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This study examined demographic and hurricane-related resource loss predictors on God concepts and God control among Hurricane Katrina survivors (N = 142) from Mississippi Gulf Coast communities approximately five months after the storm. The findings from this study of Katrina survivors suggest that significant loss from natural disasters has an impact on one's conception of and beliefs about God. It was found that increased levels of resource loss predicted a more negative conceptual portrayal of God. Greater object resource loss predicted perceptions of less God control over the outcome of events. Further, it was found that the strongest individual predictor of a God concept that was more negative and in less control of event outcomes was the loss of food and water, suggesting the importance of critical resource loss on how one conceives of God. Overall, the findings suggest that, for many people who self-identify as spiritual and /or religious, spiritual resources may be the one explanatory system that is uniquely capable of helping disaster survivors to understand traumatic events, to have a sense of control of such events, and, in the process, to still maintain a healthy picture of one's self.

Little research has been carried out on the inclusion of children with special needs in child care. The purpose of this study was to determine what variables predict the inclusion of children with disabilities in centers and home care. Logistic regression was used to examine the association of several indicators of quality child care and inclusion. For directors, teachers, and home care providers, the strongest predictor was having taken a course on working with children with disabilities. Larger centers and groups were more likely to include children with special needs. The somewhat surprising results and implications are discussed.

Parental religiosity has generally been associated with greater child and parent functioning; however, it has been suggested that when parenting a child with behavior problems, some aspects of parental religiousness (e.g., negative religious coping, biblical conservatism) might decrease functioning. We examined the influence of religious variables (sanctification of parenting, negative and positive religious coping, biblical conservatism) on the relationship between child behavior problems and parental stress as well as sense of competence among parents (N = 139) of children ages 3–12 years. Parents high in sanctification showed little change in parental stress as severity of behavior problems increased. Similarly, positive religious coping was found to play a protective role in the relationship between behavior problems and parental sense of competence. However, positive religious coping was related to increased stress in parents of children with few behavior problems and was not associated with any decrease in stress for parents of children with more difficult behavior. Parents of children with greater perceived behavior problems reported significantly higher sanctification of parenting and parental stress, as well as lesser use of positive religious coping and lower sense of competence. This study provides evidence to suggest that parental religiousness can have either a positive or negative influence on parental functioning, depending on parenting circumstances and personal perceptions of God and religion.

This paper estimates the individual impact of a worker’s job loss on his/her criminal activity. Using a matched employer–employee longitudinal data set on unemployment, crime, and taxes for all residents in Denmark, the paper builds each worker’s timeline of job separation, unemployment, and crime. The paper focuses on displaced workers: high-tenure workers who lose employment during a mass-layoff event at any point between 1990 and 1994 (inclusive). Controlling for municipality- and time-specific confounders identifies the individual impact separately from the aggregate impact of the unemployment rate on crime. Placebo tests display no evidence of trends in crime prior to worker separation. Using Denmark’s introduction of the Act on an Active Labor Market at the end of 1993, we estimate the impacts of activation and of a reduction in benefit duration on crime: crime is lower during active benefits than during passive benefits and spikes at the end of benefit eligibility. We use policy-induced shifts in the kink formula relating prior earnings to unemployment benefits to estimate the separate impacts of labor income and unemployment benefits on crime: the results suggest that unemployment benefits do not significantly offset the impact of labor income losses on crime.