Measuring Knowledge,Attitudes and Behaviours Concerning Sustainable Development among Tenth Grade Students in Manitoba

In this paper we present standardized measures of tenth grade students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours concerning sustainable development as those concepts are understood in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and we test the hypothesis that knowledge and favourable attitudes toward SD lead to favourable behaviours. Using a fairly representative random sample of 1,551 tenth grade students from the province of Manitoba, Canada, we crafted 3 indexes. There is a 20-item Index of Knowledge of SD with a good Cronbach alpha = 0.89, a 15-item Index of Attitudes Favourable Toward SD with alpha = 0.84 and a 15-item Index of Behaviours Favourable Toward SD with an alpha = 0.83. About 21% of the variation in our Behaviours Index scores could be accounted for by our Knowledge Index and Attitudes Index scores.     

Disability advocacy in Kinshasa,Democratic Republic of the Congo

This article frames a discussion of disability advocacy in Kinshasa by arguing the importance of disability rights legislation for the quality of life of people with disabilities and by outlining the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s situation as a nation characterized by conflict. The author provides an overview of the recent positive steps the government has taken to affirm the rights of its citizens with disabilities, discusses the strong disability advocacy movement based in the capital city of Kinshasa, and identifies some of the challenges to Congolese disability rights legislation.     

Family-based approach to the child welfare system: an integration of Bowen family theory concepts

The purpose of this article is to apply Bowen family systems theory to work with families involved in the child welfare system. An overview of family systems theory is provided, and then specific tenets of Bowen family systems theory are presented. The authors highlight incidents within the child welfare setting that can be conceptualized through Bowen family therapy terms and concepts. A case study is used to highlight how this theory could be applied in practice. Furthermore, recommendations for child welfare practice and policy implications are discussed, utilizing the lens of a Bowenian family systems approach.     

Schulman's Urban Lesbian: A HoboSexual Pedestrian Rhetoric

The following article reads the protagonist in Sarah Schulman's Girls, Visions and Everything as not only lesbian, but as hobosexual—a concept representative of anti-capitalist practices in both sex and labor. The hobosexual is developed as an extension of the lesbian flâneur, as a concept that requires reading Schulman's urban lesbian at the intersection of class and sexuality. Lila Futuransky's sexual identity is suspended and complicated through an emphasis on her desire for queer mobility; her urban movements connect her to hobo history, but also expose the effects of capitalism that thwart her urban movement.     

Association between employee department and responsible gambling program perceptions

ABSTRACT

Academic studies of employee perceptions of and engagement with responsible gambling (RG) provide important insight into how employees engage with RG, but typically treat employees as a singular entity. Employees in different departments, however, have different work experiences that affect their likelihood of directly interacting with gamblers. It is conceivable that degree of contact with gamblers affects employees’ opinions about RG. To examine this possibility, we surveyed cohorts of employees at MGM Resorts International (MGM) (N = 2,192) regarding their (1) perceptions of RG programs, (2) behaviors and beliefs about gambling, and (3) comfort with MGM’s corporate RG environment. Using MANCOVA, with years employed in the gambling industry as a covariate, we observed that employees in departments with less direct contact with gamblers were more likely to perceive RG programs to be effective at MGM than employees who have more direct contact with gamblers. In addition, employees who work in the Food, Beverage, & Retail departments were more likely to hold misconceptions about gambling than employees in Back of House operations. The differences in how departments view RG programs suggest that one-size-fits-all approaches to employee training might not be suitable for RG topics, and that position-based training might be necessary.     

About the contributors

The paper reports secondary analysis of data from the 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Survey, a household survey of a representative sample of the population aged 16 years and over (N = 7756). Responses to questions about frequency of gambling and average monthly spend on each of 15 forms of gambling, and responses to two different problem gambling screens (DSM-IV and PGSI), were used to derive estimates, for each form of gambling separately, of the percentage of (1) all days play (two estimates), and (2) all spend (four estimates), attributable to problem gamblers. Although these estimates must be treated as approximations only, they demonstrate that problem gamblers make a far greater contribution to total gambling attendances and losses than problem gambling prevalence figures would suggest. There are certain forms of British gambling to which problem gamblers may be contributing as much as 20–30% of all days play and spend, and moderate risk gamblers a possible further 10–20%.     

On being moved

In this paper, drawing on Henri Bergson's writing knowledge is seen as a virtual asset, i.e. , a resource that transgresses the distinction between past, present and future. Knowledge is never solely related to the actual present, but is continuously related to and associated with previous experiences and anticipated futures. By conceptualizing knowledge as a virtual asset, the notion of knowledge is freed from its commonplace metaphor of being a stock of skills and know-how that the organization can make use of. In this perspective, knowledge can never be fully conceived of as a stock, but must always be related to practices and activities. As a consequence, knowledge management theory needs to redirect its attention towards practices, rather than theorizing in terms of the taxonomies of knowledge employed by organizations.     

Parenting During Childhood Predicts Relationship Satisfaction in Young Adulthood: A Prospective Longitudinal Perspective

Using three waves of data drawn from the National Survey of Families and Households (n = 438 young adult children) we examined the process by which parental warmth and harsh parenting during childhood influences children's romantic relationship satisfaction in young adulthood. Harsh parenting was directly associated with children's relationship satisfaction, independently and in conjunction with parental warmth, whereas parental warmth was indirectly associated with relationship satisfaction through family cohesion during adolescence. Results were consistent across male and female young adults involved in married, dating, and cohabiting relationships. Findings from this prospective, longitudinal study coincide with previous research using adult children's retrospective reports of parenting behavior and highlight the importance of family of origin influences on romantic relationships in young adulthood.