Cigarette smoking, friendship factors, and social norm perceptions among central and Eastern European high school students

Studies investigating smoking behavior among adolescents living in post-communistic Central-European countries are sparse. This study focused on the relationship between cigarette smoking, certain friendship factors, and social norm perceptions among 1,886 Central-Eastern European adolescents from high schools in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Romania. Smoking behavior was related to having friends who smoke, ease or difficulty making new friends, time spent with friends after school and during evenings, and estimations of the prevalence of smoking by schoolmates. Because these youth appear to overestimate the prevalence of smoking by schoolmates, the use of a norms-correction strategy may have potential merit in smoking prevention efforts targeting these adolescents. Smoking prevention and reduction are critical issues for Central-Eastern European youth because they appear to smoke cigarettes at a high rate.     

Demography or respect?: work group demography versus organizational dynamics as determinants of meaning and satisfaction at work*

This article tests two competing models of meaning and satisfaction at work. First, meaning and satisfaction at work can be influenced by the demographic composition of work groups, especially their racial and gender compositions. Second, meaning and satisfaction can be influenced by management behaviour, especially by leadership in maintaining a productive environment and by respect for workers' rights. We evaluate these determinants, along with more traditional determinants that focus on socio-technical characteristics, using a unique data set derived from content analysing the reports provided by book-length organizational ethnographies (N = 108). Work group composition is found to have only a minor and selective influence on meaning at work. In contrast, management leadership and respect for workers' rights are found to have much stronger and more widespread effects. The well established role of socio-technical factors such as job autonomy as foundations for meaning and satisfaction in work is also replicated in the analysis. When contrasted with both work group demography and traditional job and organizational characteristics, a well run organization is found to be the single most important underpinning for a meaningful and satisfying work life. In the concluding section we develop the implication of these findings for organizational analysis.     

Coping with economic stress: Implications for helping professionals

This article suggests methods for educational and service application of the research generated from the regional project, W-167, Coping with Stress: Adaptation of Nonmetropolitan Families to Socioeconomic Changes. Similarities among families studied as well as differences among state projects are highlighted. Suggestions for application center on strategies for educating rural families directly, providing information to those who work with rural families, and developing support systems conducive to the rural environment.Randy R. Weigel received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University. He is currently Home Economics Program Leader and Assistant Professor, Department of Home Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071. His interests include ranch and farm stress, applying research-generated information, and rural family life development.     

Evaluating and rethinking the case study

This paper will first explore briefly how the case study fell out of favour as a legitimate research tool, and how case study researchers responded to the critique that case study research lacked internal and external validity. Some case study advocates attempted to meet this critique by using the case to compare different theoretical predictions, dividing the case into subcases, or treating the case as an experiment. A more effective response distinguishes between ‘extensive’ and ‘intensive’ research designs, and critiques the extensive model. The paper then provides a clarification of purpose and a revived emphasis on theory, history, and intervention to develop the case study method. This paper will begin to construct a comprehensive case study methodology independent of the old critiques, and will show the crucial place which case studies must occupy in our craft.     

The social antecedents of anger proneness in young adulthood

Anger has been shown to be an important factor in occupational maladjustment, family conflict, physical and sexual assault, criminal behavior and substance abuse. It has also been linked with such adverse health outcomes as hypertension, heart disease, and cancer. Focusing on anger proneness, conceptualized as a relatively enduring propensity to experience and express anger; this article examines both early and recent antecedent factors that predict and may condition levels of anger proneness. The roles of both prospectively and retrospectively assessed factors are considered. Data from an ethnically diverse and representative sample of young adults reveals clear gender differences and, at least for short-tempered anger; decreasing levels of anger with increasing socioeconomic status. Prior exposure to violent events, prior exposure to other forms of social stress, and certain personal attributes were found to be significant antecedents of both hostility and short-tempered forms of anger proneness.     

Examining DSM-IV Criteria for Pathological Gambling: Psychometric Properties and Evidence from Cognitive Biases

We examined the DSM-IV criteria for pathological gambling as assessed with the DSM-IV-based Diagnostic Interview for Gambling Severity (DIGS; Winters, Specker, & Stinchfield, 2002). We first analyzed the psychometric properties of the DIGS, and then assessed the extent to which performance on two judgment and decision-making tasks, the Georgia Gambling Task (Goodie, 2003) and the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), related to higher reports of gambling pathology. In a sample of frequent gamblers, we found strong psychometric support for the DSM-IV conception of pathological gambling as measured by the DIGS, predictive relationships between DIGS scores and all cognitive performance measures, and significant differences in performance measures between individuals with and without pathological gambling. Analyses using suggested revisions to the pathological gambling threshold (Stinchfield, 2003) revealed that individuals meeting four of the DSM-IV criteria aligned significantly more with pathological gamblers than with non-pathological gamblers, supporting the suggested change in the cutoff score from five to four symptoms. Discussion focuses on the validity of the DSM-IV criteria as assessed by the DIGS and the role of cognitive biases in pathological gambling.     

The unconstrained binary quadratic programming problem: a survey

In recent years the unconstrained binary quadratic program (UBQP) has grown in importance in the field of combinatorial optimization due to its application potential and its computational challenge. Research on UBQP has generated a wide range of solution techniques for this basic model that encompasses a rich collection of problem types. In this paper we survey the literature on this important model, providing an overview of the applications and solution methods.