A longitudinal examination of lifestyles

Defined as the distinctive behavioral expression of a characteristic pattern of values and beliefs, lifestyle is operationalized in terms of a recognizable set of personal construct ratings of everyday activities. A survey, with a follow-up questionnaire seven years after the original study, of the personal projects and subjective well-being of 103 Canadians is reported. Replicating previous work (Horley et al., 1988, Social Indicators Research), three general lifestyle types are found. The three lifestyles are labelled provisionally relaxed, pressured, and self-improvement. Although the three lifestyles were represented in the data, about 40% of the respondents were classified on a different lifestyle profile, indicating a moderate degree of lifestyle change. Three lifestyles are found among those reporting high well-being, and these types bear some resemblance to previous findings. The three lifestyles are labelled individualistic hedonist, self-possessed promethean, and generalist. Sex differences are found in that women are assigned to the generalist lifestyle more than men. In contrast to the original research, men are assigned to a hedonist lifestyle more than women.     

Population in context: A typology of environmental driving forces

This paper presents a typology and qualitative model of causation for use in assessing the relative contributions of population growth to problems of pollution, lost biodiversity, and natural resource depletion. Population growth is placed in context as one of eight key driving forces that shape environmental quality today. It is treated primarily as an impact amplifier, along with technology. Root causes are traced to paradigmatic beliefs—especially anthropocentrism and contempocentrism—which find expression in unsustainable consumption patterns and designs of political economy.     

Departing from resource-intensive lifestyles: Problems and possibilities in industrialized societies

Any attempt to ensure a sensible response to adverse environmental impacts, or to redirect human behavior along less environmentally deleterious channels, must necessarily clear a formidable array of obstacles. These range from (1) the physical (e.g., road systems and the layouts of towns and cities) through (2) the institutional (e.g., the economic system and the system of social stratification), (3) the ideational (e.g., people's assumptions and priorities about what is acceptable or unacceptable, good or bad, desirable or undesirable), and (4) the demographic to (5) reinforcing experience. Each is in one way or another conducive to the continuation of resource-intensive practices. Yet, countervailing forces do exist, if not to a degree that justifies much optimism, at least to one that justifies cautious hope. These relate to (1) the turnover of both physical stocks and human generations, (2) possibilities that exist for informing people and changing their values, and (3) certain possibilities that the political structure affords for controlling or preventing various types of resource-intensive activity.     

Co-designing preconception and pregnancy care for healthy maternal lifestyles and obesity prevention

ProblemA recognised gap exists between current and recommended practices in the provision of lifestyle advice and weight management support for women across preconception and pregnancy care.BackgroundPreconception and pregnancy are critical stages for promoting healthy maternal lifestyles and obesity prevention. Co-design is a novel approach with the potential to strengthen existing models of care to facilitate the implementation of clinical practice guidelines promoting preconception and pregnancy health, especially in relation to preconception weight management and preventing excessive gestational weight gain.Aim and methodsThe aims of this discussion paper are to (i) define co-design in the context of preconception and pregnancy care, (ii) outline key considerations when planning co-design initiatives and (iii) describe co-design opportunities in preconception and pregnancy care for promoting women’s health and obesity prevention.DiscussionWhile several definitions of co-design exist, one critical element is the meaningful involvement of all key stakeholders. In this discussion, we specifically identified the involvement of women and expanding the role of practice nurses in primary care may assist to overcome barriers to the provision of healthy lifestyle advice and support for women during preconception. Co-designing pregnancy care will involve input from women, nurses, midwives, obstetricians, allied health and administration and management staff. Additional attention is required to co-design care for women considered most at-risk.ConclusionThere is potential to enhance current provision of preconception and pregnancy care using co-design. Nursing and midwifery professions are active across both preconception and pregnancy and therefore, they have an important role to play.     

Latin American typology: An essay on measuring social discontinuities

The aim of the article is to work out a classification of the Latin-American countries considering economic and social aspects of development. Therefore, it seemed convenient to take the following steps:

1. A critical review of the existing literature on the subject, stressing the theoretical and methodological assumptions on which these constructions are based.
2. A selection and discussion of some social indicators, in particular those usually employed for this kind of task, especially in planning.
3. An analysis of methodological procedures in order to present alternative options which could give better theoretical, methodological and technical results.
4. The classification of Latin-American countries using a quantitative technique based on the combination of a selected set of interval variables which permits the computation of a measure of the distance between cuples of countries.
5. A graphical representation of the ‘profiles’ obtained for each group of countries.
6. Variables not included in this classification and also historical dimensions are introduced in order to explain the different levels of achievement of the socioeconomic goals of the countries and regions.

The quantitative results go hand in hand with the revision of the historical process. For this reason, it seemed necessary to formulate a set of significant structural categories and some tentative hypotheses. These should be tested in more exhaustive studies if one wishes to explain the differential achievement reached by different countries in solving their social problems.     

性别偏好研究——潮汕地区一个村落的实地调查

出生人口性别比是人们性别偏好的集中反映,其严重偏离正常值的问题已经引起我国各界的广泛关注.本文引入布迪厄的实践社会学,借鉴并补充场域-惯习研究范式,通过对广东潮汕地区一个村落的村民生育行为进行定性研究,解释和分析性别偏好现象.     

A structural model of subjective well-being: A comparison of ethnicity

Using secondary data analysis, we proposed and tested a structural model of subjective well-being using LISREL V. Separate analyses were performed on samples of Asians (N=142), Blacks (N=338), Hispanics (N=188), and Whites (N=293). Exogenous predictor variables were age, serious personal loss, occupational status, and employment status. Endogenous predictors were self-perceived health, physical activity, and strength of social ties. Results indicated that within group models were somewhat different from each other. We concluded that analyses done separately be ethnicity yielded more accurate representations of structural models of subjective well-being, and provide evidence that ethnic groups are reference groups in which determinants of subjective well-being operate differentially.     

A Child Labour Estimator: A Case of Bahawalpur Division

Social Indicators Research - Child labor is a distressing issue. There have been many attempts to estimate its magnitude. It is attempted here to develop an estimator to assess the magnitude of...     

A Body of Text

This article re-evaluates the relationship between gender identities, embodiment, sexuality and text-based, synchronous CMC (computer-mediated communication). A discourse analysis was conducted on two different IRC channels: #Cyberbar, a channel that hosts predominantly “straight” male/female gender performances; and #Queer, a channel mostly visited by participants who articulate “gay male” gender identities. The notion of embodiment played a pivotal role in both channels, as demonstrated by the identification of three “interpretative repertoires” that involve the invocation of corporeal aspects in the participants' performance of gender and sexuality. This invocation reaffirms gender's status as connected to a binary sexed body, which limits the scope of gender performances in a text-based environment such as IRC. However, the discursive interactions in #Queer did articulate alternative interpretations of masculinity, which challenged traditional heteronormative standards governing “male behavior.” Eventually, it is concluded that the discourse in both channels is constructed by participants who bring their everyday, embodied experiences online. IRC might be a textual environment, in contrast to many of the web's popular graphical spaces, but this does not mean that the body is any less present.     

A Quality of Growth Index for Developing Countries: A Proposal

This paper proposes a new quality of growth index for developing countries. The index encompasses both the intrinsic nature and social dimensions of growth, and is computed for over 90 countries for the period 1990–2011. The approach is premised on the fact that not all growth is created equal in terms of social outcomes, and that it does matter how one reaches from one level of income to another for various theoretical and empirical reasons. The paper finds that the quality of growth has been improving in the vast majority of developing countries over the past two decades, although the rate of convergence is relatively slow. At the same time, there are considerable cross-country variations across income levels and regions. Finally, empirical investigations point to the fact that main factors of the quality of growth are political stability, public pro-poor spending, macroeconomic stability, financial development, institutional quality and external factors such as FDI.     

广东人口死亡状况研究

本文利用 2 0 0 0年第五次全国人口普查资料 ,全面分析广东人口死亡水平的发展变化、地区和城乡差别、性别与年龄差异以及影响因素。     

A Model of Age-specific Fecundability

A new model of the behavioural and physiological causes of age-specific variation in marital fecundability is presented. Total fecundability is decomposed into a series of susceptibility factors (the length of ovarian cycles, the length of the fertile period within each cycle, the probability that a cycle is ovulatory, and the likelihood that an act of unprotected intercourse within the fertile period results in conception) and an exposure factor reflecting the effect of duration of marriage on coital frequency. The impact of intra-uterine mortality on effective fecundability is also modelled. Data on western women, from which standard age curves of fecundability are estimated, suggest that any decline in fecundity between ages 30 and 40 is attributable to changes, not in the ability to conceive, but in the capacity to carry a pregnancy to term. Sensitivity tests suggest that the most important potential sources of inter-population variation in fecundability are intra-uterine death and the incidence of anovulatory cycles.     

A critique of creationist homophobia

In 1978, the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America prohibited the ordination of "practicing homosexuals" to the church's ministry. In this prohibition, by providing a pivotal role for homophobic interpretation of Genesis 1-3, Presbyterians linked up with the exclusionist policies of both the Roman Catholic and fundamentalist communions. The following article submits this use of the biblical narratives of creation to critical examination and provides an alternative liberationist perspective.     

A Multigenerational View of Inequality

The study of intergenerational mobility and most population research are governed by a two-generation (parent-to-offspring) view of intergenerational influence, to the neglect of the effects of grandparents and other ancestors and nonresident contemporary kin. While appropriate for some populations in some periods, this perspective may omit important sources of intergenerational continuity of family-based social inequality. Social institutions, which transcend individual lives, help support multigenerational influence, particularly at the extreme top and bottom of the social hierarchy, but to some extent in the middle as well. Multigenerational influence also works through demographic processes because families influence subsequent generations through differential fertility and survival, migration, and marriage patterns, as well as through direct transmission of socioeconomic rewards, statuses, and positions. Future research should attend more closely to multigenerational effects; to the tandem nature of demographic and socioeconomic reproduction; and to data, measures, and models that transcend coresident nuclear families.