Gender,Marital Status and Social Support

Abstract

While many studies have examined the separate effects of gender and marital status on patterns of perceived social support, none have examined the simultaneous effects of these two variables while controlling for other relevant variables in a large, random sample. This paper responds to this lacuna by investigating the relationships among these variables for six specific types of problems that may elicit social support from others. Using data drawn from a representative sample of the United States population, results indicate that the perception of sources of social support is primarily shaped by differences in marital status as opposed to gender. However, gender is influential in some situations. While it is not significantly related to the perception of emotional support, gender is significantly related to the perception of instrumental support. (Women manifest a tendency to consider both spouse / partner and relatives as sources of instrumental support more than men, while men rely on friends as sources of instrumental support.) The suggestion that gender may find expression within categories of marital status is supported by findings indicating that, within each of the marital status categories, when men turn to relatives and / or friends for help they tend to be male and when women turn to relatives and / or friends for help they tend to be female. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

Mental Health Needs Assessment of a Major Urban University

Abstract

A questionnaire surveying mental health needs was administered in class to 1,412 Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) students, and a service utilization questionnaire was administered to 154 students applying for mental health services at four campus-based agencies. The nature of the specific problems of concern to students tended to remain stable over the course of a semester. Study habits and grades was the most frequently cited problem area on the needs survey, though help was sought most frequently for physically oriented concerns. Students lacking important sources of social support reported the most difficulties. Students who sought help had more problems and higher levels of concern than those not seeking help. A comparison of the two data sources indicated a slight but significant tendency for agencies to deal with the greatest areas of need at the severity levels indicated in the needs survey.     

Index for Volume 32

Abstract

College students with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus often ignore the care of their illness. Faced with managing this illness independently for the first time, they lack the knowledge and experience to do so effectively. Their need to establish autonomy often prevents them from seeking the advice of health professionals. In view of this, the author undertook a pilot study to investigate the role of a peer support group on a college campus as a means of improving the diabetic students' management of their illness.

Three closed-membership groups met for 10 weekly sessions. Hemoglobin A_1c (the measure of average blood sugar over the preceding 3-month interval) determinations prior to participation in the group ranged from 4.0 to 11.7, with a mean of 8.16; after participation in the group, the mean hemoglobin A_1c levels of group members dropped to 6.10 (p < .001). (Hemoglobin A_1c measures lower than 6.2 reflect physiologic blood sugar measures of someone without diabetes.)

These results suggest that the peer-group approach may be a viable way to improve the metabolic control of young adults with diabetes at the time in their lives when they are learning to manage their illness independently.     

Episodic Cessation of Gambling: A Numerically Aided Phenomenological Assessment of Why Gamblers Stop Playing in a Given Session

The topic of permanent cessation of gambling behavior has received increased attention as the rates gaming (and pathology) increase with accessibility and legalization. Despite this increased attention there is a paucity of research on why people stop gambling in a given session, i.e. episodic cessation. We propose that the study of first-person experiential accounts of why gamblers stopped engaging in play within a given session will shed light on the progression and maintenance of wagering behavior. Using numerically aided phenomenology, we systematically examined accounts of episodic cessation. In doing so, we were able to identifying recurrent themes and then clustering these accounts according to similarities in theme profiles. People reported that episodic cessation occurred because they had lost all their money or because they were forced to (Cluster I), a sufficient amount of money had been won or lost (Cluster II), and a priori limits on wins or losses had been reached (Cluster III). As predicted, gamblers with maladaptive reasons for episodic cessation (Cluster I and II) reported more illusory perceptions of control and negative attitudes toward treatment seeking than those who engage in responsible gambling behavior (Cluster III). Moreover, illusions of control mediated the effect of cluster membership on attitudes toward treatment seeking. The findings of the present research help to integrate recent studies of gambling progression and maintenance.     

‘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.     

Young Malinowski

Roy Ellen, Ernest Gellner, Grazyna Kubica, Janusz Mucha (eds). Malinowski between two worlds: the Polish roots of an anthropological tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1988. xxv, 261pp., illustrations, appendices, bibliography, index. $85.00 (hardback) ISBN 0 521 34566 9.

Robert J. Thornton and Peter Skalnik (eds). The early writings of Bronislaw Malinowski (trans. Ludwik Krzyzanowski). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993. xv, 324pp., notes, bibliography, index. $120.00 (hardback) ISBN 0521 38300 5.

Daniel Gerould (ed. and trans.). The Witkiewicz reader. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. 1992. xiii, 359pp. illustrations, appendix, biographical notes, select bibliography. US$59.95 (hardback) ISBN 0 8101 0980 8; US$22.50 (paper) ISBN 0 8101 0994 8.     

Bursting With Laughter

Celio Ferreira. Palauan cosmology: dominance in a traditional Micronesian society (Gothenburg Studies in Social Anthropology 11). Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. 1987. vi, 300 pp., figures, plates, glossary, references. SEK 200 (paper) ISBN 91 7346 183 0 ISSN 0348 4076.

Richard J. Parmentier. The sacred remains: myth, history and polity in Belau. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1987. xxiii, 309pp., figures, maps, photographs, tables, glossary, place names, references, index. ISBN 0 226 64695 5 (hardcover) ISBN 0 226 64696 3 (paper).     

Bivariate prior distributions via branching exchangeable sequences

This paper provides a novel approach to constructing bivariate prior distributions. The idea is based on the notion of partial exchangeability. In particular, in a simple extension of the exchangeable sequence, we create two dependent exchangeable sequences via a branching mechanism. This implies the existence of a bivariate prior distribution.