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This study investigates the question of how Engineering education in the Nordic region responds to the challenge of educating future engineers who are ready for professional practice in a digital world. Particular interest is put on identifying who is responsible for the implementation of digital knowledge and what and how subject content is addressed. Our study draws on Bernstein's pedagogical device model (Bernstein, B. 2002. "Editorial: Basil Bernstein's Theory of Social Class, Educational Codes and Social Control." "British Journal of Sociology of Education" 23 (4): 525-526). The study focuses on the questions of if/how digital transformation leads to change of engineering education content and/or pedagogical approaches. Narratives of 20 university teachers have been collected and analysed. Findings reveal three areas of consideration; there is a connection between how digital knowledge is valued and how the subject is introduced in engineering education, differences in digital knowledge can be linked to the generation gap and, universities are seldom seen as the driving force for digital innovation. It is concluded that education must reflect on the purpose for which digitalisation takes place, continuous training targeting digital transformation should be offered to senior teachers and, universities need to provide increased focus and dedicated time for educational development.

Worldwide, scholars and policymakers emphasise the importance of basing teacher education in practice. Scholars have therefore suggested to extend the amount of fieldwork. Still, research has shown that the fieldwork component in teacher education of variable quality. During the last 10 years, an increasing body of research has thus emphasised coursework as an important site for making teacher education practice-based, by centreing coursework on core practices of teaching. This approach to practice-based teacher education has been called the enactment approach, and is primarily set within a US context. This article examines research on teacher education coursework in Norway and Finland, to investigate the extent to which the geographic scope of this approach has expanded to a Nordic context.

Decreasing performance in several core subjects among students in Sweden and the increasing segregation of schools are urgent issues in relation to equity in education, which has been a long-term goal in Sweden. The aim of this study is to identify factors in the school environment associated with student performance in PISA in mathematics at different performance levels in the Nordic countries. In order to separate the effects of school-level variables from the effects of student background factors, and to deal with the multistage sampling design used in PISA, multilevel analysis was used in this exploratory study. Based on data from PISA 2003 and 2012, which are the most recent assessments with a focus on mathematics, results have shown that a few school-level factors seemed to be associated with student success, and then mainly among low and medium-performing schools. Overall, school-level factors associated with success (or lack of it) partially differ between countries and over the years. These results have implications for educational professionals since some of the school-level factors identified inhibit potential for change.

Background: Around the world, policy makers and teacher educators are paying increasing attention to how teacher candidates learn to study and enact teaching and to grounding preparation more deeply in teachers' classroom practice. Evidence from the United States and the Netherlands suggests that efforts to tie preparation to practice may significantly impact pupils' learning. However, the nature of teacher candidates' opportunities to study, practice, and rehearse teaching remains underexplored, especially in international studies. Purpose: Our research analyzes opportunities to study, practice, and rehearse teaching in teacher education coursework in five different programs in five countries. We focus specifically on the degree to which campus coursework provides candidates with opportunities to study, practice, and rehearse actual teaching practices. What kind of opportunities exist in these international programs' coursework to study, practice, and rehearse teaching? Are there any typical patterns and connections that teacher education students encounter more often than others? Research Design: Our multiple case study design uses data from surveys of program candidates, observations of methods courses, and interviews with program faculty and students. We highlight our inclusion of observation of methods courses, which are relatively rare in studies of teacher education. We collected these data in five programs in five countries: Chile, Cuba, Finland, Norway, and the United States. Findings: Analysis of all data revealed frequent opportunities for candidates to analyze artifacts from teaching and to do work that pupils will do. Candidates had some opportunities to plan, to rehearse teaching strategies, and to experience their teacher educator modeling teaching practices. Despite a growing focus on student learning in the United States and in other countries, there were few opportunities for teacher candidates to analyze student learning or to examine samples of students' work. The dearth of opportunities for candidates to examine and analyze student learning was especially surprising: We underscore this finding as critical for teacher education. Conclusions: These findings about opportunities to study, practice, and rehearse teaching can provide helpful lenses for teacher education programs to examine where and how they offer these opportunities. Teacher educators may wish to consider the balance of learning opportunities within programs. The programs offered ample opportunities to plan for teaching, for instance. However, substantial experiences may come at the expense of others, especially when compared with the few opportunities to examine student learning.

The development of education programmes in career guidance and counseling (CGC) has followed different paths among the various Nordic countries. Ten CGC programmes in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden were evaluated against the NICE curricular model. The results show that all NICE core competences are represented in the curricula. However, there is greater focus in some programmes on developing competences for individual career guidance, than on developing competences for working at organisational and societal levels. Implications for the cooperation and professionalisation of CGC within the Nordic countries are discussed as well as limitations of the NICE model.

The secondary transfer effect (STE) of intergroup contact posits that contact with one social group may reduce prejudice not only towards contacted but also non‐contacted groups. Virtual reality (VR) has the potential to facilitate intergroup contact on a large scale, but its effectiveness in generating the STE of intergroup contact has not been studied before. In two pre‐registered studies conducted in Finland and Italy, we examined whether cooperative (positive) contact in VR between participants' White avatar and an avatar representing a person with African ethnic background had an extended effect on more positive attitudes towards other non‐contacted minority groups. Study 1 (N = 53) revealed that positive contact with a Black avatar in VR decreased explicit prejudice towards secondary non‐contacted outgroups (Middle Eastern people, Muslims, homosexual people, individuals with intellectual disabilities, and immigrants) via attitude generalization but not via intergroup anxiety. Study 2 (N = 132) expanded the design of Study 1 by including a competitive (negative) contact situation to test the STE of both positive and negative contact in VR. The findings of Study 2 showed a trend towards improvement in explicit attitudes towards one secondary outgroup (East Asian people) for positive contact as compared to negative contact. Overall, our findings show the potential of VR contact to alleviate generalized prejudice through the STE of positive intergroup contact. However, caution must be exercised, as competitive activities in VR are common and may have detrimental effects on intergroup attitudes. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vicarious contact has often been used for studying prejudice-reduction in school contexts due to its relatively accessible application through written or audiovisual portrayals of positive intergroup contact. However, these interventions may sometimes prove ineffective, thus restricting their ecological validity and independent use in education. To contribute to the understanding of factors that might facilitate or mitigate the efficacy of vicarious contact in reducing ethnic prejudice among adolescents, the present study tested for the moderating effect of anti-prejudice motivation and friends' outgroup attitudes. Participants were Finnish secondary school students (N = 334; M = 13.38 years, SD = 0.53; 48% female; 19% ethnic minority) allocated into cluster-randomized intervention (N = 149) and control (N = 185) groups. Participants in the intervention group took part in 4 × 45-min teacher-led intervention sessions. A pretest-posttest design was employed to assess the outgroup attitudes three weeks before the intervention and the follow-up two weeks after. The results showed that adolescents' intrinsic, but not extrinsic, anti-prejudice motivation and the pre-intervention attitudes of their reciprocal classroom friends positively predicted post-intervention attitudes towards people from different ethnic and cultural groups. However, only extrinsic motivation moderated the intervention effect as the results indicated the intervention to have a detrimental effect on outgroup attitudes among adolescents with less motivation to be non-prejudiced in order to gain social acceptance. This attitudinal backlash among adolescents less susceptible to the social influence of others implies that motivational aspects should not be overlooked when developing school-based intervention programs, especially when social norms are used as a mechanism of attitude change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, scholars and policymakers have called for teacher education to link fieldwork and coursework. This article examines teacher candidates' opportunities to talk about field placement within their campus coursework as one way of doing so. It reports on survey data (n = 270) and observation data (n = 52 hours) from 3 teacher-education programs in Norway, Finland, and California in the USA. Findings suggest that candidates have extensive opportunities to talk about field placement. However, the characteristics of the talk, the degree of specificity and detail provided, and the level of complexity and connectedness to theory vary extensively. The article argues that, to be generative for professional learning, talk about field placement needs to be systematically scaffolded within a pedagogy of teacher education.

Worldwide, teacher educators and policy makers have called for teacher preparation that is more deeply linked to practice. Yet we know little about how such linkages are achieved within different international programs. We examine the degree to which programs provide opportunities to learn that are grounded in practice, during university coursework. We report on observation data (N = 104 hr) from the methods courses in six programs in Finland, Norway, and California. Using an analytical framework decomposing the conception of "grounding in practice" in teacher education, this article provides evidence regarding the successes and challenges of incorporating practice in teacher education.

This mixed‐method study of 1,374 Russian‐speaking immigrants living in Finland investigated how different characteristics of their socio‐political integration are reflected in their attitudes towards supporting Ukraine during the war. The results of survey responses showed that trust in Finnish media and engagement with Finnish societal issues predicted stronger 'pro‐Ukraine' attitudes (i.e., support for Finland's aid for Ukraine and condemning of Russia's invasion), while experiences of increased hate speech or discrimination of Russian speakers in Finland were related to weaker 'pro‐Ukraine' attitudes. Next, person‐centred analysis identified three socio‐political integration clusters. High Integration cluster respondents highly supported Ukraine as compared to Critical and Low Integration clusters. Critical Integration respondents were somewhat more integrated than Low Integration respondents, except they felt that discrimination towards Russian speakers had increased due to the war. Analyses of open‐ended responses confirmed that Critical Integration respondents were most likely concerned with discrimination. Low integration respondents had ambivalent attitudes in that many were opposed to the war but felt that Western countries were also responsible. Our findings highlight the role of socio‐political integration – and especially perceived discrimination – in shaping immigrants' political views during political turmoil. Receiving societies should promote non‐discrimination and inclusiveness to mitigate intergroup conflicts in societies with significant diasporic communities. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support pupils' learning, teachers must understand what and how their pupils have learned, and teacher education should teach candidates how to do this. This article reports on survey data (n = 270) from three programmes and observation data (N = 104 h) from six programmes, located in Norway, Finland and the US. It examines the candidates' opportunities to analyse pupils' learning within their coursework. The authors argue that such opportunities might constitute profound possibilities to examine the complexity of teaching and learning. However, the study finds that the candidates have few opportunities to analyse pupils learning and that the full potential of these opportunities is unrealized. The authors argue for increased, specific attention to pupils' learning within teacher education coursework, through a pedagogy of teacher education informed by existing research on how to elicit pupils' learning.

Agricultural intensification and climate change are serious threats toward animal populations worldwide. Agricultural intensification reduces the heterogeneity of agricultural habitats by diminishing crop variation and destroying microhabitats, such as small woody features, whereas the effects of climate change range from the growing frequency of weather extremes to disrupted prey–predator dynamics. We collected long‐term ringing data from a population of Eurasian kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) located amidst agricultural areas in western Finland during 1985–2021, which we combined with density indices of their main prey species (voles), spatial data consisting of land cover classification of kestrel territories, and weather data, to study the effects of different environmental drivers on breeding density and success. We found that the density of inhabited nests rose with vole abundance and springtime snow depth, with the overall trend of population growth being stronger in areas with more heterogeneous landscapes. Clutch size was influenced negatively by the age of male parent and landscape heterogeneity, and positively by vole abundance, with rainfall having a negative influence conditional to other variables. Likewise, the number of produced fledglings was affected by male age, but it was additionally positively associated with landscape heterogeneity and its interaction with rainfall, with greater fledgling output in heterogeneous landscapes during high precipitation. The discrepancy between factors predicting large clutches and high numbers of fledglings suggests that while kestrels do not prefer heterogeneous landscapes when prospecting for territories, heterogeneous habitats provide better circumstances for foraging during the nestling period, which ensures nestling survival, particularly during adverse environmental conditions. Therefore, breeding in areas under intense agricultural use is more suboptimal to kestrels than their territory preferences would indicate. As changing climate may reduce prey availability and heighten the probability of weather extremities, agricultural intensification may lead to weaker reproductive success in densely populated farmland habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open-ended (OE) items are widely used to gather data on student performance in international achievement studies. However, several factors may threaten validity when using such items. This study examined Finnish coders' opinions about threats to validity when coding responses to OE items in the PISA 2012 problem-solving test. A total of 6 discussions during 6 coder practice sessions (on 6 OE items) and an interview between 5 coders were audiorecorded and analyzed by means of content analysis, and 3 main threats to validity were found: (1) unclear and complex questions; (2) arbitrary and illogical coding rubrics; and (3) unclear and ambiguous responses. Suggestions are given as to how to respond to these threats in order to improve the validity of international achievement studies.

We are currently living in a time of several existential threats: the global pandemic COVID‐19, climate change, and the 'refugee crisis' caused by violent conflicts and humanitarian catastrophes in Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. These threats do not only affect our well‐being but also our sense of control and security, as well as identities and worldviews having also intergroup consequences. In this study, we investigated the links between perceived existential threats (i.e. COVID‐19, climate change, and refugee crisis in 2015 that multiplied Muslim population in Europe), national and religious identities, and attitudes towards Muslims (i.e. Muslim refugees, Muslim minority, and Muslim converts) among Christian national majority group members in Finland and Italy in 2020. The results were analysed with multigroup structural equation modelling, and they demonstrated some key differences between how threats perceived from climate change and the refugee crisis in 2015 are translated into the reactions towards Muslims. While threats associated with the refugee crisis were detrimental to outgroup attitudes, climate change threats elicited more positive attitudes towards the outgroups studied. Our preliminary analyses suggested that COVID‐19, in turn, seems to elicit feelings of worldview defence through higher levels of national identification with no negative attitudinal ramifications. While Abrahamic identity as a believer was directly associated with more positive attitudes towards Muslims in Italy, it did not account for the link between existential threats and outgroup attitudes. The results are discussed in light of how different threats increase or decrease intergroup harmony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing religious diversity caused by immigration is often perceived as a threat to national majority members' (non)religious worldviews. However, defensive reactions to diversity are not inevitable. Building on the social identity approach and motivated identity construction theory, we argue that (non)religious worldviews that satisfy motivational needs may promote support for religious minorities' rights. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 1,499 national majority group members in four countries with Christian traditions (Australia, Finland, Germany, and Norway). Participants reported their adherence to a (non)religious worldview in terms of their (dis)belief in God, and also the extent to which their worldview satisfied their needs for belonging, continuity, and meaning in life. The more religious worldview was perceived to satisfy these motives, the more religious majority group members supported religious minorities' rights. Worldview motive satisfaction was not associated with support for religious minorities' rights among the non‐religious. In addition, perceived diversity threat was associated with weaker support for minority rights, but again, this negative effect of threat was less evident among religious participants whose religious worldview satisfied their needs for belonging, continuity, and meaning. We conclude that communities based on a shared (religious) worldview should invest in fulfilling the motivational needs of their members, to foster interreligious solidarity. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the interest in international assessments of student performance. In such assessments it is mandatory that all the different-language texts be equivalent to each other, that is, equally difficult to understand. The article summarizes a study made on the topic, examining the problems of equivalence encountered when translating texts in international reading literacy assessments. In the study, three English and Finnish texts used in the PISA 2000 reading test were compared text-analytically. The analysis revealed six different types of problem, which, moreover, differed considerably between the three texts. As a result of the problems, none of the three text pairs were fully equivalent in difficulty. The study suggests that it will probably never be possible to attain full equivalence of difficulty in international reading literacy studies; however, by developing the translation work, a relatively high level of equivalence (and validity) seems attainable. (Contains 2 tables and 2 footnotes.)

Investigated effects of acculturation on psychological well-being of 588 immigrant 11- to 20-year-olds in Finland. Found that most indices of well-being were negatively related to perceived discrimination, and some were positively related to second-language proficiency. Adolescents' experiences of parental support and adherence to traditional values promoted well-being; impact depended on the specific aspect of well-being and the specific value. (Author/KB)

Examined the process of ethnic-identity exploration among 170 Russian-speaking immigrant adolescents in Finland. Results empirically verify and specify the various stages of the process of ethnic-identity exploration among these young immigrants. (SLD)

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had implications for adolescents' interpersonal relationships, communication patterns, education, recreational activities and well-being. An understanding of the impact of the pandemic on their mental health is crucial in measures to promote the post-pandemic recovery. Using a person-centered approach, the current study aimed to identify mental health profiles in two cross-sectional samples of Finnish adolescents before and after the peak of the pandemic, and to examine how socio-demographic and psychosocial factors, academic expectations, health literacy, and self-rated health are associated with the emerging profiles. Methods and findings: Survey data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study conducted in Finland in 2018 (N = 3498, age M = 13.44) and 2022 (N = 3838, age M = 13.21) were analyzed. A four-profile model using cluster analysis was selected for both samples. In Sample 1, the identified profiles were (1) "Good mental health", (2) "Mixed psychosocial health", (3) "Somatically challenged", and (4) "Poor mental health". In Sample 2, the identified profiles were (1) "Good mental health", (2) "Mixed psychosomatic health", (3) "Poor mental health and low loneliness", and (4) "Poor mental health and high loneliness". The results of the mixed effect multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that in both samples, being a girl and reporting lower maternal monitoring; lower family, peer, and teacher support; higher intensity of online communication; a less positive home atmosphere and school climate; and poor self-rated health were most strongly linked to belonging to a poorer mental health profile. In addition, in Sample 2, low subjective health literacy was a key factor associated with poorer mental health profiles, and teacher support was more important than before COVID. Conclusions: The current study stresses the importance of identifying those vulnerable to developing poor mental health. To maximize post-pandemic recovery, the role of schools, especially teacher support and health literacy, along with the factors that remained important over time should be taken into account in public health and health promotion interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging literature shows that citizens in established democracies do not unconditionally support central democratic principles when asked to weigh them against co-partisanship or favored policy positions. However, these studies are conducted in highly polarized contexts, and it remains unclear whether the underlying mechanisms also operate in more consensual contexts. Furthermore, it is unclear whether "critical citizens" or satisfied democrats are more eager to support democratic principles. We study these questions with evidence from a conjoint experiment conducted in Finland (n = 1030), an established democracy with high levels of democratic satisfaction and a consensual political culture. We examine how transgressions of two central democratic norms, the legitimacy of political opposition and the independence of the judiciary, affect leader favorability. We also explore how these differ across ideological and policy congruence and across levels of political disaffection. Our results show that some segments of the Finnish population are willing to condone authoritarian behavior if this brings them political benefits. Furthermore, we find that satisfied rather than "critical" citizens are more likely to sanction such behavior. These findings suggest that dangers of democratic deconsolidation may appear even in consensus democracies with relatively low levels of political polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National identities are an important tool for collective political persuasion and mobilisation among political elites and lay people. Recent research on nationalism has shown that the negotiating of national identities, like any political deliberations and operations, increasingly occur on the Internet. In this study, we contribute to this research by examining the relational construction of Finnish identity online. More specifically, we focus on how the users of the largest discussion forum in Finland constructed Russia as a threat. A massive dataset spanning 12 years enables us to map the recurring patterns and temporal shifts in the discussions. We show that the construction of Russia as a threatening national other was used to both oppose and support Finland's alliance with the West, namely, becoming a member of NATO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often assumed that, in Western societies, Christian values are embedded in national identities, yet, the association between religious identities and prejudice has seldom been studied in parallel to national identity. According to both the social identity theory approach and integrated threat theory, group identification is important for perceiving threats and expressing corresponding attitudes. Nevertheless, their independent roles on intergroup outcomes have often been ignored, although they are two of the most salient and important identities when considering support for religious minority rights. We address this gap in research by looking at the associations of religious identity with support for religious minority rights in general and Muslims in particular in parallel to national identity through diversity threat. This study was conducted among the members of majority groups in four Western countries: Australia, Finland, Germany, and Norway (N = 1,532), all of which are characterised as traditionally Christian. We found that a higher religious identification was associated with greater support for religious minority rights in general and for those of Muslims in particular, while national identification had no direct association with support for either groups' religious rights. However, both group identifications were also associated with heightened perceived diversity threat, which in turn, predicted reluctance to support religious minority rights. This demonstrates the dual role that religious identities may play in intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines explicit positive assessments (EPAs) in personal training, that is, the personal trainer's positive evaluations of the client's physical performance, including comments such as bra ('good'). The data consist of video-recorded training-sessions in Swedish from Finland and Sweden. The methodological framework is interactional linguistics, and the study explores the actions that EPAs perform as well as their linguistic design and embodied and sequential environment. The main actions performed by EPAs in personal training include transitioning between activities, encouraging the client, and making positive evaluations. The personal trainer (PT) may vary the lexical, syntactic, prosodic, and embodied features of the EPA to emphasize any of these actions or a combination of them. Overall, EPAs are a central resource for fulfilling the institutional goals of personal training by guiding the clients through the training-program and motivating them. In addition to their use as feedback on actions in the present moment, EPAs also include forward-focusing aspects aimed at guiding clients' future behavior. • Feedback is essential in personal training, as in other pedagogical settings. • We study feedback in the form of PTs' explicit positive assessments (EPAs). • Examples of EPAs are "good" and "well done". • EPAs are used for transitions, encouragement, and evaluations in personal training. • Prosodic and embodied features are especially crucial for the meaning of EPAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social action of thanking is an everyday practice in most cultures and, as such, it has been the focus of contrastive studies of different languages, cultures, and countries. This article focuses on the sequential organisation of the action of thanking in Swedish, which is a pluricentric L1 in Sweden and Finland. The study's data are actions of thanking realised through the Swedish interjection tack ['thank you'] in service encounters in the two countries. By analysing the sequential position of actions that are similar in form, their potentially different interactional functions can be examined. The actions of thanking are described in two different sequential positions in relation to adjacency pairs, as either responsive or initiating thanking actions. After an initiating thanking action a response is conditionally relevant or expected. A contrastive analysis of these responses reveals that in 73 % of the cases they constitute another action of thanking with the word tack. In Finland, the proportion amounts to 81 % and in Sweden it amounts to 65 %. This contrasts with my earlier study on thanking in medical encounters in the two varieties (Grahn 2019), where a slightly higher proportion of thanking actions as responses to initiating thanks was reported in Sweden than in Finland. In sum, sequential position is highlighted as critical for the management of interpersonal relations and the organisation of this institutional setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: By utilizing data from Estonia, Finland, and Norway, this study explores how the perceptions of personal and group realistic threats, namely perceived ethnic discrimination and economic insecurity among national majorities, predict their unwillingness to confront injustice on behalf of Russian-speaking minority groups. Background: Previous research on collective action to promote minorities' rights and social standing has focused either on minorities' own actions or factors promoting the willingness of majority group members to engage in collective action on behalf of minorities. In contrast, factors explaining the reluctance of majority group members to engage in collective action on behalf of minority groups have remained less explored. For example, studies have then ignored that the majority members may also feel threatened and may be economically insecure. Furthermore, the possible discrepancy between perceived personal vs. in-group's situation may influence majority group members' (un)willingness to confront injustice on behalf of a minority group. Method: We employed polynomial regression with response surface analysis to analyze data gathered among national majority members in three countries (N = 1,341). Results: Perceived personal and group realistic threats were associated with heightened unwillingness to confront injustice on behalf of the Russian-speaking minority. Furthermore, participants were more unwilling to confront injustice when they perceived more group than personal threat. Conclusion: We found that majority group members' (un)willingness to confront injustice on behalf of the minority is related to how secure they perceive their own and their group status. Our results contribute to previous research by pointing out the important drawbacks of majorities' support for minorities' wish for social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is among the first to investigate the religiosity patterns, identity motives and attitudes towards Christians and non-believers among recent Muslim refugees in Finland (N = 128). There are two novelties in this study. First, it applies the religious orientation framework to study religious identities among Muslim refugees in Europe. Second, it combines a variable- and person-centred approach to study religiosity in the context of intergroup relations. Using the variable-centred approach with a multiple mediation analysis, we found that refugees' extrinsic religiosity was associated with more positive attitudes towards Christians. Neither intrinsic religiosity nor participants' religious identity motives were associated with out-group attitudes. Using the person-centred approach with a Two-Step cluster analysis, we showed that individuals with higher levels of intrinsic as compared to extrinsic religiosity and those with pronounced religious identity motives were more biased towards non-believers than towards Christians. Attitudes towards Christians and non-believers were similarly positive in a group characterised by equal levels of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. We discuss these findings in light of the role of religiosity in understanding Muslim refugees' attitudes towards receiving societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey experiment examined national majority group members' reactions to immigrants' citizenship status with a focus on dual citizenship. A sample of 779 participants (nFinland = 174; nNetherlands = 377; nGermany = 228) was used to examine whether immigrants' citizenship status affects trust towards immigrants, willingness to accept immigrants in strategic positions, and support for immigrants' social influence in society. Perceived group loyalties were expected to mediate these relationships. Compared to national citizens, dual citizens were perceived as having lower national loyalty and higher foreign loyalty. Compared to foreign citizens, dual citizens were perceived to have higher national loyalty but equally high foreign loyalty. Higher national loyalty was further associated with higher trust, acceptance, and support, whereas higher foreign loyalty was associated with lower trust, acceptance, and support. These findings are discussed in relation to societal debates on dual citizenship and the limited social psychological research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing atheism, or the view that there is no God, is a major trend affecting the Western religious landscape. Scholarly interest in atheists has grown together with their number, but unanswered questions abound. In this study, we present survey data (N = 758) collected from deconverted and lifelong atheists in four countries (Australia, Finland, Germany, and Norway), and investigate the relationships between deconversion, religious identity, spiritual identity, and interreligious attitudes. We show that retaining a low level of religious or spiritual identity is more typical for deconverts than life-long atheists. Furthermore, we demonstrate that higher religious or spiritual identity among deconverts is associated with more positive attitudes toward different religious groups (national religious majority, religious minorities in general, and Muslims specifically). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examined what are the markers of immigrant naturalisation as seen from the perspectives of recipient nationals. Social markers are perceptual signposts that receiving nationals use in deciding whether a non-native born is a member of the destination country. In short, what should immigrants do in order to be accepted by receiving nationals as "one of us". Cross national data on 20 indicators of "everyday nationhood" were collected from five countries – Singapore, Japan, Australia, Finland, and Canada. The markers highlight common dispositions, activities, or social norms that are associated with citizenship. Exploratory factor analysis in each sample consistently demonstrated a two-factor structure model that supports the contemporary ethnic-civic distinction, but the markers that make up each of the two dimensions vary between countries. No metric equivalence was found, and that the markers have culture-specific meanings. The framework offers a novel insight to intercultural relations. The results suggest that adaptation and social inclusion need to consider the norms and values practised in the recipient society, and how immigration may redefine intergroup boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographically distant Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) populations are adapted to specific photoperiods and temperature gradients, and markedly vary in the timing of growth patterns and adaptive traits. To understand the variability of adaptive capacity within species, molecular mechanisms that govern the physiological aspects of phenotypic plasticity should be addressed. Protein expression analysis is capable of depicting molecular events closely linked to phenotype formation. Therefore, in this study, we used comparative proteomics analysis to differentiate Scots pine genotypes originating from geographically distant populations in Europe, which show distinct growth and cold adaptation phenotypes. Needles were collected from 3-month-old seedlings originating from populations in Spain, Lithuania and Finland. Under active growth-promoting conditions and upon acclimation treatment, 65 and 53 differentially expressed proteins were identified, respectively. Constitutive protein expression differences detected during active growth were associated with cell metabolism and stress response, and conveyed a population-specific adaptation to the distinct climatic conditions. Acclimation-induced protein expression patterns suggested the presence of a similar cold adaptation mechanism among the populations. Variation of adaptive capacity among the genotypes was potentially represented by a constitutive low level of expression of the Ser/Thr-protein phosphatase, the negative regulator of the adaptive response. Also, overall less pronounced acclimation-induced response in seedlings from the Spanish population was observed. Thus, our study demonstrates that comparative proteomic analysis of young conifer seedlings is capable of providing insights into adaptation processes at the cellular level, which could help to infer variability of adaptive capacity within the plant species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paragnomonia fragariae is a plant pathogenic ascomycete causing root rot and petiole blight of perennial strawberry in northern Europe. This paper provides a revised description of Paragnomonia and P. fragariae with lecto- and epitypification based on the species original description, recent collections from four European countries, examination of specimens used in the previous taxonomic studies and phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences of LSU, ITS/5.8S and tef1-α. This study presents the first report of P. fragariae on cultivated strawberry in Finland and Lithuania. Our study on growth rate showed that P. fragariae is a cold-adapted fungus growing almost equally at 5 °C as at 20 °C and attaining maximal growth at 15 °C. New primers were designed for amplification of ca. 0.8 kb fragment of tef1-α of Sydowiella fenestrans. Additionally, newly generated sequences of tef1-α were obtained for the first time from 21 isolates of seven species belonging to five genera of Sydowiellaceae , including the type species S. fenestrans , therefore considerably contributing to the current knowledge on phylogenetic relationships of this insufficiently studied group of fungi. The phylogenetic analysis has also revealed that the recently described species " S. " centaureii is genetically distant from the generic type S. fenestrans and other Sydowiella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the urgent need for promoting positive intergroup relations in schools, research on intergroup relations is not systematically translated into prejudice‐reduction interventions. Although prejudice‐reduction interventions in schools based on indirect contact have been conducted for decades, they have all been carried out by researchers themselves. In a field experiment in Finland in autumn 2015, we tested for the first time a vicarious contact prejudice‐reduction intervention for its effectiveness among adolescents (N = 639) when implemented independently by school teachers instead of researchers. In addition, we tested the extent to which the intervention's effect depends on initial outgroup attitudes, previous direct outgroup contact experiences, and gender, hypothesizing that the intervention improves outgroup attitudes particularly among adolescents with more negative prior attitudes and less positive prior direct contact, and more among girls than among boys. We found an unanticipated overall deterioration in the outgroup attitudes during intervention in both the experimental and control groups. However, attitudes seemed to deteriorate somewhat less in the experimental than in the control group, and the intervention had a significant positive effect on outgroup attitudes in one experimental subgroup that needed it most: girls who had negative rather than positive outgroup attitudes at the outset. We discuss our results in light of previous research and contextual particularities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This article focuses on the effects of positive and negative contact with majority Finns on the outgroup attitudes of remigrants from Russia to Finland. We tested (a) whether negative contact leads to negative outgroup attitudes via perceived threats, and (b) whether positive contact leads to positive outgroup attitudes via perceived gains seen to result from contact with majority Finns. We also tested whether the effects of contact with majority members generalized to attitudes toward other immigrant groups living in Finland.Method: The study used 2-wave longitudinal panel data on Ingrian-Finnish remigrants (NT1 = 133, mean age 46.4 years, 73% females; NT2 = 85, mean age 49.3 years, 73% females).Results: The results attested the effects of positive contact experiences on attitudes toward both majority and other minority group members, via perceived gains. As regards negative contact, it was associated with more negative attitudes toward the majority via perceived threats, but no evidence of secondary transfer effect on attitudes toward other immigrants was found.Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of simultaneous examination of positive and negative contact. Especially positive contact and gains perceived to result from it can be powerful tools in promoting positive outgroup attitudes also among minority group members. The results also show the role of majority group members in defining interminority attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This three-wave study investigated the interplay between perceived socio-cultural adaptation and perceived willingness of the majority group to engage in contact, when predicting realistic and symbolic threats perceived by ethnic migrants from Russia to Finland. To sum up our key findings, the less immigrants perceived difficulties in socio-cultural adaptation soon after migration, the more positive were their later perceptions of the majority group members' contact willingness. Majority's perceived contact willingness was associated with lower levels of perceived realistic threats, and perceived contact willingness and perceived socio-cultural adaptation were both associated with lower levels of perceived symbolic threats. As regards practical implications of our findings for culturally diverse communities, equal efforts should be made to help newcomers' socio-cultural adaptation and to support their positive intergroup interactions with majority group members. That way, the beneficial impact of both of these factors on immigrant integration could be maximized. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether there are sex differences in children’s fruit and vegetable (FV) intake and in descriptive norms (i.e. perceived FV intake) related to parents and friends. We also studied whether friends’ impact is as important as that of parents on children’s FV intake. Data from the PRO GREENS project in Finland were obtained from 424 children at the age 11 years at baseline. At baseline, 2009 children filled in a questionnaire about descriptive norms conceptualised as perceived FV intake of their parents and friends. They also filled in a validated FFQ that assessed their FV intake both at baseline and in the follow-up in 2010. The associations were examined with multi-level regression analyses with multi-group comparisons. Girls reported higher perceived FV intake of friends and higher own fruit intake at baseline, compared with boys, and higher vegetable intake both at baseline and in the follow-up. Perceived FV intake of parents and friends was positively associated with both girls’ and boys’ FV intake in both study years. The impact of perceived fruit intake of the mother was stronger among boys. The change in children’s FV intake was affected only by perceived FV intake of father and friends. No large sex differences in descriptive norms were found, but the impact of friends on children’s FV intake can generally be considered as important as that of parents. Future interventions could benefit from taking into account friends’ impact as role models on children’s FV intake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among minority members, positive contact with the majority was previously found to improve not only the attitudes toward the majority but also the attitudes toward minority outgroups (the secondary transfer effect; STE). However, the roles of negative intergroup contact and minority groups' social status in the STE have not been yet examined. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the association between both positive and negative contact with the national majority group (Finns) and mutual attitudes among high-status Estonian (n = 171) and low-status Russian (n = 180) immigrants in Finland. Two mediators of the STE were tested: attitudes toward the majority (attitude generalization) and public collective self-esteem (diagonal hostility). While positive and negative STEs emerging via attitude generalization were expected to occur among both immigrant groups, the mediating effect of public collective self-esteem was assumed only for members of the low-status group. In both immigrant groups, the relationship between positive contact with the majority group and attitudes toward the other immigrant group was positive and indirect through more favorable attitudes toward majority group members. The same mechanism characterized negative contact, where the indirect effect was mediated by less positive attitudes toward Finns. As predicted, public collective self-esteem mediated the effects of positive and negative contact with majority group members on attitudes toward the other minority only among low-status Russian immigrants. The results call for the acknowledgement of different mechanisms explaining the STE among minority groups enjoying different social statuses in host society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this cross-sectional study, we examined the relationship between national identification of majority Finns (nation-wide probability sample, N = 335) and their attitudes towards Russian immigrants living in Finland. As previous research indicates both possibilities, we tested whether this relationship was moderated or mediated by threats and gains perceived to result from immigration. The results supported the mediation hypothesis; those individuals who identified stronger with their national ingroup perceived more threats than gains related to increased immigration and these perceptions, in turn, were associated with more negative attitudes towards immigrants. The role of realistic as opposed to symbolic threats and gains was particularly pronounced. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of their theoretical relevance and practical means to improve intergroup relations, with a particular focus on the relations between Finns and Russian immigrants in Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the discursive construction of Finnishness within the context of Ingrian Finns' return migration from Russia to Finland. The focus is on how characteristics of Finnishness, especially ancestry and language, are employed at institutional, community and interpersonal levels of text and talk. The results show how the same characteristics can be used to both in- and exclude Ingrian Finns from the national ingroup, and how essentialist notions of ethnonational belonging can be used strategically by both state authorities and Ingrian Finns themselves to make claims about their Finnishness and right to remigrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the psychological adaptation of Ingrian-Finnish migrants from Russia to Finland between 2008 and 2013. Pre-migration data ( N = 225) were collected at the Finnish language courses that were part of the immigration training program. The three post-migration follow-ups were conducted half a year ( N = 155), and 2 ( N = 133) and 3 years ( N = 85) after migration. Well-being was assessed with measures of Life Satisfaction and Self-Esteem. Life Satisfaction increased from pre-migration to the first post-migration measurement point, after which it stabilized. Self-Esteem decreased throughout the study. Variables reflecting adjustment to the event of migration (e.g., acculturation stress, socio-cultural adaptation) were primarily associated with well-being at the first post-migration measurement point. More general determinants of well-being (e.g., social support and subjective economic situation) were more consistently associated with well-being throughout the study. The results suggest that migration can be beneficial to some but detrimental to other types of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the mediating effects of the determinants of fruit and vegetable (FV) intake in school-based interventions that promote FV intake, and few studies have examined the impact of the degree of implementation on the effects of an intervention. The present study examined whether the degree of implementation of an intervention had an effect on children's fruit or vegetable intake and determined possible mediators of this effect. The study is part of the European PRO GREENS intervention study which aimed to develop effective strategies to promote consumption of fruit and vegetables in schoolchildren across Europe. Data from 727 Finnish children aged 11 years were used. The baseline study was conducted in spring 2009 and the follow-up study 12 months later. The intervention was conducted during the school year 2009–2010. The effects were examined using multilevel mediation analyses. A high degree of implementation of the intervention had an effect on children's fruit intake. Knowledge of recommendations for FV intake and liking mediated the association between a high degree of implementation of the intervention and an increase in the frequency of fruit intake. Knowledge of recommendations for FV intake and bringing fruits to school as a snack mediated the association between a low degree of implementation of the intervention and an increase in the frequency of fruit intake. Overall, the model accounted for 34 % of the variance in the change in fruit intake frequency. Knowledge of recommendations acted as a mediator between the degree of implementation of the intervention and the change in vegetable intake frequency. In conclusion, the degree of implementation had an effect on fruit intake, and thus in future intervention studies the actual degree of implementation of interventions should be assessed when considering the effects of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT The aim of this field experiment was to develop and assess an intervention promoting positive intergroup relations in culturally diverse schools. The intervention was based on extended contact and social learning and utilized behavioural journalism as its method. Intervention effects were assessed on out-group attitudes, perceived importance of future contact, perceived peer norms and intergroup anxiety among ethnic majority ( N = 583) and minority ( N = 214) youth in grades 7-9 in Finnish secondary schools (total Nexperimental = 388; total Ncontrol = 409). As a result of the intervention, both groups showed a tendency to perceive future intergroup contact as more important, and this effect was most notable for younger participants and girls. Prototypicality of in-group and out-group peer models contributed positively to intervention effects. However, unexpectedly, the intervention also increased experiences of intergroup anxiety among the oldest participants. The results are discussed taking into account the developmental stage of the youth studied. Besides critically assessing the effectiveness of the intervention, recommendations for improving theory-driven prejudice-reduction and for the development of future interventions in culturally diverse contexts are given. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: At northern latitudes, vitamin D is not synthesized endogenously during winter, causing low plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of a healthy Nordic diet based on Nordic nutrition recommendations (NNR) on plasma 25(OH)D and explored its dietary predictors. Methods: In a Nordic multi-centre trial, subjects ( n = 213) with metabolic syndrome were randomized to a control or a healthy Nordic diet favouring fish (≥300 g/week, including ≥200 g/week fatty fish), whole-grain products, berries, fruits, vegetables, rapeseed oil and low-fat dairy products. Plasma 25(OH)D and parathyroid hormone were analysed before and after 18- to 24-week intervention. Results: At baseline, 45 % had vitamin D inadequacy (<50 nmol/l), whereas 8 % had deficiency (<25 nmol/l). Dietary vitamin D intake was increased by the healthy Nordic diet ( P < 0.001). The healthy Nordic and the control diet reduced the prevalence of vitamin D inadequacy by 42 % ( P < 0.001) and 19 % ( P = 0.002), respectively, without between-group difference ( P = 0.142). Compared with control, plasma 25(OH)D ( P = 0.208) and parathyroid hormone ( P = 0.207) were not altered by the healthy Nordic diet. Predictors for 25(OH)D were intake of vitamin D, eicosapentaenoic acids (EPA), docosahexaenoic acids (DHA), vitamin D supplement, plasma EPA and plasma DHA. Nevertheless, only vitamin D intake and season predicted the 25(OH)D changes. Conclusion: Consuming a healthy Nordic diet based on NNR increased vitamin D intake but not plasma 25(OH)D concentration. The reason why fish consumption did not improve vitamin D status might be that many fish are farmed and might contain little vitamin D or that frying fish may result in vitamin D extraction. Additional ways to improve vitamin D status in Nordic countries may be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This three-wave study among ethnic migrants from Russia to Finland (N =136) investigated the stability and change of attitudes toward cultural diversity, i.e., support for multiculturalism and preference for cultural maintenance, over the course of migration. More specifically, we expected changes in these attitudes to be a result of changes in perceived ethnic discrimination. We were also able to look at the empirical relationship of these conceptually linked attitudes over time. A latent change modeling approach was employed to examine individual change trajectories in discrimination and the two attitudes of interest, while controlling for expectations related to them in the pre-migration stage. The results indicated that, on average, the variables of interest were rather positive over time. With regard to the observed changes, individual changes in support for multiculturalism were associated with changes in cultural maintenance in the post-migration stage, but changes in perceived discrimination were not associated with changes in these two attitudes. Thus, the results of the present longitudinal study speak for the robustness of attitudes toward cultural diversity in the face of adversity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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In this article, we examine how ethnic Finnish migrants construct their ethnic identities before and after migrating from Russia to Finland. We use a discursive psychological (DP) approach to analyse our longitudinal focus group data. In the analysis, we focus on the ways in which the participants use category labels, rhetorical devices, interpretative repertoires and other discursive resources in accounting for their identities. We also consider the social functions these identity constructions have over the course of migration. In the pre-migration data, participants mostly presented themselves as Finns. In the post-migration data, a larger variety of self-labels was used and the Finnish identity was explicitly problematized. The three main interpretative repertoires used when constructing identities both in Russia and in Finland were the biological repertoire, the repertoire of socialization and the repertoire of intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study among ethnic migrants from Russia to Finland (N = 127) examined the relationships between anticipated and perceived discrimination, ethnic and national identities, and outgroup attitudes towards the national majority group. The study included one pre-migration and two post-migration assessments. First, associations between the variables studied were tested using a conventional autoregressive sample-level modelling approach. Second, individual trajectories and the associations between the individual-level changes in the variables included in the models were tested. Although there were no sample-level effects over time, there were significant relationships between changes in discrimination and changes in identification and outgroup attitudes at the individual level. The results indicated that changes in perceived discrimination were not reflected in increased ethnic identification. However, participants who perceived higher levels of discrimination after migration than they anticipated before migration were, in the post-migration stage, more likely to disidentify from and to increasingly show negative attitudes towards the national majority group. The study complements previous research by examining the identity and attitudinal reactions to perceived ethnic discrimination starting from the pre-migration stage and highlights the value of incorporating both group and individual perspectives to the research on perceived discrimination. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 1-year follow-up study investigated the direct and indirect effects of past, anticipated, and actual experiences of inter-group interactions on the development of national identity and attitudes towards the national majority among ethnic re-migrants ( N= 141) from Russia to Finland. According to the results, the quality of past inter-group contact in the pre-migration stage (T1) did not directly affect national identification and out-group attitudes in the post-migration stage (T2). Instead, the effect of contact quality at T1 on national identification and out-group attitudes at T2 was indirect via perceived discrimination and out-group rejection at T2. In addition, there were two indirect pathways from out-group attitudes at T1 to national identification and out-group attitudes at T2, via pleasant contact experiences (further associated with positive out-group attitudes) and via perceived discrimination (further associated with negative attitudes and lower national identification) in the post-migration stage. Anticipated discrimination only had a direct effect on out-group attitudes in the post-migration stage. The results highlight the role of past and anticipated inter-group relations in the formation of post-migration inter-group interactions, which, in turn, are decisive for the formation of national identification and out-group attitudes of re-migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]