Boater training, drinking and boating, and other unsafe boating practices

OBJECTIVES: Identify associations between lack of formal boater training, drinking and boating, and other unsafe boating practices. METHODS: A telephone survey queried respondents (age 16 or older in continental United States) about boating experience, type of boat used, and training. RESULTS: Of the 3,042 boaters surveyed (70% response), most had no formal training (73%). Boaters with formal training failed to use PFDs about as often as those without formal training and were equally or more likely to use alcohol while boating. CONCLUSIONS: The unexpected association between formal training and unsafe boating practices is probably due to reduced risk perception and inadequacies of boater training programs. Such programs seldom mention the risks of alcohol use while boating. Decisions to mandate formal training should be informed by these results; if mandated, training should address the risks of alcohol use while boating, and should be renewed frequently enough to offset reductions in risk perception.     

Life satisfaction in midlife childless and empty-nest men and women

The primary purpose of this study was to contrast the life satisfaction of midlife empty-nest and childless individuals. Seventy-two men and women reported on their satisfaction with 11 areas of life as well as with regard to children. Empty-nest individuals were more satisfied than childless persons with regard to their decisions regarding children; however, the childless individuals were not unhappy with their decisions. Empty-nest individuals were also more positive than childless individuals about contact with children. There were no differences between the two groups with regard to areas of life satisfaction not related to children; nor were there significant gender differences in life satisfaction. The results were discussed in relation to both theory and data concerning midlife satisfaction and adjustment.SMS AssociatesThe research was completed by James E. Bell in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the masters of counseling degree at Arizona State University.     

Crisis in rural life and crisis in thinking: directions for critical research*

La crise contemporaine de la vie rurale et agricole c'est produite simultanément avec une crise de la pensée et de la recherche critique: une analyse basée sur l'engagement à créer une société plus rationelle, démocratique et égalitaire. L'économie politique, le paradigme prédominant, a contribuée de façon importante à l'identification et à l'analyse des méchanismes économiques sur lesquels se développent la crise sociale. Mais celui-ci n'a tenu aucun compte d'enquêter sur la façon dont une crise est vécue par ceux qui en sont le plus touchés, et sur les perspectives de changement queue crise du genre peut offrir. Ceci est due d'un côtéà la nature des hypothèses théoriques de l'économie politique, ainsi que sur la façon dont les économistes politiques utilisent les méthodes des sondages dans leurs travaux empiriques. En utilisant les ressources offertes par la theorie sociale et les résultats de recherche primaire et empirique, cet article suggère de nouvelles directions pour la recherche critique de la vie rurale. Nous expliquons que ce genre de recherche devrait devenir plus hermaneutique et phénoménologique dans le but de concentrer sur les perceptions, l'analyse personnelle et les activités de ceux qui vivent dans les milieux ruraux, surtout lorsque ceux-ci essaient de préserver leurs communautés contre l'influence de l'extérieur. II n'est plus nécessaire, de présumer que les chercheur(e)s et leur sujets doivent demeurer détachés si la recherche est sérieusement scientifique et érudite. Cet article considère certaines implications théoriques, empiriques et historiques qu'apporte cet argument. The contemporary crisis in agriculture and rural life has been paralleled by a crisis in critical thinking and research: analysis informed by the commitment to a more rational, democratic and egalitarian society. Political economy, the currently dominant critical paradigm, has made important contributions to the identification and analysis of the economic mechanisms through which social crisis develops. But it has by and large failed to probe both the ways in which crisis is actually experienced by people enduring it and the real possibilities for change that a crisis situation might offer. This failure stems both from the nature of the theoretical assumptions which inform political economy and the manner in which political economists deploy methods of survey research in their empirical work. Using both the resources of social theory and the results of empirical, primary research, this paper attempts to suggest new directions for critical research into rural life. J t argues that this research should adopt a more explicitly hermeneutical and phenomenological focus which should put the perceptions, self-understandings and activities of rural people themselves, particularly as they strive to preserve their communities against outside forces, more fully at the centre of analysis. No longer should it be assumed that researchers and those studied must remain separate if research is to be truly scholarly and scientific. The paper addresses some possible theoretical, empirical and historical     

Sexual Behaviors,Sexual Health Practices,and Community Engagement Among Gay and Bisexually Identified Men Living in Rural Areas of the United States

Limited research has focused on the sexual behaviors of men who have sex with men (MSM) from rural communities. We examined the sexual and health-related behaviors of MSM living in rural areas of the United States in order to understand the sexual health repertoire of this population. A total of 5,357 participants living in rural settings were recruited online and completed an anonymous Internet-based survey that assessed sexual behaviors, condom use, and men’s engagement with various community activities and events. These data provide a greater understanding of sexual health profiles that exist among rural MSM and will help inform the design of effective programs for men in these often underserved communities.     

The physical restraint of young people

Children and young people who are in residential care sometimes behave aggressively towards themselves and others, and they may need to be physically restrained by staff. This paper describes a small-scale study which examines the use of physical restraint in one Scottish region. It explores the circumstances surrounding the restraint and the feelings of staff about the use of the restraint. The study shows that many of the factors that have been shown to be associated with violence and aggression were present in the incidents described.     

VOTING AND IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR

Political behavior generates private benefits by helping people fit in with desired friends. A voter imitates other voters, but at the same time they imitate him. An equilibrium solution requires exogenous variables: the narrow self-interest of the participants. The reduced form makes one's vote a function of the narrow self-interest of others as well as one's own. In accord with the model, a person's party identification depends on his ethnic group's current income and its income in 1909 as well as his own income.     

Inventing adulthoods: a biographical approach to understanding youth citizenship

Traditionally adulthood and citizenship have been synonymous. Yet adulthood is changing. In this paper we explore how young people's evolving understandings of adulthood may contribute towards an understanding of citizenship within the broader context of increasingly extended and fragmented transitions. The paper draws on a unique qualitative longitudinal data set in which 100 young people, from contrasting social backgrounds in the United Kingdom, have been followed over a five‐year period using repeat biographical interviews. We present first the themes that emerged from a cross‐cut analysis of the first of three rounds of interviews distinguishing between relational and individualised understandings of adulthood. We then present a model we developed to capture the ways that young people sought out opportunities for competence and recognition in different fields of their lives. Finally a case study that follows a young woman through her three interviews illustrates how these themes can appear in an individual trajectory. We offer the model and case study as a way of exploring a more subjective approach to citizenship in which participation is not deferred to some distant future in which economic independence is achieved, but is understood as constantly constructed in the present.     

Leader behaviors and career derailment potential: A multi-analytic method examination of rating source and self–other agreement

Based on extensive research that views leadership as a multi-faceted phenomenon, we examined how the relationships between task-oriented and relationship-oriented leader behaviors and career derailment potential vary by observer perspective. We present findings using three different analytical techniques: random coefficient modeling (RCM), relative weight analysis (RWA), and polynomial regression (PR). RCM findings suggest that self-, direct report, peer, and supervisor ratings of leader behaviors differ and are associated with career derailment potential. RWA results indicate that self-ratings matter the least, whereas peer ratings of leader behaviors typically matter the most in predicting career derailment potential. PR analyses indicate that career derailment potential is lowest when self-ratings are lower than other ratings of leader behaviors and/or when self–other ratings converge on higher, rather than lower, ratings of leader behaviors. Implications for leadership and self–other agreement research and professional practice are discussed.