Prevention of problem gambling: modifying misconceptions and increasing knowledge

Research on gambling clearly demonstrates that today's youth are very much involved in gambling activities. As they take part in these activities, young people develop and entertain irrational thoughts about gambling and become at risk for developing severe gambling problems. In this study, a video specifically designed to correct misconceptions and increase knowledge about gambling was tested on 424 grade 7 and 8 students. The effectiveness of the video was evaluated using four different experimental conditions. Findings indicated that the video significantly improved subjects' knowledge about gambling and corrected their misconceptions. The implications of these results for the prevention of gambling problems are discussed.     

Emotional strain in caregiving among African American grandmothers raising their grandchildren

African Americans are disproportionately represented in the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren. Using Role Strain Theory and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, this study examines how older grandmothers fare relative to their younger counterparts. Eighty-five custodial African American grandmothers, aged 33-88 years old, completed demographic questionnaires and scales of Role Demand, Emotional Strain, Caregiving Strain Index, and Level of Care. Results showed older grandmothers experienced less emotional and caregiving strain relative to younger grandmothers. Furthermore, married grandmothers experienced less caregiving strain, and their age did not insulate them from the strain associated with the level of care. Implications are discussed.     

TOXICITY AND COMPLICITY: Explaining Consensual Community Response to a Chronic Technological Disaster

The absence of citizcn mobilization following the announcement of high levels of dioxin in a New England river, and subsequent Superfund listing, is cxplained in light of previous research that stresses the conflict and controversy that surround community contamination. Interviews with area residents and government officials, observations of public meetings, and content analyses of newspapcr articles, EPA press releases, and other official documents provide three explanations for the absence of citizen mobilization: (1) shared knowledge of the community's industrial history meant the river's contamination did not disrupt taken-for-granted assumptions about the community, (2) the "discovery" of the contamination by a government agency and its subsequent impression management served to defuse the public outrage that would otherwise lead to controversy and confrontation, and (3) elected officials, who were able to get resources to the agencies that could handle the problem, supported the decisions of the agencies rather than criticizing them or accusing them of negligence.     

Norms and Behaviour in Burkinabe Fertility

In this paper a combination of methods is used to investigate the determinants of birth-interval length in a single city in Burkina Faso. First, a multi-round survey provided accurate measurement of dates of reproductive events. Secondly, open-ended interviews with a sub-sample of women from the survey were tape-recorded and transcribed. In order to disentangle the direct and indirect biological and behavioural determinants of birth-interval length, seven series of hazards models were estimated. These results were compared with women's perceptions of the same relationships revealed in the in-depth interviews. The lesson we draw is that no single data-collection strategy can provide answers to all questions of interest. The multi-round survey provides accurate information on actual behaviour, but at great cost. The in-depth interviews enable the investigator to study norms and motivations, but this method is impractical for data collection for a large representative sample. Combining the two strategies can yield insights that may enhance the effectiveness of programme interventions.     

EMDR用于边缘型人格障碍的治疗

边缘型人格障碍(BPD)患者通常有显著的功能行使能力损害。其特征是冲动、情绪不稳、人际困难和身份认同问题,常常导致自杀行为和自杀姿态。虽然传统上认为BPD是一种慢性持久的障碍,但近期的研究却提示它可能会随着时间流逝而有所缓解,而且心理治疗可以促进缓解。BPD的病因与童年期虐待和不恰当的依恋关系有关。由于童年期虐待和创伤的重要意义,被公认有效的创伤治疗方法——眼动脱敏与再加工(EMDR)可能作为BPD的合理备选治疗方案之一。本文中的个案所获得的良好疗效阐明了EMDR在BPD治疗中的运用,提示有理由进行深入的对照研究。     

Trends in Occupational Segregation by Gender 1970–2009: Adjusting for the Impact of Changes in the Occupational Coding System

In this article, we develop a gender-specific crosswalk based on dual-coded Current Population Survey data to bridge the change in the census occupational coding system that occurred in 2000 and use it to provide the first analysis of the trends in occupational segregation by sex for the 1970–2009 period based on a consistent set of occupational codes and data sources. We show that our gender-specific crosswalk more accurately captures the trends in occupational segregation that are masked using the aggregate crosswalk (based on combined male and female employment) provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Using the 2000 occupational codes, we find that segregation by sex declined substantially over the period but at a diminished pace over the decades, falling by only 1.1 percentage points (on a decadal basis) in the 2000s. A primary mechanism by which segregation was reduced was through the entry of new cohorts of women, presumably better prepared than their predecessors and/or encountering less labor market discrimination; during the 1970s and 1980s, however, occupational segregation also decreased within cohorts. Reductions in segregation were correlated with education, with the largest decrease among college graduates and very little change in segregation among high school dropouts.