Tracking and social inequalities in school belonging - A difference-in-differences approach.

Drawing on ten studies from PIRLS, PISA and TIMSS, we study social inequalities in school belonging in the context of early tracking. We investigate whether a) there are social inequalities in school belonging b) early tracking has an effect on levels of school belonging c) tracking exacerbates social inequalities with respect to school belonging. We constructed a large database which covers a wide range of countries and representative student populations in both primary and secondary schools.

Observing many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty.

This study explores how researchers' analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis.

Standardized Testing, Use of Assessment Data, and Low Reading Performance of Immigrant and Non-immigrant Students in OECD Countries.

This paper investigates the effects of standardized testing and publication of achievement data on low reading performance for immigrant and non-immigrant students in 30 OECD countries. The paper aims to test hypotheses derived from a principal-agent framework. According to this theoretical perspective, standardized assessments alone should not be associated with reading performance.

Pathways of Intergenerational Transmission of Advantages during Adolescence: Social Background, Cognitive Ability, and Educational Attainment.

Educational attainment in adolescence is of paramount importance for attaining higher education and for shaping subsequent life chances. Sociological accounts focus on the role of differences in socioeconomic resources in intergenerational reproduction of educational inequalities. These often disregard the intergenerational transmission of cognitive ability and the importance of children's cognitive ability to educational attainment.

Associations Between the Big Five Personality Traits and the Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement.

While the number of studies of the non-medical use of prescription drugs to augment cognitive functions is growing steadily, psychological factors that can potentially help explain variance in such pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement (CE) behavior are often neglected in research. This study investigates the association between the Big Five personality traits and a retrospective (prior CE-drug use) as well as a prospective (willingness to use CE drugs) measure of taking prescription drugs with the purpose of augmenting one's cognitive functions (e.g.

Effect of Length of Stay on Smoking among Turkish and Eastern European Immigrants in Germany--Interpretation in the Light of the Smoking Epidemic Model and the Acculturation Theory.

Background: We analyzed changes in smoking by length of stay among immigrants in Germany and related them to the "smoking epidemic" model and the acculturation theory.

Methods: We used data from a longitudinal survey (German Socio-economic Panel). Immigrants were identified by country of birth (Turkey: respondents n = 828, observations n = 3871; Eastern Europe: respondents n = 2009, observations n = 7202; non-immigrants: respondents n = 34,011, observations n = 140,701).

Different contexts, different effects? Work time and mental health in the United States and Germany.

This paper takes a comparative approach to the topic of work time and health, asking whether weekly work hours matter for mental health. We hypothesize that these relationships differ within the United States and Germany, given the more regulated work time environments within Germany and the greater incentives to work long hours in the United States. We further hypothesize that German women will experience greatest penalties to long hours.

Pathways between perceived discrimination and health among immigrants: evidence from a large national panel survey in Germany.

Objective: Discrimination is an important determinant of health, and its experience may contribute to the emergence of health inequalities between immigrants and nonimmigrants. We examine pathways between perceived discrimination and health among immigrants in Germany: (1) whether perceptions of discrimination predict self-reported mental and physical health (SF-12), or (2) whether poor mental and physical health predict perceptions of discrimination, and (3) whether discrimination affects physical health via mental health.

Design: Data on immigrants come from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) from the years 2002 to 2010 (N = 8,307), a large national panel survey.

No causal effect of unemployment on smoking? A German panel study.

Objectives: This study analyses the effects of different unemployment durations on smoking behaviour in Germany by investigating smoking take-up, relapse, quitting and smoking intensity.

Methods: Longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel from the years 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 were used to examine the effect of unemployment (52,940 observations from 17,028 respondents, aged 17-65 years). Unemployment duration was measured at 1-6, 7-12, 13-24, and 24+ months.

Unemployment and its association with health-relevant actions: investigating the role of time perspective with German census data.

Objective: In this study, we seek to explain how unemployment is related to an increase in health-damaging actions. A short time perspective, that is an orientation towards the present rather than the future, is hypothesised to account for this effect. The concept of time perspective is located within an action theoretical framework and the hypothesis is tested empirically.