Nonmarital Fertility and the Effects of Divorce Rates on Youth Suicide Rates

Using pooled, time‐series data for a sample of 15 developed nations, we assess the effect of divorce rates on gender‐specific suicide rates for youths aged 15 – 19 with models of relative cohort size, lagged nonmarital fertility, and an interaction term for divorce rates and nonmarital fertility. The results reveal that, for young men, relative cohort size is positively related to suicide rates, and divorce rates interact with lagged nonmarital fertility. The interaction effect indicates that increases in divorces are especially consequential for suicide cohorts of male youths who were born in periods of high nonmarital fertility. For female youths, only divorce rates exert a significant effect on suicide rates, and it is a positive, main effect.     

Perceptions of the Extent of Problem Gambling Within New Casino Communities

Several recent studies using objective measures have found that the rate of pathological gambling in the U.S. is less than 5%. To determine the general population's perception of the prevalence of pathological gambling, a survey was conducted in seven communities where casinos have recently opened. Of the 1631 respondents who provided an estimate, the mean response was that 16% of the community residents were problem gamblers, more than three times the rate found by studies using specific diagnostic criteria. A regression equation found several demographic and attitudinal items are associated with higher prevalence estimates. In addition, the data support a close to home hypothesis that respondents who have relatives who have experienced problems with gambling will tend to perceive higher rates of problem gambling in the community.     

The Security of Gambling and Gambling with Security: Hacking,Law Enforcement and Public Policy*

This paper studies the relationship between criminal organization and social control in the area of computer crime. We examine a ‘cheat at play’ scheme that hacked into electronic gambling machines. We focus on how these cyber-attacks were committed and on the ability of the state and the industry to control them. We compare and contrast our findings with the research on hacking and the gambling industry and conclude by discussing the implications that our research has for law enforcement, security and consumer protection.     

Attitudes of Community Leaders in New Casino Jurisdictions Regarding Casino Gambling's Effects on Crime and Quality of Life

Interviews were conducted with 128 key individuals in seven communities that are new casino jurisdictions. The individuals interviewed are community leaders (mayors, members of the city council, leading members of the business community) or work in areas (banking, law enforcement, social services) which would provide insight into the positive and negative effects that casinos have on communities. A series of core questions were asked of all 128 respondents followed by additional questions designed to elicit specific information based on the individual's position. A content analysis was conducted comparing responses both within and between communities by leadership position. Findings indicate that a clear majority (59%) of those interviewed are in favor of the casino in the community, believe the casino enhances the quality of life in the community (65%), and believe that the casino has a positive effect on the economy (77%). Although a majority of the community leaders interviewed view the impact of casinos favorably, responses vary both by community and by position within the community. Finally, since ths group of community leaders was not selected randomly, it is possible that unintended interview bias shifted these results in a positive direction.     

Motives and Methods of Under-Age Casino Gamblers

Numerous studies have documented that under-age gambling is quite common. The present study employs interviews of 48 university students who gambled under-age to determine the motives and methods associated with casino gambling by minors. The information gathered in these interviews indicates that access to casinos is easily attained, that the risk of exposure once gambling is minimal, and the motivations of under-age gamblers differ in important ways from that of adults, as access to alcohol, accompanying parents, and the desire to experience the “forbidden fruit” of casino gambling are commonly mentioned motivations by under-age gamblers.

A New Twist in Divorce

Development of highly accurate genetic tests in combination with recent legislative changes and judicial rulings have facilitated challenges to the presumption of legitimate birth in wedlock, even where the husband wishes to maintain his status as a parent. In many jurisdictions divorcing mothers may now contest their spouse's paternity of children of the marriage, and prove their denial by means of court-ordered blood tests. This article analyzes the family policy challenge posed by this innovation, and recommends a statutory remedy to protect a marital father's developed relationship with his child against termination through non-paternity action. The normative premise of the argument is the importance of preserving a child's relationship with its de facto marital father, as opposed to a legal definition of child-parent relationships based exclusively on biological parentage.     

Adult Children of Divorce: Awareness and Intervention

Parental midlife divorce impacts children who are adults at the time of the separation event. This article examines the family life cycle and stages as well as the transitions that occur when parents divorce at midlife. Specifically, the divorce impacts on the adult children are examined in relation to their unique life stage. Therapeutic practice implications and theories will also be explored in relation to assisting adult children of divorce reconcile the divorce experience of their parents.     

Loyalty programmes in the gambling industry: potentials for harm and possibilities for harm-minimization

The field of gambling studies has been remarkably silent on loyalty programmes in the gambling industry. This article reviews the scant empirical literature, with an aim to stimulate discussion and research about the impact of loyalty programme membership on players. Preliminary evidence suggests that disordered gamblers are more apt to join a loyalty programme and be disproportionately rewarded (due to the amount of money they spend gambling) relative to recreational and at-risk gamblers. As such, loyalty programmes in the gambling industry may generate harms in vulnerable individuals. However, loyalty programmes may also be well positioned to facilitate harm-minimization by promoting behavioural tracking that is collected on every member – information that can be provided to players to advance responsible gambling. Additionally, members could be rewarded for engagement with responsible gambling tools, which may increase the currently low rate of tool use. That said, structuring loyalty programmes to reward the use of responsible gambling instruments with time on device or even non-monetary prizes may be incompatible with harm-minimization efforts. There exists a need for empirical research on the antecedents and consequences of loyalty programme membership as well as the possibility that loyalty programmes have some responsibility gambling utility.     

Consumer spending in the gaming industry: evidence of complementary demand in casino and online venues

Brick and mortar gambling stakeholders have scrutinized Internet gambling sites over concern that online operators may serve as substitutes for their products. In some cases, this has led to regulatory protection to prevent or restrict entry by online providers. However, many industry observers have remarked that the two gambling modalities may serve different consumers/consumer needs, or even serve as complementary goods. Policymakers, who look to gambling as an important source of tax revenue, must determine how expansion of Internet gambling will affect overall economic welfare. Using self-reported consumer gambling behaviour data from the United Kingdom, the net effect of Internet-based gambling activity on land-based demand is estimated in this study. A robust complementary (positive) relationship between online and offline gambling is found, using ordinary least squares, two-stage least squares, and two-part modeling techniques. These particular findings suggest that economic concerns around the cannibalization of traditional gambling industries should be reconsidered, and provide support for prior research showing that Internet based firms can be complementary to brick and mortar businesses.     

Reasons for Divorce:

A 27-item checklist of reasons for divorce was administered to 437 men and women divorcing in the mid-1980's. Factor analysis revealed nine dimensions underlying the checklist responses. The most frequently cited factors were unmet emotional needs/growing apart, lifestyle differences or boredom with the marriage, and high conflict, demeaning relationships. Statistically significant sex, age and socio-economic differences were found. Correlates between the factors and individual psychological functioning, parental functioning, and the emotional ambiance of the divorce reflected considerable diversity among the divorcing population and have implications for legal and mental health practice.     

Personality and psychographics of three types of gamblers in the United States

Using the results of the Experian Marketing Services' Simmons^® National Consumer Study (NCS) (N₀ = 24,581), this paper studies the characteristics of three types of US. gamblers: regular lottery players (N₁ = 1100), heavy casino gamblers (N₂ = 636) and online gamblers (N₃ = 291). We explore each type of gambler using measures of several personality and psychographic variables: impulsiveness, desire for control, materialism, risk taking, self-centredness, introversion, sensation seeking and financial prudence. We find that while all three groups have elevated levels of impulsiveness and materialism relative to non-gamblers (p < 0.01), most noteworthy are the online gamblers, who have higher levels of risk taking, desire for control, self-centredness and sensation seeking compared to casino gamblers, lottery players and non-gamblers (p < 0.01). This study additionally emphasizes the importance of considering demographics when investigating psychographics, as some of the psychographics related to gambling are conditioned on age. In addition, we find that online gamblers who also engage in other forms of gambling may be distinct from those who do not, suggesting they are not a homogeneous group.     

Optimal Betting in Casino Blackjack

Abstract

In casino blackjack, the odds fluctuate from round to round as cards are dealt from a randomly shuffled pack. A player who ‘counts cards’ can estimate the odds on the next round and so can vary his bet size accordingly: better-than-average odds warrant a larger bet. The optimal relationship of bet to count is derived here under the criterion of maximum expected increase in capital per round subject to a specified risk of ruin. The optimisation analysis is complicated by the need to impose lower and possibly upper bounds on the bet size. A family of optimal betting schemes is found, depending on the risk selected and other parameters; among this family is the one found by Harris, Janecek and Yamashita using a different optimisation criterion. Representative computational results are displayed for a typical set of blackjack conditions. Some commentary is given on the choice of a bet scheme from the optimal family, depending on the player’s style and objectives. Remarks are also made about Kelly betting, in the context of risk.     

Factors Contributing to Divorce

Sixty-six white and black participants indicated the extent to which certain problem areas contributed to their divorce. Significant race-related and gender-related differences were found in the problems they identified. While white participants indicated that child care/rearing and communication were significantly greater problems in their marriages than did their black counterparts, black participants indicated that extra-marital affairs, physical abuse and the need for personal growth/freedom made a greater contribution to their decision to divorce. Although significant differences were found in the type of problems that men and women indicated were factors in leading to their decision to divorce, there were no significant race by gender interactions. As discussed in the paper, the present results have implications for theory and practice in the areas of marriage, family life and divorce.     

A Comprehensive Policy Analysis of and Recommendations for Senior Center Gambling Trips

Abstract

Gambling is one of the fastest growing industries in America. Public support is high for legalized gambling among all age groups. Because gambling is growing in popularity as an activity among those 65 and over, many senior centers are beginning to offer group trips to casinos and other gambling attractions such as dog tracks. This paper analyzes senior center casino gambling trips, with particular attention to the number of trips offered, how trips are funded, the policy implications of offering trips, and policy alternatives for state and local policymakers. Data for the study come from personal interviews with activity directors of 16 senior centers across Massachusetts and a formal survey of 30 additional senior centers in Central Massachusetts. Benefits of a new policy option, a public education strategy, are also reviewed.     

Timing Effects on Divorce: 20th Century Experience in the United States

Period divorce measures can misrepresent the underlying behavior of birth cohorts as changes in cohort timing produce changes in period probabilities of divorce. Building on methods used to adjust period fertility and marriage measures, we adjust U.S. period divorce rates for timing effects, calculating a timing index for every year between 1910 and 2000. The adjusted probability of divorce, PMED*, increases nearly linearly from 1910 through 1990, remaining at about that level through 2000. Period measures greatly exaggerate divorce risks from the early 1970s to the mid‐1980s, but understate them at other times. Adjusted values for recent years do not suggest a decline in the likelihood of divorce, with year 2000 values indicating a divorce probability of 0.43 – 0.46.     

Missouri Casino Self-Excluders: Distributions Across Time and Space

According to public health research, exposure to casinos is a risk factor for disordered gambling. Consequently, casino self-exclusion programs, which provide gamblers with the opportunity to voluntarily seek limits on their access to gambling venues, can serve as a barometer of the concentration of disordered gambling in an area. This study reports on the distribution, both temporally and geographically, of 6,599 people who applied to exclude themselves from Missouri casinos between November, 1996 and February, 2004. Analyses used Microsoft MapPoint to plot the location of casinos and self-excluders (SEs) across Missouri and its constituent counties. These regional exposure analyses showed that the Western region around Kansas City is an epicenter of disordered gambling as, to a lesser extent, is the Eastern region around St. Louis. The annual number of SE enrollments increased during the first few years of the Missouri self-exclusion program and then leveled off during the later years. These findings have important implications for public health and the development of public health interventions for disordered gamblers.     

The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children

I use a divorce‐stress‐adjustment perspective to summarize and organize the empirical literature on the consequences of divorce for adults and children. My review draws on research in the 1990s to answer five questions: How do individuals from married and divorced families differ in well‐being? Are these differences due to divorce or to selection? Do these differences reflect a temporary crisis to which most people gradually adapt or stable life strains that persist more or less indefinitely? What factors mediate the effects of divorce on individual adjustment? And finally, what are the moderators (protective factors) that account for individual variability in adjustment to divorce? In general, the accumulated research suggests that marital dissolution has the potential to create considerable turmoil in people's lives. But people vary greatly in their reactions. Divorce benefits some individuals, leads others to experience temporary decrements in well‐being, and forces others on a downward trajectory from which they might never recover fully. Understanding the contingencies under which divorce leads to these diverse outcomes is a priority for future research.     

Research on Divorce: Continuing Trends and New Developments

Research on divorce during the past decade has focused on a range of topics, including the predictors of divorce, associations between divorce and the well‐being of children and former spouses, and interventions for divorcing couples. Methodological advances during the past decade include a greater reliance on nationally representative longitudinal samples, genetically informed designs, and statistical models that control for time‐invariant sources of unobserved heterogeneity. Emerging perspectives, such as a focus on the number of family transitions rather than on divorce as a single event, are promising. Nevertheless, gaps remain in the research literature, and the review concludes with suggestions for new studies.     

The Experience of Formerly Battered Women with Divorce

Abstract

The study measured the feelings about their parents' divorce reported by early adolescent children at the time of the divorce, three and ten years later, and retrospectively, at the ten-year mark. Sadness, shock and disbelief were the most common feelings at the time of the divorce, but relief, anger at one parent, gladness and a desire for parental reunion were also quite usual. Three years later, sadness, shock, disbelief and desire for parental re-union had declined sharply, and relief and gladness had increased. Ten years on, most feelings except gladness and relief were at a low level; but anger at one parent continued to be reported by more than one-fifth of the sample. Principal components analysis suggested the presence of two rather different groupings of feelings. The first described shock and upset, and had a relatively limited life span; the second centred on anger at one parent and relief and gladness at their departure, and these feelings continued into adulthood. At all three times, this latter group of feelings was associated with poorer relations with fathers. Stronger feelings about the divorce were not generally associated with poorer psychological adjustment, although at Time 3 bad feelings about the divorce were reflected in bad feelings about the self. The retrospective reports made at Time 3 substantially over-estimated the intensity of the negative emotions reported at the time of the divorce.     

The Relationship of Ecological and Geographic Factors to Gambling Behavior and Pathology

The current study examined the effect of neighborhood disadvantage and gambling availability on gambling participation and pathology. A national telephone survey included 2631 US adults. Census data was used to characterize the respondents neighborhood, and the distance from the respondents home to gambling facilities was calculated. Logistic and linear regressions were performed to predict gambling participation and pathology. Results showed that the neighborhood disadvantage was positively related to frequency of gambling and problem/pathological gambling. The presence of a casino within 10miles of the respondents home was positively related to problem/pathological gambling. The permissiveness of gambling laws was positively related to any gambling in the past year, as well as frequent gambling. These results were interpreted to mean that the ecology of disadvantaged neighborhoods promotes gambling pathology, and that availability of gambling opportunities promotes gambling participation and pathology.