Impact of Acts of Discrimination on Quality of Life Among Injecting Drug Users in Delhi, India

The study examines the association between quality of life (QOL) and discrimination perpetrated against a vulnerable population like injecting drug users (IDU). Given that QOL affects self efficacy which in turn affects behavior, it is relevant to examine QOL among IDUs in the context of HIV prevention, and to study whether discriminations and human rights abuses impact QOL in this population. A cross sectional study was conducted in two research sites in Delhi, India among 343 IDUs recruited through a respondent driven sampling. A Hindi version of the WHOQOL Bref survey along with a survey questionnaire of discrimination were used to interview participants. After controlling for demographic characteristics, experiencing physical and verbal abuse (OR: 0.46, CI 0.27–0.79),arrests and imprisonment for carrying needles and/or using drugs (OR: 0.53, CI 0.31–0.90) and lacking health information (OR: 0.49, CI 0.29–0.85)was associated with lower social QOL, while being denied health care services was associated with lower psychological QOL. The more discrimination experienced, the lower was the quality of life in the social and psychological domains. Participants’ perceived well being in the four domains was related to their living conditions, discriminatory acts and to perceptions of social support. Discriminatory acts and abuses appeared to have a greater toll on their psychological well being and social relationships, thus indicating the need for human rights advocacy in order to influence law enforcement practices and to reduce stigma, while expanding social support through an extended comprehensive IDU programme.     

Measuring Household Wealth with Latent Trait Modelling: An Application to Malawian DHS Data

Public perceptions of crime and victimisation can influence an individual’s subjective well-being. Research into the impact of the fear of crime and victimisation on subjective well-being, however, has been limited; particularly with respect to the relative contributions of real versus perceived crime towards an individual’s self-reported life satisfaction. Improving our understanding of the relationship between crime and well-being is important, as public resources assigned to reducing or controlling crime could be assigned to addressing other social concerns. This paper extends the literature by exploring the contribution of real and perceived crime in an individual’s local area to their self-reported life satisfaction. Our results indicate that: (1) individuals’ perceptions of crime in their local area are far greater than actual levels of crime; (2) the gap between perceived and real crime is widening as real crime rates fall faster than the perceived rate of crime; (3) real crime rates detract more from an individual’s self-reported life satisfaction than perceived rates of crime; however, (4) perceived rates of crime have an adverse impact on life satisfaction beyond those associated with real crime; and (5) there is significant heterogeneity in the life satisfaction effects of real and perceived crime among groups of individuals. These results, together with empirical evidence highlighting successful strategies for moderating perceptions of crime, facilitate the development of more informed public policy that will improve individual life satisfaction and, ultimately, community well-being.     

Perceived Social Policy Fairness and Subjective Wellbeing: Evidence from China

This study examined the relationship between perceived fairness of social policies and subjective well-being. Two types of policies examined were related to income distribution and social security. Subjective well-being was measured by work and life satisfaction. In addition, subjective well-beings between different income, age, and education groups in the context of perceived social justice were compared. With data from a random telephone survey conducted in Beijing, China among 2,113 respondents, findings from structural equation modeling indicate perceived fairness of social security and income distribution policies are positively associated with subjective well-being. After controlling for income, age, and education, the effect of income distribution fairness on work satisfaction was still positive and significant but had decreased in intensity, while the effect size on life satisfaction had changed little. Effects of social security fairness on both life and work satisfaction were still significant but had changed in different directions after adding demographic variables, in which the effect on life satisfaction had increased, while the effect on work satisfaction had decreased in size.     

A human ecological approach to quality of life: Conceptual framework and results of a preliminary study

A human ecological framework for study of quality of life is proposed and used in the study of the QOL of a rural sample in northern Michigan. The framework is based on an ecosystem, i.e., the interaction of humans, the environed units, with their interrelated environments. These are conceptualized as: natural, human constructed and human behavioral. Quality of life indicators can measure aspects of the environed units, environments, and their interaction. Scales to measure perceived overall quality of life (POQL), community satisfaction (COMSAT), and the importance of and satisfaction with selected life concerns (SALI and SALS) were used. The life concerns represented human needs, attributes of the self, conditions and resources of the three environments, or implied interaction with or action upon the environment. Objectives were to study how these life concerns contributed to POQL; the relationship between SALI and SALS ratings and how this influenced POQL; the relationship between COMSAT and POQL; and whether or not satisfaction with these two variables varied by demographic characteristics. A relatively high POQL was found; those with higher incomes and children living at home had higher scores. COMSAT was also generally high, but did not vary by demographic characteristics. POQL and COMSAT were significantly related. Family life, health, safety, house, and financial security ranked highest in importance; clothing, spare time activities, and fun ranked lowest. Family life, religious faith, food work, and safety ranked highest in satisfaction; national government, financial security, developing oneself, health, and an interesting life ranked the lowest. The various life concerns appear) to behave differently in regard to how the discrepancy between importance of a concern and satisfaction with it influences overall quality of life. Satisfaction with accomplishments, family life, work and financial security accounted for over half the variance in POQL. These represent essential human needs which are satisfied with resources of the near environment, suggesting the salience of one's most proximate environment to evaluation of quality of life. Findings, while preliminary, illustrate the viability of a human ecological model as a unifying framework for conceptualization and measurement of quality of life. Further specification and elaboration of the model are indicated.     

How Many Times Has the Human Population Doubled? Comparisons with Cancer

Along with decreasing doubling times as a function of increasing rates of population growth over the past several thousand years, the human species has shown striking parallels with a malignant growth. Some cancers also display decreasing doubling times of cell proliferation during the most rapidly growing phase. At 6 billion, the number of doublings reached by the human population as of 1998 is 32.5, with the 33rd doubling (8.59 billion) expected early in the next century. In terms of total animal biomass, including that of domestic animals under human control, the 33rd doubling of human-related biomass has been passed. In terms of energy use, which is a more accurate, index of the global ecological impact of humans, the human species has passed its 36th doubling. These calculations are important because, in addition to the number of doublings, the human population is showing several important similarities with a malignant organismic tumor, which results in death of the host organism at between 37 and 40 doublings. At current growth rates, the number of individual humans will reach those levels within 200–400 years from the present, but the ecological impact will be felt much sooner since the number of doublings of energy consumed will pass 37 early in the next century. These observations support the hypothesis that the human species has become a malignant process on the planet that is likely to result in the equivalent, for humans, of ecosystem death, or at least in a radical transformation of the ecosystem, the early phases of which are being observed.     

Marriage and Family Therapists' Comfort Working with Lesbian and Gay Male Clients: The Influence of Religious Practices and Support for Lesbian and Gay Male Human Rights

The purpose of this study was to explore potential influences on marriage and family therapists' comfort level when working with lesbian and gay male clients, including sex, age, race, sexual orientation, political orientation, religious practices of the therapist, as well as the level of support for lesbian and gay male human rights. Participants in this study were 199 experienced therapists. Results indicated that higher levels of religious practices were related to lower levels of support for lesbian and gay male human rights and to lower levels of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients. When support for lesbian and gay male human rights was considered, the level of religious practices was no longer predictive of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients.     

Marriage and family therapists' comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients: the influence of religious practices and support for lesbian and gay male human rights

The purpose of this study was to explore potential influences on marriage and family therapists' comfort level when working with lesbian and gay male clients, including sex, age, race, sexual orientation, political orientation, religious practices of the therapist, as well as the level of support for lesbian and gay male human rights. Participants in this study were 199 experienced therapists. Results indicated that higher levels of religious practices were related to lower levels of support for lesbian and gay male human rights and to lower levels of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients. When support for lesbian and gay male human rights was considered, the level of religious practices was no longer predictive of comfort working with lesbian and gay male clients.     

The Zen of Sustainable Use of the Planet: Steps on the Path to Enlightenment

At its best, the quest for sustainable use of the planet aspires to a harmonious relationship between human society and natural systems. At its worst, sustainable use is an assertion that human ingenuity and technology can free humankind from biophysical constraints and its dependence upon ecological life support systems. Although science guided by reason is essential to reaching informed decisions on sustainability, it must be accompanied by a new ethos, or set of guiding beliefs. Science can never reduce uncertainty on the complex multivariate systems called ecosystems to the degree that explicit legislation would be possible to protect the components on a species by species, habitat by habitat, ecosystem by ecosystem, and landscape by landscape basis without going to ridiculous extremes. This circumstance does not, however, invalidate attempting to define conditions appropriate to achieving sustainability. Some consensus must be reached on the broad, general conditions governing human society's relationship to the environment. A shared ethos would promote sustainable use and reduce the possibility of harsh penalties exacted upon species that do not respond adequately to alteration in their environment.     

Explaining Low Subjective Well-Being of Persons with Disabilities in Europe: The Impact of Disability, Personal Resources, Participation and Socio-Economic Status

Persons with chronic disabilities report the lowest subjective well-being (SWB) in many countries. The gap in SWB compared with the non-disabled population is smaller in some countries than in others. Data from the European Social Survey were analysed in order to: (1) describe the inequality in SWB in 21 European countries; and (2) identify the main determinants of this inequality in SWB. Data on a range of topics of a total of 40,605 persons, including 2,846 persons with serious chronic disabilities, were used of the European Social Survey. SWB was measured using multi-item scales for ‘emotional well-being’ and ‘satisfying life’. Variables on disability, socio-demographics (age, gender, household composition), socio-economic status (level of education, net household income), participation (paid work, voluntary work, social contacts), and personal resources (supportive relationships, social cohesion, vitality, optimism, resilience, perceived autonomy, perceived accomplishment, perceived capacity, perceived engagement, perceived meaning and purpose) were entered stepwise in regression models of SWB. The results show that persons with disabilities are in a disadvantaged position in terms of SWB in all countries. In the Northern countries, the gaps between disabled and non-disabled persons are smaller than in Eastern European countries. In all countries inequality in SWB is explained mostly by personal resources and not by the level of disability, socio-economic status or level of participation in work. The implications of these findings for policy and practice (e.g. social cohesion and physical exercise programs) are discussed.     

人口死亡研究的展开

当前 ,在人口死亡现象和研究方面有一些新的内容值得注意 :(1 )人口寿命的延长趋势。发达国家的人口寿命增加的幅度虽然很小 ,但还有所增加 ,人口寿命增长是否有极限 ?发展中国家的平均寿命一度增加很快 ,但现在已放慢了速度。今后世界人口的寿命将如何变化 ?(2 )从人口死亡到人口健康的研究。随着人的平均寿命的延长和人口老龄化 ,不健康的人群绝对数和占全部人口的相对比例也增大。人们对生命质量的关心 ,呼唤着对人口健康研究的重视。 (3 )环境对人口健康 ,人口死亡的影响 ,人口、资源、环境问题已成为全球共同关注的问题。由于人们不合理的生产和生活方式导致了自然环境的破坏 ,已危及到人类的自身的生存。环境公害 ,有毒物质对人体的伤害 ,几乎无人能够幸免。 (4 )“安乐死”的问题。在人类历史上 ,自然死亡一直被人们认为是结束生命的唯一合理形式。这个理念现在受到了挑战。关于安乐死是否合理牵涉到现存的人性、伦理、道德和法律等诸多方面 ,要判断是非 ,可说是世界上的一道难题。     

Perceived emotional support from family and friends in members of homosexual, married, and heterosexual cohabiting couples

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that influenced perceptions of emotional support from friends and family in members of gay, lesbian, married, and heterosexual cohabiting couples. Both the individual partner and the couple were used as units of analysis. Using the individual partner scores, perceived emotional support was related to Type of Couple (married perceived more emotional support from family than did gays and lesbians); Sex-Role Self-Concept (undifferentiated individuals perceived the least emotional support from both friends and family); and Source of Support (friends were perceived to provide more emotional support than family). Gays and lesbians, in particular, perceived more emotional support from friends than from family. Individuals reporting high degrees of emotional support from friends were less psychologically distressed than those reporting low degrees of emotional support from friends. Using the couple scores, the above Type of Couple and Source of Support effects were replicated. In addition, partner differences were obtained only in married couples in which wives perceived more emotional support than husbands. Results are discussed in terms of current research in the area of social support.     

Stress Coping Strategies,Perceived Organizational Support and Marital Status as Predictors of Work–Life Balance among Nigerian Bank Employees

The study examined stress coping strategies, perceived organizational support and marital status as predictors of work–life balance. Two hundred and fifty-four bank workers participated in the study. Results of the regression analyses showed that stress coping strategies was a significant predictor of work–life balance (β = .34, p = .000) and contributed 11 % variance in work–life balance after controlling for the effects of gender, age and education. The result further revealed that perceived organizational support significantly predicted workers’ work–life balance (β = .22, p = .001) and contributed additional 4 % variance in work–life balance after the effects of gender, age, education and coping strategies have been controlled. Marital status was not related to work–life balance. The findings of the study were discussed based on Nigerian socio-economic realities. The implications of the findings to work–life policies and practices were discussed.     

The Happiness Workout

This study tests for causality from exercise and physical activity to life satisfaction (LS) by applying an instrumental variable approach with the respondents’ perceived benefits of exercise participation as instruments. Using data across 25 countries from the Eurobarometer survey, our results confirm the positive association between exercise and LS. In terms of causality, the results indicate that being active increases LS for both gender, though more for men than women. One main reason for this relationship is that exercise is perceived as being pleasurable, something that policy-makers should keep in mind when designing programmes to get us off the sofa.     

发展循环经济提升自然资源承载力

自然资源是社会经济发展不可缺少的支撑基础,没有资源的支撑,任何国家和地区的经济和社会都不可能有相应的发展。而资源可承载的社会经济发展能力是有限的,无论发达国家还是发展中国家,必须考虑到资源承载力的限制。随着我国经济持续快速增长,资源消耗增加,自然资源对我国经济增长的约束日趋明显,针对资源效率低下、承载力减弱的现状,我国将发展循环经济纳入"十一五规划纲要"。发展循环经济要求以环境友好的方式利用自然资源,实现经济活动向生态化转变,这无异于增加了资源的总量,提升了资源的承载能力。     

A Cross-National Study on the Antecedents of Work–Life Balance from the Fit and Balance Perspective

Drawing on the perceived work–family fit and balance perspective, this study investigates demands and resources as antecedents of work–life balance (WLB) across four countries (New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain), so as to provide empirical cross-national evidence. Using structural equation modelling analysis on a sample of 870 full time employees, we found that work demands, hours worked and family demands were negatively related to WLB, while job autonomy and supervisor support were positively related to WLB. We also found evidence that resources (job autonomy and supervisor support) moderated the relationships between demands and work–life balance, with high resources consistently buffering any detrimental influence of demands on WLB. Furthermore, our study identified additional predictors of WLB that were unique to some national contexts. For example, in France and Italy, overtime hours worked were negatively associated with WLB, while parental status was positively associated with WLB. Overall, the implications for theory and practice are discussed.

     

An automatic-democratic approach to weight setting for the new human development index

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of constructing a multi-dimensional index is that of choosing weights for the components. This problem is often bypassed by adopting the ‘agnostic’ option of equal weights, as in the human development index. This is an annual ranking of countries produced by the United Nations Development Programme based on life expectancy, education, and per capita gross national income. These three dimensions are now aggregated multiplicatively. Whatever weights (exponents) are chosen for these dimensions, some nations will feel disadvantaged. To avoid the use of arbitrary weights, we propose for consideration a two-step approach: (1) find the most advantageous set of weights for each nation in turn, and (2) regress the associated optimal scores on the underlying indicators to find a single weight set. This approach has the properties of non-subjectivity, fairness, and convenience. The result is that the highest weight is placed on the life expectancy dimension.     

The Status of Family Resilience: Effects of Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural China

Family resilience is the capacity of a family to mitigate adversity using its resources, structure, and internal connections. In rural China, where sustainable livelihoods are changing rapidly because of urbanization and migration, it is not clear how family resilience interacts with sustainability of livelihoods. This study of rural Chinese families classifies individual’s perceived family resilience and discusses how sustainable livelihoods influence this classification. A multilevel survey of rural families reveals three categories of perceived resilience in families: perceived optimistic families, perceived cooperative families, and perceived pessimistic families. Sustainable livelihoods, including natural, social, financial, and human capitals, have significant impacts on this classification of perceived family resilience. We conclude that rural families in China vary in their levels of family resilience, and the more physical and financial capital they have, the more internal cooperation there is within families. The more natural and traditional social capital families have, the less internal cooperation there is within families. The more human resources families have, the more resilience they have.

     

Changing paradigms of development in an evolutionary perspective

The paper gives an assessment of the theoretical foundations of development planning laid in the 1950s and 1960s, and the conceptual shifts since the turbulent 1970s questioning previous patterns of macroeconomic regulation. The call today is for management styles suited to cope with evolutionary processes. Their crucial elements in the face of overall change are sensitive early diagnosis, flexible adjustment, continuous individual and social learning, the building of technological potential, and self-organization. There is an emerging search for an evolutionary ethics accepting responsibility for the further continuation of life on the planet in view of ecological constraints and recognizing basic principles of evolution such as openness, non-equilibrium, and the positive role of fluctuations in reaching higher levels of complexity and order. Value systems have an ever more explicit impact on the direction of social change.     

Human Capabilities Versus Human Capital: Guaging the Value of Education in Developing Countries

The purpose of this study is to defend the view that education should be evaluated in terms of the capability to achieve valued functionings, rather than mental satisfaction or resources. In keeping with Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach we argue that mental satisfaction provides an inaccurate metric of well-being because of the phenomenon of adaptive preferences. Equally, resources cannot be used as a metric of well-being because of inequalities in the ability to convert income and commodities into valued functionings. Hence, interpreting education as a means to create human capital is also impoverished because it evaluates education solely in terms of the accumulation of resources. In order to provide evidence in support of the human capabilities approach we statistically examine the channels through which educational attainment affects the health functionings implied by life expectancy. Using panel data analysis for 35 developing countries for the years 1990, 1995 and 2000 we compare the health functionings (as indicated by life expectancy) that are achieved by the income growth generated by educational attainment, with the total health functionings that are achieved by educational attainment. We find that educational attainment (as indicated by average years of schooling) has a significant effect on life expectancy independently of its effect by way of income growth. A 1% increase in per capita income increases life expectancy by 0.073954% while a 1% increase in average years of schooling directly increases life expectancy by 0.055324%. Because it shows that income underestimates the health functionings achieved by educational attainment, our empirical findings lend support to the claim that the value of education should be measured in terms of the capability for functioning, rather than resources.     

Scrutinizing Homophobia: A Model of Perception of Homosexuals in Russia

We aimed to develop and validate a model of associations of perceived threat of homosexuals with lay beliefs about causes of homosexuality, group entitativity of homosexuals, approval of social action strategies targeting homosexuals, and support for their rights using original Russian-language measures. We tested the model in two samples of social network users (n = 1,007) and student respondents (n = 292) using structural equation modeling and path analysis. Attribution of homosexuality to social causes was a positive predictor of perceived threat of homosexuals, whereas biological causes showed an inverse effect. Perceived threat predicted approval of discriminatory strategies targeting homosexuals and lack of support for their rights and fully mediated the effects of causal beliefs on these variables. Group entitativity of homosexuals was a positive predictor of perceived threat and a significant moderator of its effects on support for punishment and medical treatment of homosexuals. We discuss the findings with reference to the Russian social context.