Herausforderung Doppelspitze: Privates und Berufliches mischen sich

This article describes the coaching process of dual leadership in a conflict situation. Using the example of a family business, the prevalent complexity on personal and professional levels within small and medium-sized businesses is explained. Traditions that are carried on unconsciously can cause conflict. The procedure and different methods are described; the approach to Nonviolent Communication is introduced as well as the resulting and further developed coaching process. Resulting decisions from positive conflict management can easily and efficiently be implemented into the typical and short communication and decision making channels of the middle class.     

Institutionalization of a community action program targeting licensed premises in Stockholm, Sweden

The objective of this article is to evaluate the level of institutionalization of a community action program targeting licensed premises in Stockholm. Five key factors were identified for institutionalization: adoption, sustainability, key leader support, structural changes, and compliance. A scale was developed to assess the strength of each factor. The results indicate a high degree of institutionalization (score 13 on a scale from 5 to 15). The authors conclude that the program activities have been sustained at a high level. A written agreement ensures that the participating organizations take responsibility for the continuing work.     

Onset of substance use among early adolescents in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Problem: Early onset, prevalence, and predictors of substance use – tobacco, alcohol-drinking, alcohol-drunkenness, and drugs – were studied in 13 and 14-year-old boys and girls in Sweden. Methods: Self-reported data in four communities were used (n = 1,716). A large set of psychological and social factors were tried as predictors of early onset use (n = 1,459). Results: There were few gender differences and low prevalence. Primary predictor for early onset in tobacco use was availability; perceived parental approval for alcohol use, and delinquent behaviors for alcohol-drunkenness and drug use. Conclusions: Individual behavioral factors and parental norms seem to be most important in this age.     

Reflections on Recent Levels and Trends of Fertility and Mortality in Egypt

This paper discusses a probability model of birth intervals, proposed by K. Srinivasan, for the study of data collected in some fertility surveys.

New formulae for mean and variance of the “open interval” distribution are given.     

Promoting older women's health and well-being through social leisure environments: what we have learned from the Red Hat Society

The purpose of this study was to describe the ways that participation in a leisure organization contributed to the health and wellbeing of middle-aged and older women. We analyzed 1,693 members' responses to a query about meaningful experiences garnered through participation in the Red Hat Society. Results suggested that older women's lives have been enriched and changed by their experiences, with the women in this study citing multiple psychosocial health benefits from their participation in the Red Hat Society. Main themes encapsulating these health benefits were creating happy moments, responding to transitions and negative events, and enhancing the self. These findings are related to research on positive psychology, social support and coping, transformative leisure processes, and social identity formation. We conclude by providing suggestions for applying these findings to leisure and health promotion programming to enhance women's health and well-being in later life.     

A systematic approach to smoking cessation activities in Danish shelters

Introduction: Shelter users have an alarmingly high smoking prevalence; our aim was to develop systematic smoking cessation activities in the shelters. Method: All available (n?=?13) shelters in Copenhagen were included. This Participatory Action Research had a development/test period and an implementation period for the revised intervention. Shelter-staff completed a questionnaire at baseline. Municipal smoking cessation counselors were trained to work with shelter users. Three types of on-site smoking cessation activities were developed and offered. Results: The estimated mean smoking prevalence in shelter users was 79%. Only two shelters ran smoking cessation activities prior to study start. All but one of the shelters implemented group-based intervention activities and approximately 13% of smokers signed-up; 26.6% of those who attended the first session were abstinent after approximately 12 weeks, as confirmed by staff. Conclusion: Smoking cessation activities in shelters are wanted by staff and shelter users, they are feasible and even very vulnerable persons are able to quit. Based on our experiences in Copenhagen shelters, we propose a systematic approach for future smoking cessation initiatives: smoking activities should be driven by the municipality, be pro-active, on-site, tailored and flexible, in addition, free nicotine therapy should be offered and trained smoking cessation counselors should be available.     

On the scaling of annoyance due to environmental factors

A recurrent problem in sociological annoyance surveys is to scale the environmental variables quantitatively as they are perceived. Data from two surveys on malodors and noise are discussed within a framework of scaling theory. A Thurstonian scaling technique was applied to the category annoyance data. In the investigation of malodors a rather stable picture of the results of the annoyance reports was obtained independently of the assumptions made in data treatment. On the other hand, the results of the noise investigation indicate that paired comparisons may furnish a better procedure than verbal category scaling for data collection in surveys. Scales of annoyance from different populations will give different units of measurement, and annoyance scales cannot be compared adequately unless the scales are calibrated. A possible calibration procedure is to introduce a defined psychological unit of measurement into the data.This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Environment Protection Board and the Swedish Council for Social Science Research. The authors wish to thank Anita and Peter Medlund for collecting parts of the data.     

What gives? Cross-national differences in students’ giving behavior

This study is targeted to understanding the giving of time and money among a specific cohort - university students across 13 countries. It explores predictors of different combinations of giving behaviors: only volunteering, only donating, neither, as compared to doing both. Among the predictors of these four types of giving behavior, we also account for cross-national differences across models of civil society. The findings show that students predominantly prefer to give money than to volunteer time. In addition, differences in civil society regimes provide insights into which type of giving behavior might dominate. As expected, in the Statist and Traditional models of civil society, students consistently were more likely to be disengaged in giving behaviors (neither volunteering nor giving money) in comparison to students in the Liberal model who were more likely to report doing ‘both’ giving behaviors. An important implication of our findings is that while individual characteristics and values influence giving of time and money, these factors are played out in the context of civil society regimes, whose effects cannot be ignored. Our analysis has made a start in a new area of inquiry attempting to explain different giving behaviors using micro and macro level factors and raises several implications for future research.