This study presents descriptive and explanatory analyses of contact between former spouses, using data on 1,791 previously married men and women in the Netherlands. The authors employ a typology of relationships between former spouses, differentiating between friendly contact, antagonistic contact, and no contact. Ten years after divorce, still almost half of the respondents report contact with their former spouse. Especially the number of former couples with antagonistic contact decreases strongly over time. In multivariate models, we examine six hypotheses concerning (a) duration, (b) prior attachments, (c) prior conflicts, (d) life-course events after divorce, (e) liberal family values, and (f) personality. Important predictors of postdivorce contact are duration since divorce, prior economic ties, the presence of joint children, marital duration, marital conflicts, a new relationship, and liberal values. Couples with joint children have both more friendly contact and more antagonistic contact than other couples. This difference is largest for antagonistic contact.

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Both the level and allocation of pre-divorce parental and family resources may be impor tant predictors for the effects of divorce on child outcomes. This study estimates specific divorce effects on socio-economic outcomes of children in families having a different amount and allocation of both cultural and economic resources. In addition, this study tests whether general divorce effects differ between boys and girls. Data are used from the Family Sur vey Dutch Population 1998 (FSDP98) and the Family Sur vey Dutch Population 2000 (FSDP00) (De Graaf et al., 1998, 2000). The first conclusion was that a high level of paternal resources increases divorce effects on children's educational level and their occupational status. Moreover, a high level of maternal resources decreases the divorce effect. These findings suppor t the loss of resources theory. Finally, practically no differences in general divorce effects were found when boys and girls were compared.

The aim of the current literature review, which is based on 64 empirical studies, was to assess to what extent mechanisms of the Social Information Processing (SIP) model of Crick and Dodge (1994) are related to victimization. The reviewed studies have provided support for the relation between victimization and several social information processing mechanisms, especially the interpretation of cues and self-efficacy (as part of the response decision). The relationship between victimization and other mechanisms, such as the response generation, was only studied in a few articles. Until now research has often focused on just one step of the model, instead of attempting to measure the associations between multiple mechanisms and victimization in multivariate analyses. Such analyses would be interesting to gain more insight into the SIP model and its relationship with victimization. The few available longitudinal studies show that mechanisms both predict victimization (internal locus of control, negative self-evaluations and less assertive response selection) and are predicted by victimization (hostile attribution of intent and negative evaluations of others). Associations between victimization and SIP mechanisms vary across different types and severity of victimization (stronger in personal and severe victimization), and different populations (stronger among young victims). Practice could focus on these stronger associations and the interpretation of cues. More research is needed however, to investigate whether intervention programs that address SIP mechanisms are suitable for victimization and all relevant populations.

Police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical workers are at a relatively high risk of experiencing external workplace violence (EWPV), that is, violence initiated by people outside the organization. Based on criminal opportunities theories, the aim of this research was to study to what extent socio-demographic and work characteristics are related to experiencing EWPV. In addition, the aim was to explore how these relations differ between the three types of emergency responders. Data from a workplace violence survey of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations of the Netherlands was used, from which emergency medical workers ( n = 264), firefighters ( n = 255), and police officers ( n = 296) were selected. Results indicated that police officers experienced most and firefighters experienced least EWPV. Younger professionals and professionals who have more frequent and risky contact experienced more EWPV. The expectations that males and those with less skills or experience to avoid EWPV experience more EWPV were not convincingly supported. The relationships between characteristics and EWPV, and the explanatory power of the models, differed between types of emergency responders. The studied characteristics best explained variations in EWPV of police officers, and therefore prevention of EWPV by addressing these characteristics will be most successful for police officers. The prediction of EWPV should be improved, for example, by studying the relationship with "attractiveness" or "vulnerability" of the possible victim, such as psychological characteristics of professionals. The study showed that research about indicators and prevention of EWPV should be aimed at separate professions.