Mens & Maatschappij - Volume 89, Issue 1, 2014

Response decisions of police officers and their risk of violent incidents

There is a high rate of victimization of violence among police officers. Some police officers are more often victimized than others. Studies on correlates of victimization among police officers mainly focus on situational and social demographic aspects and have only been able to explain the variation in victimization to a limited amount. Very few studies were found on the role of psychological characteristics of the police officers in the explanation of different victimization risks. This study explores if response decision, a concept of the Social Information Processing model of Crick and Dodge (1994), is useful in explaining differences in victimization among police officers. Police officers (N = 815) from five police forces in the Netherlands completed a digital questionnaire based on the Social Information Processing Interview (SIP-I). Results show that victimization of verbal violence, threats and physical violence was associated with the response decision of police officers. More specifically, police officers with more negative outcome expectancies of aggressive or assertive responses were more likely to experience victimization. Police officers, who select aggressive, instead of passive or assertive responses, were more likely to experience victimization.

The association between financial stress experienced by mothers and fathers and problem behavior in adolescents: the mediating role of depressive symptoms, interparental conflicts and parenting

In this study, we examine how financial stress is associated with problem behaviour in adolescents through the lives of their parents. Using an actor-partner interdependence model, we explore pathways within (actor) and between (partner) parents. Our data included 340 Flemish two-parent families (n = 1020), with both parents rating their financial stress, depressive symptoms and interparental conflict, and with parents and adolescents rating parenting and problem behaviour in adolescents.

The results indicate that the association between financial stress and problem behaviour in adolescents is mediated by depressive symptoms, interparental conflict and positive parenting. Another finding is that financial stress has direct and indirect effects on interparental conflict. Furthermore, the impact of financial stress on parenting is greater for fathers than it is for mothers. Although actor effects are more prominent, there is also evidence of partner effects. Our results underscore the importance of including multiple family members in studies on family stress processes.

Households and personal networks

We investigate the association between household arrangements and social network characteristics by using three structural perspectives: social context, time demands, and social support. Evidence from the Survey on the Social Networks of the Dutch 2007/2008 (SSND; N = 950) best supports the social support and time demands perspectives. While persons living in households with a partner and/or with children generally hold fewer and less diverse ties to household externals with whom they discuss important personal matters; those living alone have larger core discussion networks with more different contacts. This suggests that those living alone are not less socially integrated than people who share a household with others.

Changes in social openness and social exclusion: a view on the past and the future

In contemporary societies, the likelihood to obtain attractive positions differs between men and women, between natives and migrant groups, and between people from different social backgrounds. Societies are not completely ‘open’. It is often thought that this was even more the case one or two centuries ago. Research on long term changes in social openness and social exclusion is however relatively scarce. This article gives an overview of recent studies on this topic and presents new questions that the results of these studies trigger off.