Is more better? The relationship between outcomes achieved by problem gamblers and the number of counselling sessions attended

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how much intervention is necessary for the effective treatment of problem gambling by exploring the relationship between the number of counselling sessions attended and the degree of problem resolution achieved for 613 individuals who attended problem gambling counselling services in Victoria. While those who achieved partial or full resolution of presenting problems attended more sessions than those who finished counselling with their problems still unresolved, problems were typically reported as being resolved in fewer than five sessions. It is concluded that for some problem gamblers a relatively brief intervention may be sufficient.     

Protective Effects of Parent–College Student Communication During the First Semester of College

Abstract

Objective: Recent studies suggest that parents maintain influence as their adolescents transition into college. Advances in communication technology make frequent communication between parents and college students easy and affordable. This study examines the protective effect of parent–college student communication on student drinking behaviors, estimated peak blood alcohol concentration (eBAC), and serious negative consequences of drinking. Participants: Participants were 746 first-year, first-time, full-time students at a large university in the United States Methods: Participants completed a baseline and 14 daily Web-based surveys. Results: The amount of time spent communicating with parents on weekend days predicted the number of drinks consumed, heavy drinking, and peak eBAC, consistent with a protective within-person effect. No association between communication and serious negative consequences was observed. Conclusions: Encouraging parents to communicate with their college students, particularly on weekend days, could be a relatively simple, easily implemented protective process to reduce dangerous drinking behaviors.     

Labour Relations during and after Apprenticeship: Amity Hall,Jamaica, 1834–1840

This article contributes to the scholarly literature on labour relations in the transition from slavery to freedom in Jamaica. Based on the plantation papers of the Goulburn family, who owned Amity Hall sugar estate in Vere parish, it traces the contested negotiations between apprentices and free blacks on the one hand and the absentee owner and his manager on the other in a period of two transitions, from slavery to apprenticeship in 1834 and from apprenticeship to a restricted freedom in 1838. This enables one to document the variety of ways in which this crucial period affected the conditions, hours and remuneration for work. Though Amity Hall had a less fractious transition out of slavery than some other Jamaican plantations, the article reveals the difficulties faced by planters in overcoming labour shortages, the bargaining power of Jamaicans at crop time, and the contests over wages, rents and provision grounds that shaped labour relations after 1838. By 1840, the owner and manager and the workers at Amity Hall had not bridged the clear division in their expectations and interests since the Emancipation Bill came into effect.     

Vegaphobia: derogatory discourses of veganism and the reproduction of speciesism in UK national newspapers

This paper critically examines discourses of veganism in UK national newspapers in 2007. In setting parameters for what can and cannot easily be discussed, dominant discourses also help frame understanding. Discourses relating to veganism are therefore presented as contravening commonsense, because they fall outside readily understood meat-eating discourses. Newspapers tend to discredit veganism through ridicule, or as being difficult or impossible to maintain in practice. Vegans are variously stereotyped as ascetics, faddists, sentimentalists, or in some cases, hostile extremists. The overall effect is of a derogatory portrayal of vegans and veganism that we interpret as 'vegaphobia'. We interpret derogatory discourses of veganism in UK national newspapers as evidence of the cultural reproduction of speciesism, through which veganism is dissociated from its connection with debates concerning nonhuman animals' rights or liberation. This is problematic in three, interrelated, respects. First, it empirically misrepresents the experience of veganism, and thereby marginalizes vegans. Second, it perpetuates a moral injury to omnivorous readers who are not presented with the opportunity to understand veganism and the challenge to speciesism that it contains. Third, and most seriously, it obscures and thereby reproduces exploitative and violent relations between human and nonhuman animals.     

Associations between young adults' use of sexually explicit materials and their sexual preferences, behaviors, and satisfaction

This study examined how levels of sexually explicit material (SEM) use during adolescence and young adulthood were associated with sexual preferences, sexual behaviors, and sexual and relationship satisfaction. Participants included 782 heterosexual college students (326 men and 456 women; M(age)?=?19.9) who completed a questionnaire online. Results revealed high frequencies and multiple types and contexts of SEM use, with men's usage rates systematically higher than women's. Regression analyses revealed that both the frequency of SEM use and number of SEM types viewed were uniquely associated with more sexual experience (a higher number of overall and casual sexual intercourse partners, as well as a lower age at first intercourse). Higher frequencies of SEM use were associated with less sexual and relationship satisfaction. The frequency of SEM use and number of SEM types viewed were both associated with higher sexual preferences for the types of sexual practices typically presented in SEM. These findings suggest that SEM use can play a significant role in a variety of aspects of young adults' sexual development processes.     

Effects on pregnancy outcomes of changes in the North Carolina State Abortion Fund

Extending work of Cook et al. (1999, 1996), this paper examines abortion funding cutoffs for poor women in North Carolina, a unique setting allowing for a strong quasi-experimental design. Using vital registration data and additional administrative data from North Carolina, we decompose program effects on the abortion/birth ratio into two components: coverage (i.e., the proportion of all abortions that are state funded) and substitutability (the proportion of state funded abortions that would have been births in the absence of the state program). We show that both components are crucial for understanding the effects of fund cutoffs and that both components vary by age and by race. We offer explanations for these differences. Overall, we conclude that: the North Carolina State Abortion Fund (SAF) had powerful and pervasive effects: i.e., the SAF cutoffs reduced abortions and increased births.     

Individual and couple intentions for more children: A research note

The question, “Do you and your husband intend to have a (another) child?” has become standard on fertility surveys. It is almost always asked of the wife, but is treated as the couple’s joint intention. How reasonable is such an assumption? Do husbands’ and wives’ reports of couple intent correspond closely? Do spouses know the fertility wishes of their partners? Do they take these wishes into account when reporting couple intent? Analysis of a sample of fecund, white, urban U.S. couples shows each question answered affirmatively. Reports from either spouse appear to be good, although admittedly imperfect, indicators of couple intent.     

Measurement and Replication: Evaluating the Consistency of Eight U. S. Fertility Surveys

This paper addresses the comparability of data from eight national fertility surveys conducted in the United States between 1955 and 1980. We examine the extent to which substantive conclusions about the levels and correlates of the timing offirst birth vary across these data sources by comparing samples of women who were eligible to be included in more than one study. Results obtained from Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and logistic regression analyses of several measures of timing indicate few study effects. Thus findings based on data from one survey can be replicated with comparable data from another. One notable exception is the relationship between contraceptive use prior to the first birth and the timing of that birth. The contraceptive variable appears to be poorly measured, leading to unstable estimates of the relationship. In general, our results suggest: (1) the feasibility of pooling data from the various surveys when modeling delayed childbearing; and (2) reasonable accuracy in assessing trends in the timing of first birth from multiple data sources.     

The Development of A County Level Index Of Well-Being

In an effort to assess the level of community need and inform responsive resource allocation, Larimer County, Colorado developed a county-level index of well-being. This paper describes the development of that index including the selection of indicators and the methodology for scoring and presenting those indicators. We also present how the local community used the information and describe problems we found while aggregating indicators. Next, we show the results of evaluating our index using Hagerty et al.’s (2001, Social Indicators Research 55, pp. 1–96) 14 criteria for determining validity and usefulness of quality of life indices. The Larimer County index performed above both the “satisfactory” rating and the mean of the 22 indices evaluated using Hagerty et al.’s. We conclude that the Larimer County index is based on a solid approach that will be helpful to local policy makers.