The Prevalence of Pathological Gambling Among College Students: A Meta-analytic Synthesis, 2005–2013

The problem of gambling addiction can be especially noteworthy among college and university students, many of whom have the resources, proximity, free time, and desire to become involved in the myriad options of gambling now available. Although limited attention has been paid specifically to college student gambling in the body of literature, there have been two published meta-analyses estimating the prevalence of probable pathological gambling among college students. This present study aims to be the third, presenting an up-to-date proportion of those students exhibiting gambling pathology, and is the first to include international studies from outside the United States and Canada. The purpose of this study was to use the most up-to-date meta-analytical procedures to synthesize the rates of probable pathological gambling for college and university students worldwide. A thorough literature review and coding procedure resulted in 19 independent data estimates retrieved from 18 studies conducted between 2005 and 2013. To synthesize the studies, a random effects model for meta-analysis was applied. The estimated proportion of probable pathological gamblers among the over 13,000 college students surveyed was computed at 10.23 %, considerably higher than either of the two previously published meta-analyses, and more than double the rate reported in the first meta-analysis of this type published in 1999. Implications and recommendations for future practice in dealing with college students and gambling addiction are outlined and described for both administrators and mental health professionals.     

Distance matters: mobilities and the politics of distance

Distance constitutes one of the foundations of geographical discourse, and yet it is among the least discussed of these foundations. Rather than contemplating distance as an explanatory tool, the paper takes distance itself, as well as its development and implications, as requiring explanation in their own right. It looks at the role played by definitions and measurements of distance in the production of territory and private property in land; in the governing of moving bodies; and in the phenomenological and affective design of space. The paper’s main argument is that distance should be de-constructed and re-politicized by being brought back into the field of mobilities.     

MONEY PUMPS IN THE MARKET

Agents who employ non‐rational choice procedures are often vulnerable to exploitation, in the sense that a profit‐seeking trader can offer them a harmful transaction which they will nevertheless accept. We examine the vulnerability of a procedure for deciding whether to buy a lottery: observe another agent who already bought it and buy the lottery if that agent's experience was positive. We show that the exploitation of such agents can be embedded in an inter‐temporal market mechanism, in the form of speculative trade in an asset of no intrinsic value. (JEL: D84)     

Nonstandard Work and Marital Instability: Evidence From the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

This article replicated and extended Harriet Presser's (2000) investigation of the linkages between nonstandard work and marital instability. We reexplored this question using data from a sample of 2,893 newlywed couples from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and using different analytic techniques. In contrast to Presser, we found that the key dimension of husbands' and wives' employment was nonemployment. Similar to Presser, we found that wives' working of fixed night shifts increased the risk of divorce, driven by the experience in marriages over 5 years in duration. However, we did not replicate Presser's finding that the effect is significant only among households with children; rather, wives' fixed night shifts were associated with divorce only among those without children.     

What Does Sexual Arousal Mean to You? Women With and Without Sexual Arousal Concerns Describe Their Experiences

Sexual arousal is frequently characterized by both subjective (i.e., mental) and physiological (e.g., genital) components. The nuances of these components, however, are difficult to capture via self-report instruments. Asking women to describe sexual arousal in their own words may therefore enhance our understanding of this construct. In the present study, women with (n = 190) and without (n = 610) arousal concerns were recruited online and wrote about their experience of sexual arousal. Seven clusters of words were extracted using automated text analysis, and the prominence of these clusters was compared between groups of women. The autonomic arousal cluster differed between groups such that women with arousal concerns invoked this cluster significantly less than did women with no such concerns. Furthermore, the context cluster significantly predicted group membership (odds ratio [OR] = 1.063); greater scores on this cluster were associated with arousal concerns. Results suggest that autonomic arousal and relationship factors may play important roles in arousal concerns. It is suggested that clinicians assess for aspects of the sexual relationship that may facilitate or hinder sexual arousal. Clinicians may also consider inquiring about the presence or appraisal of autonomic arousal (e.g., one’s interpretation of an increase in heart rate or respiration) during sexual activity.     

Predicting supportive behavior of parents and siblings to a family member with intellectual disability living in institutional care

This feasibility study examines whether the theory of planned behavior can predict supportive behavior provided by either parents to their offspring-or adult siblings to their brothers and sisters-with an intellectual disability living in 2 Israeli institutional care facilities. Participants were 67 parents and 63 siblings who were interviewed at baseline regarding their intentions to visit their offspring or sibling in the institutional care facility, to contact the caregiving staff, and to accept visits at home. Parents' and siblings' behavior regarding visitation and supportive behavior was examined after 6 months by caregiving staff. Core findings indicated that subjective norms in siblings and parents predicted frequency of home visits. Perceived behavioral control predicted frequency of contact between siblings and staff. Differences between parents and siblings regarding their supportive behaviors are discussed with respect to social work practice.     

Work Hours,Schedules, and Insufficient Sleep Among Mothers and Their Young Children

Studies have linked parents' employment, work hours, and work schedules to their own sleep quality and quantity, but it is unclear whether these associations extend to children. The authors used data from the 5‐year in‐home survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 1,818) to examine the associations between maternal work hours and schedule and insufficient sleep among disadvantaged mothers and their young children. They found that mothers who worked more than 35 hours per week were more likely to experience insufficient sleep compared to mothers who worked fewer hours, whereas children were more likely to experience insufficient sleep when their mothers worked between 20 and 40 hours. Nonstandard work schedules were associated with an increased likelihood of insufficient sleep for mothers but not their children. The results highlight a potentially difficult balance between work and family for many disadvantaged working mothers in the United States.     

Gay, Orthodox, and trembling: the rise of Jewish Orthodox gay consciousness, 1970s-2000s

In 2001, the documentary movie, Trembling Before God, was played in Jewish and gay film festivals around the world, provoking strong emotional reactions. Trembling Before God comprises interviews with Orthodox Jewish gay and lesbian persons who vividly and movingly describe their struggles to live their lives as observant Jewish people, being faithful at the same time to their sexual desires and their religious tradition. Almost all the people interviewed in the movie expressed mixed emotions: love towards their tradition and attachment to their community of faith, coupled with resentment against a community, which in their eyes failed to respond with understanding to their emotional needs, thus adding to their pain. This article aims to modify the picture portrayed in the movie. The dilemmas and struggles of gays and lesbians who live their lives in Orthodox Jewish communities are indeed real. Orthodox gays and lesbians experience a greater dissonance between their sexuality and the values of their community and therefore face more anxieties and inner turmoils than gays and lesbians who live in more permissive environments. The struggles of gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews, however, are not necessarily greater than those of gays and lesbians who live their lives in other conservative communities. In fact, while it is almost impossible to be a sexually active gay or lesbian and a practicing Southern Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witness, or Mormon, it is not impossible for gays and lesbians to live their lives in an Orthodox Jewish environment. Amazingly, since the 1970s, thousands of gays and lesbians have given up on liberal environments and joined the ranks of traditionalist Jewish congregations.     

Authoritarians, the Next Generation: Values and Bullying Among Adolescent Children of Authoritarian Fathers

The author comments on an article by Altemeyer (2003) . The implications of authoritarianism to social phenomena are extended to the values and bullying behaviors of adolescent children of authoritarian fathers. Eighty-two authoritarian and 252 nonauthoritarian Israeli fathers participated with their adolescent children. Authoritarian fathers expected their children to give high importance to power, tradition, and conformity values and lower-than-average importance to benevolence, universalism, and self-direction values. In comparison with offspring of nonauthoritarian fathers, offspring of authoritarian fathers gave more importance to power values and less importance to universalism values. Offspring of authoritarian fathers also tended to associate more with bully friends. The combination of high adolescent power values and their fathers' authoritarian parenting was associated with the highest degrees of bullying by adolescents. The social implications of the findings are discussed.     

The impact of unions on job satisfaction,organizational commitment,and turnover

Conclusion The research on the exit-voice hypothesis, both in the United States and abroad, shows convincingly that most of the variance in the negative union effect on job satisfaction can be accounted for by job quality, industrial relation climate, and wages. Union members see their jobs as less attractive than do nonunion workers in terms of skill requirements, task complexity, the amount of autonomy or discretion available, and opportunities for promotion. Union members also perceive the supervision they receive and the labor-management relations they experience as less satisfactory. They are, however, clearly better off with respect to wages, benefits, and pensions. But when it comes to job satisfaction, the economic advantages of union jobs are not sufficient to compensate for job content and work environment factors. It comes as no surprise to the job satisfaction researcher that job content — the nature of the tasks people are given to do — weighs heavily in overall job satisfaction scores. While there are individual differences in the degree to which people prefer intrinsically interesting jobs, there is ample empirical evidence showing that autonomy, skill variety, complexity, challenge, and advancement are important determinants of people's affective reactions to their jobs (Deci, 1975; Hackman and Oldham, 1980; Kanfer, 1990). The relative importance of job content factors to overall job satisfaction is also mirrored in the most commonly used measures of job satisfaction (Weiss et al., 1967).