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This article focuses on the effect of values on the transition to motherhood. In analyzing panel data of the 'Familienentwicklung in Nordrhein-Westfalen'-study we argue that individual values are important cultural characteristics that influence young women's choices concerning motherhood. The most egalitarian category of women, who value autonomy and economic independence and who do not identify with traditional family values, has a significant lower risk of giving birth or getting pregnant than those women who do not value autonomy or who do value traditional values. A second finding in this paper is that women who are in a 'shorter' consensual union and get pregnant, more often plan their marriage before giving birth compared to women in a 'longer' consensual union. This suggests that, just. like a first child symbolizes an affirmation of marriage, a first child in 'longer' consensual unions similarly symbolizes an affirmation of continuity.

This chapter focuses on the role of hired domestic help (HDH), viewed as a ‘home resource’, in influencing life and business satisfaction by reducing the family-to-work conflict of men and women entrepreneurs in the sub-Saharan context, where women entrepreneurs face greater challenges of multiple role demands at home, in the community and at work in comparison to men entrepreneurs. Therefore, segmenting business from other life roles through hiring domestic help at home can be expected to be more instrumental in reducing family-to-work-conflict, thereby enhancing business satisfaction and wellbeing. We review the current debates in the literature on this issue and subsequently showcase a study involving 174 men and women entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which researched how having hired domestic help, as a home resource, can enhance the wellbeing and business satisfaction of both women and men entrepreneurs. The showcase study shows that this appears to be particularly true when hiring domestic help allows for family roles to be separated from interfering with the business roles of entrepreneurs. This indicates that the quality of support from hired domestic help is more important than simply having such help in influencing business satisfaction and wellbeing. Our chapter concludes by presenting an agenda for research and policymakers that addresses the importance of using HDH to manage work-life-conflict, gender-equal business outcomes and general wellbeing.

This chapter focuses on the role of hired domestic help (HDH), viewed as a ‘home resource’, in influencing life and business satisfaction by reducing the family-to-work conflict of men and women entrepreneurs in the sub-Saharan context, where women entrepreneurs face greater challenges of multiple role demands at home, in the community and at work in comparison to men entrepreneurs. Therefore, segmenting business from other life roles through hiring domestic helps at home can be expected to be more instrumental in reducing family-to-work-conflict, thereby enhancing business satisfaction and wellbeing. We review the current debates in the literature on this issue and subsequently showcase a study involving 174 men and women entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which researched how having hired domestic help, as a home resource, can enhance the wellbeing and business satisfaction of both women and men entrepreneurs. The showcase study shows that this appears to be particularly true when hiring domestic help allows for family roles to be separated from interfering with business roles of entrepreneurs. This indicates that the quality of support from hired domestic helps is more important than simply having such helps in influencing business satisfaction and wellbeing. Our chapter concludes by presenting an agenda for research and policy makers that addresses the importance of using HDH to manage work-life-conflict, gender-equal business outcomes and general wellbeing.

Using a case of Luxembourg a cross-cultural comparative perspective is linked to between as well as within country comparisons by answering a two-folded question. First we analyzed the level of measurement equivalence, i.e. the extent to which ethnic groups in Luxembourg and citizen of their countries of origin assign the same meaning to attitude questions. Secondly, we examined whether ethnic-cultural groups within Luxembourg resemble citizens from their native country more than Luxembourger?s attitudes, i.e. we compared the relative influence of a given national context and cultural background of Luxembourg?s minorities on their attitudes. We selected three scales from the EVS 2009 to demonstrate different types of result from such analyses. As expected, it turned out that cultural background is more important than national context in the case of the Portuguese minority that is culturally more distant to the Luxembourg?s native population, and that national setting is prevailing factor in the cases of German and French minorities that are well integrated in the Luxembourg society. The effect of a common national setting is also important with regards to the issue of measurement equivalence, where it contributes to greater comparability of intra-national, cross-ethnic comparisons.

It is generally accepted that both measurement inequivalence and extreme response bias can seriously distort measurement of attitudes and subsequent causal models. However, these two issues have rarely been investigated together. In this article we demonstrate the flexibility of a multigroup latent class factor approach in both analysing measurement equivalence and detecting extreme response bias. Using data from the European Value Survey from 1999/2000, we identified an extreme response bias in answering Likert type questions on attitudes towards morals of compatriots. Furthermore, we found measurement inequivalence in form of direct effects of countries on response variables. When only one of these two issues – either measurement inequivalence or extreme response bias - was included into measurement model estimated effects of countries on attitudinal dimension were different from those obtained with a model that includes both measurement issues. Using this all-inclusive model we have got more valid estimates of the differences between countries on measured attitude.

Comparing solidarity attitudes of European citizen is highly relevant in the context of European integration and unification. Such comparisons, however, are only valid if responses to attitude questions reflect true differences in solidarity and, hence, the measurement of latent solidarity attitudes is comparable. Often comparability is assumed, rarely is it tested. We argue that establishing equivalence in measurement across cultures is as important as testing the reliability and validity of the measurement since lack of comparability may result in biased or misleading conclusions. This research presents a multiple-group latent-class factor analysis of a set of questions concerning solidarity towards different social groups, taken from the 1999/2000 wave of European Value Study. This multiple-group comparison revealed that homogeneity in attitude measurement is not established. Countries can only be compared if particular direct effects of country on items are estimated. Country ranking on solidarity factors substantially changed when this source of construct inequivalence was taken into account.