Youth's recreation and drug sensations: is there a relationship?

Adolescents' social behaviors remain a mystery to parks and recreation providers. Adolescence is a "high-risk" time for all youth in terms of experimenting with potentially health-compromising behavior, whether alcohol, drugs, or sex. Most of these antisocial behaviors occur during adolescents' leisure time. These inferences gave impetus to this research effort. The study was designed to ascertain information on adolescents' preferences for pleasure: drugs or recreation. Data were collected from a sample of 100 high school students from a medium-sized college town, and 100 students from a rural town in Florida. Findings revealed four statistically significant associations in the motives or pleasures sought in recreation and in drug behaviors: "enhancement of popularity," "provision of a means for self-discovery," "achievement of personal goal," and means to rebel against parents. In reference to the latter motive, findings revealed that neither drugs nor recreation were used to rebel against parents. Findings also provide documentation of the value of recreation in insulating adolescents against many of the stressors of contemporary life.     

What is a problem?

Among others, the term “problem” plays a major role in the various attempts to characterize interdisciplinarity or transdisciplinarity, as used synonymously in this paper. Interdisciplinarity (ID) is regarded as “problem solving among science, technology and society” and as “problem orientation beyond disciplinary constraints” (cf. Frodeman et al.: The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010). The point of departure of this paper is that the discourse and practice of ID have problems with the “problem”. The objective here is to shed some light on the vague notion of “problem” in order to advocate a specific type of interdisciplinarity: problem-oriented interdisciplinarity. The outline is as follows: Taking an ex negativo approach, I will show what problem-oriented ID does not mean. Using references to well-established distinctions in philosophy of science, I will show three other types of ID that should not be placed under the umbrella term “problem-oriented ID”: object-oriented ID (“ontology”), theory-oriented ID (epistemology), and method-oriented ID (methodology). Different philosophical thought traditions can be related to these distinguishable meanings. I will then clarify the notion of “problem” by looking at three systematic elements: an undesired (initial) state, a desired (goal) state, and the barriers in getting from the one to the other. These three elements include three related kinds of knowledge: systems, target, and transformation knowledge. This paper elaborates further methodological and epistemological elements of problem-oriented ID. It concludes by stressing that problem-oriented ID is the most needed as well as the most challenging type of ID.     

Lottery participation by youth with gambling problems: are lottery tickets a gateway to other gambling venues?

The aim of the present study was to investigate the types of gambling activities youths with gambling problems participate in and whether the lottery is a key gambling venue for these young people. Secondly, we sought to ascertain whether youths with gambling problems display similar gambling behaviour with lottery tickets as those addicted to traditional forms of gambling. Participants were 1,072 young people, 10-18 years of age, in Ontario, Canada. Youths with gambling problems reported having a preference for lottery tickets compared to other forms of gambling. Differences were found for the frequency with which probable pathological gamblers reported going to the store specifically to purchase lottery tickets. Furthermore, probable pathological gamblers reported chasing their losses after having played the lottery more than the other gambling groups. This research demonstrates that youths with gambling problems gamble primarily with lottery products and exhibit similar pathological gambling behaviour (e.g., chasing) as those individuals addicted to other forms of gambling venues. Furthermore, the results suggest that lottery tickets are a potentially addictive activity that introduces youth to the exciting properties of gambling.     

Does your older adult client have a gambling problem?

Pathological gambling is becoming an increasing problem in today's culture, particularly because opportunities and inducements to gamble abound. This article describes symptoms, consequences, and comorbidities experienced by pathological gamblers. Gambling pathology is often invisible because pathological gamblers seldom disclose gambling problems to their primary care provider. Thus, nurses will benefit from knowledge of the physical and emotional signs of the disorder. A two-question assessment tool, the Lie/Bet Questionnaire, is useful in helping nurses identify pathological gamblers. Interventions and treatment options, including group therapy and environmental modification, are also discussed. As always, education concerning problems and consequences of pathological gambling is a first step. Because research has indicated that visits to casinos by older adults have doubled since 1975, the authors use an example of an older adult to clarify the issues. Although the article's content is applicable to clients across the life span, it has particular significance for older adults.     

‘Mobile mindsets’: EGM venue usage,gambling participation,and problem gambling among three itinerant groups on the Sunshine Coast of Australia

Mobile populations form an increasingly important part of many communities, yet tend to be neglected by problem gambling prevalence research. We explore relationships between problem gambling and the ways in which mobile subgroups use gambling venues. Adopting a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques, we conduct an exploratory examination of three subgroups – construction workers, ‘grey nomads’, and ‘southerner’ tourists on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia. The groups displayed substantial differences in venue visitation, gambling behaviour and problem gambling risk. The group with the least discretionary mobility, the construction workers, were most heavily dependent on gambling venues for economic and social relationships. This translated into higher levels of problem gambling risk, which was further mediated by the inter-personal connectedness of individuals. These results suggest that mobility per se does not directly result in higher risk of problem gambling but combines with social isolation to place individuals at risk.     

What is youth participation?

Youth participation strengthens personal and social development, provides expertise for children and youth programs and services, and promotes a more democratic society, but questions arise about its most fundamental phenomena. Lacking agreement on its basic content, however, youth participation as a field of practice and subject of study will be limited. This paper examines what we know about youth participation, general propositions which are substantiated by research or practice, and unanswered questions or unresolved issues which remain for future work. It draws upon various academic disciplines and professional fields, in order to contribute to knowledge development and advance the field.     

Countering globalization and regionalization: is there a united front within Turkish labour and disadvantaged groups?

Turkey, situated in the periphery of Europe, is governed by anti-labour policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Governments in the last 15 years. Embarking on a historical materialist perspective that draws concepts from Gramsci, this paper questions whether labour can come up with an alternative and form a united front vis-a-vis globalization and European Union membership. It then examines impediments behind the lack of a united front and a viable alternative. The analyses rely on empirical data generated through interviews conducted with trade unionists and representatives from civil society for struggles against patriarchy, environmental degradation, and human rights violations at two critical junctures in 2010 and 2017. This paper argues that labour and struggles within civil society contest neoliberal restructuring with two rival class strategies, namely Ha-vet (Turkish abbreviations for No to Capitalist Europe – Yes to Social Europe) and neomerchantilism, none of which stands as a viable alternative.     

Disabled People,Health Professionals and the Social Model of Disability: Can there be a research relationship?

The social model of disability is proposed as an alternative to models that have viewed disability as an individual, rather than a socio-political issue. The use of this model to guide both research theory and practice is proposed in order to equalise research power relationships, and involve and empower disabled people. Health professionals have traditionally reinforced the medical model of disability in both research and practice, and this has been seen as contributing to the oppression and marginalisation of disabled people. If the social model is to achieve wider dissemination, it would appear important to develop a dialogue between disabled people and health professionals. However, because of negative perceptions it can be difficult for health professionals to find an appropriate position in relation to disabled people, research and the social model of disability. While not denying the past, it appears essential to look at ways in which disabled people and health professionals can work together to overcome the oppression and marginalisation that has been linked to the provision of health services.     

Adolescent egocentrism and indoor tanning: is the relationship direct or mediated?

This paper explored how imaginary audience and personal fable ideations contribute to adolescent indoor tanning intentions directly and indirectly through the way they shape pro-tanning attitude and association with peers who use tanning beds. Five hundred and ninety-five male (n = 207) and female (n = 387) adolescents, ranging in age from 11 to 19 (M = 16.87; SD = 1.34) years completed a cross-sectional survey. Measures included imaginary audience, personal fable (three dimensions: invulnerability, uniqueness, and omnipotence), pro-tanning attitude, association with peers who use tanning beds, and tanning bed use intentions. Bootstrapping analyses documented that imaginary audience ideations are indirectly associated with indoor tanning intentions through the mediation of pro-tanning attitude and association with peers who use tanning beds. Of the personal fable ideations, only invulnerability ideation is indirectly associated with indoor tanning intentions through the mediation of association with peers who use tanning beds. Design and evaluation of interventions and campaigns to reduce indoor tanning must be targeted to adolescents varying in imaginary audience ideations differently.     

Barriers to prostate cancer screening: psychological aspects and descriptive variables – is there a correlation?

Objective.?To evaluate psychological and demographic aspects of men who received DRE during the PCa screening in an outpatient clinical setting.

Methods.?Patients (345) who underwent DRE for the first time from February 2006 to December 2007 were evaluated for their psychological reactions and feelings after the examination.

Results.?The average age of the patients was 52.8 years (25 - 85 years); 40.94% had felt fear (examination fear 15.94%, and diagnosis fear 25%), 26.45% shame and 48.26% indicated they were not thinking about anything. There was no correlation between age, educational level and emotional reactions. Most patients (96.8%) would undergo a DRE again and 52.35% had considered it better than they had imagined. Of these patients, 41.81% were illiterate/incomplete elementary school. Only 4.12% described having a negative experience. The factors that persuaded the patients to book an appointment were: 50.1% made their own decision, 26.67% were recommended by a physician, 18.55% family/friends and 6.67% were influenced by the media. Wives booked 24.06% of the consultations. Although 85.47% of patients had some previous knowledge about the examination, 80.81% felt they had further clarification afterward. Lower educational level was related to lack of information about DRE, while 52.38% who made their own decision had previous knowledge of the importance of DRE.

Conclusion.?The majority of the patients found DRE less awkward than they had imagined it to be and would repeat the examination in the future. Fear and shame before the examination are present and are barriers to the DRE.     

Improving health through youth sports: is participation enough?

The health benefits of engaging in regular physical activity are widely known: enhanced cardiorespiratory fitness, increased muscular strength and endurance, and favorable cholesterol and other profiles. Nevertheless, particularly in youth sports programs run by volunteer, and perhaps inadequately trained, coaches, many youth may not realize the health benefits of sports participation due to a number of factors, among them, inappropriate coach-child ratios, limited space, or mismatched expectations between coaches and those of children and their parents. There are specific strategies that can be implemented to ensure that youth receive the maximize benefits from participation in sports. These strategies are presented in the following areas: frequency, intensity, and duration; cross-training or complementary exercise; access points; utilization of space and time; nutrition; and rest. For instance, with regard to the frequency of physical activity, some sports, including soccer, basketball, and singles tennis, require extensive physical effort over an extended period of time, while others, such as baseball and football, have a lot of downtime. Thus, in order for children and youth to meet the recommendation of participating in moderate or vigorous physical activity at least four times per week, sports programs need to have opportunities for all athletes to practice hard. Finally, the author discusses the point at which participation in sports might be too much, leading to significant injuries, frustration, and resentment.     

Stakeholder participation in evaluation: How important is diversity?

Participatory evaluation seeks in part to promote exchanges of perspective and experience among diverse program stakeholders. Diversity in such exchanges is viewed as integral to the substantive and political strands of the participatory process. Yet, using the grounded experience of two participatory evaluation case studies, we offer some challenges to this ideal of diversity and suggest that when action is the desired outcome, somewhat less rather than more diversity of stakeholder participation is actually desired.     

Enterprise policy evaluation: is there a 'new' way of doing it?

Given that most economies are now in recession, policymakers are looking to small firms to act as engines of economic growth; this has led to a revived interest in the role of enterprise policy. The 'new' enterprise policy is systemic, promoting and shaping externalities and capabilities. At its core are R&D, innovation and education. It encapsulates a shift from direct intervention towards creating an enabling environment for small firms and entrepreneurship. At present there is a research lacuna regarding the evaluation of such policies. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by making two key contributions. First, I demonstrate that traditional enterprise evaluation metrics are too narrow: they focus almost exclusively on private firm impacts, rather than broader societal impacts caused by the pervasive nature of 'new' enterprise policies. Second, I illustrate how logic models could be expanded to account for these broader impacts.     

How does the stigma of problem gambling influence help-seeking,treatment and recovery? a view from the counselling sector

Problem gambling attracts considerable public stigma and can cause significant self-stigma. However, little research has investigated the role of stigma during treatment-assisted recovery from problem gambling. This study aimed to examine gambling counsellors’ perspectives on whether and how the stigma associated with problem gambling influences problem acknowledgement, help-seeking, treatment and recovery. In-depth interviews with nine gambling counsellors from Victoria, Australia, were analysed to extract shared meanings of experiences using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Counsellors indicated that the burden of problem gambling is typically increased by the addition of stigma and its impacts. This stigma is created and maintained by a lack of public understanding about problem gambling and its causes, and internalization of self-stigmatizing beliefs, leading to delayed help-seeking, anxiety about attending treatment, concerns about counsellor attitudes, and fear of relapse. Counsellors maintained that, before effective gambling treatment could occur, they needed to help clients overcome their self-stigmatizing beliefs to establish confidence and trust in the counsellor, restore self-esteem, enhance stigma coping skills and foster a belief that recovery is possible. Harnessing support from significant others and preparing clients for relapse were also important inclusions to lower stigma. Addressing stigma early in treatment can help to improve treatment adherence and recovery.     

Gamers’ confidants: Massively Multiplayer Online Game participation and core networks in China

Through a survey of more than 18,000 participants in a Chinese Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG), this study examines how the size and diversity of Chinese gamers’ core networks vary by individuals’ sociodemographic, socioeconomic and game-related characteristics. It represents the first study focusing exclusively on the gamer population and one of the most recent examining personal networks in contemporary China, home to over 560 million Internet users. We found that Chinese gamers have notably larger and more diverse core networks than those of major studies. Coplaying patterns and attachment to the game community contributed significantly to network size and diversity.     

General and specific measures of alienation: Is there a difference?

Nisbet and Perrin (1977) suggest that of the two types of alienation, general and specific, the latter is more prevalent. This paper examines differences between general and specific measures of alienation by breaking each into three component parts: powerlessness, self‐estrangement, and anomia. Results of tests to determine whether specific and general alienation are novel traits are mixed; the general and specific powerlessness measures are found to be more different from each other than are the measures of self‐estrangement and anomia. When the reported extent of general alienation and specific alienation is compared, all specific types are significantly greater. Finally, general measures of alienation correlate more strongly with measures of general phenomena than with specific phenomena, while specific measures of alienation correlate more strongly with measures of specific phenomena than with general phenomena.     

Eigenvector centrality and structural zeroes and ones: When is a neighbor not a neighbor?

There will be occasions in which a researcher wants to ignore some dyads in the computation of centrality in order to avoid biased or misleading results. This paper presents a principled way of computing eigenvector-like centrality scores when some dyads are not included in the calculations.     

Control and participation for employees within geriatric care: does ownership make a difference?

The welfare sector in Sweden has undergone extensive changes during the last 15 years, and private and cooperative actors have entered the public market. In the light of high sick-leave rates, especially in female-dominated professions, it is important to identify factors that can help to improve the working conditions and promote health among employees. The purpose of this study was to compare how two of these factors, participation and control, are perceived by employees in three different forms of ownership: public, cooperative and private. In all, 186 employees working at seven geriatric care institutions with three ownership forms were invited to participate in the study. 82% responded to a questionnaire containing issues related to working conditions, e.g. control and participation. The one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis were used to analyse the findings among the three groups of employees working in public, cooperative or private setting. Results showed that employees in cooperatives experienced more participation than employees working in the public and private sectors in two out of four variables - employee's voice concerning work environment issues and sympathetic response from the manager and decision-making concerning work activities at large. As expected, there were no difference in perceived control between ownership forms, which might be explained by the fact that the work nature in geriatric care is rather regulated, restricted and formalized, regardless of ownership form, resulting in limited freedom over the work situation for the individual employee.     

Corporate social responsibility and conflicts of interest in the alcohol and gambling industries: a post‐political discourse?

The corporate pursuit of social goals – known as Corporate Social Responsibility or ‘CSR’ – has been subject to critique on a number of grounds. However, a hitherto underexplored potential consequence of CSR has been suggested in a recent paper by C. Garsten and K. Jacobsson (‘Post‐Political Regulation: Soft Power and Post‐political Visions in Global Governance’ (2013), Critical Sociology 39: 421–37). They suggest that CSR is part of an international trend towards ‘post‐political’ governance discourses, where an emphasis on different actors’ common goals obscures conflicts of interest, subverting the open political conflict necessary for a well‐functioning democracy. This paper examines whether such post‐political discourses – including an outright denial of conflict of interest – can be found within the alcohol and gambling industries, where conflicts of interest are likely to be particularly acute given the addictive nature of the goods/services in question. Based on interviews with CSR professionals in these industries in Italy, the UK, and at EU‐level, we do indeed find evidence of a post‐political discourse. In these discourses, alcohol/gambling industry staff deny potential conflicts of interest on the basis that any small benefits from sales to a small number of addicts are seen to be outweighed by the reputational damage that addicts cause. Crucially, however, this coexists with another, less post‐political discourse, where addictions CSR professionals emphasize ‘common ground’ as a basis for CSR, while accepting some instances of possible conflict of interest. Here interviewees make considerable efforts to differentiate good (sustainable) from bad (short‐term) self‐interest in order to stress the genuineness of their own actions. We conclude the paper by considering whether CSR embedded within a ‘common ground’ discourse still hides conflicts of interests and subverts democratic debate, or overcomes the problems identified by Garsten and Jacobsson.