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The connection between age and attitudes toward social change has been a longstanding research interest in the United States. Hypotheses derived from this tradition are tested in the Czech Republic...

The authors report on the experiences of sixteen Czech families ten years after the Velvet Revolution. The families were selected from a four-year panel of 740 households and were interviewed in 1997-98. They talked about their lives during communism and since the reform. They recalled their initial high expectations, followed by facing new challenges and their later reassessment of the reform. Their stories show that the transition toward a market economy and democracy has been a mixed blessing consistent with social thought on the earlier Great Transformation. They also complement the notion that attitudes about the reforms differentiate into the dichotomy of winners and losers. These families gave well-measured accounts of this historic change whether winners or losers.

One-thousand two-hundred and ninety university students from twenty-seven ethnic⧹national groups across six locations in the former Soviet Union (Novopolotsk in Byelorussia, Kharkov in the Ukraine, Moscow and Nizniy Novgorod in Russia, Ufa in the Bashkir Autonomous Republic and Ulan-Ude in the Buryat Autonomous Republic) participated in 1991–1992 in a survey investigating the existence of ingroup preference in inter-ethnic contact, ingroup consensus on an ethnic hierarchy of outgroups and the measure of intergroup consensus on an ethnic hierarchy among the ethnic⧹national groups in each location. Hypotheses about ingroup preference, ethnic hierarchies and consensus were derived from realistic group conflict theory, social identity theory and from the assumption that outgroup preferences reflect considerations of the status effects of intergroup contact. It appeared that the last type of hypothesis could explain most of the results.

Gender differences in health have been linked to gender stratification in the United States. Women's relation to production, paid and unpaid work, and their experience of this gender inequality disadvantage their self-rated health compared to men. Men's consumption or health lifestyles disfavors their comparative health. This formulation is tested in the Czech Republic with a sample of matched wives and husbands (N = 577 households). This extends previous research in the United States on gender differences in health in two ways: into post-communist Europe and by comparing paired wives and husbands. Respondents completed questionnaires in 1994 on their health and well-being, jobs and finances, non-economic life events, marriage, psychological states, opinions about the changes in the Czech Republic, and socioeconomic background. Wives and husbands filled out separate questionnaires. The relation to production (both the objective relation and its subjective experience) did not impair wives' self-reported health any more than that of their husbands, and husbands' consumption or health lifestyles did not put them at a health disadvantage. Interpretations of these findings rest on both the extension of the study into post-communist Europe and by comparing matched wives and husbands.

The Czech Republic is changing rapidly and its current economic transformation is a strain on Czech families. In this study, the connection between economic strain and individual well-being is investigated via mailed questionnaires from 234 households in the Czech Republic. For Czech women, depression rises more with economic strain than does hostility, while Czech men become more hostile than depressed in the face of economic strain. For women, social support is a buffer between economic strain and hostility, whereas self-esteem is a buffer for depression. For men, both self-esteem and social support exacerbate hostility in the context of economic strain.

Since the fall of communism in 1989, criminal victimisation has become an issue in the Czech Republic, and research indicates that it is a stressful experience. The relationship between criminal victimisation and depression was examined by adding fear of crime, protection against crime, avoidance of crime, mastery over one's life, social support, and trust in government (as well as socio-demographic controls) to successive regression equations. A total of 703 Czech households in the second of a threewave (1994-1996) panel study were studied. For men, the total and direct effects of criminal victimisation on depression were significant. However, the relation of men's fear of crime and depression was mediated by avoidance. For women, criminal victimisation was not related to depression. The relation of women's fear of crime and depression was mediated by mastery. Interpretations of these results are grounded in the different relevance criminal victimisation has for the well-being of men and women. Czech Sociological Review, 2000, Vol. 8 (No. 2: 195-209) Since the fall of communism in 1989, the issue of criminal victimisation has become a public concern in the Czech Republic. American research shows that criminal victimisation has real consequences, such as the diminished psychological well-being of victims, and it can be assumed that it poses a threat to the well-being of Czech citizens also. In this analysis, criminal victimisation in the Czech Republic is examined within the theoretical framework of the stress-distress perspective. The analysis begins with a brief discussion of rising crime during the period of the Czech transformation prior to 1994. Rising Crime in the Czech Republic Since the fall of communism in 1989 crime rates have been rising in former Czechoslovakia. The 1992 International Crime Survey (ICS) revealed that of all Czechoslovak respondents in the survey, 10.9% reported having been a burglary victim, 22% reported having had personal property stolen, and 9.4% reported that they had been the victims of an assault the second highest proportion of assault victims reported for post-communist countries [Valkova 1993]. In addition, among Czechoslovak respondents in the 1992 ICS, 9% of the women reported having been the victims of sexual offences, and almost 44% of car owners in the survey had experienced car vandalism [Siemaszko 1993]. In Prague, Burianek [1994] found an increase in types of crime new to the Czech Republic, such as drug dealing, economic crime and organised crime. The 1992 ICS also reported that 33.4% of Czech respondents felt 'a bit unsafe' and 10.5% felt 'very unsafe' when walking alone in their area at night [Valkova 1993]. *) NIMH (Grant 50369) and a NATO Collaborative Research Grant supported this research. *) Direct any correspondence to Lee Michael Johnson, Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, 107 East Hall, Ames, I A 5001 1-1070, USA, phone +1-515-294-8012. 195 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.123 on Mon, 18 Jul 2016 05:42:25 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Czech Sociological Review, VIII, (2/2000) While the Czech public's concern with crime has increased, its faith in the state to control it has decreased. In a 1992 national poll, 86% of Czech respondents reported that they were dissatisfied with police [Hraba et al. 1996]. The 1992 ICS showed that 55.4% of respondents were dissatisfied with the way police handled reported crime, and 32.4% thought the police do a bad job of patrolling streets [Valkova 1993]. The 1992 ICS also showed a lack of faith in police as the main reason given in former Czechoslovakia for not reporting car vandalism [Siemaszko 1993]. Hraba et al. [1998] found a perceived increased risk of crime among Czechs that was due to a lack of trust in government as well as criminal victimisation. One reason for the rise in crime is that economic motives for crime have increased in the Czech Republic. With the transformation, the state no longer guarantees employment and public entitlements have diminished. Earnings inequality began to increase in 1990, with higher incomes rising and diverging from others [Rondinelli 1994; Vecernik 1995, 1996a], who in turn have experienced declining income, economic insecurity, and subjective poverty [Matějů and Řehakova 1996; Musil 1992; Vecernik 1996b]. These factors have been associated with arrest rates in the United States [LaFree and Drass 1996] and may also serve as economic motives for crime in the Czech Republic. Criminal Victimisation in the Stress-Distress Perspective Consistent with both criminological and stress-distress research, criminal victimisation is posited to be a Stressor that can produce depressive symptoms in victims [Coyne and Downey 1991; Hraba et al. 1999; Kilpatrick et al. 1985; Mawby and Walkate 1994; Norris and Kaniasty 1994; Proulx et al. 1995]. The effect of criminal victimisation on depression may depend, however, on the emotional reactions of victims to victimisation. Increased fear of crime is one of these reactions. In criminology, fear of crime is defined as a feeling of dread about being victimised by crime [Ferraro 1995; Garofalo 1981; Giles-Sims 1984; LaGrange and Ferraro 1989; Miethe and Lee 1984; Taylor and Hale 1986], and it is considered to be a consequence of crime itself [Giles-Sims 1984; Ferraro 1995; Garofalo 1981; Norris and Kaniasty 1994; Roundtree and Land 1996; Thompson and Norris 1992]. It is also seen as a cause of psychological distress in stress-distress research [Ross 1993]. This analysis will test whether Czech victims become depressed in direct response to criminal victimisation, or whether they must first fear it (interpreting it as a threat to personal well-being) in order to become depressed. The effect of criminal victimisation may also depend on victims' behavioural responses to victimisation and fear of crime. These reactions can be stress-coping strategies. Approach strategies are those intended to increase one's resistance to stress, and avoidance strategies are those intended to reduce the occasions when one is confronted by stress. Approach strategies appear to have more power in reducing distress [Coyne and Downey 1991; Elder 1974; Lorenz et al. 1996]. The restrictions to personal freedom associated with avoidance strategies may have a negative effect on people's psychological well-being, thus reducing their effectiveness in reducing distress [Hraba et al. 1999]. Similarly, criminologists are interested in protection and avoidance as reactions to crime. Protection strategies are those which are intended to increase a person's ability to resist criminal victimisation learning self-defence techniques, for example. Avoidance strategies, on the other hand, are those which are intended to reduce the opportunities for others to offend not going out after dark or into certain neighbourhoods, for example [DuBow et al. 1979; Garofalo 1981; Liska and Warner 1991; Roundtree and Land 1996].

This paper examines the effects of economic change on change in indi- vidual well-being for a panel of Czech respondents during a time of rapid social and economic transformation (1990-91), and compares married Czech women with a sample of married women in the United States. In examining five specific hypothe- ses from the stress-distress tradition in the United States, data from a panel of 192 Czech men and women showed that respondents who were forced to make economic adjustments reducing their standard of living also reported increased health problems and depressive symptoms. Contrary to findings sometimes observed in the United States, the relationship between economic adjustments and change in depressive symptoms was strongest among those who reported having the strongest sense of personal control (mastery) and the highest perceived social support. Compared with , the sample of married U. S. women from Iowa, married Czech women reported more depressive symptoms, had more health problems, and were lower in feelings of mastery. In addition, these Czech women recorded significantly stronger paths link- ing education to changes in both health conditions and depressive symptoms, whereas Iowa women had signficantly stronger paths linking actual economic con- ditions to subsequent economic adjustments. The data suggest that the stress-distress model developed in the U. S. applies in the Czech Republic as well, but further un- derstanding of the differentiated role of social support and mastery for Czech and U.S. women is necessary to more completely interpret the observed interactions.

Educated Czechs fared poorly during the communist regime (1948-89) but have done relatively well since the Velvet Revolution. This phase change is consistent with transition theory and suggests that educated Czechs may be more supportive of the postcommunist reforms as a consequence. To test this hypothesis, the authors examined 11 national surveys (1990-98) of Czech respondents to determine if economic standing and other controls explained the relation between education and attitudes about the country's reforms. They also tested whether the effects of education interacted with phases of the reforms. The results showed that better-educated respondents enjoyed an economic advantage, supportive of transition theory. However, this advantage and other controls did not explain the significant effects of education on attitudes about the Czech reforms. These pat terns were stable during the survey period with one exception, as indicated by education * time interaction terms. These findings suggest that values associated with education may play a role in attitudes about postcommunist reforms independent of economic standing, expanding the view that economic experiences during postcommunist reforms differentiate attitudes about them

The aim of this paper is to put research on social distance towards ethnic minorities in The Netherlands in the context of theory on social representations. Two aspects of social distance are distinguished: one is the amount of social distance towards ethnic minorities, and the other is an ethnic hierarchy of minorities in social distance. In two surveys of 291 and 304 university and secondary school students, it was found that the respondents' social distance reactions towards ethnic groups formed hierarchical cumulative scales indicating a consensual ethnic hierarchy. In these hierarchies, European groups were placed on top, followed by colonial and then Islamic groups at the bottom. The ethnic distinctions contained in this hierarchy, however, varied across respondents, contexts of application and type of representatives of the out-groups. It is concluded that the ethnic hierarchy found is a social representation with strong dynamic overtones, a finding that is consistent with recent revisions of social representation theory.

It is argued that sociological theories of ethnicity can be subsumed under two basic paradigms. One assumes modernity means increasing individual freedom (an assumption derived from classical liber...

The relation between stereotypes and social distance towards The Netherlands' minority groups is analysed in a survey of 204 secondary school and university students. Two aspects of social distance are distinguished. One is the amount of social distance towards minority groups, and the other is an ethnic hierarchy of minority groups in social distance. This ethnic hierarchy was shared by a majority of the students. Forty‐eight stereotypes scored for seven ethnic groups were found to converge into six latent dimensions common to all groups. The association between stereotypes, social distance and the ethnic hierarchy depended on the domain of contact. Stereotypes appear to anchor the ethnic hierarchy into Dutch institutions and values, rather than classical racism.

This paper examines the use of qualitative methodology in the sociology classroom by demonstrating the use of photographs and music in teaching the human element of social change. The authors maintain that traditionally only one side of social change is taught to the students; the objective view with facts and figures. By adding the other side of social change, the subjective view, the students are better able to appreciate the significance of the larger social change process. The authors maintain that photographs and music best relay the subjective view to the class. By using the modernization of American society as an example, the authors proceed to identify specific pictures and music which they feel most accurately depict this view of social change. A detailed description of their selection process is also presented.

People's religiosity occupies a central place in the sociology of religion. This study employs indepth life histories to describe the subjective lives and religiosity of fifty Czech-American elderly in Iowa. The life history method effectively taps the religiosity of these elderly through their expressed concerns in life. Results indicate ecumenism and humanism among these elderly. This meaning system coincides with their liberal religious heritage. Thus, the cultural and religious family heritage of Czech-American elderly helps to mold their present world view. Findings also suggest that rural Czech-American elderly, who are either exclusively mainline church-goers or freethinkers, find ultimate meaning through ecumenism and humanism rather than through sectarianism.

This paper describes a multimedia aid to teaching about ethnic relations in American history, whose purpose is to enhance student understanding of the sub ject through visual and musical images. The instruc tional technique and its content are relevant to a wide range of courses, not only to those on ethnic relations. Bower cites evidence that visual imagery can aid the learning of abstractions (2). The abstraction here is that social change in America forms three phases: agrarian, industrial and post-industrial (1). This history of the na tion frames that of its ethnic groups, and both are il lustrated with photographs and music in this slide and music presentation. Our approach is consistent with the statement of Brown, Lewis and Harcleroad (5) on the merits of still photography in instruction, and that of Quinney, (8) and Smith (9) on the use of film in the teaching of social science. It is also consistent with our experience. Recognizing that students are individuals and respond as such to instruction (7), we nonetheless find that in our own state university most students come from culturally homogeneous backgrounds and have a time perspective bound by their own biographies. It is dif ficult to teach about different ethnic groups in an historical framework. Therefore, we developed a slide and music presentation. Visual images and music were used on the premise that today's students turn toward both for meaning. Historical photographs from a multitude of sources