A pilot study combining Go4Life® materials with an interactive voice response system to promote physical activity in older women

ABSTRACT

Telephone-based interactive voice response (IVR) systems could be an effective tool for promotion of physical activity among older women. To test IVR feasibility, we enrolled 30 older women in a 10-week physical activity intervention designed around National Institute on Aging (NIA) Go4Life® educational materials with IVR coaching. Participants (mean age = 76 years) significantly increased physical activity by a mean 79 ± 116 (SD) minutes/week (p < .001). Participants reported that the Go4Life® materials, pedometer, and IVR coaching (70% reported easy technology) were useful tools for change. This pilot study demonstrates IVR acceptability as an evidence-based physical activity program for older women.     

Do the Big-Five Personality Traits Predict Empathic Listening and Assertive Communication?

As personality traits can influence important social outcomes, the current research investigated whether the Big-Five had predictive influences on communication competences of active-empathic listening (AEL) and assertiveness. A sample of 245 adults of various ages completed the self-report scales. Both Agreeableness and Openness uniquely predicted AEL. Extraversion had the biggest influence on assertiveness but did not uniquely explain AEL variance. Conscientiousness and Neuroticism had small predictive influences on assertiveness. Further investigation into the pathways linking Big-Five facets to the different components of these communication competences is proposed and practical implications including understanding personality traits for successful leadership is discussed.     

Tibetan Fertility Transitions in China and South Asia

The own‐children method, an indirect technique, is used to estimate fertility rates for two populations of Tibetans during the 1980s and 1990s: a sample of rural villages in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and exiles living in India and Nepal. The analysis provides evidence that these two populations underwent remarkably similar fertility transitions in both timing and magnitude. In both cases total fertility rates declined from over six births per woman to below the level of replacement in a span of 15 years. The parallel nature of these fertility transitions is intriguing given that, although the populations share a common ethnic identity, they have lived under sharply differing political, economic, and social conditions since the 1960s.     

Representations of Central Asian Ethnicities in British Literature c. 1830-1914

This article evaluates representations of Central Asian ethnicities in British literature between 1830 and 1914. It commences by evaluating the ways in which representations of Central Asia were influenced by the Mongol campaigns in Europe of the thirteenth century and proceeds to examine the ways in which these changed during the debate over the 'Central Asian Question' in the second half of the nineteenth century. It argues that the way in which different ethnicities were depicted was contingent upon a number of factors. The first was the extent to which they were deemed to conform to 'Tartar features' (the greater the perceived resemblance, the more unfavourable the assessment). The second was geopolitical factors (the extent to which they were perceived as allies or enemies in the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia between 1830 and 1914). The third was social Darwinism, most notably the notion of 'degeneracy' articulated by proponents of eugenics.     

Reflections from the riot zone: The Fair Go Project and student engagement in a besieged community

This article describes and evaluates a pedagogical intervention aimed at improving student engagement in a very disadvantaged and low socio-economic status community in Australia. The intervention took place at a time of great community unrest and provides a contrast between wider public and media perceptions of poor communities and efforts at community renewal through education. A theoretical framework of student engagement developed in a research project into student engagement and students in poverty is introduced and then classroom changes that work within this framing are discussed. Finally, data showing results from the intervention are presented.     

A Power‐Control Theory of Vulnerability to Crime and Adolescent Role Exits—Revisited*

Hagan (1990) a adapté la théorie du pouvoir‐contrôle pour expliquer le rôle joué par la distinction homme‐femme dans la vulnérabilité au crime, mélange de victimisation et d'offense, et la recherche d'une sortie par rôle déviant. Les auteures « revisitent » ces propos et, con‐sidérant la victimisation et l'offense séparément, essaient d'élargir le concept de recherche de sortie, y compris la réalisation d'une sortie par rôle déviant. Les analyses révèlent que ce modèle explique en partie les différences de sexe dans la dealinquance, mais cela n'est le cas ni pour la victimisation ni pour la recherche de sortie par rôle déviant. Les variables du pouvoir‐contrôle exercent leur influence de manière différente sur le rapport entre sexe et tentatives de sortie par rôle déviant. En guise de conclusion, il est proposé que ce modèle se révèle capable d'améliorer la compréhension du rôle des différences liées au sexe dans des comportements autres que criminels. Hagan (1990) extended power‐control theory to explain gender differences in vulnerability to crime, a composite of victimization and offending, and the search for deviant role exits. We revisit this elaboration, considering victimization and offending separately, broadening the concept of search for role exits, and including enactment of role exits. Analyses reveal that the model partially explains gender differences in delinquency, but not victimization or the search for role exits. The power‐control variables differentially impact the relationship between gender and role exit behaviour. We conclude that the model promises to improve our understanding of gender differences in behaviours other than crime.     

Changing society's DNA codes: Democracy and the global movement for community progress measures

This paper examines some critical issues and opportunities for democracy and public policy posed by the growth of the global progress measurement movement. From the democratic perspective, these include: citizen progress measurement as a form of democratic re‐engagement; the re‐examination of democracy and the development of new indicators to define and measure a ‘healthy’ democracy; and the demonstration of clear linkages between healthy regimes, and broader individual and societal wellbeing. In public policy, the global movement challenges two long dominant assumptions: the primacy of continuous economic growth as the key driver of wellbeing; and the ‘inevitability of progress‘. In their place, it offers a more holistic, integrated and nuanced model that recognises the interdependence of economic, social, cultural, environmental and democratic dimensions for genuine wellbeing, progress and sustainability. The paper reviews work in Australia over the past decade at both local community and national levels as examples of these trends, including the development of citizen‐engaged community planning and neighbourhood renewal schemes in which progress and wellbeing indicators play a central role; the development of state‐wide local progress measurement frameworks as part of a commitment to devolved planning and stronger local democracy; and the evolution of national progress measurement systems. The paper concludes with a proposal for a broad community engaged National Development Index (NDI) for Australia.     

Do student service members/veterans experience worse mental health stigma than their peers? A comparative study in a national sample

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Examine differences in mental health treatment-related stigma in student service members and veterans (SSM/Vs) and peers from 57 post-secondary institutions across the United States. Methods: In total, 909 SSM/Vs and 1818 demographically- and institutionally-matched non-SSM/Vs completed assessments of stigma-related barriers to mental health service utilization as part of the Healthy Minds Study between 2011 and 2015. Results: When compared to non-SSM/V peers, SSM/Vs reported more mental health treatment-related stigma toward help-seekers and less confidence in the helpfulness of therapy/counseling and psychotropic medications. However, effect sizes were small in magnitude (ds = .10 to .16), and depressed students in both groups reported greater stigma. Conclusions: SSM/Vs experience greater treatment-related stigma than non-SSM/V peers, which may deter service use in many cases. However, differences in stigma were small and other under-studied barriers to help-seeking may apply to the substantive subset of SSM/Vs and non-SSM/Vs who may benefit from utilizing available services.     

From ‘weak’ to ‘strong’ multifunctionality: Conceptualising farm-level multifunctional transitional pathways

Building on normative conceptualisations of multifunctionality as a decision-making spectrum bounded by productivist and non-productivist action and thought, this paper analyses farm-level multifunctional agricultural transitions. First, the paper suggests that it may be possible to categorise different farm types along the productivist/non-productivist multifunctionality spectrum, and that transitional potential from weak to strong multifunctionality often differs between different categories of farms and types of farm ownership. Second, the paper conceptualises multifunctional transitional processes at farm level over time, and introduces the notions of multifunctional path dependency and decision-making corridors, the latter of which can be understood as ‘bundles’ of decision-making opportunities bounded by productivist and non-productivist action and thought. The analysis suggests that system memory plays an important role in defining the likelihood of multifunctional actions, and argues that transitional ruptures—sudden breaks in transitional pathways—often characterise farm-level transitions. The paper concludes by highlighting the methodological challenges awaiting future researchers of multifunctional agricultural transitions.