Modeling of contextual effects based on spectral peak interaction

BackgroundIn recent decades, China has experienced dramatic changes to its social and economic environment, which has affected the distribution of wellbeing across its citizens. While several studies have investigated individual level predictors of wellbeing in the Chinese population, less research has been done looking at contextual effects. This cross-sectional study looks at the individual and contextual effects of (regional) education, unemployment and marriage (rate) on individual happiness, life satisfaction and depressive symptomatology. MethodsData were collected from over 29,000 individuals (aged 18 to 110, 51.91% female) in the China Family Panel Studies, and merged with county level census data obtained from the 2010 China Population Census and Statistical Yearbook. To explore contextual effects, we used multilevel models accounting for the hierarchical structure of the data. ResultsWe found that a one-year increase in education was associated with a 0.17% increase in happiness and a 0.16% decrease in depressive symptoms. Unemployed men were 1% less happy, 1% less satisfied with life and reported 0.84% more depressive symptoms than employed men while minimal effects were seen for women. Single, divorced and widowed individuals had worse outcomes than married individuals (ranging from 2.96% to 21% differences). We found interaction effects for education and employment. Less educated individuals had greater happiness and less depressive symptoms in counties with higher average education compared to counterparts in less educated counties. In contrast, more educated individuals were less satisfied with life in more educated counties, an effect that is possibly due to social comparison. Employed individuals had lower life satisfaction in areas of high unemployment, while levels were constant for the unemployed. A 1% increase in county marriage rate was associated with 0.33% and 0.24% increases in happiness and life satisfaction respectively, with no interactions. We speculate that this effect could be due to greater social cohesion in the neighbourhood.ConclusionsOur results show that policies designed to improve employment and marriage rates will be beneficial for all, while interventions to encourage positive social comparison strategies may help to offset the negative effects of increasing neighbourhood average education on the highly educated.

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Conclusion

10.1093/oso/9780198792130.003.0013 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Harald Schoen ◽

Sigrid Roßteutscher ◽

Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck ◽

Bernhard Weßels ◽

Christof Wolf

Keyword(s):

Political Behavior ◽

Voting Behavior ◽

Contextual Effects ◽

Democratic Politics ◽

Voter Behavior ◽

Future Research ◽

Opinion Formation ◽

Context Sensitive ◽

Contextual Features ◽

And Behavior

This concluding chapter summarizes the main findings of the preceding chapters in light of the model of contextual effects on voter behavior. Accordingly, the processes of communication and politicization are of key importance for contextual effects. By implication, we cannot take for granted that contextual features exert sizable effects on voters’ opinion formation and behavior in each and every case. Findings about contextual effects are also context-sensitive and thus do not lend themselves to generalization by default. These observations suggest that context plays a nuanced and conditional role in voting behavior. Exploring it further should be a focal topic of future research on political behavior and democratic politics.

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Voters and Voting in Context

10.1093/oso/9780198792130.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Harald Schoen ◽

Sigrid Roßteutscher ◽

Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck ◽

Bernhard Weßels ◽

Christof Wolf

Keyword(s):

Voting Behavior ◽

Contextual Effects ◽

First Century ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Opinion Formation ◽

Contextual Features ◽

Early Twenty ◽

Methodological Approaches ◽

Rich Data ◽

Theoretical Issues

After a brief review of the scholarly discussion about the idea that context affects political behavior, this chapter proposes a model for the analysis of contextual effects on opinion formation and voting behavior. It highlights theoretical issues in the interplay of various contextual features and voter predispositions in bringing about contextual effects on voters. This model guides the analyses of contextual effects on voter behavior in Germany in the early twenty-first century. These analyses draw on rich data from multiple voter surveys and various sources of information about contextual features. The chapter also gives an overview of different methodological approaches and challenges in the analysis of contextual effects on voting behavior.

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Exploring associations between school environment and bullying in Iran: Multilevel contextual effects modeling

Children and Youth Services Review ◽

10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.01.036 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 99 ◽

pp. 54-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Maysam Rezapour ◽

Narges Khanjani ◽

Moghadameh Mirzai

Keyword(s):

School Environment ◽

Contextual Effects

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Contextual effects in human gloss perception

Electronic Imaging ◽

10.2352/issn.2470-1173.2018.14.hvei-512 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 (14) ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Sabrina Hansmann-Roth ◽

Sylvia C. Pont ◽

Pascal Mamassian

Keyword(s):

Contextual Effects

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Foreign-Born Population Growth, Negative Outgroup Contact, and Americans’ Attitudes Towards Legal and Unauthorized Immigration

Political Studies ◽

10.1177/00323217211005920 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003232172110059

Author(s):

James Laurence ◽

Harris Hyun-soo Kim

Keyword(s):

Population Growth ◽

Strong Evidence ◽

Dynamic Change ◽

State Level ◽

Contextual Effects ◽

Recent Change ◽

Foreign Born ◽

Unauthorized Immigration ◽

Legal Immigration ◽

Restrictive Policy

Individual attitudes towards immigration are powerfully driven by ethnic context, that is, size of foreign-born population. We advance the literature by examining how the change (growth) in foreign-born population, in addition to its size (level), is related to two distinct outcomes: natives’ views on legal and unauthorized immigration. By analysing a probability US sample, we find that an increase in the state-level immigration population is positively related to Americans’ approval of a policy aimed at containing the flow of undocumented immigrants. The proportion of immigrants in a state, however, is not a significant predictor of support for such restrictive policy. With respect to legal immigration, neither the amount of recent change in, nor the size of, the immigration population matters. Our study provides strong evidence for contextual effects: net of compositional factors, a dynamic change in foreign-born population has an independent impact on how Americans view unauthorized, but not legal, immigration.

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