Introdução: Estudos recentes têm mostrado que as quedas são a causa externa de morte mais importante entre idosos, podendo levar a hospitalização, lesões, dependência e aumento nos custos dos serviços sociais e de saúde. O comprometimento da mobilidade funcional é um importante fator de risco para quedas, mas aspectos sociais, ambientais e comportamentais também podem influenciar nesse evento. Objetivo: Identificar os aspectos socioeconômicos e contextuais associados com a mobilidade funcional e quedas em idosos residentes no município de São Paulo. Métodos: Foram utilizados os dados do Estudo Saúde, Bem-Estar e Envelhecimento (SABE), uma amostra representativa para os indivíduos com idade igual ou superior a 60 anos do município de São Paulo, em 2010. As variáveis dependentes do estudo foram a ocorrência de alguma queda no último ano e o comprometimento da mobilidade funcional, mensurada pelo teste Timed Up and Go (TUG). Fatores individuais (estado marital, raça/cor, anos de estudo e percepção de suficiência de renda) e contextuais (Índice de Gini, área verde/ habitante, taxa de homicídio e percentual de domicílios em favelas) foram analisados por modelos logísticos multiníveis. Resultados: De 1.190 idosos inclusos, 29 por cento relataram ter caído no último ano e 46 por cento apresentaram comprometimento da mobilidade funcional. Os fatores individuais socioeconômicos não apresentaram associação com a ocorrência de queda, mas ter 8 anos ou mais de anos de estudo foi um fator protetor para comprometimento da mobilidade em todos os modelos testados (OR: 0,56). Morar em subprefeituras com taxa de homicídio moderada apresentou associação com chance aumentada de cair (OR: 1.51, 95 por cento IC: 1.09-2.07). Moderada área verde se associou com maior chance de cair entre os indivíduos com 80 anos e mais (OR:2,63, 95 por cento IC: 1.23-5.60). Conclusão: Os resultados estão de acordo com a literatura em relação à associação das características do bairro de residência com quedas e mobilidade funcional em idosos. Estratégias voltadas para prevenção de quedas e de dificuldade na mobilidade funcional devem considerar aspectos sociais e ambientais de locais públicos. Este estudo foi financiado pela Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) (nº processo: 2014/06721-4) / Introduction: Recent studies show that falls are the most important external cause of death in elders, leading to hospitalization, injuries, dependency, and to increased costs of health and social care services. Functional mobility impairment is a risk factor for falling, but social, environmental and behavioral aspects may also affect this event. Objective: To identify the socioeconomics and contextual aspects associated with functional mobility and falls in elderly residents of the Municipality of São Paulo, Brazil. Methods: We used data from Health, Wellbeing and Aging (SABE) Study, a representative study of individuals aged 60 and older of the Municipality of São Paulo in 2010. The dependent variables of interest were the occurrence of any fall in the last year and functional mobility impairment, assessed by the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. Individual (marital status, race, years of schooling and perception of income sufficiency) and contextual (Gini coefficient, green areas per capita, and homicide rate) factors were analyzed by multilevel logistic models. Results: From the sample of 1,190 elderly individuals, 29 per cent reported a fall in the last year and 46 per cent had mobility impairment. The socioeconomic individual factors were not significantly associated with falling, but having eight or more years of schooling was a protective factor for mobility impairment for every model (OR: 0.56). Living in a neighborhood with a moderate homicide rate was associated with higher odds of falling (OR: 1.51, 95 per cent CI: 1.09-2.07). Neighborhoods with moderate greens spaces were associated with higher odds of falling for individuals 80 years old and older (OR: 2.63, 95 per cent CI: 1.23-5.60). Conclusion: Our findings support the concern that neighborhood characteristics are associated with falls and mobility impairment for the elderly. Strategies to prevent falls and mobility impairment in developing countries should consider public environment and social aspects.

Using eighth-grade mathematics scores from TIMSS 2003, a large-scale international achievement assessment database, this study investigated correlates of math achievement in two developed countries, Canada and the United States and two developing countries, Egypt and South Africa. Variation in math achievement within and between schools for individual countries was accounted for by a series of two-level HLM models. Specifically, there were five sets of HLM models representing student background, home resources, instructional practices, teacher background, and school background related factors. In addition, a final model was built by including all the statistically significant predictors in earlier models to predict math achievement. Findings from this study suggested that whereas the instructional practices model worked the best for the United States and the teacher background model served as the most efficient and parsimonious model for predicting math achievement in Egypt, the final model served as the best model for predicting math achievement in Canada and South Africa. These findings provide empirical evidence that different models are needed to account for factors related to achievement in different countries. This study, therefore, highlights the importance that policy makers and educators from developing countries should not base their educational decisions and educational reform projects solely on research findings of developed countries. Rather, they need to use their country-specific findings to support their educational decisions. This study also provides a methodological framework for applied researchers to evaluate the effects of background and contextual factors on students' math achievement

People engage in a multitude of different relationships. Relatives, spouses, and friends are modestly to moderately similar in various characteristics, e.g., personality characteristics, interests, appearance. The role of psychological (e.g., skills, global appraisal) and social (e.g., gender, familial status) similarities in personal relationships and the association with relationship quality (emotional closeness and reciprocity of support) were examined in four independent studies. Young adults (N = 456; M = 27 years) and middle-aged couples from four different family types (N = 171 couples, M = 38 years) gave answer to a computer-aided questionnaire regarding their ego-centered networks. A subsample of 175 middle-aged adults (77 couples and 21 individuals) participated in a one-year follow-up questioning. Two experimental studies (N = 470; N = 802), both including two assessments with an interval of five weeks, were conducted to examine causal relationships among similarity, closeness, and reciprocity expectations. Results underline the role of psychological and social similarities as covariates of emotional closeness and reciprocity of support on the between-relationship level, but indicate a relatively weak effect within established relationships. In specific relationships, such as parent-child relationships and friendships, psychological similarity partly alleviates the effects of missing genetic relatedness. Individual differences moderate these between-relationship effects. In all, results combine evolutionary and social psychological perspectives on similarity in personal relationships and extend previous findings by means of a network approach and an experimental manipulation of existing relationships. The findings further show that psychological and social similarity have different implications for the study of personal relationships depending on the phase in the developmental process of relationships. / Verwandte, Partner und Freunde ähneln sich in einer Vielzahl von Merkmalen wie z.B. Persönlichkeitseigenschaften, Einstellungen oder Aussehen. Die Bedeutung von Ähnlichkeit in psychologischen und demografischen Eigenschaften von Beziehungspartnern und die Zusammenhänge mit der Qualität der Beziehung wurden in vier unabhängigen Studien untersucht. Junge Erwachsene (N = 456; M = 27 Jahre) und Paare aus vier verschiedenen Familienformen (N = 171 Paare, M = 38 Jahre) beurteilten in einem PC-gestützten Fragebogen die sozialen Beziehungen in ihrem ego-zentrierten Netzwerk hinsichtlich wahrgenommener Ähnlichkeit, emotionaler Nähe und Reziprozität der Unterstützung. Ein Teil der Paare (77 Paare und 21 Einzelpersonen) nahm an der Ein-Jahres-Längsschnittstudie teil. In zwei Experimenten (N = 470; N = 802) wurde die Wahrnehmung von Ähnlichkeit manipuliert, um die Kausalwirkung auf die emotionale Nähe und die Erwartung von reziprokem Verhalten in Beziehungen zu prüfen. Die Studien zeigten, dass innerhalb eines sozialen Netzwerkes ähnliche Beziehungspartner auch emotional näher beurteilt wurden, es jedoch kaum wechselseitige Beeinflussungen innerhalb bestehender Beziehungen gab. In spezifischen Beziehungen, wie Eltern-Kind- oder Freundschaftsbeziehungen, konnte psychologische Ähnlichkeit den Effekt der fehlenden genetischen Verwandtschaft teilweise aufheben. Merkmale der Person moderierten diese Zusammenhänge auf der Beziehungsebene. Die Ergebnisse verknüpfen die evolutionspsychologische und die sozialpsychologische Perspektive der Ähnlichkeitsforschung und ergänzen bisherige Befunde durch den Einsatz des Sozialen Netzwerkansatzes und der experimentellen Manipulation von bestehenden Beziehungen. Zudem zeigen die Befunde, dass psychologische und demografische Ähnlichkeit unterschiedliche Implikationen für die Beziehungsforschung haben, in Abhängigkeit von der Entwicklungsphase der Beziehung.

Welfare state attitudes are often studied from the perspective of the individual's characteristics and/or national or regime-type contexts. This thesis instead seeks explanations for individuals' varying attitudes towards the welfare state at the level of local contexts (municipalities). Sweden is used as a case for testing whether there are such contextual effects. The general aim is to find out whether social, political, and institutional aspects of local context influence the attitudes of individuals. Since the general aim of this thesis is to examine how background characteristics of individuals and characteristics of local contexts simultaneously act in shaping individuals' attitudes, I use multilevel modelling in order to handle individual-level and contextual-level data simultaneously. Latent-class analysis (LCA) is also employed in the analyses to explore the patterning of variables. This is mainly done in order to create dependent variables and to distinguish between categories of municipalities sharing similar characteristics.  The data consist of Swedish survey data, which have been complemented by municipal-level data. The findings indicate that the social and political context of municipalities can matter for individuals' attitude formation. Variation across municipalities in terms of the prevalence of social problems and risks seems to influence how individuals view the welfare state. Local municipal contexts characterized by many social problems and risks tend to be associated with more welfare state friendly attitudes among the local inhabitants, after taking individual-level determinants into account. Support for high social spending is greater in such milieus as is the tendency to view welfare beneficiaries with less suspicion regarding the potential abuse of welfare policies. Regarding the influence of local public service provision on attitudes, no evidence was found for feedback effects on individuals' attitudes toward public service privatization. In their attitudes towards the welfare state, individuals are to some extent influenced by their local environment. There seems to be a 'built in' thermostat in the Swedish welfare state. Local circumstances characterized by social problems and risks tend to be associated with a local citizenry having more welfare state-friendly attitudes.

Children’s risk for overweight and obesity is particularly high in rural areas of the United States. Many health, psychosocial, and economic consequences are associated with childhood overweight and obesity, which concerns health researchers and professionals. But how and why might rural children be more at risk for being overweight and obese? This dissertation investigates childhood overweight and obesity in rural settings through three separate studies. First, a systematic literature review was conducted to identify determinants and mechanisms of childhood obesity-related behaviors that are specific to rural locations. The findings from the review show that lack of health resources and poverty within the rural environment may impact children’s social environment and individual factors. However, results are inconclusive and there continues to be a lack of studies focusing on linking environmental influence with individual factors. Second, a meta-analysis of current research evidence was conducted to assess the efficacy of rural interventions designed to reduce childhood overweight and obesity. Results showed that interventions have been efficacious yet modest, with a mean effect size of 0.18. Moderating variables were also examined. Mean intervention effect size was moderated by children’s age and intervention duration. Last, secondary data were used to examine the association between rural food stores and availability and affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables. A multilevel analytical approach was used to determine if rural location was associated with availability and affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables. After controlling for other variables, results showed that rural location was not associated with fruit and vegetable availability and affordability. The findings from this dissertation suggest that the area of rural childhood overweight and obesity remains understudied. More research is needed in order to understand the mechanisms of social ecological influences on diet, physical activity, and childhood overweight and obesity. This area of research, however, is rife with opportunities for public health education and promotion. Public health educators can help promote and advocate for environmental conditions that support healthy lifestyles.

The development and longevity of the welfare state is dependent on public support. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between public sector employment and popular support for the welfare state in comparative perspective. Welfare state attitudes represent the micro-foundation in many theories about links between welfare state organization and interest formation and the shaping of values, norms and levels of aspiration. Most studies seeking to explain differences in welfare state support use welfare state regime labels on countries as their independent variable. However, previous empirical research on comparative welfare state attitudes has found very mixed support using the regime typology approach. The present study takes a step forward in using comparative indicators of public sector employment and social protection, instead of regime labels. In previous research the role of public sector employment for welfare state attitudes has typically been given little attention. The main hypothesis is that public service employment positively influences aggregate levels of support towards the welfare state. Based on a multilevel-regression framework and drawing on ISSP comparative data from 2006 on individual level attitudes, this study demonstrates clear empirical support for this main hypothesis.

Previous works on organizational attractiveness always focused only on organizational-level factors, such like organizational or work characteristics. However, there are only limited researches discussing the influence of individual-level issues. Therefore, the multi-level theory will be applied to this paper to discuss the relationship among organizational characteristics, employer knowledge and job seeker¡¦s intention to apply. Moreover, this paper draws on marketing concepts of consumer-based brand equity to the recruitment context to identify the dimensions of employer knowledge. Based on data collected from 43 companies and 329 job seekers in the job fair, the finding suggests that organizational size is significant and positively related to both job seekers¡¦ employer knowledge and their intention to apply. Furthermore, all of the dimensions of employer knowledge are significant predictors of job seekers¡¦ intention to apply. Specially, the result also shows that organizational size is significant related to job seekers¡¦ intention to apply through employer knowledge. While taking employer knowledge into consideration, organizational size¡¦s initial influence on job seekers¡¦ intention to apply is completely disappearing. This finding confirms the mediate effect of employer knowledge between organizational characteristics and job seekers¡¦ intention to apply.

This study was conducted to investigate Turkish secondary school students&rsquo / perceptions of their science teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour / teacher profiles and variables affecting Turkish students&rsquo / perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour. Also, differences in perceptions between Turkish students and their Dutch counterparts were examined. Finally, students&rsquo / affective learning outcomes were related to their perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour. Data were gathered from 7484 secondary school science students (grades 9-11) in 278 classes from 55 schools in thirteen cities of Turkey and collected with a specifically constructed and adapted Turkish version of QTI and translated version of TOSRA. This data set was compared to Dutch data set that contained 8503 students, located in 27 schools and 301 classes. Descriptive statistics and multilevel analysis with three levels (student, class and teacher) were conducted. Students&rsquo / perceptions on the QTI scales were aggregated to the class level and compared to an existing QTI-based typology of teaching styles. Significant differences were found between countries in terms of students&rsquo / perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviours as well as different distribution of teachers&rsquo / profiles over countries and subject. Turkish teachers&#039 / interpersonal profiles only marginally differed from existing profiles. Additionally, several teacher, student and class characteristics showed statistically significant associations with students&#039 / perceptions of teacher Influence and Proximity. Finally, students&rsquo / perceptions of their teachers&rsquo / interpersonal behaviour were related to their affective learning outcomes, to several student, class, teacher background characteristics and to the subject taught.

Sociological and demographic analyses of minority fertility in the United States have suggested that the processes of socioeconomic, cultural, marital, and structural assimilation will lead to convergence in fertility. So far, little research has used the assimilation approach to study the fertility of the minority populations of China, and also, no research has taken both individual-level and group-level characteristics as predictors. Using micro-data from the One Percent 1990 Census of China, this dissertation performs multilevel analyses, hierarchical generalized linear modeling, to examine the effects of assimilation and the one-child policy at both the individual level and the group level on minority women's fertility. Several patterns are found in the multilevel analyses. First, the contextual characteristics of minority groups have strong correlations with fertility across thirty major minority groups in China. It suggests that community power and subculture have strong influences on women's decisions regarding their number of children. Second, the effect of the one-child policy is positive and highly significant on minority women's fertility. However, the strong policy effect does not cover the effect of assimilation. After controlling for policy, the impact of all the assimilation predictors, at both the individual and group level, still remains statistically significant. At the individual level, minority women's educational level, occupational status, status of intermarriage, and migration status have significant and positive impacts on their fertility. At the group level, the levels of minority groups' residential segregation, educational segregation, illiteracy, intermarriage rate, and their Moslem group culture have significant and negative impacts on individual women's fertility. Third, several cross-level interactions in the rural models are not consistent with the complete models, which suggests that some indirect effects of assimilation on minority fertility may come from the urban minorities. Finally, in addition to the direct impacts of socioeconomic, marital, and cultural assimilation on minority fertility, several cross-level interactions are significant and indirectly affect women's fertility. Findings reported in this dissertation indicate a successful integration of individual and contextual variables in analyses of minority fertility. The results contribute to the understanding of the assimilation impacts on minority fertility in China.

The current study aims to investigate empirically the main incentives for mandatory and voluntary risk reporting (MRR and VRR) across the USA, the UK and Germany, each of which has a unique approach towards risk reporting. While the UK approach encourages more voluntary risk reporting above imposing risk rules, the German approach formally requires firms to provide risk information in a certain place in their annual report narratives. The US approach is a compromise between these two approaches; it obligates and encourages firms to provide more information about their risks mandatorily and/or voluntarily, respectively. Investigating the incentives for risk reporting in such set of countries answers the calls of some prior research (e.g., Linsley and Shrives, 2006; Dobler, 2008; Dobler, Lajili and Zeghal, 2011) to deepen our understanding of what motivates firms to disclose their risks. To this end, computerised content analysis and multilevel analysis (MLA) on a large scale (compared with previous work e.g., Linsley and Shrives, 2005, 2006; Abraham and Cox, 2007) are utilised. The results are produced in four cumulative contexts through Chapters Six to Nine. These results are consistent with managers’ incentives theories (discussed in Chapter Two) and prior risk reporting literature (discussed in Chapter Three and Chapter Four). Based on 15 firms in each country during 2007 and 2008, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) results reveal significant differences between a firm’s risk levels and its risk disclosure levels across the USA, the UK and Germany. The correlation results indicate that these differences are statistically correlated, supporting the main argument of the current study that differences in a firm’s risk levels should be reflected in their risk reporting practices (Chapter Six). Based on 1160 firm-years of non-financial firms of the FTSE all share index over 2005-2008, linear mixed model (LMM) results document that firms with higher levels of systematic and financing risks are likely to exhibit significantly higher levels of aggregated and voluntary risk reporting, whereas firms with high variability of stock returns or lower levels of liquidity are likely to exhibit significantly lower levels of aggregated and voluntary risk reporting. The current study also finds, however, that MRR is associated significantly and positively with firm size rather than with risk levels. The results also indicate that managers of firms exhibiting greater compliance with UK risk reporting regulations have greater incentives to disclose voluntary risk information (Chapter Seven). When the study extends the scope to the other two countries, different patterns of relations are found. Based on 1270, 1410 and 1005 firm-year observations over 2005 to 2009 in the USA, the UK and Germany, respectively, repeated measures multilevel analysis (RMMLA) results suggest that, in the USA, MRR is more sensitive to firm risk levels (total, systematic and liquidity risks) than is VRR, which is more correlated to other firm characteristics. The UK results suggest that VRR is more sensitive to firm risk levels (systematic and liquidity risks) than is MRR, which is dominated by firm size, among other firm characteristics. In Germany, however, both MRR and VRR are significantly related to risk levels (total, systematic, un-systematic, financing and liquidity risks) (Chapter Eight). Based on 3685 firm-year observations during the period between 2005 and 2009, and concerning both firm- and country-level analyses, repeated measures multilevel analysis (RMMLA) results support that variations in MRR can be attributed to differences in the legal systems (country characteristics) and in firm size (firm characteristics). The variations in VRR are more associated with firm characteristics, especially a firm’s risk levels across the USA, the UK and Germany (Chapter Nine). These results have many implications and support the respective regulatory approach adopted within each country by interpreting the extent to which either MRR or VRR is more or less sensitive to underlying risks.