http://hdl.handle.net/10563/1000008 2026-04-07T04:20:07Z http://hdl.handle.net/10563/1012785 Complex families in the United Kingdom: mapping children's diverse family pathways and their correlates from birth to age ten Šťastná, Michaela; Mikolai, Júlia; Finney, Nissa; Keenan, Katherine Lisa The rise in divorce, cohabitation, non-marital childbearing and multi-partner fertility means that today’s children are more likely to experience less common or less stable family settings compared to previous generations. This may lead to increasing inequalities across the life course. Unlike most existing studies on family change, we investigate family trajectories in the United Kingdom from children’s perspective. We map the family trajectories characterising children’s first ten years of life using multi-channel sequence analysis on data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, jointly capturing the dynamics of maternal partnership histories and paternal co-residence patterns from the children’s perspective. Multinomial logistic regression is applied to understand the characteristics associated with experiencing different childhood family trajectories. Children experience six typical family trajectories: continuously married; early separation; continuously cohabiting; later separation; early solo motherhood; and a new father. From birth to age ten, over a quarter of children do not continuously live with their two biological parents. Children with lower-educated mothers, mothers in the youngest or oldest groups, who live in urban areas, and belong to certain ethnic groups (White British, Mixed, Caribbean, Black African) tend to experience less common or less stable trajectories. Our elucidation of factors associated with more/less stable childhood family pathways can inform policy decision-making around support for families to mitigate growing short-and long-term inequalities giving rise to children’s diverging destinies. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10563/1012773 Machiavellianism and emotional intelligence in higher education students Hrbáčková, Karla; Petr Šafránková, Anna Machiavellianism as a social phenomenon reveals certain person's tendencies that are evident in communication with others in both personal and working life. Especially in the helping professions, empathy, helpfulness as well as low motivation for personal benefit is an important part of their work. The aim of this study is to determine to what extent Machiavellianism is manifested among university students with a focus on managerial professions and social professions along with to what extent emotional intelligence is involved in Machiavellianism in these students. The research, which involved 1109 university students, revealed that students of managerial professions achieve statistically significantly higher Machiavellianism scores than students of social professions. The results also show a negative connection between the degree of Machiavellianism and emotional intelligence. In managerial students, a lower degree of psychological well-being and emotionality along with a higher degree of sociability contribute to a higher degree of Machiavellianism. For students in social professions, a lower degree of selfcontrol, emotionality and psychological well-being along with higher sociability contribute to a higher degree of Machiavellianism. The research results point to specific features that students of different professions utilise in communicating and which they can develop further during their professional training. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10563/1012776 The role of state rhetoric in the conceptualization of the COVID-19 pandemic Ukraine vs. Belarus Shurma, Svitlana; Golovnia, Alla This chapter analyzes metaphoric projections traced in official state rhetoric used to set out the agenda for dealing with COVID-19 in Ukraine and Belarus as mediated through state-owned media news reports from 12 March through 1 June 2020. Whether or not these countries adopted quarantine measures in the fight against the social and health implications of the pandemic influenced the rhetoric and the choice of deliberate metaphors used by the authorities and/or experts in relation to the situation. We examined and compared metaphoric mappings onto the domains COVID-19/coronavirus and country for both countries, quarantine for Ukraine, and president for Belarus. The results demonstrate that the COVID-19 agenda was used in Belarus for the legitimization and strengthening of power of the president, while in Ukraine it was aimed at justifying unpopular measures taken by the government and the president which were largely opposed by the population. Additionally, for Belarus, the agenda served to set up an Us/Them opposition to portray the state policy to its best advantage. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10563/1012770 What role do self-regulatory mechanisms play in the risky use of digital media by adolescents? Hrbáčková, Karla; Hladík, Jakub; Petr Šafránková, Anna As the time spent on digital media usage (DMU) has increased in recent years, there has been growing concern about problematic usage. The overuse of digital media affects up to a quarter of adolescents, although excessive DMU is not always associated with problematic use, a defining feature of which may be a loss of self-control. This study aims to clarify how self-regulatory mechanisms, such as trait self-control, sense of control, and self-regulation of digital media use, are related to risky DMU (excessive internet use and impulsive DMU) as well as time spent on DMU. We draw on a representative sample of 2,697 adolescents aged 11–15 years (mean age = 12.9) attending grade 2 primary schools. Our results show that adolescents with higher levels of self-control as well as a greater sense of control exhibit lower levels of risk-taking (excessive internet use and impulsive digital media use and screen time). Furthermore, increased levels of self-control as well as a greater sense of control predict higher levels of self-regulation in digital media contexts. The findings of this study provide insights regarding the importance of strengthening self-control, especially for at-risk users, and offer a perspective on the role of self-regulatory mechanisms in managing digital behavior. These factors can significantly contribute to better self-regulation of adolescents' digital behavior. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z