Age at Menarche and Adolescent Alcohol Use

Research has shown that early maturation is related to problematic alcohol use, yet the differential effect of early pubertal timing (i.e., younger age at menarche) on the onset of alcohol use and subsequent level of alcohol use has rarely been examined. This distinction is relevant, as younger age at menarche can have differential effects on these outcomes, which in turn can have long-lasting effects. Therefore, the present study examined the relationship between age at menarche and adolescent alcohol use among girls, hereby distinguishing between onset and level of alcohol use. In addition, the moderating effects of alcohol-specific rules, child disclosure and class gender composition were examined. Participants were 430 girls from a Dutch four-wave survey, with a mean age of 12.17 years (SD = 0.50) at the beginning of the study. Results showed that the probability of onset of alcohol use was increased by younger age at menarche, but only when girls were younger than 15. Moderation analyses showed that younger age at menarche increased the risk of alcohol onset only in low risk girls (with high levels of alcohol-specific rules and in classes with a high percentage of girls). Once adolescent girls started drinking alcohol, younger age at menarche was associated positively with alcohol consumption only for girls in classes with a moderate to high percentage of girls. These findings confirm that younger age at menarche is a risk factor for the onset of alcohol use, but strongly suggest that this effect is strongest for girls having restrictive alcohol-specific rules and in classes with a high percentage of girls. Possibly, in the absence of social factors that “push” to alcohol use, biological factors (like age at menarche) become more important. Another possibility is that adolescent girls start drinking alcohol to oppose their parents if they set too strict alcohol-specific rules.     

The Political Context in Everyday Social Work Practice

Social work is political-normative work (De Boer & Duyvendak, 2004). Hence, the political and policy context in which social work practices take place is crucial in understanding social work as a profession and its social task as a product of the welfare state. The political comes to the fore very explicitly when studying social work interventions with clients of immigrant backgrounds, especially due to the prioritization of the “integration” of migrants on various European political agendas. This article studies how frames on “good citizenship” determine the everyday practices of social workers using data on the Netherlands.     

Die politischen Konsequenzen der niedrigen Wahlbeteiligung bei der Europawahl 2009

If electoral abstention is linked to party preferences, low turnout—as witnessed in European Parliament elections—may hurt some parties and benefit others. In order to assess this possibility, we compare, in the member states of the EU, parties’ vote shares in the 2009 European Parliament elections with the results that would have been obtained had turnout reached the level of national general elections. We find that the effects of low turnout are minimal, and that—except for a single seat—higher turnout would not have resulted in a different composition of the European Parliament.     

Organizing interfaces between government institutions and interactive governance

Initiatives to encourage the involvement of citizens and NGOs in decision-making can be seen in a wide variety of countries. Interactive policy-making, citizen panels, citizen charters, new forms of participation and other forms are being used to increase the influence of citizens on decision-making. An important issue in scientific debate is the relationship between citizen participation and existing democratic institutions. The main question for this article therefore is: what are the possibilities and difficulties in creating interconnections between interactive governance and existing democratic institutions? We have conducted an action research project to organize this interconnection between an interactive governance project (Around Arnemuiden, Living with Water) and existing democratic institutions. We describe and evaluate the interface arrangements we created: political, executive, professional, and policy interface. The executive, professional, and policy interfaces turned out to be weak or moderate, while the political interfaces was strong. Executives and professionals are reluctant to actively involve and commit to interactive processes. The organization of the interconnection between interactive processes and existing representative democratic institutions is very difficult and needs constant maintenance.     

Associations between Oxytocin Receptor (<Emphasis Type="Italic">OXTR</Emphasis>) Genotype and Elementary School Children’s Likability,Dis-likability and Friendship among Classroom Peers: A Longitudinal Study

The single nucleotide polymorphism rs53576 of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene is involved in forming and maintaining relationships in various social contexts. However, this has not been studied in the childhood peer context. The present study followed 359 children (51.6% girls) from age 9 to 12 to explore associations between OXTR rs53576 genotype (i.e., AA, AG or GG genotype) and three indicators of children’s relationships with peers: likability and dis-likability among, and friendship with, classroom peers. Our results showed that OXTR rs53576 was associated with likability among boys, but not with dis-likability and friendship or among girls. Boys with an A and a G allele (i.e., AG genotype) became increasingly more liked by their peers across the four-year studied period than those with two A alleles or two G alleles (i.e., AA and GG genotype). This study indicates that OXTR rs53576 genotype might influence children’s peer relationships, particularly their likeability among peers. Associations between OXTR rs53576 and peer relationships may differ depending on children’s sex and the specific type of peer-relationship under scrutiny.