil rights framing.

Screen-based activities and physical complaints among adolescents from the Nordic countries

BackgroundA positive association between time spent on sedentary screen-based activities and physical complaints has been reported, but the cumulative association between different types of screen-based activities and physical complaints has not been examined thoroughly.MethodsThe cross-sectional association between screen-based activity and physical complaints (backache and headache) among students was examined in a sample of 31022 adolescents from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Greenland, as part of the Health behaviour in school-aged children 2005/06 (HBSC) study. Daily hours spent on screen-based activities and levels of physical complaints were assessed using self-reports.ResultsLogistic regression analysis indicated that computer use, computer gaming and TV viewing contributed uniquely to prediction of weekly backache and headache. The magnitude of associations was consistent across types of screen based activities, and across gender.ConclusionThe observed associations indicate that time spent on screen-based activity is a contributing factor to physical complaints among young people, and that effects accumulate across different types of screen-based activities.

Psychological distress during unemployment and beyond: social support and material deprivation among youth in six northern European countries.

Psychological distress is a serious problem among unemployed youth, and may lead to various social and psychological problems. In this study, we examine patterns of distress among previously unemployed youth that have experienced five different labor market outcomes over a period of 6 months in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden. We find that moving beyond unemployment is associated with less distress, in particular among those who have found permanent employment, but also among those who have found temporary employment, have returned to school, or are staying at home. Perceptions of material deprivation and parental emotional support directly affect distress in all labor market outcomes, and mediate the effects of various other factors on such distress. The effects of socio-demographic characteristics, living arrangements, unemployment history and attitudes, and parental support are found to be specific to gender and labor market outcomes, while the effects of material deprivation are uniform across all such categories. Further studies are needed to disentangle structural and individual effects, the causal complexities involved in processes of social support, and to determine the extent to which such models equally predict psychological distress among the unemployed and other groups of youth.

Familial and Religious Influences on Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Multi-Level Study of Students and School Communities

A multi-level Durkheimian theory of familial and religious influences on adolescent alcohol use is developed and tested with hierarchical linear modeling of data from Icelandic schools and students. On the individual level, traditional family structure, parental monitoring, parental support, religious participation, and perceptions of divine support and social constraint are associated with less adolescent alcohol use. Individual parents knowing other parents (intergenerational closure) is not associated with less alcohol use among their children, but all students drink less in schools where such intergenerational closure is high. The religiosity of individual parents is not significantly related to their childrens alcohol use, but female students drink significantly less in schools where religious parents are more prevalent. The results are generally consistent with the proposed theoretical model.

Parents, religion and perceived social coherence : A Durkheimian framework of adolescent anomie : Symposium on religion, health, and well-being

Different aspects of religiosity have been found to be positively related to physical, psychological and social well-being. Several scholars have suggested that religious beliefs, religious communities, and perceived divine support may provide individuals with a sense of coherence, which in turn has positive effects on individual well-being. This coherence hypothesis is in fact the inverse of the Durkheimian concept of anomie. This paper specifies and tests a structural model of social control, social support, religious participation, religious orthodoxy, and perceived divine support, in relation to perceived exteriority and constraint among adolescents. The results indicate that parental support and religious participation increases the perceived exteriority and constraint of the social world, while parental rule setting, religious orthodoxy, and divine support do not have an independent effect.

Individual and Community Processes of Social Closure A Study of Adolescent Academic Achievement and Alcohol Use

While the concept of social capital has rekindled interest in fundamental issues of social inquiry, concerns have been raised regarding its definition and application in increasingly diverse topics. We address these concerns by revisiting Colemans and Bourdieus original ideas of the role of family and school in adolescent outcomes. Multi-level modelling reveals that controlling for individual background, parental relations and adolescent activities, school levels of intergenerational closure and cultural activities are predictive of higher maths grades, while school levels of intergenerational closure, supervised activities and sports participation are predictive of less alcohol use. The results support the general thrust of social capital theory and suggest further theoretical elaborations.

Early Risk Behaviors and Adolescent Injury in 25 European and North American Countries: A Cross-National Consistent Relationship.

Injury is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among adolescents in developed countries. Jessor and Jessor’s Problem Behavior Theory suggests an association between risk behaviors (e.g., smoking, drunkenness, cannabis use, and sexual intercourse) and adolescent injury. The present study examined whether early engagement in risk behaviors would predict injury at age 15. It also examined whether such associations were consistent in strength across countries. Based on the data from the 2005-2006 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey, a multigroup logistic regression analysis was conducted. Our findings demonstrate a cross-national consistent association (with relative odds of injury rising to 1.85; 95% CI: 1.70-2.02). Based on the study findings, early engagement in risk behaviors was considered a marker for a trajectory that places adolescents at higher risk for physical injury, independent of their national context.

The ESPAD Study: implications for prevention

The European Schools Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) was concerned with the substance use, beliefs, attitudes and risk factors among over 50,000 16-year-olds in 26 European countries. Based on this data, the present paper focuses on critical issues in prevention and uses a country-level analysis with focus on the extent that contextual and cultural factors interact with factors influencing the use of alcohol and other drugs. The results indicate that: (i) an emphasis on risks and dangers may be a poor prevention strategy since many young people do not believe the widely accepted dangers of certain forms of substance use (e.g. cigarette smoking); (ii) misperception of norms in relation to substance use, that is, the belief that use of alcohol and other drugs is more common than it actually is, emerged in most countries with the exception of Nordic countries; (iii) the correlation between perceived access to substances and actual use depended on the substance involved; correlations were strongest...

The Influence of Social Support, Suggestion and Depression on Suicidal Behavior Among Icelandic Youth

Durkheims treatment of the social causes of suicide has remained central to sociological theory in general and to sociological treatment of suicide in particular. The two main alternative paradigms for understanding suicide are suicide suggestion and depression. Both these paradigms are derived from 19th-century perspectives rejected by Durkheim. In this paper an attempt is made to bring them together in a single causal model of suicidal behavior involving integration, suggestion and psychological distress. It is argued that social support is in fact the main protective aspect of social integration, and that social support may in conjunction with suicide suggestion influence suicidal behavior both directly and indirectly through depression Survey data on the whole population of Icelandic youth in two cohorts are split randomly into model estimation and model testing samples. A causal model of suicidal behavior, involving mental and material support by family and by others, depression and suicide suggestion is then estimated and tested by structural equation modeling. Suicidal behavior is found to be most strongly affected by mental support by family and by suicide suggestion, with depression as an intervening vanable