The Relationship Between Problem Gambling and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Recent studies indicate that treatment-seeking problem gamblers display elevated rates of ADHD and that adolescents who screen positive for ADHD are more likely to engage in gambling, develop gambling problems, and experience a greater severity in gambling problems. This study aimed to (a) compare the prevalence of ADHD in treatment-seeking problem gamblers to the general population; (b) investigate the relationships between ADHD and problem gambling severity, cluster B personality disorders, motor impulsivity, alcohol use, substance use, gender, and age; and (c) investigate the degree to which these factors moderate the relationship between ADHD and problem gambling severity. Participants included 214 adults (154 males, 58 females, 2 unspecified) who sought treatment for their gambling problems at a specialist gambling agency in Melbourne, Australia. Almost one-quarter (24.9 %) of treatment-seeking problem gamblers screened positively for ADHD, which was significantly higher than the 14 % prevalence in a community sample. ADHD was significantly positively correlated with problem gambling severity, motor impulsivity, and cluster B personality disorders, but was not associated with alcohol and substance use, gender or age. None of the factors significantly moderated the relationship between ADHD and problem gambling severity. These findings suggest that a considerable proportion of treatment-seeking problem gamblers report ADHD and that their clinical profile is complicated by the presence of high impulsivity and cluster B personality disorders. They highlight the need for specialist gambling agencies to develop screening, assessment, and management protocols for co-occurring ADHD to enhance the effectiveness of treatment.     

Different Pathways from Transformational Leadership to Job Satisfaction

Transformational leaders are known to inspire and motivate their followers, thereby leading to enhanced job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is an intellectual concept regarding individuals’ attitudes toward their jobs. This study asserts that the underlying mechanisms for transformational leadership to affect employee satisfaction are trust in the community, including the leader (that is, organization) and trust in the self, namely self‐efficacy. Leadership is specifically associated with continual transformations in the higher educational context, and collectivist cultures may manifest different processes underlying the transformational leadership–satisfaction relationship. This study investigated the mediating effects of trust and self‐efficacy on the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. The study sample included academicians from a nonprofit higher education institution in Turkey. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that the relationship between transformational leadership and job satisfaction is fully mediated by both trust and self‐efficacy. The mediator effect of trust was shown to be stronger than self‐efficacy, which is assumed to be the result of the cultural context. The results are discussed in the context of employee satisfaction and cultural determinants of employee satisfaction.     

It is risky business: can social capital reduce risk-taking behaviours among disadvantaged youth?

This study addresses the gap in the research for sound multidimensional assessment of social capital and its relationship with risk-taking behaviour among youths living in disadvantaged communities. Social capital and adolescent risk-taking outcomes were studied cross-sectionally in 1371 secondary students living in two disadvantaged communities within Australia. First, a multidimensional measure of social capital was developed and tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Then, the associations between social capital and a range of youth risk-taking behaviours were examined using structural equation modelling across five-year groups (Grades 7–12). With a few exceptions, higher levels of social capital and belongingness within the school and community were generally associated with decreases in smoking, alcohol and drug consumption, and physical violence. Some outcomes were more strongly associated with family and peer social capital, while others associated more with neighbour and community social capital, indicating that attempts to build social capital need to be targeted across the whole community. This study supports the notion that social capital can be measured empirically and is beneficial in alleviating many of the detrimental health outcomes commonly associated with risk-taking behaviours during adolescence.     

The effects of teenage childbearing on long-term health in the US: a twin-fixed-effects approach

This paper explores the effect of teenage childbearing on long-term health outcomes and behaviors of mothers using the Midlife Development in the US dataset. Within-family estimations, using samples of siblings, and twin pairs, are employed to overcome the bias generated by unobserved family background and genetic traits. The results suggest no significant effects on health outcomes, and modest effects on health behaviors, including exercise and preventive care. However, accounting for life-cycle effects demonstrates that teenage childbearing has significant effects on both health outcomes and behaviors early in life, but very few significant effects later in life. Moreover, teenage childbearing has a particularly acute effect among minorities. Finally, this paper provides evidence that the effects operate through reduced income and labor force participation, and matching with a lower “quality” spouse.     

A global count of the extreme poor in 2012: data issues,methodology and initial results

The 2014 release of a new set of purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factors (PPPs) for 2011 has prompted a revision of the World Bank’s international poverty line. In revising the line, we have sought to minimize changes to the real purchasing power of the earlier $1.25 line (in 2005 PPPs), so as to preserve the integrity of the goalposts for international targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Bank’s twin goals – which were set with respect to that line. In particular, the new line was obtained by inflating the same fifteen national poverty lines – originally used by Ravallion et al. (World Bank Econ. Rev. 23(2): 163–184 2009) to construct the $1.25 line – to 2011 prices in local currency units, and then converting them to US dollars using 2011 PPP conversion factors. With a small approximation, this procedure yields a new international poverty line of $1.90 per person per day. In combination with other changes described in the paper, this revision leads to relatively small changes in global poverty incidence for 2011: from 14.5 % using the old method to 14.1 % using the new method. In 2012, the new reference year for the global count, we find 12.7 % of the world’s population, or 897 million people, are living in extreme poverty. There are changes in the regional composition of poverty, but they are also relatively small. This paper documents methodological decisions taken in the process of updating both the poverty line and the consumption and income distributions at the country level, including issues of inter-temporal and spatial price adjustments. It also describes various caveats and limitations of the approach taken.     

Influence of competition level on referees’ decision-making in handball

The influence of competition level on referees’ decision-making was investigated. Referees’ decisions in 90 handball games (30 games X 3 competition levels) were observed in different situations related to the advantage rule, and 100 referees from two different levels of expertise were subsequently asked to offer explanations for the competition-level effects from the first part of the study. Results revealed that at the highest level of competition referees intervened less frequently with sporting sanctions, but more frequently with disciplinary sanctions. These effects were apparent mainly in immediate intervention situations and unsuccessful advantage situations, but not in successful situations. Referees explained these effects of competition level in terms of a player competence stereotype, in addition to referees’ different expertise across competition level. The implications of the findings for understanding how status-related stereotypes impact on intervention behavior are discussed.     

Patterns of Nonverbal Behavior Associated with Truth and Deception: Illustrations from Three Experiments

The digital age has brought with it new and powerful computer-based methods of analyzing heretofore elusive patterns of nonverbal behavior. C-BAS (Meservy 2010) is a computer-assisted behavioral observation tool for identifying and tracking nonverbal behaviors from video. THEME (Magnusson, The hidden structure of interaction: from neurons to culture patterns, IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 4–22, 2005) is a software program that discovers patterns among discrete events in time-ordered data. Together, these tools enable more precise measurement and analysis of nonverbal behavioral dynamics. Applications to three corpora derived from interpersonal deception experiments reveal unique nonverbal patterns that distinguish deceptive from nondeceptive interactions. The first and second experiments produced serial, hierarchically related patterns of behaviors that differed in length and complexity between truthful and deceptive participants during interviews about a theft and cheating, respectively. The third experiment produced differential patterns by and among group members completing a task. Deceivers were inclined toward strategic initiations and interactional control, whereas suspicious group members adopted a more passive, possibly watchful stance. Discovery of these patterns challenges the prevailing view that nonverbal behaviors are too faint and inconsistent to identify deceptive communication. Results have numerous implications regarding the following: the development of new measurement tools locating significant effects of nonverbal behaviors, support for theory that coherent and repetitive relationships exist within and among interactants’ communication, demonstration of the role of nonverbal behaviors in deceptive communication and the dynamic and strategic nature of deception.     

Structured Voluntary Youth Activities and Positive Outcomes in Adulthood: An Exploratory Study of Involvement in Scouting and Subjective Well-Being

This study explores whether youth involvement in Scouting has positive consequences later in life. We examine whether the number of years of participation in Scouting is positively associated with human and social capital and recreational lifestyles in adulthood, and whether these are linked to subjective well-being: relational, emotional, and physical health. To explore this potential relationship, we estimated a structural equation model, analyzing data from a national sample of adult males. We found that youth involvement in Scouting is positively related to subjective well-being indirectly via the positive adult outcomes.