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All countries distinguish between minors and adults for various legal purposes. Recent U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning the legal status of juveniles have consulted psychological science to decide where to draw these boundaries. However, little is known about the robustness of the relevant research, because it has been conducted largely in the U.S. and other Western countries. To the extent that lawmakers look to research to guide their decisions, it is important to know how generalizable the scientific conclusions are. This dissertation examines two psychological phenomena relevant to legal questions about adolescent maturity: cognitive capacity, which undergirds logical thinking, and self-regulatory capacity, which comprises individuals’ ability to restrain themselves in the face of emotional, exciting, or risky stimuli. Age patterns of these constructs were assessed in 5,227 individuals (50.7% female), ages 10-30 (M = 17.05, SD = 5.91) from eleven countries. There were three primary aims of this work. First was to replicate previous research on age patterns in cognitive capacity within the U.S.-only sample. Second was to replicate previous research on age patterns in self-regulatory capacity within the U.S.-only sample. Third was to extend analyses to include the other ten countries in the sample, and evaluate to what degree age patterns found in the U.S. generalize to other parts of the world. I explored age patterns in the U.S. using a variety of statistical approaches, including analysis of variance, regression, and piecewise regression to better understand how these analyses shape our conclusions regarding the age of maturity of cognitive capacity and self-regulatory capacity. Age patterns found in the U.S. were consistent with past research. Specifically, whereas cognitive capacity reached adult levels around age 16, self-regulatory capacity generally continued to mature beyond age 18. When extending the analyses to the other ten countries, I found that generally cognitive capacity matured prior to self-regulatory capacity, but there were numerous deviations from this pattern. For instance, some countries evinced no discernible age pattern in one or both composites (e.g., Kenya or Jordan), while in others self-regulatory capacity reached adult levels earlier than or at the same age as cognitive capacity, inconsistent with hypotheses. In sum, juveniles may be capable of deliberative decision making by age 16, but even young adults may demonstrate “immature” decision making in arousing situations. It is therefore reasonable to have different age boundaries for different legal purposes, at least in the U.S.: one for matters in which cognitive capacity predominates, and a later one for matters in which self-regulatory capacity plays a substantial role. Whether and how these results ought to inform policy in other countries, however, is unclear. / Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Anthony Jurich / Cross-national phenomenon is often cloaked behind the shadow of interracial phenomenon. This study specifically focused on the cross-national phenomenon, especially the couples' experience as parents of their mixed-heritage child. In the process of exploration, both the couples' marital and parenting experience were captured. By employing a qualitative approach and analysis, eight cross-national couples who lived in the Midwest were recruited and interviewed about their parenting experience. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded and analyzed. The results of the study produced five categories of cross-national couples' experience: perceptions, relational dynamics, parent/child relationship issues, contextual influences, and essential coping strategies. By utilizing systemic perspectives, the descriptive findings were further analyzed in order to describe the potential interactions among categories, themes, and concepts. The analysis revealed five essential domains that were integral to the couples' cross-national parenting experience including, the individual domain, the couple domain, the child domain, the environmental domain, and the parenting domain. It is evident that the majority of cross-national couples did not always perceive their relational context in term of being mixed or cross-national but rather simply as couple or parent. It was not until the birth of their children that couples typically began to face the reality of being cross-national couples. Participants identified both unique strengths and challenges of being parents of mixed-heritage children. The findings suggested that the experience of cross-national parents are both common as well as unique, shaped by the multifaceted domains and their interactions. The systemic analysis revealed those idiosyncratic domains and factors within those domains. Although all of these domains appeared equally significant in contributing to the parenting quality and experience, the couple, the parenting and the environmental domains appeared to have the greatest influence. The more couples work toward cohesion and harmony in the different domains of their lives, the more favorable their experience was. Clinical implications for therapists working with cross-national couples and parents, utilizing the systemic framework, are discussed. Recommendations for future studies are also presented.

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There has been a renewed research focus on developments within the family as a result of the broad social, economic and cultural developments that have occurred across Europe since the middle of the twentieth century. Arguably the rise in female, and particularly maternal employment, has produced the greatest impact on family life and gender roles. Given that this division of labour is changing there is debate about whether men and women's expectations and acceptance of some aspects of gender roles - their gender role attitudes - have also changed. Gender role attitudes feed into an array of sociological debates such as those concerning gender inequalities, women's position in the labour market, declining fertility rates and family breakdown, and naturally feeds into the discourse surrounding welfare state and policy decision making. Whilst discussions that concern the family and personal life have also been littered with debates about the existence and influence of individualisation over every aspect of modern life. Three waves of the European Values Study (EVS) are used to explore gender role attitude change, focusing on the division of labour, over time from 1990 to 2008 and across 19 countries in Europe. Two data classification techniques are used to derive a three pronged and interconnected measure of gender role attitudes (Maternal employment, Job fulfilment and Economic independence). Two types of cluster analyses are then used to explore similarities in attitude change across countries and over time. Five welfare state typologies are then tested based on their efficacy to predict attitudes to gender roles. Finally cohort and sex-based variations in attitudes are also examined. The main findings are:• Gender role attitudes have shifted at the cross-European level towards more progressive perspectives over time from 1990-2008, with men found to be lagging behind women's more liberal attitudes.• There is evidence that welfares state typologies capture only a small amount of variance within gender role attitudes and therefore little evidence is found to support the idea that similarities in family-policy and socio-economic contexts are mirrored by similar attitudes.• The findings uncover evidence to indicate that both cohort and period effects are associated with gender role attitude change over time.• The results also identify some congruence with specific elements from theories of individualisation. The study supports findings of previous research that suggests people in these countries seem to be becoming more accepting of women's evolving biographies but that gender inequalities remain and men's attitudes continue to lag behind those of women. There is evidence to both support and reject the idea that we are living in more individualised societies.

<p>Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has recently been the subject of increased attention, both in the academic and the corporate arena. In general, definitions of CSR seem to have in common the idea that businesses make a decision to commit to social and environmental issues and go beyond their legal obligations. In practice, corporations define their approach to CSR by using their own lenses, being influenced by factors at regional, national, industrial and corporate levels.</p><p>Although there is an increasing pressure on corporations to play a more explicit role in the welfare of society and the importance of behaving socially responsibly is well accepted in the literature(Falck and Heblich, 2007), there have been very few attempts at identifying how companies from different geographical regions themselves define and interpret CSR (Baughn et al, 2007; Maignan and Ralston, 2002). Most of the cross-national studies on CSR have focused on the situation within Europe (Aaronson, 2002; Perrini, 2005; Silberhorn and Warren, 2007) or between Europe and the U.S (Maignan and Ralston, 2002). Besides, CSR researchers usually focus on industries acknowledged as problematic in environmental issues. Although construction industry has a bad reputation of “poor quality and service, a bad safety record, and a history of broken promises and sharp practice” (Wood et. al, 2002:4), it is one of the less approached industries in the CSR literature.</p><p>Such theoretical considerations led to the interest in exploring how top companies in the Construction industry of Sweden, Thailand and Brazil approach CSR. The authors aim to contribute to fulfill the gap of CSR theories by exploring cross-national similarities and differences based on the nature of motivations underlying CSR practices, CSR processes, stakeholder issues as well as the main factors shaping such similarities and differences.</p><p>In the empirical part, a three way cross-national CSR study was conducted. The top construction companies from Sweden, Thailand and Brazil were chosen, totalizing twelve firms. The study was carried out using a qualitative approach, employing as the research method the analysis of corporate disclosure through organizational documents. The results for each country were then analyzed and compared in order to reveal similarities and differences in CSR approaches.</p><p>Results suggest a predominant CSR value-driven approach, which might indicate that CSR has come a long way from its early roots of charity to become a strategic business practice inserted in corporate values. Although the cross-national differences were apparently mainly shaped by regional factors, the industry sector has emerged as an important factor shaping the areas of cross-national agreement.</p><p>Swedish companies are strongly focused on environmental issues and stress the idea of sustainability, whereas Thai companies use Corporate Governance to group CSR activities, denoting a focus on legal compliance. Brazilian companies show high concern for social issues, which can be perceived in the nature of CSR processes the companies present, the stakeholders addressed and in the role companies seem to take as social agents, fulfilling the gap left by the national government.</p>

Background. There are few cross-national comparisons of the rates of suicide ideation and attempts across diverse countries. Nine independently conducted epidemiological surveys using similar diagnostic assessment and criteria provided an opportunity to obtain that data. Methods. Suicide ideation and attempts were assessed on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule in over 40000 subjects drawn from the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, France, West Germany, Lebanon, Taiwan, Korea and New Zealand. Results. The lifetime prevalence rates/100 for suicide ideation ranged from 2·09 (Beirut) to 18·51 (Christchurch, New Zealand). Lifetime prevalence rates/100 for suicide attempts ranged from 0·72 (Beirut) to 5·93 (Puerto Rico). Females as compared to males had only marginally higher rates of suicidal ideation in most countries, reaching a two-fold increase in Taiwan. Females as compared to males had more consistently higher rates for suicide attempts, reaching a two- to three-fold increase in most countries. Suicide ideation and attempts in most countries were associated with being currently divorced/separated as compared to currently married. Conclusions. While the rates of suicide ideation varied widely by country, the rates of suicide attempts were more consistent across most countries. The variations were only partly explained by variation in rates of psychiatric disorders, divorce or separation among countries and are probably due to cultural features that we do not, as yet, understand.

Previous family researchers have found that parents who share different demographic backgrounds construct unique parenting styles and beliefs. Although such studies contribute to understanding how parenthood is socially constructed, the information about how parents internalize cultural information and everyday experiences to raise children is missing in the extant literature. To fully comprehend the social construction of parenthood, the linkage between the mind and the behavior of parents within specific social structures needed to be studied. I thus conducted conjoint interviews with 24 Japanese couples and 24 American couples who were raising four-to-six year old daughters and sons to examine how culture and cognition produce parental philosophies and family relationships. By using cognitive sociology as a theoretical framework and grounded theory methods as a mode of analysis, I found that the parents’ construction of parenting beliefs and practices basically depended on how they thought about four analytically distinct relationships: (1) their relationship to their parents; (2) their relationship to their children; (3) their relationship to their marital partner; and (4) their relationship to other people in society. Although fathers and mothers in Japan and the United States talked in general about these four aspects, in the process of doing so they offered unique views on each aspect. Japanese parents tended to view their parents as role models, believe that children and parents teach and learn from each other, consider gender ideology to be the foundation of parental partnership, and rank understanding others' feelings as the most important skill for children. Thus, their parenting philosophies were manufactured through reciprocal relationships with other people. In contrast, American parents tended to want to become better parents than their own parents, prefer to influence and control their children’s lives, consider equality to be the foundation of their parental partnership, and encourage their children to become independent. Therefore, their parenting philosophies were manufactured through self motivation. Through the cross-national comparisons of parents’ cognitive processes, I also discuss: the levels of parental expectations and pressures; the issues around the gender relations within a family; and the roles of international parenting books in a globalizing world.

LaRossa, Jaret, Gadgil, and Wynn (2000, 2001) conducted a content analysis of 495 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in the United States from 1945 to 1999 in order to determine whether the culture of fatherhood and gender disparities in the media had changed over the past half-century. Drawing on their research, I conducted a similar kind of analysis of 246 comic strips published on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day in Japan from 1950 to 2004. By comparing and contrasting the results in the two studies, I show how comic portrayals of families have changed in Japan and in the United States, and demonstrate the value of analyzing comic strips in cross-national research.