The Involvement of a Concerned Significant Other in Gambling Disorder Treatment Outcome

Interpersonal distress is a common feature in gambling disorder and adding a concerned significant other (CSO) to the recovery process could be an effective tool for improving treatment outcome. However, little empirical evidence is available regarding the effectiveness of including a CSO to interventions. We aimed to compare treatment outcomes (i.e. compliance with therapy guidelines, dropout from treatment, and relapse during treatment) in a CBT program involving a CSO to CBT treatment as usual (TAU) without a CSO. The sample comprised male gambling disorder patients (N = 675). The manualized CBT intervention consisted of 16 weekly outpatient group sessions and a 3-month follow-up period. Patient CSOs attended a predetermined number of sessions with the patient and were provided with resources to acquire a better understanding of the disorder, to manage risk situations, and to aid patients in adhering to treatment guidelines. Patients with a CSO had significant higher treatment attendance and reduced dropout compared to patients receiving TAU. Moreover, patients whose spouse was involved in the treatment program were less likely to relapse and adhered to the treatment guidelines more than those with a non-spousal CSO. Our results suggest that incorporating interpersonal support to gambling disorder interventions could potentially improve treatment outcomes.     

NEIGHBORHOOD FAMILY-FRIENDLINESS AND ITS EFFECT ON FAMILY RELATIONS: EVIDENCE FROM UTAH

This article explores the effect of neighborhood family-friendliness on three measures of family relations: marital burnout, marital satisfaction, and parent-child relations. Regression analyses of survey data from northern Utah provide some support that neighborhood family-friendliness, measured here as neighborhood cohesion and neighborhood assessment, positively affects family functioning. For men, neighborhood cohesion was negatively associated with marital burnout and positively associated with marital satisfaction. For both men and women, neighborhood assessment was positively associated with marital satisfaction. These relationships were stronger for men than for women.     

Increased population density and behavioural flexibility of African clawless otters (Aonyx capensis) in specific anthropogenic environments

Urban Ecosystems - Land transformation for anthropogenic use is the leading cause of species decline globally. However, few species are able to succeed in anthropogenically disturbed environments....     

Inside Knowledge: second order measures of skill1

This paper is intended as a contribution to the sociology of skill. Research which suggests that skills and their transmission are the properties of communities leaves unanswered the question of how information may be explicitly transmitted and acquired as part of the process of leaning a skill. Second-order studies of skill accept that skill acquisition occurs within a culture, but then go on to examine in detail which aspects of skills can be explicated and which cannot. Such a second-order study is presented here. Observations of veterinary surgery are used to identify a quasi-quantitative measure of skill acquisition – hardness. This measure is useful in understanding how task uncertainty is resolved in practice and how new skills are learnt.