Gambling and the family: From the stress‐coping‐support Perspective 1

Abstract

Aims: To apply the stress‐coping‐support perspective to the study of the effects of problem gambling in the family. Specifically, to examine the ways in which family members cope and the nature and sources of support they receive. To compare coping strategies of family members of gamblers with those of individuals living with other addictive behaviour in the family. Design: Cross‐sectional interview and questionnaire study of close relatives of problem gamblers. Participants: Sixteen close family members of gamblers from separate families, mainly parents and partners. Data: Semi‐structured interview; adapted version of the Coping Questionnaire (CQ). Findings: Data from the CQ and qualitative analysis of interview data suggested considerable use of ‘engaged’ (specifically controlling) ways of attempting to cope with such problems, comparable to the use of such strategies by relatives of people with alcohol or drug problems, but little use of ‘tolerant‐accepting’ and ‘withdrawal’ ways. Interview data on the support received (or not) by family members confirmed previous research showing that relatives of people with addiction problems often feel unsupported, but particularly appreciate positive emotional and practical support for themselves and their problem gambling relatives. Conclusions: The stress‐coping‐support perspective, previously applied to families with alcohol and drug problems, also offers an appropriate framework for understanding problem gambling and the family.     

Casino self‐exclusion programmes: A review of the issues 1

Abstract

Casino self‐exclusion is a procedure by which individuals can have themselves banned from entering a casino. One of the purposes of this paper is to present information about the availability and features of these programmes. A second purpose is to make recommendations about how to best operate them based on cross‐jurisdictional analysis and lessons from the addiction literature. The first section of the paper describes the typical casino self‐exclusion programme, outlining the features common to most policies. The second section provides a detailed overview of the programmes operating in Canada in order to give the reader an appreciation of the procedural variations that exist. The third section discusses the effectiveness of self‐exclusion programmes. Finally, the fourth section contains recommendations on ways to improve effectiveness. When properly implemented, self‐exclusion can be a valuable tool in helping to curb problem gambling.     

Models of Multiculturalism: implications for the twenty‐first century leaders 1

Prominent among the challenges facing leaders in the 21st century is multiculturalism. Technology and transportation are fast changing the world and the concept of a global village has never been more real. The “New World Order” as proclaimed by George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, has proclivity to disorder unless new multicultural understanding is embraced.

This paper provides a discussion of different models or stages of multiculturalism: denial, assimilationism, affirmative action, valuing diversity, managing diversity, global multiculturalism, and humanistic multiculturalism. It promotes the concept of humanistic multiculturalism as a more holistic, inclusive, emancipatory view of diversity that will be necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The paper concludes with implications for corporate, educational, military, and government leaders as well as for intercultural trainers and researchers.

     

Lorist,reformist and romanticist: The nineteenth‐century response to Gypsy‐travellers

Gypsy‐travellers have always occupied an uncertain and contradictory position in sedentary‐based societies. Although performing significant economic and social functions this contribution was more usually overshadowed by the points at which they clashed with the structures and ideologies of the dominant and ‘host’ society. In the nineteenth century the Gypsy‐travellers were popularly presented in two distinct ways: as a Romany race and as degenerate itinerants. These varying perspectives originated from different sources and represented contrasting approaches to the Gypsy/nomadic ‘problem’. The validity, purpose and consequences of these apparently conflicting images form the subject of this article.     

Amateur craft‐artists: Marginal leisure roles in a marginal art world (1)

Amateurism is an important but marginal leisure role, in which the boundaries between work and leisure are blurred. This phenomenon has been studied by Stebbins as a subjective social reality. His conceptualization of amateurism was used as a model in the examination of survey data on craft‐artists and it was found to apply rather well to the analysis of quantitative data. As a self‐identified category of craft‐artists, amateurs were statistically marginal between professionals and dabblers.     

Developing a Low‐Cost Technique for Parallel Cross‐Cultural Instrument Development: The Question Appraisal System (QAS‐04)

Many approaches are used to prepare instruments for multicultural administration, depending on the scope, schedule and budget of the study. Sequential questionnaire development, the most common approach to developing cross‐cultural instruments, is also the most affordable. Designers formulate and pretest an instrument in the source language, then translate it into the target language(s) using culture‐specific tailoring. In contrast, parallel development incorporates target cultures throughout the design and pretesting process. The disadvantages to parallel development are that it is expensive, time‐consuming and subject to version control problems. Question Appraisal System (QAS) is a coding tool for pretesting instruments. The QAS is supported by an item taxonomy of the cognitive demands of a question and documents the features that may lead to response error. Results of the appraisal are used to revise question wording, response wording, questionnaire format and question ordering. This article describes research conducted to update the QAS to identify problems due to cross‐cultural and cross‐linguistic application of questions.     

INSIDE–OUT: RESOCIALISATION FROM PRISON AS A BIOGRAPHICAL PROCESS. A LONGITUDINAL APPROACH TO THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF IMPRISONMENT1

The social and economic regeneration of inner-city housing estates has been a common feature of successive UK government policies for a number of years. However, their focus has primarily been on the physical regeneration of communities to the exclusion of individuals' emotional and personal problems. Community-based counselling projects are still a rarity in regeneration projects. This article describes the establishment and subsequent history of a counselling project based on an inner-city housing estate in East London, which was undergoing extensive regeneration. It discusses how the service originated from the ongoing work of a participatory action research project and how it challenged stereotypical images of counselling. It demonstrated that free, accessible and locally based counselling services are needed in the regeneration of communities; that extensive planning is necessary both within the organisation and in relation to funding before the project begins; and that on-going core funding is essential to sustaining such innovative and much-needed projects.     

Indigenous studies and intercultural education: the impact of a place‐based primary‐school program

The article presents a student‐impact assessment of a model two‐year place‐based intercultural approach to indigenous education. Students at Lewis & Clark Primary School in Missoula, Montana, connected face‐to‐face with tribal educators and members residing in the nearby American Indian reservation. The program’s learning outcomes included impressive gains in knowledge of Montana tribes, fewer stereotypical images, enhanced consciousness about the histories and cultures of the place in which students’ reside, heightened appreciation for and connectedness with Native Americans, and increased cultural awareness. The power of the place‐based intercultural‐education approach is that K‐5 students can acquire cultural knowledge, break stereotypes, and develop new appreciation for, and interest in, diverse peoples and issues by directly experiencing the local context in which diversity resides.     

Female crack users and their sexual relationships: The role of sex‐for‐crack exchanges

This study challenges the image of female crack users as exchangers, or women who exchange sex for crack. Between June 1997 and February 1999, quantitative interviews were conducted with 150 active female crack users, one half of whom also completed a qualitative interview. Data analysis involved contingency analysis, bivariate logistic regression analysis, and the constant comparison method. Exchangers (n = 65) were younger, and were more likely to have been homeless and to be single than were nonexchangers (n = 85). Exchangers also were more likely to report infidelity and less likely to communicate with their most recent steady partner about the partner's relationship expectations. Sexual behaviors differed by partner type among the exchangers and nonexchangers. These findings provide a comprehensive picture of female crack users. Additionally, the findings indicate the importance of designing interventions that capture the complexities of the women's sexual relationships.     

The interface between transport policy‐making and science: A ‘two‐person’ model

The paper attempts to build a qualitative ‘two‐person’ model which encapsulates the complex relationship between transport policy‐making and science, by personifying the relationship as a dialogue between ‘the politician’ and ‘the scientist’. The approach is illustrated by making references to the methods and results of the research project OPTIMA, which has attempted to find optimal urban transport policies in a number of European cities. Whilst finding much usefulness in the model, the paper recognizes its limitations and makes recommendations of a number of extensions that could be made.     

He Wero: The Challenge of Putting Your Body on the Line: Teaching and Learning in Anti‐Racist Practice1

This paper explores ways in which social workers, community workers and social work educators have developed anti‐racist practice in relation to indigenous issues in Aotearoa/New Zealand. A brief history of anti‐racism training in Aotearoa/New Zealand is provided, showing how this has been reflected in the Massey University Bachelor of Social Work programme. The core of the discussion describes the application of a structural analysis model to engage students in identifying their own culture and how they situate their experiences in relation to the indigenous Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Processes of Maori tikanga (custom) and whole person/soul learning are utilised to prepare students to engage with the Bicultural Code of Practice of the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers, which mandates partnership under the Treaty of Waitangi, acknowledging Maori as the indigenous people of Aotearoa/New Zealand.     

Hip‐hop Imaginaries: a Genealogy of the Present

In this article, I track the emergence of Hip‐hop imaginaries in the enunciatory present, focusing on three disparate scenes: democratic change in Bolivia, cultural resistance in Hawaii, and the foundations of Hip‐hop that emerged from New York City. I position Hip‐hop as a mode of cultural expression that gives resistant form to marginalized existences abjected from dominant society through political and economic exclusion. I trace the origins of Hip‐hop in New York in order to show how the idea of existential resistance provides a useful interpretive framework in which to theorize the relationships between cultural resistance and political change. I utilize this framework by looking at Hip‐hop in two disparate locations, first analyzing the music of Hawaiian Hip‐hop group Sudden Rush and contextualizing it within the contemporary Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement. Second, Bolivia’s newly emergent Hip‐hop scene amidst a turbulent culture of political protest provides a useful contrast to that of Hawaii’s. In the end, I argue that Hip‐hop imaginaries in Hawaii and Bolivia demonstrate inter‐related strategies of national and cultural decolonization which carry distinct political implications.     

Photo‐documenting the needle exchange: methods and ethics

When research subjects are people with stigmatized identities, then special consideration must be given to their desire for privacy and anonymity. This is especially true when photographs constitute the recorded data. This paper discusses some challenges in conducting research in a needle exchange located in a small city. Within the needle exchange, the camera posed a threat to drug users who preferred to remain anonymous, if not invisible. Ethical considerations and emotional frustration, stemming from the need and desire to get photographs of clients while respecting their obvious desire for privacy, are discussed. The practical difficulties associated with getting photographs and some methods for facilitating interaction with clients are also presented.     

Women's sexual working models: An evolutionary‐attachment perspective

In three studies, we developed and validated a self‐report measure of women's sexual working models. In a pilot study we created an initial version of the Women's Sexual Working Models Scale (WSWMS), administered it to an exploratory sample of 470 women, and identified its 5‐factor structure. Study 1 confirmed the 5‐factor structure in a new sample: (1) Fostering commitment; (2) Evaluating a sexual partner's suitability; (3) Promoting frequent sexual activity through positive affect; (4) Restricting sexuality through shamefulness; and (5) Negative emotions that signal incompatibility with relationship goals. In Study 2, 444 Israeli women completed the WSWMS. Confirmatory factor analysis provided cross‐national evidence for the generalizability of the underlying factor structure of the WSWMS.     

Incest: Self‐report findings from a nonclinical sample

Self‐reports of incest experiences from a nonpatient, nonoffender sample of 100 individuals are described. The purpose is to document the wide range of incest types by correlating the negative‐to‐positive perceived outcome of the experience with sex, age, exploitation, and guilt. A 23‐item questionnaire was administered to respondents contacted through nationally circulated classified advertisements. Respondents, were categorized as perpetrators, victims, and consenting participants. Incestuous experiences with age peers, adult or child, constitute 42% of the accounts. Of the cross‐generational reports, 33% are from adult males describing incest with children, and 63% are from adults retrospectively describing childhood incest with adult males. Both exploitative and nonexploitative experiences are perceived by some respondents as negative and by others as positive. There was no correlation between positive‐to‐negative outcome and type of erotic activity, consanguinity, or sexual orientation.     

Polish‐Jewish Relations: An Issue of Extraordinary Complexity

Joshua D. Zimmerman (ed.), Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath. University of Rutgers Press, 2003, 226pp. Maps. Index. $35.00 cloth. ISBN 0–8135–3158–6     

Feelin' groovy♪: appropriating time in home‐based telework

In this paper we present some findings from an empirical study into teleworking that challenge the received wisdom that principles of efficiency and speed determine the organisation of public and private lives. Instead, we make a case that emerging forms of work organisation such as telework entail opportunities for some individuals to rethink the relationship between life and work and to engage in questions of ‘how to live one's life’. Drawing on our research study, which combined participant observation with interview conversations with 25 teleworkers and their families, we argue that teleworking, the epitome of flexibility and instantaneousness, can, rather than always contributing to the acceleration of life, provide potential for regeneration, re‐evaluation and slowing down.     

On becoming a prostitute: An exploratory case‐comparison study

We examined the effects of sexual arousal on cortical somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) elicited by electrical stimulation delivered to the skin over either the dorsal penile or posterior tibial nerve. The electrical stimuli were initiated by the subject pressing a button. In Experiment 1, a single stimulus was delivered immediately upon button press. In Experiment 2, a randomly spaced train of stimuli was delivered after a randomly varying delay. SEPs were obtained during (1) a baseline condition during which subjects viewed a non‐erotic videotape, (2) an arousal condition in which subjects viewed an erotic videotape, and (3) a post‐orgasm condition during which subjects again viewed the non‐erotic videotape. Amplitudes of SEP components elicited by stimulation of either nerve decreased with sexual arousal and tended to return towards baseline values in the post‐orgasm condition. The SEP components that showed these changes included slow potentials generated before and after stimulus delivery, as well as the vertex potentials, N100 and P200.