Psychosocial Factors Related to Gambling Abstinence and Relapse in Members of Gamblers Anonymous

Problem gamblers account for almost one-third of the industry’s total revenue with the adverse effects of problem gambling including significant financial loss, legal and occupational difficulties, family problems, psychological distress and suicide. As such, it is important to understand the influential factors in gambling abstinence and relapse, which will assist in the development of relapse prevention methods in therapeutic treatment regimes. This paper reported the role of a set of seven predictors in distinguishing between abstinent and relapsed gamblers among 75 Gambling Anonymous (GA) members (55 males; 20 females; Mean age 45 years) in Southeast Queensland. The measures taken were meeting Attendance and Participation, Social Support, God Belief, Belief in a Higher Power, Working the 12-steps of Recovery, Gambling Urges and Erroneous Cognitions. Discriminant analysis revealed that the variables separating the two groups were significant, suggesting that GA members achieving abstinence could be distinguished from those who relapsed, with Attendance and Participation, and Social Support contributing the greatest influence on member’s ability to abstain from gambling. The findings suggested that GA member’s involvement in meetings, and support from family and friends had significant impact on their gambling abstinence. In contrast, increased gambling urges and erroneous cognitions increased the chance of relapse.     

Unexpected Pathways Through Education: Why Do Some Students Not Succeed in School and What Helps Others Beat the Odds?

In this overview of Volume 64, Issue 1, of the Journal of Social Issues , we describe why it is important to consider the diversity of student pathways through time and in context and why it is important to focus particularly on youth who defy predictions. We describe the ways in which expectations are formed in statistical analysis and also in real-world education systems and how the structural rigidity inherent in such systems can lead to poor person–environment fit for young people in education or training and to misleading statistical analysis. Our intention is to move beyond analytic approaches that assume "one size fits all" while recognizing both that policy cannot provide fully individualized environments for everyone and that research cannot focus only on the unique characteristics of each individual. By focusing on individuals for whom our models typically do not apply, we highlight the value of research on complex but meaningful patterns of commonality among people, not in terms of the average person or effects, but in terms of coherent, distinct, and relatively homogenous subgroups of people experiencing systematic and consequential differences in their lives and lifepaths .     

Horizontal and vertical island biogeography of arthropods on green roofs: a review

From an ecological perspective, urban green roofs can be viewed as green islands embedded in an urban matrix. Island biogeography theory suggests that species richness on an island is the outcome of dynamic equilibrium between immigration and extinction. Immigration is affected by the size of an island and distance of an island from a colonizing source. In the context of green roofs, building height and horizontal distance from green areas can potentially be a limiting factor for many species. Here, we considered two distance components of green roofs - vertical (building height) and horizontal (distance of building from open green areas). Based on island biogeography theory, we would expect species richness or community similarity to be negatively related to horizontal or vertical distances from colonizing sources. The green roof literature addressing such questions is currently sparse. In our review comprised of 10 studies, we were unable to identify consistent statistically significant richness-distance or community similarity-distance (vertical or horizontal) relationships. The absence of statistically significant relationships could be due in large part to low statistical power as a consequence of both the paucity of roofs and limited range of vertical distances in many of the existing studies. In addition, these roofs differ in numerous aspects (e.g. roof size, age, substrate type, plant composition and building height). The low number of replicates, combined with the lack of homogeneity among replicates combines to reduce statistical power and our ability to detect differences.     

Leadership and stress: A meta-analytic review

Stress has been implicated as an important determinant of leadership functioning. Conversely, the behavior of leaders has long been argued to be a major factor in determining the stress levels of followers. Yet despite the widespread acknowledgement that stress and leadership are linked, there has been no systematic attempt to organize and summarize these literatures. In the present, we meta-analytically review the relationship between three leadership constructs (transformational leadership, leader-member exchange, and abusive supervision) and stress and burnout. Our analyses confirm that leader stress influences leader behavior and that leadership behaviors and leader-follower relationships are significant determinants of stress and burnout in subordinates. We build on these results to suggest new avenues for research in this domain as well as discussing how these results can inform practice with regards to leader development.     

The impacts of apportionment method,and legal and illegal immigration,on Congressional apportionment in the year 2000

This paper first discusses two methods for apportioning the US House of Representatives, Equal Proportions and Major Fractions. The method of Equal Proportions will be used in the 2000 apportionment, but it is biased in favor of smaller states. The method of Major Fractions is a mathematically unbiased method, but will not be used in 2000. However, we show that apportionments for 2000 would not differ much according to these two methods. We also consider different definitions of the apportionment population, mainly based on including or excluding legal and illegal immigrants from the apportionment process. We show that the apportionment results for 2000 will not differ if illegal immigrants who entered the USA in the 1990s are kept in, or removed from, the apportionment population. But the apportionment results will differ in a major way if all persons immigrating to the USA in the 1990s are kept in, or removed.     

A Crisis-Driven Migration? Aspirations and Experiences of the Post-2008 South European Migrants in London

Since the 1990s young South Europeans have been attracted to London by the dynamic labour market and cultural radiance of the city, but also pushed by unfavourable conditions in the labour markets of their origin countries. Subsequently, the Eurozone crisis, austerity politics and their socio-political consequences have markedly intensified migration rates. But did they also signify a rupture in terms of the motivations, experiences and aspirations of the migrants? Drawing on in-depth interviews with Greek, Italian and Spanish migrants of different educational levels, we find that post-materialist motivations and pro-migration dispositions prevail among the “crisis-migrants”. Migration is seen and experienced as a step forward, rather than a disruptive force, signalling a positive message in defence of intra-EU free mobility. Yet at times of neoliberal deregulation and economic and political uncertainty, aspirations for socio-economic stability and settlement are also of growing importance, questioning mobility as the normative way of contemporary life.     

Using national alcohol screening day to deliver personalized feedback: a pilot study

The current study tested the effectiveness of using National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD) to deliver personalized feedback via mail. At-risk NASD participants were assigned to either personalized or generic feedback conditions and attended a 4-week follow-up. Results failed to find any group differences on alcohol-related variables. However, participants in the personalized group reported a reduction in the maximum number of drinks consumed on one occasion. The personalized group also had a more accurate view of the amount of alcohol their peers consumed. NASD is a vehicle to efficiently deliver feedback to individuals about their alcohol use; however, more research is needed to determine the types of feedback that would be most effective.