Effects of Tai Chi exercises on self-efficacy and psychological health

This review offers an update of the psychological effects of Tai Chi Chuan (TC) among different populations. A computerized literature research from 1990 to June 2006 was carried out. Studies were selected when they assessed the mental and psychological effects of TC practice among various populations. Data from 14 studies for a total of 829 subjects, age range from 12 to 96 years, were considered here. There were eight randomized controlled trials and six quasi-experimental or case control studies in this review. The intensity of TC varied from 30 min twice a week over a 5-week period to 1 h every day over an 8-week period. TC was characterized as a kind of light-to-moderate exercise and was found to enhance overall psychological well-being and to improve self-efficacy and mood. TC benefits appeared to be more tangible for adults and healthy older adults or those becoming frail. However, TC did not appear to be more efficient than exercises of the same intensity. Extensive and qualitative studies are needed to quantify the effects of the volume of practice, expert modeling, gender differences, and the age-related learning process on efficacy cognitions and mood in clinical and nonclinical contexts.     

Brief Communications Analysis of a Casino's Self-Exclusion Program

As gambling facilities become more available, the number of pathological gamblers increases. Effective therapeutic and preventive interventions should be developed and systematically evaluated. Self-exclusion programs may be a useful means to facilitate self-control among problem gamblers. This paper describes the characteristics of individuals who decided to bar themselves from a Canadian casino. Two hundred twenty individuals participated in the present study and completed a questionnaire including four sections: (1) socio-demographic data, (2) the South Oaks Gambling Screen, (3) gambling habits, and (4) prior experiences with the self-exclusion program. According to the SOGS, 95% of the participants were classified as severe pathological gamblers on the SOGS (Mean score = 9.87). Furthermore, based on self-reported observation, 30% of the participants completely stopped gambling once enrolled in this program. No one scored within the interval of non-problem gamblers. Suggestions to improve self-exclusion programs are discussed.     

Investigating non-gamblers: another step toward identifying potential protective factors against problem gambling

In this article it is argued that knowing more about non-gamblers could help researchers discover novel protective factors against problem gambling. The purpose of this study was to therefore to identify the sociodemographic, psychological and behavioural characteristics that are more prevalent among non-gamblers than among gamblers. Results from a logistic regression analysis with a representative sample of adults in the province of Quebec (Canada) revealed 12 significant predictors of non-gambling status. Among these predictors, seven were sociodemographic variables (i.e. birthplace, mother tongue, childhood religion, civil status, education, family income and family history of gambling problems), four were psychological variables (i.e. perception of one's financial situation relative to others, optimism concerning one's financial situation, beliefs concerning chances of winning, and suicidal ideation) and one variable was behavioural (i.e. church attendance). Further research including different types of variables and a common operational definition of non-gamblers is necessary to better understand this subgroup and its potential for possessing protective factors against gambling problems.     

Lifting the Lid: Perspectives on and Activity within Student Supervision

Practice teaching is central to social work education. Significant changes have occurred in the past 10 years affecting social work education in Scotland. This article reports on the findings of a small-scale study involving the audio recording of supervision sessions and the interviewing of students and practice teachers engaged in a 65-day assessed placement. The research reveals a high level of congruence between students and practice teachers in perspectives on the supervisory relationship, confirms the findings of other studies concerning effective supervision and provides some vivid evidence of practice teacher and student activity within supervision perceived to be conducive to student learning. A specific finding was the association between the use of ‘exploring’ by practice teachers and students engaging in practice analysis. It is concluded that the changes affecting social work education over the past 10 years, on the evidence of this small sample, overall have had a positive impact on the supervisory relationship within practice learning. One area suggested for further study is the potential link between ‘expressing opinion’ by practice teachers and students within supervision and the development of evidence-based practice.     

Using hybrid models to support the development of organizational evaluation capacity: a case narrative

The ongoing need for public sector organizations to enhance their internal evaluation capacity is increasingly resulting in the use of hybrid evaluation project models, where internal evaluators work with external contracted evaluators to complete evaluative work. This paper first seeks to identify what is currently known about internal evaluation through a synthesis of the literature in this area. It then presents a case narrative illustrating how internal and external evaluation approaches may be used together to strengthen an evaluation project and to develop the evaluation capacity of the organization. Lessons learned include the need to integrate internal and external resources throughout the evaluation and to clarify expectations at the outset of the project.     

Style in a school community—“Ne” deletion in French preschool

This article explores the question of style in a school community, through negation use among the adults and children in a French preschool. Thirteen adults and 61 pupils aged 3–6 years were followed over a period of 2.5 years. The findings draw on a corpus of oral data collected in an unsupervised manner and comprising almost 640,000 transcribed words (428,100 for the children and 210,241 for the adults). The findings show, on the one hand, that the teachers adapt stylistically to their interlocutors and that their professional stance leads to more formal speech and, on the other hand, that the children's use of bipartite negation is marginal before the age of 6 years and does not present notable stylistic variations.     

A Causality Analysis of Economic Growth and Union Density in European Countries

In this paper, we analyse the relationship between union density and economic growth using a Granger causality analysis and shocks analysis with vector autoregression model. We find that the Granger causality goes from the growth rate to the unionization rate in four of the 11 European countries under study. France bucks the trend: it is the only country in which union density influences economic growth, moreover in a positive way.