BACKGROUND High levels of mortality not explained by differences in socioeconomic status (SES) have been observed for Scotland and its largest city, Glasgow, compared with elsewhere in the UK. Previous cross-sectional research highlighted potentially relevant differences in social capital, including religious social capital (the benefits of social participation in organised religion). The aim o...

Religious participation is much more widespread in the United States than in Europe, while Europeans tend to view sects more suspiciously than Americans. We propose an explanation for these patterns without assuming differences in preferences or market fundamentals. Religious markets may have multiple equilibria, suggesting that observed differences in religious structures may merely be eventua...

Many studies have explored the links between family structure, parental religiosity, and youth religiosity, but results across studies have been inconsistent and have largely ignored new diverse family forms. Using data on 2,320 youth and their parents from the National Study of Youth and Religion, this study focused on whether and why religious transmission from parents to youth varies among d...

In the Horn and East Africa, social protection providers fall into two main categories: informal and formal. Informal providers are communities and external social networks such as family members, relatives and other social structures outside pastoral systems. Strong informal social protection networks based on religious, clan or family affiliations have always played a vital role in pastoral c...

BACKGROUND It is well known that informal caregiving negatively affects caregivers' mental health, while social activities improve mental health outcomes among middle-aged and elderly individuals. The goal of the present study was to examine how participation in social activities affected the trajectory of an informal caregiver's psychological distress. METHODS We used the data from a nationw...

Informal participation in science is being recognized as an important way of developing science learning both for children and adults. Mobile learning has particular properties that have potential in informal science settings, particularly outside traditional educational settings. Mobile technologies provide new opportunities for learners to engage with science on the move. This paper reviews t...

Previous research demonstrates two aspects of religion that affect civic activity—church participation and religious conservatism. Conservative religious beliefs and membership in conservative denominations are often associated with low levels of civic activity while church participation is said to increase civic activity. This article advances the discussion of the relationship between religio...

participation is a process in which people involved to make endeavors aiming at a common goal; and they do this actively, freely with awareness and accountability. women participation as one of the principles for development can be studied from different perspectives. the objective of the present study is to investigate social and cultural factors influencing social participation of rural women...

Although in most of the rural development plans, relocation of informal settlements is oftenconsidered as an efficient solution to increase safety of rural communities against natural and man-made disasters,such as, earthquakes, fire hazards, floods, etc. an evaluation of recent experiences in the relocation projects show thatthe relocated community is often unsatisfied with the new residential...

This paper is concerned with the saddle-path stability of monetary growth rules in a two-country two-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. Alongside standard features of emerging economies, such as a combination of producer and local currency pricing for exports, fiscal dominance and oil exports, this model also incorporates informal labour and production sectors and examines how...